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Kona – Spend all of your money here!

In Ironman, Simon Ward of TTC (October 7, 2009 7:34 pm)

Show me a triathlete who doesn’t like to spend money and I’ll show you someone who’s not a proper triathlete. Actually that’s probably not fair but you get the picture. Triathletes love to spend their money and the expo here in Kona is by far and away the biggest one I’ve seen at a triathlon anywhere.

At one time only official product sponsors could exhibit and the whole show was in the lobby of the King Kamehameha hotel. Not any more. As you can see from the video, the expo now covers the entire site of the community centre and this year K-Swiss & Newton shoes have taken space over the road in the front garden of the church (video of that to come later).

The Expo traditionally opens for business on the Tuesday evening of race week. The athlete parade starts at the King Kam hotel and ends at the Community centre at approximately 5.30pm funneling athletes straight into the Expo.

Obviosuly taking a booth at the Ironman World championships is not cheap and I’d guess that all of the exhibitors would be hoping to either sell plenty of product or generate enough interest to make the whole trip worthwhile. If you could see some of the booths in more detail it’s clear that some spend a small fortune on setting up and that would add to the expense:

a) because of the amount if kit they have to transport, and
b) because Hawaii is not an easy place to get to.

The video gives the impression of how busy things get right after the parade but we will get a better idea of whether the economic situation really is having an effect during the rest of the week. You might recall from the last posting that Kona seems quiet in comparison to previous years

Our booth is indoors, right next to the retail section, and shoppers have to walk past us to get to the merchandise. This is the good news. The downside is that there’s no air conditioning and it gets very hot, real hot… damn hot!!!. Of course I don’t expect you to feel sorry for me, but I’m just trying to give you an idea of how tough it really is! (lol)

The video also shows just how much schwagg people are buying. You can see one lady with an armful of kit and that is the norm. It’s just a shame that they dont take armfuls of CompuTrainers away with them!

Thats all for now. As I write it’s 8am on Wednesday morning and we have to be at work for 9am, ready to sell… a handful of CompuTrainers.

Mahalo for reading.

Comments (1)

1 Comment »

1
Awesome! Marking Kona in my diary for 2010 – great reports and insight – keep them coming for all of us who can’t be there

Comment by James — October 8, 2009 @ 10:47 am