David Udberg speech given at OutDoor 2010
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Press Conference Speech
15 July 2010, OutDoor, Friedrichshafen, Germany
David Udberg, President, European Outdoor Group
Managing Director, Lowe Alpine UK
Welcome
As the new President of the European Outdoor Group (EOG), it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 17th OutDoor Trade Fair. Our industry looks forward to OutDoor as the perfect venue to present our companies, our products and our people. (more…)

As we move towards the launch of Spring / Summer 2011 collections it is becoming all too clear that increases in the supply chain costs are causing brands major headaches. The majority of both pack and apparel brands rely heavily on Asian sourcing and a whole combination of factors are pushing up prices in a way that we have not seen previously, with increases in costs being reported as anything up to 20%.
This year’s
Outdoor Sports Valley, in partnership with the European Outdoor Group, is launching the first ever conference for the European outdoor industry. This event will bring together key players to discus the market and its issues in a relaxed environment, providing information to help participants make better decisions, while shaping the future of the outdoor industry. The conference provides the perfect opportunity for participants to develop relationships and network with their peers.
The European Commission’s proposal to revise current textile names legislation is currently with the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).
The user and end-of-life phases deserve increased attention in the textile and apparel sectors, especially in light of their environmental impact. The knowledge we have on how the consumer deals with these phases are limited. A three year project – Textile Waste as a Resource – was launched in Norway last year taking a rather “back-ward” approach in the life cycle assessment (LCA).
In late April and luckily just in betweeen volcanic erruptions Messe Friedrichshafen’s OutDoor Team organised a press trip to the UK. The aim was to give European National Newspapers and non-core trade press an ’outdoor experience’. A group of sixteen were exposed to the beauty of the UK’s North-West, starting with a visit to the beach just north of Liverpool to see sculptor Anthony Gormley’s Another Place, followed by a drive north to Lancaster to spend a half-day at the Innov_ex conference (see seperate story).
The recent Innov_ex 2010, sponsored by the Outdoor Industries Association, took place in Lancaster in the UK, building on previous discussions that took place at the 2008 and 2009 conferences the event focused on sustainability within the outdoor industries.