ISPO's Amsterdam Gamble: Boardsports World Heads to a New Home This November

For more than half a century, ISPO meant Munich. That ends this year. The trade fair has left its long-time home, with its final Bavarian edition having run last November, and reopens for business in the Netherlands from 3 to 5 November, run by Raccoon Media Group in partnership with Messe München at RAI Amsterdam.

A new format, not just a new city

The move comes with real structural changes, not just a change of postcode. The show opens with a standalone Leaders' Summit on 3 November — a C-suite forum built around senior executives, policymakers and industry figures — before the two-day public Expo runs 4–5 November. Confirmed Summit speakers include Hap Klopp of The North Face, John Lacy of Burton Snowboards, REJU chief executive Patrik Frisk, Pentland Group's Andy Rubin, Sport 2000's Margit Gosau and Global Game Shapers founder Charlotte Cox.

Pricing has been deliberately reset. Early-bird Expo tickets went on sale in March at €29 for the first 3,000 passes, rising in stages to €59 and then €99, a move organisers frame as a direct response to long-standing complaints that entry costs shut smaller businesses out. Leaders' Summit access starts at €495, capped at 200 seats. Behind the ticketing sits a €3 million organiser investment: €1 million for a hosted buyer programme aiming to bring 500 buyers to targeted brand meetings, €1 million for Summit content, and €1 million for sustainability and participation grants distributed through an independently run ISPO Impact Council, with applications opening in June.

Raccoon Media Group's group chief executive, Mike Seaman, described the relaunch as pairing ISPO's long-standing reputation with a more community-focused approach the company wants to build going forward.

Who's actually showing up

More than 500 exhibitors and brands had confirmed by early April, including Gymstick, Head, Icebug, Nordberg, Rab, Reebok Accessories, Scott, Skechers Running and Thermore, alongside retail names Amazon, Ellis Brigham and Intersport. By the time exhibitor lists were updated later in the year, that number had grown past 280 confirmed exhibitors with over half the floorplan booked, and other listings put total exhibitor numbers well into the hundreds as the show approached.

Board-relevant names on the floor include Armada, Nordica and Lib Tech, alongside F2 Fun & Function, a windsurf, SUP, snowboard and foil equipment brand, and Restube, the inflatable water-safety buoy maker. Challenger and start-up brands get dedicated space too, through the BrandNew Launchpad, with triathlon brand Sumarpo and activewear label Tanboer among those named as part of that push. More than 250 retailers have confirmed attendance, led by Intersport, which signed on before the venue switch was even finalised, followed by Blacks, Amazon, Ellis Brigham and Millets.

Snowfest is bringing its Rock A Rail feature to the show floor: a Jibworx-built street-style rail jam, built partly from an actual bus, for snowboarders and freeskiers to session live during the event.

Britain gets its own corner

Eleven British outdoor brands have grouped together for a new "OTS Village," built through a partnership between the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), the UK's Outdoor Trade Show (OTS), ISPO and Raccoon Media Group. Confirmed brands are Berghaus, Bridgedale, Craghoppers, DMM, Keela, Montane, Mountain Equipment, Rab, Sprayway, Terra Nova Equipment and Vango, gathered under a "Best of British" banner around a shared OIA/OTS meeting point.

ISPO's managing director, Tracy Bebbington, said the intent was to bring in existing communities such as OTS and the OIA rather than try to recreate what already works, giving those brands a bigger international stage while keeping their own identity intact. OTS organiser MCS's managing director, Marta Williams, said the Village extends the support and relationships OTS has built for the UK outdoor trade onto an international footing.

Sharing the building with runners

ISPO is co-locating with the International Running Expo (IRX), Europe's only dedicated B2B running-industry trade show, which itself launched in Amsterdam in 2025. Each event keeps its own hall, but a shared ticket gives exhibitors and attendees free movement between both, a structure organisers are pitching as added value for brands wanting to reach both general sporting goods buyers and running-specific ones in a single trip.

The bigger picture

The relocation follows a rocky patch for European trade shows generally, and ISPO's Munich exit was framed at the time as the end of an era rather than routine venue rotation. Amsterdam's RAI gives the show a genuinely new identity to build against — smaller entry fees, a compressed schedule, and a heavier emphasis on hosted buyers and curated communities like the OTS Village, rather than sheer floor space. Whether that translates into the deal-making energy boardsports brands are used to from Munich won't be clear until the doors open on 3 November.