Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/379417
FOCUS PSB Snow www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • September 8, 2014 • 19 Industry ready for Haydays kickoff event WPS to exhibit FLY for first time BY DAVE McMAHON EDITOR IN CHIEF Ron Bentzinger is anxious to show off the annual snowmobile extravaganza known as Haydays. Bentzinger, the snowmobile product manager for Western Power Sports, has attended the Minnesota event known as the annual kickoff to the snowmobile season every year since 1995. This year, he'll finally be overseeing a booth at Haydays, as WPS will be situated in a 35-by-70-foot spot. Ten WPS staffers, including president and CEO Craig Shoe- maker, will be in attendance. "We'll primarily have the FLY brand, and we'll also be presenting our Sedona tires for ATVs and UTVs, along with Triple 9 goggles," Bentziner told Powersports Business during the company's annual show for snowmobile reps and dealers in Minneapolis. "Haydays is the premier event of the powersports industry. Every- body that's anybody in the snowmobile industry is at Haydays." And Bentzinger remembers being able to scour the show and still be able to add prod- ucts that he found to the WPS snow catalog. Now, that same catalog is already out, some 1,232 pages thick. With the snowmobile market coming off a 2013-14 season that went gangbusters, consumers interested in products in that catalog will get to see plenty. "I'm learning from our reps at this meet- ing that dealers are frustrated with the soft sales all summer and they're pushing for- ward because everyone's excited after last winter for this coming snow season," Bentz- inger said. "The dealer inventories are low and the economy is strong. I've never seen such a positive combination of factors going into a snow season as we've got now." Bentzinger is high on the FLY snowmo- bile apparel lineup, now in its fourth season. "It's a real solid offering," he said. "From a technical balaclava with a windstopper around the face to all different kinds of gloves to outerwear that keeps getting more refined, we're excited about what we have to offer. You've got to walk before you can run, and some of our first generation of product wasn't that exciting, but we're really excited about what we have to share this year." Looking deeper into the season when hopefully the white stuff and appropri- ate temperatures will be plentiful, FLY has teamed up with Divas SnowGear to sponsor the AMSOIL World Championship Snow- mobile Derby in Eagle River, Wis. "We don't have any women's outerwear with FLY, so it was a natural for us to be a joint sponsor with Divas and be the official apparel supplier for the World Championships." IDEAL WINTER FOR WOODY'S "Whenever you can ride from home to work and you don't have to put guys in a car for two days to ride, it makes a difference." That's how Larry Tiede, Woody's manufacturer rep- resentative for research and development, described the company's 2013-14 winter sea- son. "It allows you to measure and test and make quick changes in carbide positioning right away, so on the same day and in the same conditions, you know what happened. By being able to do that kind of testing at home, it was an exciting year." Tiede also described the welcomed snow- fall as "one big white blur. It was the winter we've been waiting for. It allowed dealers to sell product they had on their shelves, and it allowed us to get a lot of testing done and develop new products." See Haydays, Page 21 (From left) Nathan Titus, Rich Kumm and Ron Bentzinger of Western Power Sports will be on hand at Haydays along with WPS president and CEO Craig Shoemaker. WPS will be exhibiting its FLY apparel for the first time at Haydays.