Outdoor footwear brand Icebug’s co-founder David Ekelund has assumed the role of EOG president. Helinox’s Andrew Shand will serve as vice president, while Achim Loeffler from WL Gore & Associates takes on the responsibilities of treasurer.
The assembly, which was held on 26 February, also saw the election of five new board members: Giulia Delladio from La Sportiva, Irina Andorfer representing Sport 2000, Nina Hajikhanian from Patagonia, Jonathan Petty affiliated with Helen of Troy, and Heiko Schaefer of Mammut Sports Group.
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This expansion brings the EOG board to a total of 12 members and features an equal number of men and women for the first time.
The organisation’s online assembly also witnessed the election of five additional board members.
The 2025 EOG Annual General Assembly was presided over by Christian Schneidermeier, who recently assumed the director position. The assembly bid farewell to outgoing president Matt Gowar and board members Matthias Gebhard, Jan Lorch, and Paolo Bordin.
During the gathering, the EOG agreed upon an action plan for the upcoming year.
Members reviewed the 2024 Annual Report which detailed the association’s main activities and accomplishments in areas such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, market insights, public affairs, event coordination, membership engagement, and communications over the past year.
The meeting saw attendance from EOG members representing various facets of Europe’s outdoor industry sector. This included some of 2024’s new recruits with more organisations expected to join soon.
Schneidermeier said: “The last year has seen a lot of change and significant challenges for the EOG, and the industry as a whole, but our association remains in very good shape thanks to the collective commitment to collaboration. In turbulent times, we need to work together, and the fact that EOG membership has grown for the third year in a row, demonstrates that organisations around Europe recognise that fact.
“The 2024 EOG Annual Report showcases the progress that we have made in some of our key projects, and it also puts the spotlight on what needs to happen to maintain momentum, and keep improving. As we use this year to reflect and refresh our overall approach to events, we’re very pleased that we will be able to host the first Outdoor Impact Summit at Messe Munich in May, and I look forward to seeing many colleagues there.”
Following a recent decision to put a hold on the OutDoor show for 2025, Schneidermeier announced that this period would be used to formulate future strategies for OutDoor.
In collaboration with ISPO, they are set to host the inaugural Outdoor Impact Summit on 19-20 May at Messe Munich focusing on sustainability challenges within the industry.
Updates were also provided on EOG’s market insights programme which includes two key data projects: State of Trade (sell-in) and Outdoor Market Intelligence Service (sell-out/through).
In 2024, efforts were made in partnership with Sporting Insights to transition the State of Trade report onto a new online platform for easier data submission by companies.
After a successful UK pilot in 2024 the Outdoor Market Intelligence Service (OMIS) is now providing real-time retail sell-out data. It is set to expand into France and the DACH market this year, the EOG noted.
Collaborations have been established with Outdoor Sports Valley in France and OUTTRA in German-speaking countries to facilitate this expansion.
