Model Year

A model year is the lifecycle unit for hard goods in outdoor, sporting goods, footwear and juvenile categories: the period during which a given model — a bike frame, a ski, a tent, a car-seat chassis, a shoe last — is the current version, from introduction to the changeover that replaces it. It is the unit the commitment, the dealer prebook and the exit are made against, and it replaces the apparel season as the thing the calendar is built on. A season in these categories names a delivery window inside a model year; it does not own the decisions.

The distinction matters because the model year is committed once, at the model, and the commitment persists for the model's whole life. Tooling, moulds, certified configurations and specification are decided when the model is engineered, and every colorway or spec variant released during the model year sits inside that commitment. A carryover model — one continuing unchanged into the next model year — has no new commitment; it was committed when the tool was cut. A new model's single commitment date sits well upstream of the purchase order, where the tooling or certification was funded.

Changeover, carryover and the new model

The changeover is the date the outgoing model is replaced by the incoming one, set by the product organization rather than by demand. Every colorway and variant on the outgoing model exits together, whatever each one's sell-through was — which makes the model-year exit different in kind from apparel's per-option threshold: a scheduled run-out planned backwards from a known date, not a markdown triggered by performance.

Within a line, each model is classified as carryover or new at the model-year review. Carryover is the cheapest decision in the range — no tooling, no re-certification, a known demand curve — and a line with too little of it re-engineers itself every year. New models carry the tooling cost and the forecast risk, and each displaces a carryover that would have sold on evidence; carry-forward covers the general form of that decision, made here at the model rather than the style-color.

Dealer prebook timing

In wholesale-heavy model-year categories the preseason dealer prebook funds and schedules the production run. Dealers book against the incoming model year before the season opens, the factory allocates capacity against those bookings, and once it is allocated the quantity is a fact. The prebook close, not the purchase order, is the moment the model year's quantity becomes permanent — which is why what remains in season is placement and price rather than a reorder. The prebook also has to be sequenced against the run-out: the incoming model is booked while the outgoing one is still on the dealer floor, and if the two compete for the same space the brand discounts against itself.

Exit of the outgoing model

The run-out of the outgoing model is scheduled backwards from the changeover date, lever by lever. Where MAP pricing constrains price, the remaining levers — dealer closeout programs, reallocation to channels where the model still turns, the brand's own outlet — are slower and their last responsible weeks fall earlier. Where the model carries over unchanged, pack-away is legitimate; where it changes, it is not. The changeover itself, including certified inventory and channel transition, is in planning a model-year changeover; the cross-vertical view of the exit levers is in markdown and exit strategy by vertical.

RetailNorthstar holds the model-year commitment, the prebook position and the run-out schedule in one plan, so the changeover is planned on the numbers the buy was made on. See how RetailNorthstar plans for sporting goods brands →