Ski Poles Go Urban
Nordic Walking: Is it hype or the next big fitness fad?

By Bob Woodward

As long as there’s been cross-country ski racing, competitors have incorporated ski poles into their off-season, dry-land training programs. Walking and striding across the flats and then bounding up hills with poles simulates the essentials of the cross-country classic stride technique while keeping both the upper and lower body fit. Arguably, top-level cross-country skiers are the world’s fittest athletes.

So it came as no surprise a few years ago when walking with poles went mainstream in Scandinavia as an exercise phenomenon called Nordic walking. Given the average Finn’s, Swede’s, or Norwegian’s knowledge of the cross-country ski sport and of its healthful benefits, it was a matter of time before Nordic walking had to happen.

What was surprising is that Nordic walking took off like a rocket in Germany. Germany isn’t a longtime cross-country ski-racing powerhouse but it has become one over the past several years and the country has a history of recreational cross-country skiing. Oh and one more thing, Germans have been using ski poles for hiking and trekking for decades.

Add the knowledge of cross-country skiing to the fact that Europeans are used to seeing hikers and trekkers with poles. There’s absolutely no stigma attached to being seen exercising in an urban environment with poles in hand.

The situation is very different in North America. “People we talk with about Nordic walking have a problem with its dork factor,“ says Mitch Mode of Mel’s Sporting Goods in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. “They’re perfectly willing to look and act like dorks at times (witness all the overweight, Lycra-clad Lance Armstrong wannabes on bikes) as long as the cool factor exceeds the dorkiness factor. With Nordic walking, those two factors aren’t even close.”

Mode continues, “Another thing I hear from customers is that Nordic walking doesn’t look like much fun. They say it looks like too much work.”

Other retailers who have tried to sell Nordic walking cite the fact that no celebrities have embraced the activity. This hurts it chances for growth and customers still prefer to exercise in the privacy of their home or comfort of health club or gym. But none of this talk deters ski pole makers in their quest to build a North American market for Nordic walking.

David Lampert, president of the American subsidiary of Norwegian ski pole maker Swix, predicted last year that Nordic walking would be, “The next fitness wave to break across North America.”

Greg Wozer of Leki USA, the distributor of German-made Leki poles, is equally upbeat about Nordic walking’s future. But he’s also a realist citing resources and logistics as two things holding Nordic walking back. “We (the pole companies) simply don’t have the promotional and marketing resources to pump up broad interest in Nordic walking.”

As to logistics, Wozer notes that Europeans only need to drive a few hours at most to attend Nordic walking instructor clinics. “In the U.S.,“ he adds, “we have a lot of people who would like to become certified instructors but the training sessions too often require long distance travel to the pockets of Nordic walking interest.”

And what are those pockets of interest? Wozer cites Jacksonville, Florida, Ketchum, Idaho, and Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Not too fast with naming the Twin Cities area as a hot pocket, says Ahvo Taipele of Finn-Sisu Sports in St. Paul. “Nordic walking hasn’t lived up to its promise here,” Taipele states. “Four years ago I began a Nordic walking program and I now realize that I jumped in way too early. Nobody was interested then and very few people are now.”

Taipele has taken, “A wait and see attitude. It’s going to take a lot of promotion and someone like Oprah endorsing it to make Nordic walking work.”

Sensing a need to be more proactive, Leki USA has a new instructional DVD available that allows people to see, “in five minutes how easy and healthful the activity is.” Wozer adds, “We’re also working with a web-based training company to develop an online training course.”

These efforts and a lot of grassroots work will hopefully get the 80 million people who call themselves dedicated walkers interested in walking with poles. “Those are the people we’re going after,” Wozer points out. “We also know there’s also a market out there for pregnant women who can no longer take the jarring of running but want to continue to exercise and another one for people in orthopedic rehab.”

So, there’s a lot of promise for Nordic walking. Now the question is when will its wave break across all of North America?

Bob Woodward who lives in Bend, OR specializes in photographing and writing about self-propelled outdoor sports. He likes to think he did Nordic walking before it got trendy.