The Past Few Years Have Seen an Uptick in Both Interest and Participation
SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, is the largest automotive aftermarket show in the world. Overall, the show brought roughly 160k people to the Las Vegas Convention Center grounds this year with more than 2,200 vendors across 140 different countries – record numbers for the show, according to a SEMA representative. With over 1.2 million net square feet of exhibit space and over 1500 custom, concept and highly modified vehicles on display the show is a virtual candy store for fans of anything that goes fast and looks cool. The really crazy part about SEMA is that the160k people in attendance are all involved somehow in the automotive industry worldwide, the public is not allowed to attend. Everybody from your local body shop to the garage building customs can get in to look for the latest and greatest aftermarket products on then market and more importantly to many, the products about to hit the market.
SEMA is the place you will see products a year or more before they start to show up on local shelves. And SEMA is also THE place to be seen every November if you are involved in the industry in any way. The off-road, overland and powersports section at the annual SEMA show has traditionally been just a small area of the Truck Accessories room in the South Hall in the past but in 2022 SEMA expanded the area for this segment and moved it into a much larger space in the West Hall. This new space now houses Trucks, SUVs, Off-Road, Powersports and Utility Vehicles all together along with some Restyling and Car Care Accessories. The West Hall is also located conveniently next to the outside area where they set up the 'Overland Experience' with dozens of custom adventure vans, expedition vehicles and individual vendors directly involved in the overland space, all set up to let you walk through and check them out close up. One of the other cool things about the new location is the opportunity to take the underground Tesla tunnels with FREE transportation between the South Hall and the West Hall through a series of colorfully lit tunnels in brand new Tesla models. This service is currently only between Convention Center venues but our driver said the master plan is to connect the entire city this way to the avoid heavy street level traffic common in Las Vegas.
“The truck and powersports sections have been on a steady climb since our 2021 Show' said SEMA VP of Events Mark Gattuso. "This is a good indicator of the growth and support of those segments of performance aftermarket. We have also put a centralized focus on Overlanding and showcasing the different product categories emerging in that part of the off-road market. Overall, the SEMA Show serves the Truck, powersports and off-road communities like no other event and we look forward to seeing where it continues to grow for years to come.“
This year there seemed to be quite a buzz in the room as the overland and off-road markets continue to hum along and continue to grow with more vendors and manufacturers, large and small, coming to the show to promote their new products and network with other vendors, suppliers, distributors and iindustry friends. As one of the biggest tradeshow in Las Vegas every year the nightlife around SEMA is pretty amazing as well. Every night there are dozens of events, from new product receptions with free food and drink to customer appreciation dinners from almost every brand you can think of. It is truly the center of the automotive world for a week every year. If you ever get the chance to go jump on it, you wont regret it. And just in case you can't make it we prepared a photo gallery of just some of the eye candy at the show. Enjoy.
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