Retailer Profile: Doodah, Switzerland

RETAILER PROFILE

DOODAH

Doodah is one of Europe’s best respected boardsports chains, and being Swiss-based, they’re one of the few who managed a relatively normal season of trading last winter. We caught up with co-founder Matthew Lee to talk snowboarding, ecomm, covid and much more.

What’s the current Swiss situation Re. Covid? (December 7, 2021)

At the moment Switzerland is only reducing the sizes of public gatherings, making masks mandatory even with certificate and recommending home office. No lockdowns yet at least. And we received up to 1m of snow in certain parts of the alps.

Matt, what’s the current Doodah store count?

We have seven stores, Basel, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Zug, Zurich plus 2 Outlet Stores in St. Gallen and Landquart. We just relocated our store in Berne to a beautiful listed building in the centre of the city and integrated a Vans shop-in-shop, so we’re pretty excited to see how this works for us.

How was last winter?

Last year was a good winter looking at the temperature and snowfall. We had a large dump right down to the lower regions with 30cm in the city of Zürich, which is very rare these days. On the Covid side we were very lucky, the Swiss government waited with the second lockdown until after New Year, so the Holiday business was saved. The resorts in Switzerland remained open, which was a boost for sales and probably for the mood of the nation. It would have been one of the best winters in years I guess, but I don’t want to complain as other countries were hit so much harder with cases and restrictions as we were. We’re very thankful to have had such luck.

Lockdowns seem to be looming, what word do you have from Swiss authorities that this winter will stay open for the Swiss?

At the moment it doesn’t look like another lockdown, but I wouldn’t put my money on it. The Swiss appear to be pretty relaxed compared to our neighbours, although new infections are rising and not enough people are vaccinated. If we can compare to last year then the resorts will stay open but our non-essential shops could have to close again. I’m keeping a positive mindset here.

What were last year’s top performing brands and products?

In streetwear Carhartt and Dickies are very strong, the workwear style from the nineties is a good seller. Skateboards are definitely still strong, Polar is still favourite in the core scene. Capita and Union are still on top of the snowboard game, but Jones and Spark R&D coming in from the human powered side and are competing for the lead here. Outerwear is tough, but we’re working well with the high-end technical clothing from Burton AK and FW

How much marketing are you doing around your pro team?

We try to do a fair amount of marketing with our riders. If we’re planning a shop window with a brand that they ride for we’ll try and find a suitable image of the rider and build a custom-made campaign around it, which is good for the rider who gets local coverage and for the brand as more customers can identify with a rider from the region. We also try to support our team riders’ projects and promote them with premieres (instore or in interesting locations). This year has been pretty busy, with Escape Videos “Escape 4 You”, Severin van der Meer’s “Chroma”, David Djité’s “Eudemonia” (not released yet), Gregory Betschon & Levi Luggen’s “Gale” with a live performance of the soundtrack and Elena Koenz’ “Pass per Pass”

What’s the best way for a brand to sell on their website without pissing off their wholesale channel?

Oh this is a tough one! I understand the need for a brand to showcase all their collections and sell DTC, as it is rarely possible for retailers to buy into a large portion of the collection. And it wouldn’t really make sense to put up a web shop and then not sell anything. Of course things start getting difficult when independent retailers experience cancellations due to delivery problems, but the brand’s website is fully stocked. But at the end of day it is their brand and they can decide where to set their priorities. That said, the brand should follow a code of conduct though: pricing on par with the local RRP, dealer links (find your local shop), no discounts until end of season and a working B2B.

What opportunities do you foresee this winter?

I see snowboarding returning as a strong trend, but I’ve been saying that for the past three years! With the strong increase in a new generation of skateboarders, of all genders, I’m pretty sure these riders will want to go snowboarding in the winter if it is accessible and affordable for them. There are a lot of opportunities in the touring/splitboard sector as people are looking for options in closed resorts, but the production of bindings is limited so not everyone will be only skiing uphill. Touring boots for splitboards is a niche to watch, with a fair amount of interest within the core scene but not many opportunities to actually try and test the gear. Excited and not so excited about these boots at the same time!