SOURCE 80 (FEB/MAR) ENGLISH VERSION by BoardsportSource Magazine

#80 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2016 €5

CAPITA’S BLUE MONTGOMERY COMBATTING CHANGING RETAIL LANDSCAPE RETAILER PROFILE: BURNSIDE, NL BRAND PROFILES, BUYER SCIENCE & MUCH MORE

TREND REPORTS: SNOWBOARDS, OUTERWEAR, GOGGLES, MOUNTAIN SAFETY, WETSUITS & SKATE HARDWARE.

US Editor Harry Mitchell Thompson harry@boardsportsource.com Surf & French Editor Iker Aguirre iker@boardsportsource.com Skate Editor Dirk Vogel dirk@boardsportsource.com Senior Snowboard Contributor Tom Wilson-North tom@boardsportsource.com German Editor Anna Langer Anna@boardsportsource.com SUP Editor Robert Etienne sup@boardsportsource.com Graphic Design Séréna Lutton serena@boardsportsource.com Web Media Manager Denis Houillé denis@boardsportsource.com

HELLO #80 WEATHERING THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY In our industry, the weather and the business process were once factors that had a certain level of predictability. The seasons would roll through year after year and the business cycle meant that A plus B, would equal C. Now we are faced with uncertainty; no one knowing what is over the horizon and making planning more like a spin on the roulette wheel. For the boardsports community it’s tougher than others, as the weather is a key factor in creating demand for our products. Having said that, even if the snow was to fall on time, we are still facing many challenges. The complex retail environment has shops and brands with their backs against the wall, and even though this winter started with a strong united front, it only takes one major retailer to hang up the discount signs for the whole market price structure to crumble. Brands and retailers must work out how to deal with this new reality because they both need each other. Bricks and mortar stores provide brands and the industry with a window into the real world that cannot be replaced by a purely online format, and it’s these shops who provide our business with its identity and are the cornerstone of their local scene (see P.45). The power to control the pricing environment

Proofreaders Insa Muth, Marie-Laure Ducos, Sam Grant Contributors Jokin Arroyo, Benoît Brecq, Gordon Way, Fabien Grisel, Franz Holler, Anna Langer, David Bianic, Siana Ivanova, Gayle Hockin, Kirtsy Tippett, Joanne Clarke. Advertising & Marketing clive@boardsportsource.com Accounts Manager accounts@boardsportsource.com To Subscribe www.boardsportsource.com subs@boardsportsource.com Publisher clive@boardsportsource.com

rests with product owners – the brands, and they need to find ways to ensure a decent margin can be made by themselves and by retailers. The death of margin, which is a hot topic in the Internet world, leads to the death of brands and retailers, meaning there is a real common interest for brands and retailers to work together. Adding another element into the mix, SIA have announced that they are moving their Snow Show to early December in 2017, meaning deadlines for global sales meetings will move forward, which will no doubt impact on the snowboard business process in Europe. How European winter trade events react to this will be one of the hot topics of 2016, but the solution needs to be one that enhances the mutually beneficial relationship between brands and bricks and mortar. The SOURCE team looks forward to catching up with as many brands, retailers and distributors as possible over the coming demo and tradeshow season in January. Always Sideways Harry Mitchell Thompson & Clive Ripley Editor & Publisher

CONTENT P.13 CONTENTS

P.97 MOUNTAIN SAFETY FW16/17 TREND REPORT

P.14 NEWS

P.99 BUYER SCIENCE: TORLEIF AARSKOG MYHRE,

P.17 ISPO PREVIEW

SESSION, NORWAY

P.18 TRADE SHOW PREVIEWS

P.101 SKATE FOCUS: DWINDLE DISTRIBUTION’S

P.21 RETAILER PROFILE – BURNSIDE, HOLLAND

STEVE DOUGLAS

P.23 SNOWBOARDS FW16/17 TREND REPORT

P.105 BRAND PROFILE: WESTBEACH

P.41 SKATE HARDGOODS 2016 TREND REPORT

P.106 BRAND PROFILE: MOONSHINE

P.45 COMBATTING THE NEW RETAIL LANDSCAPE

P.108 BRAND PROFILE: MAMBO

P.49 GOGGLES FW16/17 TREND REPORT

P.110 BRAND PROFILE: HEIMPLANET

P.59 RIDE O’METER

P.112 SUPPLIER PROFILE: KOROYD

P.62 BIG WIG: CAPITA FOUNDER BLUE MONTGOMERY

P.115 GREENROOMVOICE

P.65 WETSUITS FW16/17 TREND REPORT

P.116 NEW PRODUCTS

P.71 FROM EGOSYSTEM TO ECOSYSTEM

P.123 MARKET INTELLIGENCE

P.74 WOMEN’S OUTERWEAR FW16/17 TREND REPORT P.134 EVENTS P.86 MEN’S OUTERWEAR FW16/17 TREND REPORT

P.136 ONE EYED MONSTER

On the cover: Rasmus Ostergaard - Tailgate Alaska

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SMALL NEWS

BRAVO SPORTS BUYS PRO-TEC FROM DYE PRECISION

Bravo Sports Corp has acquired Pro-Tec from Dye for an undisclosed fee. Pro-Tec were acquired by Dye Precision Inc just three years ago and Bravo themselves were acquired earlier this year by a Los Angeles-based private equity firm called Transom Capital Group. Bravo Sports includes brands such as Kryptonics and Darkstar.

GOLDCOAST LAUNCHES ASSEMBLY AND DISTRIBUTION CENTRE IN HOLLAND

GoldCoast Skateboards has launched their European entity, GoldCoast EU, a fully functional assembly and distribution centre in Loosdrecht Holland. GoldCoast has been in the European market for five years and the European HQ is a means for them to better serve the distributors, retailers, and customers in the region.

VENTURE SNOWBOARDS TO RETURN

After suddenly closing last autumn, Venture Snowboards has now announced their plans for return in the 16/17 winter.. Klem Branner and his wife Lisa, founders and owners of Venture, together with their team, will be devoting their time to research and development in order to prepare for a strong comeback with new ideas and projects.

SIA SNOW SHOW MOVES DATES TO EARLY DECEMBER

American wintersports tradeshow SIA Snow Show has announced that as of 2017 it will be shifting its dates forward in the calendar to “better align with the current state of the industry’s buying season.” For 2017, the SIA Snow Show will take place from December 5-7. The show has delayed its dates until 2017 in order to give brands as much time as possible to adjust to the change.

JARDEN ACQUIRED BY NEWELL RUBBERMAID

K2, Ride and Volkl’s parent company Jarden is to be acquired by consumer product company Newell Rubbermaid. The merger is expected to save the companies over $500 million per year in cost savings through back office synergies. Newell Rubbermaid values Jarden at $60 per share, with an overall value of Jarden at $15.4 billion. Jarden shareholders are expected to receive $21 a share in cash and 0.862 shares of Newell Rubbermaid. The new combined company will have $16 billion in annual revenue.

BURTON OPENS TWO STORES IN SWITZERLAND Burton has opened two new stores; one in Flims and one in neighbouring Laax. The stores offer a full range of Burton and anon. products. To celebrate, Burton had a Riglet Park set up, which saw over 100 kids introduced to snowboarding.

AGENDA LONG BEACH - ‘THE POINT’ SURF SPECIFIC SECTION APPEARS FOR A SECOND TIME AT THE EVENT

Last season, Agenda Long Beach premiered a unique element to its diverse line-up with The Point. After much success, the specialized surfcentric section of the show is back for the upcoming 2016 season, making its second official appearance at Agenda Long Beach.

SHRED INTRODUCES REVOLUTIONARY HELMET TECHNOLOGY

Shred have introduced INFINITE R.A.A.TM (Infinite Direction Rotational Acceleration Absorption – patent pending) to the market. This is a material for use in their helmets which will mimic the behaviour of the fluid between the skull and the brain to maximise protection on impact. The technology absorbs rotational impact without adding any extra weight to the product. 14

#80

THE NORTH FACE FOUNDER DOUGLAS TOMPKINS DIES IN KAYAKING ACCIDENT The North Face founder Douglas Tompkins has died aged 72 after a kayaking accident in Southern Chile on December 8. Tompkins died of hypothermia after the kayak he was in capsized in choppy waters. Tompkins founded The North Face with his wife in 1964, before also starting the ESPRIT clothing company in 1968.

VOLCOM APPOINTS NEW CEO

Long serving Volcom employee Jason Steris is leaving the company, and current Kering CEO of Action Sports brands at Kering, Todd Hymel will take over the role of Chief Executive Officer. Steris joined the company in 1995 as a National Sales Manager (U.S) and then filled the position of Chief Operating Officer in 1998, before taking the reins as CEO from January 1, 2014. Todd Hymel was previously moved from Kering HQ in Paris to Orange Country, California to run the Action Sport division for Kering and Hymel has been with the company since 2008.

ANIMAL APPOINTS NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR

UK-based surf brand Animal have appointed Paul Fowler as their new Managing Director, effective the beginning of January 2016. Fowler has previously held exec roles at fashion brands including Ben Sherman and Nicole Farhi.

HEAD STRENGTHENS MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION IN AUSTRIA & GERMANY HEAD are to consolidate their German and Austrian businesses, improving marketing and distribution throughout both regions. Rainer Schramm, Director of HEAD Germany GmbH has now also taken over the responsibility of HEAD Austria, as long time employee Bob Kock is due to stand down from the position at the end of the year. Walter Zehrer has been put in charge of Sales & Marketing of both regions for HEAD’s Performance Sportswear, Snowboards and Protection categories and Ralf Eisenhut will run the Austrian and German overall winter sports category.

BRUNOTTI HIRES ANOUK VAN HAASTER AS PR MANAGER

Brunotti have appointed Anouk van Haaster as their new PR Manager. Van Haaster has previous PR experience with fashion, sports, interior & travel publications and worked in her previous position, PR & Content Manager at Press Only agency, for six years.

NIXON OPENS SECOND STORE IN LONDON California-based watch and accessories brand Nixon announced the opening of its newest London store at 31 Neal Street in the renowned shopping destination of Seven Dials. This is Nixon’s second brick and mortar location in London, joining its Carnaby location on Newburgh Street that opened in late 2014.

MELON OPTICS HIRES NEIL SLINGER

Melon Optics have appointed industry vet Neil Slinger to handle the development and market strategy for Melon within the International market. Slinger was most recently working as European Brand Manager for Scandinavian apparel brand Colour Wear and before that was Head Buyer at Blue Tomato.

show preview

ISPO PREVIEW MUNICH, JANUARY 24-27, 2016 ISPO continues to dominate the European winter trade show schedule with more than 2,500 brands filling over 100,000 sq metres of exhibition space and offering an international flavour that no other show can match. For 2016 the show has moved back to the traditional Sunday to Wednesday schedule and the hall layout has been changed. The action sports segment is relocated to the east side of the complex into halls B5, B6 and A6, to provide easier access via its own underground stop Messestadt Ost and creating a more concentrated action sports community. Welcoming visitors to the action sports themed East Entrance will be the all-new Action Sports Lounge in hall B6. Exhibitors, retailers, media and athletes are welcome to meet here for a drink, some food or to get away from it all for a moment. The snowboard labels exhibiting in hall A1 in the past will now be in hall B6. In addition, the miniramp, now in association with new partners Munich Mash, and the skate and longboard Embassy brands will all also be located in B6 creating a predominantly action sports hardgoods hall. The other platforms to be found in this exhibition hall include ISPO Inspire, Tailgate Munich (Snowboard-Freeriding/Split Boarding), ISPO Inspire, ISPO Tandem Space, and Monochrom City, which sees the theme ‘Dark and Light’ in collaboration with innovative art curators Stroke, combining digital arts and visual effects. Tailgate Alaska returns for its fourth edition at ISPO. With the freeride sector gaining serious momentum, the Tailgate Munich world freeride expo celebrates the segment, while also providing their knowledge and experience to ensure the safety issues related to this side of the sport are also taken seriously. Also returning for its fourth edition is the ISPO Longboard Embassy (hall B6), where organisers are promising more booth parties than ever before with many brands inviting athletes and artists to share experiences with retailers and distributors. ISPO Inspire has a new tagline for 2016: ‘Be Part Of The Movement’, which they are using to encourage everyone from the industry to come together and give sustainability and best practice in action sports the time and attention they deserve. Within ISPO Inspire, Greenroom Voice is teaming up with AIR to curate a show on the Circular Economy - something of particular importance to the action sports industry because many of the sports we practice use materials where their key products are based on fossil fuel fibres, plastics and composites. In hall B5 the focus is on general snow apparel, cameras, ISPO Cold Water Surfing and Sneakology. The ISPO Brandnew Award will now also make its home in the soft goods hall. The CWS Platform’s first outing was a great success in 2015, and it returns for 2016 to hall B5, providing associated brands with the only b2b community platform for surfing in Europe. The platform will host daily presentations from industry experts, including platform sponsor Patagonia’s Gabriel Davis,

who looks to build on last year’s success for 2016: “Together with other surf companies we want to build a winter focus point for surf at ISPO. A place where surfers, the industry and retailers can come together to celebrate the best of winter surf product innovation.” New for 2016, ISPO introduce their Sneakology platform which will have the #onehundred exhibition featuring 100 legacy sneaker items that will see presentations explaining a select few of the 100 sneakers over the duration of ISPO, allowing for those brands showcasing to explain their products to a larger retail audience within the sneaker business. Hall A6 has another returning favourite, The ISPO Freeski Summit sponsored my Mips. The platform will host discussions, interviews, photography, art and product presentations from the Freeski industry’s finest up and coming brands, all centred around a bar and relaxation area and providing a platform for all brands associated with Freeski and Backcountry to speak to retailers on the continent’s biggest stage. In the middle of the hall, OSV’s Camp de Base common booth space will represent 22 French companies and is the place to be for the French industry and an ideal location to grab a coffee, a meal from the on-booth restaurant, run this year by La Suite, or plan important meetings with retailers, distributors, and other key contacts. This year, fashion shows during the first three days of the trade show will showcase new and innovative French products, and several fun surprises will set the rhythm for the evening parties organized by the OSV. At the far end of Hall A6 the SUP platform will be part of the Water Sport Village, where brands will be able to present their products in a 20m/10m/1m water basin. At ISPO, SUP brands have the opportunity not only to talk to clients from their existing markets, but as part of the largest sporting tradeshow in Europe, they can also talk to retailers looking for growth from other markets. Also new for 2016 is the ISPO Swallow Snow Contest, a rail jam contest, which will take place over the first two days of the tradeshow. The Action Sports Lounge will see an action sports get together, with drinks and food after the jib jam has wrapped up each evening. To mark the end of the rail contest on the Monday, ISPO and Women In Boardsports are celebrating by throwing a party. So with the show now presenting an even stronger skate, surfing and paddle offering on top of its traditional strengths in the winter sports markets, action sports retailers - no matter what their specialization should make the trip to Munich to keep themselves at the forefront of market developments. www.ispo.com 17

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TRADE SHOW PREVIEWS SLIDE, JANUARY 19-21, TELFORD, UK Slide returns to Telford in the English midlands in January, positioning itself before ISPO for the second year in succession. The show is the first in Europe to exhibit the snowsports industry’s products for the 16/17 winter. The early dates give buyers plenty of time to make their selections whilst meeting order deadlines for production. This paid off in 2015 as both exhibitor and visitor attendance improved and an impressive 75% of visitors were key decision makers. Slide is the only opportunity for UK retailers to see so many brands under one roof, making it the key event in the UK snow industry calendar and an easy decision for specialist retailers. The show will host to an impressive range of brand names in the 2220 metre square exhibitor space. As well as attracting key hardware brands, there’s been a modest increase in apparel brands attending the show, while accessories like headwear and eyewear are well represented as well. By time of going to print around 250 brands had signed up including: 32, Airhole, Amplid, Arbor, Atomic, Big Balls Collective, Bent Metal, Bern, Bollé, Buff Headwear, Columbia, Dakine, Dare, Dirty Dog Eyewear, Dragon, Drake, Endeavor, Giro, Gnu, Head, K2 Snowboards, Lib Tech, Madison, Melon Optics, Nike Vision, Nitro, Northwave, Ortovox, Oakley, O’Neill, Patagonia, Picture, Planks Clothing, Poc, Protest, Ride, Rojo, Rossignol, Roxy, Salomon, SnoKart, Smith, Sweet Protection, Trespass, Völkl, Westbeach, Xensr and Zeal Optics. New

exhibitors to the show for 2016 include Big Balls Collective, Blitz Eyewear, Sunny cam, K-nit, Cuddl Duds, Heat Holders and Xensr and brands retuning to the show include Melon Optics, Man O’Leisure, Dirty Dog, Oakley and Bloc Eyewear. There will then be a presentation of the synopsis of SIGB’s work over the past year followed by an open forum and everyone’s welcome to come along and have their say. A key topic will undoubtedly be the SIGB’s Go UK Buy UK campaign, celebrating home-based retailers. There will be a display of the finalists for the three Slide Awards categories: hardware, software and accessories which retailers, media and industry experts will vote on, with the winners announced at the SIGB AGM on the Wednesday evening. For those who’ve talked enough shop during the day, the serious business of ten-pin bowling takes place on the evening of the first day of the show. On-site hotels mean visitors and exhibitors can walk the few metres from hotel to show, and Telford is well served by the road and rail network meaning travel to and from the show is as easy as it gets. Free parking and a free shuttle from the train station to the exhibition centre help make the trip a painless one. Doors open at 9am and winds up at 6pm on the first two days and at 4pm on the final day. www.slideuk.co.uk

SPORT-ACHAT WINTER, MARCH 7-9, LYON, FRANCE Now in its fifth year, Sport-Achat is designed to work alongside Sport Air’s other business-to-business events Snow Avant Premiere (the on snow demo test) and ASAP (a clothing specific event held in Annecy). After attending these earlier test events retailers can then go to SportAchat to finalise their orders. Last winter 350 exhibitors, 640 brands covering 20,000 square metres of exhibition space and 3907 buyers took part in the show. A similar number are expected this winter. Situated in Lyon, the show is perfectly based to allow retailers from across the Alps to attend. ‘Crème Fraiche’, the new space for new brands launched at the summer show, in collaboration with FIFAS, OSV and EuroSIMA will make its first winter appearance. Sixteen companies exhibited at Crème Fraiche last year, and more are expected this time round. Situated right at the entrance to the show, Crème Fraiche gives all visitors the opportunity to view both new innovations and new products before moving onto the other exhibition areas. The highlights brand from all exhibiting at Crème Fraiche will receive an award.

Brands attending who are active in the snowboard market include: 32, 686, Adidas, Airhole, Bern, Billabong, Black Diamond, Bolle, Brunotti, Capita, Dakine, DC, Deeluxe, Drake, Douchebags, Evoc, Flow, Giro, Head, Jones, K2, Karakoram, Neff, Nixon, Nitro, Nidecker, Northwave, Now, Oakley, Osprey, Picture, Poc, Pow, Protest, Patagonia, Quiksilver, Ride, Rip Curl, Roxy, Smith, Salomon, Shred, Sinner, Slash, SP Gadgets, Spy, Sweet Protection, Union, Verdad, Volkl, Von Zipper, West Snowboarding and Yes. The show is open from 9am till 7pm on the Monday and Tuesday and 9am to 6pm on the last day. On the Monday evening from 7pm all participants are invited by the Sportair team to the Sport-Achat opening party for fun and networking. Sport-Achat is a must visit for the French winter sports industry as the vast selection of products and brands makes the show an effective, fast and efficient use of time. There will be daily seminars covering topics such as: new technologies, innovative fabrics, sports and fashion synergies and there will be two conferences on skiing. Sportair can offer discounted rates on hotel rooms and also have a 20% off voucher for trains www.sport-achat.com

retailer award

BURNSIDE Burnside is a boardsports store offering way more than just product to their local scene. Based in Deventer, Holland, Burnside have their bricks and mortar store selling everything from skateboards to snow hardgoods and outerwear. And in 2009 they even opened their own cable park for the local wakeboard community. Winning the 2014 Vans Shop Riot series, Burnside are the real deal and are fully deserving of SOURCE’s Retailer Profile for our 80th issue. Please give a brief history of your store. Herm Golbach started out in 1986 being the first Burton and Vans sales rep in The Netherlands. He started a shop in 1988, at first as a franchise store under the Rodolfo’s Amsterdam flag. But when he decided to do his own thing, Burnside was founded. The shop in the centre of Deventer quickly filled up with snowboards, surfboards, skateboards, bikes and kites and was the hangout for skaters from far and near. After 10 good years he found a bigger place just outside the city centre that also had space for one of the first indoor skate parks in The Netherlands. Nowadays, Burnside is going strong and includes a big pro-board shop with snowboard service facilities, an indoor skate park and a construction company for building and designing skate parks. In 2009, we started Burnside Cablepark; a full obstacle wakeboard park and a restaurant with a terrace to chill on and get a decent bite to eat. We host 10+ events every year, such as the famous Vans Shop Riot, the Burnside Open Championships (BOK series) in four different categories, (B)rookie Skateboard Cup for kids and the Liquid Force Railbattle for wakeboarding. And of course we wouldn’t be where we are today without the help of present and past Burnside crew members. We currently have a team of 12 full-timers that are all experienced in our sports and make everything work the ‘Burnside way’. Could you explain why you don’t have an online store? Burnside chooses to be a live shop and not run a web shop. We believe 100% in service and think we can do this the best way with our personal approach. However, since May 2014, we started an alternative to buying from a web shop with the creation of our unique Burnside Whatsapp Service. This way, the customer can have direct online contact with the shop at their own convenience, but where we can still provide them with great service with all the necessary information and even pictures. It always surprises us how badly people are informed trying to shop online. With our Whatsapp service the result is often much better. We can honestly say that we’ve saved many people from getting a bad deal they otherwise would have had from a web shop.

For us it is very important to find the best suitable boots, bindings or boards for our customers. If they are not satisfied with their choice, even after a week in the Alps, they can come back and exchange it for something else. This gives our customers peace of mind when purchasing snowboard and wakeboard hardware, as they know they cannot make a wrong choice. What are the benefits of having a physical shop over simply having an online store? We believe that “stores with doors” in the future will become more important again because of bad experiences people have with online shopping. We think the personal touch and our way of dealing with our clients works out well for everyone. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Our customers are the key in this whole adventure and we want them to come back and share their experiences and bring in all of their friends as well. Does your store sponsor athletes, competitions, etc? We have a huge team that includes the top skateboarders, BMXers, wakeboarders and bladers (inliners) in Holland. It helps us to stay in touch with different scenes and it makes people stoked to ride, whatever the discipline. With our Burnside skateboard team we won the European Vans Shop Riot finals in 2014. We are really proud of this. All these guys started out as little skate-rats in our park and to see them win this was a great moment for us. Besides sponsoring riders we organise many events. With these events we try to help the different scenes from within and by doing so, create a positive vibe around everything we do. We have some serious contests going on but the main thing is to have fun together. `Always look on the burn-side of life’. For more info please visit: www.burnside.nl www.burnsidecablepark.nl www.burnsideconstructions.nl 21

photos: Jones

trend report

SNOWBOARDS FW16/17 : TREND REPORT ISPO? Already? It’s time to turn our attention to the board racks and flag up exactly what needs checking out as you’re walking the aisles at this year’s show. After a somewhat chaotic eighteen months of pull-outs, closures, reshuffles and factory changes, the dust is settling and the snowboards of tomorrow are looking brighter, shinier and better than ever before. Read on as our snowboard writer Tom Wilson-North has a look at the best of the bunch. KEY NEW MODELS - FREERIDE Directional big mountain and freeride boards are receiving a lot of the R&D dollars next year. A key release is Capita’s Warpspeed, which integrates shaping attributes (read: sidecut and camber) from the Supernova and The Black Snowboard of Death. Under the hood of this wide chassis you’ll feel forged carbon tips for chatter reduction and a refined Omega Mark II base for high speed. Over at Rome, their new Blur has been built for “freeriding big European mountains, whether you are on piste or off piste, according to their Sales Manager Philipp Kämmerer. “It’s an evolution of our Hybrid Positive camber design, and is a highly responsive board for precision, power and speed”. We found the same adjectives on the label of the Burton Gatekeeper, which will be the latest addition to the relooked Family Tree capsule. “We reached out to guides all over the globe and worked with them to develop the best board to use when guiding. It was really interesting to know what needs they had. The board that came out is pretty unique and we definitely wouldn’t have come up with it by ourselves”, Burton’s VP of Hardgoods Equipment, Chris Cunningham told us. The Jones Flagship gets a re-tool and upgrade with new SPOON nose

and tail bevel, and new basalt and flax fibres reinforcing its already burly core. Goodboards are using basalt too - volcanoes beware, there won’t be much of it around at this rate. There’s a new Iikka Backstrom freeride model from DC - a first for them - and a fully redesigned Optimistic from Yes, which will sit between the PYL and 420. KEY NEW MODELS - POWDER BOARDS An older demographic is a wealthier demographic, and a wealthier demographic loves chucking Euros at avoiding back leg burn. Hence the continued prevalence of innovative powder shapes. Marhar’s lightweight Lumberjack sounds rad, with a 3D base for funnelling the snow outward, like the hull of a boat. There’s a sick looking shape from Dinosaurs Will Die called the Pow Reaper, and Kazu Kokubo gets a pro model pow shred from Capita with bamboo core, powder nose and tapered tail. KEY NEW MODELS - SOFTBOOT CARVING Say what? Softboot carving is an important sub trend we identified which has driven development of some fairly unique sticks. “It’s a riding style we personally enjoy, the riding you would do on an average day in the resort when there is no good snow off piste”, says Nicholas Wolken

"Directional big mountain and freeride boards are receiving a lot of the R&D dollars next year." 23

trend report

"It’s a riding style we personally enjoy, the riding you would do on an average day in the resort when there is no good snow off piste"

“It seems like the new generation of riders is looking way back for inspiration”, says Rossignol’s Arnaud Repa. “So it’s no surprise to see asym boards coming back. We’re introducing Asym LITE on our Trickstick with a pressure-sensitive sidecut radius on toe and heel sides”. We are stoked on this setup and can’t wait to try the construction out and decode the science behind it. KEY NEW MODELS – WOMEN’S In women’s boards there’s a 20th Anniversary B-Pro from Gnu - has it really been that long, Barrett? This deck is a sure seller with all the Mervin knowhow and eco philosophy, C3 camber and Magne-Traction. The graphic story delves into the history of the board, in what can only be described as an explosion of flying pigs and unicorns. Over at Salomon there’s a cool looking deck called the Rumble Fish, which is a mix between the Gypsy and the Sickstick, and Smokin’s future freeride platform called the Judy Jetson is aimed at experienced shredders. At the lower end, Roxy have two new price point packages made in Austria and Asia respectively called the Wahine and the Poppy. KEY NEW MODELS - KIDS I’m not sure what took us so long, but it’s great to finally see boards for kids from a wide spread of brands instead of just the industry’s biggest players. Wi-me are offering kids boards as a bundle with the purchase of any adult board. They’re calling it the Rad Dad and Bomb Mom project. “We want to help grow our sport back. People in the millennial age group got jobs, started families, bought houses...life happened. We’d like to extend the olive branch and invite them back”, explains Wi-Me’s Jeff Lavin. Good job guys. As part of their 25th anniversary, Never Summer are doing a line of mini Protos from 80cm to 110cm, and Jones are showcasing a high performance deck called the Prodigy aimed at young freeriders. DC have a Ply Mini, and Flow have a pretty special new product called the Micron Snowday. It’s a full EVA wrap deck with retractable pull cord, generous sidecut and Optix 200 Base; they’re calling it the “first noboard for kids”. Exciting times for ankle biters.

Photo: Nitro

KEY NEW MODELS - FREESTYLE If all mountain freestyle is your thing, you can’t miss the big inline release of the Gnu Mullair, Nicolas Muller’s Mervin pro model with directional C3 and mild taper. Nico swears it’s the best board he’s ever ridden and whilst your demands of the deck may be somewhat lower than his, the recycled UHMW sidewalls, clear topsheet and FSC core will lift your spirits while you’re underperforming. Swiss artist and long time pal of Nico’s, Alain ‘lain’ Schibli is on graphic duties. Elsewhere, Head have an intriguing deck called the Pilot aimed at the mature rider in search of side hits, and Verdad are bringing back a Demir Julia pro from Korua - the runaway success story from last year. Their all new Yoloracer 156 and Trenchdigger 165 are designed for groomer riding and high-speed sidecut jibbing. We are stoked to see a full new program from Nidecker called Snow Surf. The concept is in a similar vein - narrower stances, more angle on the front foot and optional canting on the back foot to nail down that surfy feeling on and off piste. The shapes are all hand drafted, with no computers. There’s also a new deck from Völkl plugging into the same trend. It’s called the Pace and excels on freshly groomed pistes. The tapered core and fishtail mean it’ll work off-piste just as well, and could prove a pivotal release for the brand. KEY NEW MODELS - OLD SCHOOL New is old, old is new. Burton’s Backyard project sees another reissue along the lines of the uber-limited Craig Kelly from this year - they wouldn’t confirm it, but my money is on a Brushie Trout. You’ll find retro un...inc graphics from Yes on the Optimistic, and Ride have delved into their back catalogue and come back with an all-new Timeless, this time with aluminium core and topsheet.

“An older demographic is a wealthier demographic, and a wealthier demographic loves chucking Euros at avoiding back leg burn. Hence the continued prevalence of innovative powder shapes.” model called the DJXIII. There’s a refinement to Amplid’s Paradigma with greater surface area under the tips and an additional insert pack out back for pow days. And finally there’s a new model from Borealis called the Glyph, which is produced using all-eco, non-chemical processes. In park boards, Ride’s Warpig eschews sizing convention and is either Small or Large. Over to their Global Brand Director Sean Tedore: “Warpig is an aggressive slashing, skier spraying, park lapping machine. The compact size and quick sidecut will destroy a derby course, or outrun ski patrol. This board will do anything you want to do, and freak out all the squares while you are doing it”. Palmer’s Burn is a real beauty with wood veneers, and Arbor have a limited edition Franck April Westmark, but it’s Salomon’s Ultimate Ride which is floating our boat the most; it’s a pinnacle top-end product by Bode Merrill with asym twin shape,

trend report

a quadratic Equalizer sidecut and a layer of carbon along the sidewalls. CAMBER, PLEASE Base contours, still, remain very much a point of contention. “Rocker is dead. No seriously, rocker and flat contours are lifeless boards. They make learning and pushing snow around easy, but the demand is for traditional camber or some variation of a hybrid camber profile”, says DC’s David Appel. The pro-camber trend is global and universal; some brands are even going for extended mega-camber - just check out the high arcs of the Wi-Me Get Awesome 25mm, the Lobster Sender or the Rossignol Retox. “We’re taking it slowly with just one board though,” say Rossi, “because riders’ demands usually only make it to the general public after two or three years”.

"Rocker is dead" Dave Appel, DC’s Director of Snowboarding Hardgoods Lago Snowboards by pro Scotty Lago are coming out of the GP87 factory: “I wanted a factory that was as passionate as I am about boards,” says Scotty as he confirms his brand is also on the camber train: “We are camber dominated with parts being flat and early rise so we get power, control and just a better ride.” Conversely, rockers still sell, no question. Lib celebrate ten years of the Skate Banana revolution with a special graphic treatment on this seminal model, and Marhar report strong continuing demand for their reverse camber decks. But we are pretty sure that the pointy end of the market is going to be asking for hybrid or full camber next year.

KEY NEW TECHNOLOGIES Nowadays, with clients feeling like experts after a twenty-minute Google session, it’s important to showcase key technologies on the boardwall and have your staff ready to geek it up.

ABS sidewalls become a thing of the past at Signal - they are replacing them with a urethane-wrapped core. “ABS plastics can be unpredictable and if not treated right in its production, it can crack or delaminate. Our process takes that out of the equation and allows us to have a beautiful, bomb proof sidewall”, explains Dave Lee. They’ve also got a retake on old school cap construction called NCC, which is worth a look. Lib Tech’s Climax Construction, which is showcased on the new Travis Rice model, is new too. It’s light, environmentally nicer and has a lively feel, combining Bio Beans topsheet, glass magnesium fibres and extra carbon. Stablemates Gnu take things a step further with the addition of 6061 T6 Aircraft Aluminium metal fins (yes, fins) on the retro Finsanity. Rocker Trucks provide the hardware. Elsewhere, Flow’s Kush Control dampening goes all internal, Nitro optimize their Koroyd Highlander model and there’s a full retool at Bataleon. Drake add new die-cut sidewalls which look killer, and DC do away with their plastic topsheets entirely for significant weight savings. FACTORY STORIES There’s been a consolidation in snowboard factories over the last few years. The vast majority of branded snowboards are now made at SWS, Keil, Mervin, NBL, Meditec and Capita, with various Asian factories and independent outfits making up the remainder. Now there aren’t that many places to make decent boards, brands cited sustainability, longevity, and reliable ship dates as important factors when selecting a manufacturing partner. Changes abound this year; Jones have moved from the now-defunct GST to SWS, Amplid go to Capita, Drake go to Meditec and Korua & Fanatic are moving to NBL in Poland. Stepchild relocate production to China’s SBF with Cliff & Austin Lee. Flow are building here too, with extra production requirements going to Taiwan’s Playmaker. Triaaa maintain their own production facility in Davos, whilst West are doing a 100% Swiss Made model called La Suprême which will be built in Reto Niger’s Zen Factory in Interlaken. “We want to offer our most discerning clients something unique and never done before, which will never be done again in the same style,” explains West’s David Lambert.

"As the world leaders in splitboarding and with a new manufacturing partner, Jones have upped the game again"

Photo: Lib-Tech

PRICE POINTS The snowboard market is a bit of a funny one at the moment; nearly all the brands that we spoke to sell direct to client in one form or another, which has naturally led to increases in margin. So public prices don’t need to rise so sharply (despite unfavourable currency pairs and rising raw materials costs), so many prices are staying constant. “Our entire line is under $399 (363€) says Academy’s Jeff Baughn. “We believe in making a quality snowboard that will last for years but at an affordable price.” Amongst the major brands, peak demand is primarily between 449€ and 600€, with a demand spike around premium models which can be hard to get hold of. “We get emails all day from people asking where they can find our top-end Clout Series because the local shops didn’t get that board in stock”, confirms Endeavor’s Rob Dow.

SPLITBOARDING Splitboarding continues to display steady growth despite shops having trouble making money from it; there’s always a lot of discounted product about and the compatibility issues are well documented. But the gear is

Photo: Burton

trend report

looking better than ever. Amplid’s Tanga Tech protects their Milligram’s carbon laminate from chipping and rubbing in tour mode. Borealis are showing an eco-friendly splitboard, and Rossignol’s XV Split sees a new evolution. Arbor have a Brian Iguchi split and there’s a new Travis Rice uphill snowboard from Lib with a directional, tapered notch swallow and Firepower construction. As the world leaders in splitboarding and with a new manufacturing partner, Jones have upped the game again; Boltless Bridge tech covers ugly exposed hardware in the board base, bio-plastic topsheets provide greater durability, one piece steel edges make everything look tidier and new Karakoram hardware keeps it tight. There’s also a Storm Chaser split in the pipeline. Salomon upgrade their two and four part splits with Plum hooks and custom Pomoca skins and their four part gets a new binding interface for global compatibility, even with ski touring toepieces. Völkl add a Split-Stabilizer to their boards for increased torsional stiffness, and Smokin’ are ramping up their split game with the addition of Prowder hardware and a new Judy Split for girls. GRAPHICS Like it or hate it, graphic stories are a big part of any board buy. And there are some corkers coming up. Santa Cruz have topsheet art from Jimbo Phillips and Slash are showing collabs with Pleasure Magazine and High Cascade. Loaded continue on their cork and bamboo journey, Lobster collaborate with Taka Okawa’s Death Label snowboard microbrand and we’re liking Light’s coloured look through a gloss finish, which reminds us of resin tints on surfboards. Vimana

have clean cut Scandinavian design courtesy of TheShallowTree, and Stepchild are using new guy Henry Jones out of Westchester, plus some stuff that “will probably lead to a cease and desist”, according to their legal department. Buddybuddy keep things simple with a clear topsheet showing off the technical core details, and Nikita’s Expression model uses a coffee berry print that coordinates with their outerwear collection. CONCLUSION So middle finger to the naysayers - the business of peddling snowboards is alive and well, and so long as you’re keeping up with what the customer wants, hustling decks isn’t too hard nowadays. The brands that you want in your boardroom are the ones that your clients are asking for; the ones built in decent factories, and distributed by honest people with a long-term vision for growth. Buy plenty of camber, buy midline with a scattering of premium, buy some boards for softboot carving if you think it’ll be cool for longer than a month, and you won’t go far wrong.

HIGHLIGHTS Camber is back Soft boot carving trend Important refinements to splitboards Boards are getting wider Provocative & evocative graphic stories

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SNOWBOARD PRODUCT PICTORIAL FW16/17

ACADEMY Prop/Rythm/Tempo

BATALEON Flight/The-one/Whatever

AMPLID Milligram/Paradigma/Pillowtalk

ARBOR Brian iguchi split

BOREALIS Arcane/Drakkar/Glyph

Swoon rocker

BURTON Camber Trick Pony

Family tree custom split

Westmark rocker

Camber talent scout

CAPITA

DRAKE

DOA/Kazu/SB

Biddy/Mediablitz/Ply Mini

DF1/Team/Urban 31

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ENDEAVOR BOD/Clout/Vice

GNU

Space Eco case choice

ONE

Twin Top/Unltd Top

A-One Top

GOODBOARDS

Mullair

JONES Airheart/Prodigy/Storm Chaser

FANATIC

Apikal double Capra rocker camber

Cool Bean Split

K2 Wildheart

FLOW Bella/Rush/Whiteout

HEAD

Wooden camber

Hope/Pilot/ Instinct DCT i. Kers

Enjoyers Party Platter

Apollo 56/Trenchdigger/Cafe racer

KORUA

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LOADED

LIB TECH

LIGHT

SK8 Banana/Trice/Utility knife

Solar/ Spice/Trooper

Algernon

ROCKER & CAMBER US PATENT N0. 7798514

NS FACTORY BUILT, DENVER USA

MARHAR

NEVER SUMMER

Archaic/Axiom/Bloom

Prototype Two/Twenty Five/Warlock

NIKITA

NITRO

LOBSTER Jibboard/Deathlabel/Sender

NIDECKER Donuts/Gun/Mosquito

Chickita

Expression

Sideway Sista

Fate/Highlander/Team Double Exposure

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NOBILE Burst/Downstream/Gateway

Flash fin wood

PALMER Honey comb fin

Wood half burn

POGO Amante/ Asueto/Wingergun

RIDE

ROME

ROSSIGNOL

Alter Ego/Burnout/Timeless

Blur/Buckshot/Winterland

Diva Magtek/Magtek Split/Trickstick

ROUGH

ROXY

SALOMON

Foundation/Medusa/YounGun

Sugar/Torah Bright/Xoxo NF

Huckknife/Rumblefish/Ultimate Ride

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SANTA CRUZ Eyegore/Mummy/ Power Lyte Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien reaper

SLASH

STEPCHILD

Atv Blue/Aurora/Happyplace

Latchkey/Sleazyrider/Stereotype

156

161 MADE IN EU

MADE IN EU

VERDAD

VIMANA

VOLKL

DJVIII/ Don V Estate /Tropical Storm

The Clone/The Continental /The Conti

Afc/Squad/Alright

WEST La Hache/Six Carro/Achab

WINTERSTICK

YES

Roundtail/Tantra/Wescott Splitkarkoram

Optimistic/Greats/Poder Hull

Photo : Jart

trend report

SKATE HARDGOODS 2016 : TREND REPORT When it comes to the overall health of the skateboard industry, the hardgoods segment has always been the canary in the coalmine. Healthy hardgoods mean healthy participation and healthy brands, distributors, and retailers. In our 2016 Trend Report, we put our finger on the pulse of the hardgoods segment and highlight latest trends in retail. By SOURCE Skateboard Editor Dirk Vogel. Let’s start this trend report by talking about active participation in skateboarding, meaning core skaters who bust tricks and break boards – not cruisers, posers, and mall-grabbers. Luca Basilico at BLAST! Distribution in Italy is optimistic: “The numbers of skaters are growing, more good parks are under construction, skateboard schools are booming, and for the first time we also see good participation among young girls.” And while law enforcement is cracking down hard on street skating everywhere in the world, Europe keeps the culture alive: “Here in Europe there is more street skating than anywhere else in the world, and it’s a different kind of street skateboarding - the street lifestyle and the way to live in the plazas and streets, means more of a ‘flow’ type style than hammers,” said Pablo Ribera at Jart Skateboards in Spain. In the long run, sustainable growth will come from quality skate parks and plazas. “Since the number of parks is growing, I assume the number of participants in park riding will grow, while street is also on the rise,” said Jörg Ludewig, Co-Owner at Urban Supplies. This trend has already boosted bottom lines, confirmed Steve Douglas, Vice President at Dwindle Distribution (Almost, enjoi, Blind, Tensor, etc.): “Right now Europe’s hardware sales are way up – 27% up from July to September. But we see in our forward numbers these numbers are slowing up which is only natural. Overall Europe, outside of Scandinavia, is very healthy and long may that continue.” Uwe Ballon at Motion Sports in Austria sees a generational trend revolving around parks: “A lot of kids are skating all kind of parks – and so are their dads! So we see a good portion of our skate sales

from kids completes.” Then again, hardcore participation is always a double-edged sword. “Kids who skate a lot want good cheap boards – meaning discounted boards – or boards for free!” said FJ Hoeller at Fresco Distribution. This will always be the same, while many trends come and go – just look at what happened to crazy shaped decks. “One year ago, unconventional shapes became hugely popular with brands like Welcome entering the market, but this trend is definitively slowing down,” said Chris Allen, director at Shiner Distribution in the UK. With that said, here are the six trends retailers need to watch out for in skateboard hardgoods in 2016: 1. DECKS: SLOOOW EVOLUTION. For a fast-moving sport like skateboarding, technical evolution sure moves slow. Dimensions have finally found their equilibrium: “Deck sizes are 8 – 8.25 inches. We still sell decks below 8 as well as decks above 8.25,” said Jörg Ludewig at Urban Supplies. As the wider deck trend continues, Enuff skateboards in the UK report: “We’ve completely stopped sales in 7.5 inch decks.” While unorthodox shapes are trending out, Luca at Blast! expects: “Blunt and bold noses of shorter decks are coming next!” Meanwhile, brands such as Dwindle – with Uber and Impact constructions – are pushing deck technologies, but it’s up to the retailers to tell the story and educate customers about their value. “Many new variations to all-maple decks have been developed in the last five years but still have not caught on greatly,” said Chris at Shiner.

trend report

“The numbers of skaters are growing, more good parks are under construction, skateboard schools are booming, and for the first time we also see good participation among young girls.” Luca Basilico, Owner, BLAST! Distribution 2. DECKS: PRICE POINTS STILL UNDER PRESSURE. Despite positive participation numbers, the deck segment is feeling the squeeze. “Due to shop decks and local decks and the easy way to get decks done in small quantities at low price, branded decks have a fierce competition. Kids do not honour the effort that is behind a brand and look primarily at the price. Some dealers do that too. The dollar went so strong versus the euro, so the situation is even tougher,” said Jörg Ludewig at Urban Supplies. Nevertheless, Chris at Shiner sees price points dropping: “A few years ago, most decks were £55/ €70 but this has been driven down and the highest-selling volume is now at the £45/ €60 price. There are also still big volumes of shop boards sold and this still represents over 30% of total volume.” Ultimately, nobody is to blame for this trend but the shops, as Enuff Skateboards pointed out: “Retailers need to fight the temptation to import cheap offthe-shelf China products and deal with established brands to ensure quality!”

last year and will certainly grow again for 2016.” Meanwhile, quality skate tools are in high demand, and Luca at Blast! Suggests: “That FKD ratchet tool is a must-have!” 5. TRUCKS: LIGHTEN UP. The truck segment still belongs to the Holy Trinity of companies – Indy, Venture, and Thunder – hawking up to 80% of sales in some regions. But Chris at Shiner noted: “While conventional trucks are still the bulk of the business, sales of hollow light and titanium trucks have doubled in the last year.” Eric Sentianin, R&D Hardgood Developer at Dwindle Distribution explains: “The Tensor Mag Light truck is 29% lighter then the industry standard truck, it features a hollow shell and kingpin and is made from super light and strong magnesium which is also amazing for grinding, our riders love them.” Distributors like Luca at Blast! help spread the gospel: “We carry some of the lightest trucks on the market with Tensor Mag Light and Theeve Thiax. At first, we had to push promo and test products to shops. But once skaters try the difference, if they are into having a lighter board, they will stick to them. The difference is real!”

Photo : Jart

6. MARKETING GETS TECHNICAL. Technology not only factors into board constructions, but also the back-end process of ordering and marketing skate hardgoods. Pablo at Jart emphasizes that retailers need “access to all the products in the catalogue of the brands and more importantly, the company or brand or distributor need to have the best service and communication.” Most brands provide web marketing collateral, while Dwindle has been seeing great success with its online pre-book program – also exclusive product that’s pre-book only – which is supplemented by Goto online meetings with participating shops. “We have a lot of fun talking about new product and going over the marketing of the key products,” said Steve Douglas, encouraging shops to get log-ins from their distributor or contact EMEA sales manager Leigh.Nardelli@dwindle.com directly.

3. WHEELS: SOFT RIDE, PROVEN QUALITY. Nothing has changed in terms of preferred wheel sizes: “It’s forever been 52 mm and probably won’t ever change,” said Uwe at Motion Sports. But while technology is still a tough sell in decks, the “trend towards quality reached the wheel market. This was a lot tougher ten years ago,” said Jörg Ludewig at Urban Supplies. Of course, everyone has their favourite, including FJ Hoeller at Fresco: “Bones are the best wheels, and skaters know that, at least the ones that skateboard every damn day.” Pointing out the hottest trend in the wheels segment, Chris at Shiner said: “Soft regular shape skate wheels are hot – longboard softness in a traditional skate wheel shape. Bones, Ricta, and Spitfire seem to own this market.” 4. ACCESSORIES: SOMETHING EXTRA? Every well-stocked shop knows that the right accessories at the right time will bring in extra euros at really decent margins. Asked about hot trends in the accessories segment, FJ at Fresco said: “Branded griptape is huge! Grizzly is doing a great job there. Even transparent is in demand for the younger audience, as many boards have top and bottom graphics. Other than hardware, skate kids buy a lot of beanies, caps and socks.” Chris at Shiner also has his finger on a universal trend: “Rails have now become the biggest-selling accessory in the

Closing this report, let’s address a rumour circulating on the message boards; namely that certain sports equipment manufacturers will perfect non-wood, performance skateboard decks in the run-up to the 2020 Olympic Games. The end of Canadian maple? Not so fast, said Chris at Shiner: “Canadian maple decks have and always will be the most popular option as there is no substitute to this that has the same stiffness and pop. Something new is unlikely to prove a great success.” Jörg Ludewig at Urban Supplies is also sceptical: “Skateboarders are conservative as hell and very price-conscious on top. Standard 7-ply seems to stay forever.” Looking ahead, Steve Douglas at Dwindle offered: “We feel that our DSM wood shop currently makes the best boards in the industry by far and we are committed to that. The future will we see boards with no wood? Of course. But when is another story…”

HIGHLIGHTS Active participation healthy Skate parks on the rise Tech decks tough sell without retailer support Price points pressured, but steady “Crazy” shape trend slowing down Hot accessories: Branded & clear grip; tools, and rails. Customers want light trucks Softer wheels, reg sizes from quality brands

retailer help

COMBATTING THE NEW RETAIL LANDSCAPE The retail landscape has changed dramatically with the evolution of online shopping and it shows no sign of slowing down. Black Friday 2015 saw online spending in the UK hit the £1billion (€1.4billion) mark, while the U.S reached $4.5billion (€4.1billion), making for the biggest one-day spends in both countries’ history. It’s no secret how difficult bricks and mortar boardsports stores are finding it to compete with online vendors, but pointing the finger and not doing anything about it doesn’t help anyone. Independent boardsports retailers are where it all started for our industry, and through a series of articles SOURCE Editor Harry Mitchell Thompson is going to take a look at what needs to be done for survival in the modern retail environment. I’m going to kick off the series by focusing on a UK-based scheme called Go UK Buy UK, which looks to inform consumers of the benefits of shopping at their local snowsports retailer. The project has been devised by Snowsports Industries Great Britain and they have based the concept on five pillars: Sound, clear advice; Comfort and performance; Worry-free warranty; After sales support; Support the sport. It’s initiatives like this that are needed to inject life into the industry in hard times. The main things at work here aren’t new, we all know the benefits a consumer sees when purchasing from their local retailer; you just need to make sure that your customers know too. Becca Ritter, Sparks R&D Co-Founder draws a parallel between the boardsports industry and all other walks of life in 2016: “Whether you are talking about food - ‘support your local farmer’, or work – ‘don’t send jobs overseas’ - or the general consumer market – ‘support your local economy’. This UK Campaign seems to be right in line with them all. When dollars (or euros) stay in our community, our local economy thrives. This is true of all goods, including snowboard gear.” SOUND, CLEAR ADVICE The bottom line is that we need core retailers as our industry’s anchor; they are what give us our identity. Thanks to globalization consumers can get what they want, when they want it, but it’s local shops who

give the best explanations and use their knowledge and experience to help fit out a customer. A machine or an online function making a recommendation based on calculating height, weight and ability will never be able to compete with sales staff. It’s the local store employees who are there to give bespoke fittings, tailored to each customer. David Schmid, owner of Pure Snowboarding shop in Switzerland says his store’s “key features in stopping customers from buying online or from multi sports stores are personality and character.” Lorraine Smith from Subvert in Manchester, England echoes this: “We need to communicate to potential customers the benefits of buying in a local independent store, as the reality is those stores will no longer be there for the consumer to visit and to get honest, friendly advice from staff who are as passionate about the sport as they are, if things continue to go the way they are.” Information is best passed on in person and Damon Street, K2 Sports UK General Manager has no doubts as to where consumers should seek advice: “Yes, we can research online but how much easier is it to walk in store, speak to the snowboarder who’s been where you’re going, can tell you what you need, can fit your boots and make sure you’re on the right board to ensure you make the best of every run and hit the slopes ready?” With so many options now available for purchasing, Tom Wilson-North of ZeroG, Chamonix fame explains speciality retail’s place

retailer help

in the 2016 landscape: “If the client wants the cheapest at the expense of everything else he’ll trawl the web for the lowest price. If he wants it now he’ll go to the bloke down the road. If he wants a mix of all of it he’ll find the retailer who fits him best.” COMFORT AND PERFORMANCE Snowboard boots are the obvious product that springs to mind with this category; they just simply can’t be bought online unless they’ve

WORRY-FREE WARRANTY Warranty issuing is perhaps the best example of where shopping locally can benefit the customer. No one wants to pay to ship something back to the manufacturers and when something goes wrong with equipment, a friendly face saying, “everything’s going to be OK” is invaluable. Subvert’s Lorraine offers an interesting notion: “Perhaps customers would think twice if all warranties or issues had to be dealt with from the shop they bought from, whether this be online or abroad. It would then be the customer’s responsibility to get the product back to the store.” This presents an exciting opportunity for small/medium-sized brands to have a think about. AFTER SALES SUPPORT Another field where bricks and mortar retailers are simply in a league of their own is the after sales service they can provide. Letting customers know they can have their setup tinkered with, or board serviced at a cheaper rate after buying with you is what it’s all about. Damon from K2 advises customers: “Do it right and you’ll be there for two or three hours and you’ll leave stoked and confident – all set and ready to turn. Oh, and if it goes wrong the same business will sort it out for you!” Subvert are killing it in the UK at the moment and owners Lorraine and Darren are the reason behind this. They organise trips, movie screenings and competitions, putting Subvert at the heart of scene. “We do events throughout the summer to try and keep the scene alive and so that our customers can test next year’s product. We also do a ‘try before they look to buy’ event. We do a shop trip, again to encourage our customers to test next year’s kit and give us their reviews, which means a lot to us. They also get to ride with us; we try and create a community that they want to be a part of.”

been tried on for size. Which brings us on rather awkwardly to ‘showrooming’, where customers are having the gall to try out boots in store, only to buy them online. We are hearing that some shops are now charging a fee for boot fitting, which will then come off the final cost - something two of our sources are a little dubious of. Trond-Eirik Husvaeg at Vimana recalls: “Some ten years ago a small quantity of U.S. shops had customers pay a deposit when getting help picking out gear. That procedure backfired and I believe it only accelerated online sales away from brick and mortar.” Lorraine at Subvert is also wary of the idea: “We could look at charging for boot fits but this is dangerous as our nearest rivals don’t do so. It could work, but only if every store got on board with it.” Subvert are running a demo offer, whereby the customer pays to use a snowboard at a local resort (or snowdome) and if they like it, the demo price comes off the final price of the board. Lorraine also talks of “setup discounts, and we have a loyalty point scheme in place; the more you spend with us, the more points you save, and what do points make… (prizes).” When questioned on comfort and performance, Julien Durant, CoFounder of Picture Organic Clothing advises that retailers should make as much noise as possible about their snowboard boot fitting: “Boots are an important purchase and boot fitting should be carried out for everyone. Stores should push this in snowboarding more – it works for ski boot fitting!” Becca from Spark R&D surmises: “Support your local shops by buying gear from them if you appreciate the ability to hold it in your hand and get a first-hand look at it.”

SUPPORT THE SPORT David from Pure Snowboarding in Switzerland has a rather gloomy, yet sobering analogy for today’s industry, comparing the consumer/ boardsports store relationship to that of a child and its parents. “Kids are happy to grow up and receive support and security from their mum and dad, but as they grow older kids forget what their parents did for them. It’s not until their parents are older and not doing so well that the kid realises what they’re about to lose. The snowboard industry should remember the virtues of their roots more than ever.” Customers need to be reminded that their local boardsports store is so much more than just a shop; it’s the cornerstone of their local scene. Talking rather bluntly, Lorraine from Subvert shares her technique: “Bore them with how hard it is to keep an independent shop afloat! In the nicest way possible, we educate them on the fact that shops will only be there for them to try on and demo kit if they support their local shop.” And it is so important that we remind people of this. Where was the place they first held a brand new snowboard? Where did they go to read the latest magazine growing up, or to bend the ear of the shop pro? Their local shop is so much more than a shop, it’s an institution, an after-school crèche, somewhere you go to escape home and school. Julien at Picture agrees, but also offers some advice for everyone: “Local stores represent everything we are as older snowboarders. They represent snowboard’s identity. But they also have to change and move forward.”

Photo : Dragon

trend report

GOGGLES FW16/17 : TREND REPORT Whether you’re just slope cruising, destroying the park or venturing off-piste, you want to see what you’re doing and where you’re going, making goggles an irreplaceable accessory for mountain adventures. For FW16/17 goggles brands are offering an ever wider and more diverse choice of products for all the needs you can possibly have. Anna Langer had a look through the new lines for Winter 16/17 for us. No matter if the rain is gone, clouds are coming in or it’s a bright sunshiny day, we all want “to see clearly now” - preferably in all conditions and every situation we can get ourselves in to. What used to resemble a song-like utopia is becoming crystal clear reality though, and not just for high-end models, but offerings of all price points.

Strategy. Gloryfy have a similar feature in their I-Flex® Transformer dual lens that “changes depending on the light intensity from filter level 1 to filter level 3,” says Christoph Egger, CEO & Founder. And VonZipper offers a new “WILDLIFE lens that will increase overall clarity and distinction in mountain terrain.”

TECHY TECH Dragon continue their Transition lenses that “allows the lenses to adapt instantly to a dark grey activation,” as Product Director Mike Tobia explains, while Smith’s “ChromaPop filters light at two specific wavelengths, creating greater colour definition, enhanced natural colour, and unmatched clarity,” says Global PR Manager Ben Cruickshank. Shred work with a “colour spectrum selective light filter”, creating “a lens that mimics the behaviour of noise cancelling headphones on the plane, to eliminate colour noise while riding,” in their Contrast Boosting Lens and Zeal introduce the “AUTOMATIC+ line. This new line of polarized lenses automatically adjusts from 33% to 18%, making it the only lens you need in varying light conditions,” according to Mike Lewis, Director of Brand Activation & Digital

High quality Zeiss lenses can be found in the whole range from Melon Optics, goggles from Giro, and Rossignol features their Sonar Lens, “a contrast enhancement filter that improves colours, brightness and contours on the slope, in all light conditions” says Flavien Foucher, Technical Equipment Marketing Manager. POC use the Sonar Lens as well, with an “exclusive VLT level for the best contrast perception, high brilliance of colours and contours, especially at high speed and in changing light conditions,” says Erik Liden, Senior Product Manager Goggles, and adds: “All our kids specific goggles (POCito) will have this specific lens for best safety practice. For next season we are also offering both Oleophobic and Hydrophobic treatments on the absolute majority of our lenses.”

Smith’s “ChromaPop filters light at two specific wavelengths, creating greater colour definition, enhanced natural colour, and unmatched clarity,” says Global PR Manager Ben Cruickshank.“ChromaPop filters light at two specific wavelengths, creating greater colour definition, enhanced natural colour, and unmatched clarity,” Ben Cruickshank, Global PR Manager. 49

trend report

Sinner combine “photochromic lens with our polarized lens to make one fantastic all round, all conditions solution SINTEC®/TRANS+®” explains Dennis van de Ven, Marketing Manager. Photochromic lenses continue to be the most popular style at Spektrum, and are also featured on POC, Quiksilver, Roxy and anon. who offer “more styles that come with Polarized lenses fully installed, something that has been historically offered as a spare lens only option,” explains Brand Manager Stephanie Kohn.

Carve, and Giro mention frameless designs among their highlights, Brunotti have “half frame and frameless” models, gloryfy feature a “literally frameless design” on their GP3, Sinner go for a “partially frameless goggle,” Dirty Dog introduce slim-line and semi-framed models, and also Quiksilver and Roxy offer “rimless goggle frames.” Dragon extend their seasoned frameless lens system, including swiftlock technology to the X2s, “which is a smaller size than the X2 for universal fit,” says Mike Tobia. VonZipper’s new model the ALT Goggle (Alternate Lens Thing) has a rimless / frameless design too, “that is super light weight” according to Aecio. And Smith updated their frameless model too: “In addition to aesthetically modernizing the look of the I/O, it was important to incorporate the advancements we have made in goggle manufacturing over the past decade: improved fit, wider field of view, and improved helmet integration,” states Jon Raymer, Goggles Category Manager. Shred on the other hand have their own SHREDWIDE approach that maximizes the field of view through efficient use of material and design, creating “the largest possible angle from the eye to the edges of the frame.” POC follow a similar approach: “Whenever we develop a goggle we start by maximizing the field of view, which allows the rider to react earlier to objects approaching from the sides,” putting safety first. Spektrum mix it up with some classical models, as do Appertiff and Ovan, “with harder edges, and lower profile, more tailored fit.”

Photo : Giro

Dragon extend their seasoned frameless lens system, including swiftlock technology to the X2s, “which is a smaller size than the X2 for universal fit,” Mike Tobia, Product Director

QUICK CHANGE In case you’re still not happy with your view, or you just like to make your own choice, the number of models that can be changed quickly, even without gloves, is growing steadily. As is the technology behind it: such as TSG’s “self-locating earth magnets,” VonZipper’s 4PLAY LENS SYSTEM, Bern’s Lens Pop, Electric’s PRESS SEAL TECHNOLOGY, anon.’s Magna Tech, Giro’s Snapshot “magnetic interchangeable lens system”, Spy’s Lock Steady™ & Quick Draw™ systems, and of course Smith’s I/O and Dragon’s APX swiftlock technologies. Making sure to eliminate any “unreliable or bulky systems that will limit performance,” Shred have come up with their very own, patented SIMPLY SIMPLIFIED technology, that also “allows for a very quick lens replacement,” but without the aforementioned downsides. Airblaster swear by the “FOG FREE performance” of their AIR GOGGLES - “spend time shredding instead of ‘quick changing’ your lenses.” FRAME-LESS Whether you need to wiggle your lens out of it or not, all goggles still have a frame – to some extent. “Smaller frames not only look modern/ fashionable, they allow more peripheral vision through the spherical lenses,” explains Dirty Dog’s Operations Manager Tom Lazarus, talking about their new slim-line and Semi-Framed models. Appertiff, Bern,

MATERIALS At the end of the day (or even the beginning), not even the most advanced technology or most cleverly adapting lens tint can help you see, if the goggles don’t sit on your face properly and let snow, fog and whatever creep behind the lens. Bollé address this with their new B-Flex technology and its memory shape properties in the new Tsar, so “the user can adjust the lower part of the frame to his/her face shape very easily and durably,” as Chloé Pasqualetto, Global Goggles & Helmets Product Manager states. Carve work with “memory foam for better comfort and a more adaptable fit across the board,” and TSG use “flexible PU frames with articulating outriggers that evenly transfer pressure across brow and nose to ensure a complete seal against the face,” explains Communications Manager Nadja Herger. Bern try out a “completely new and eco friendly material: Plusfoam™” in their high end Eastwood and Monroe frames, which has “higher impact resistance, a higher coefficient of friction, responds better in extreme climates, and is 100% recyclable.” Ovan also work with a fully recycled PE frame that is “eco-friendly, insanely lightweight and soft for comfort,” while Electric experiment with an injected EVA for the frame material and thermoset compression moulded silicone in their new ELECTROLITE material. SHAPES While cylindrical lenses were all the rage last year and are still relevant for Appertiff, Ashbury, Giro, Melon, POC, Rossignol, Shred, Spy and VonZipper, the majority of goggles have gone back to spherical lenses, with representatives in the new ranges from all brands. “We still see cylindrical shapes as a current functional and stylistic trend,” states Aecio Flavio Costa, Marketing Manger Europe for VonZipper, and adds: “Spherical goggles still represent the majority of our goggle sales and are a vital part of VonZipper’s snow business, especially in the larger-fitting frames.” They also

trend report

“We still see cylindrical shapes as a current functional and stylistic trend,” Aecio Flavio Costa, VonZipper’s Marketing Manger Europe. At anon., tints range from “Blue Lagoon to mirror,” Melon Optics introduce “Green and Blue Chrome,” Dirty Dog update their line with “contemporary Emerald Fusion,” Sinner feature Blue Revo and Airblaster add a new “Green AirRADium” lens. FRAME COLOURS & PATTERNS When it comes to frame designs and colour palettes, there really is something for everyone next year, no matter what you fancy. Shred and Zeal opt for neutral colours, POC see “some more mature colours” entering their range, Appertiff for all black, and TSG mix it up with white, black, dark blue and purple. Brunotti, Spektrum and Carve add matt options to their lines, the latter adding “pops of colour at the banding,” says James.

Photo : Giro

Dirty Dog introduce “brightly coloured frames to match the new intense mirrors”, Bollé and Brunotti go for bright colours as well, anon. for pop colours, Appertiff features some neon, TSG Cyan Blue, Sinner have bright neon colours and Smith let “bold floods of colour be the focus of the design.” And rounding things off on a softer note, Sinner and Appertiff add some pastels too. Oakley continue with “strong colour blocks,” and also nod to their heritage with “the clean Factory Pilot Blackout and Whiteout colour schemes that use the original Oakley Factory Pilot logo.”

introduce a new, sleeker model with an “injected toric lens”, a new approach combining two different orientations, one of them spherical, that Rossignol also apply to their Maverick model, allowing “a wider and greater field of vision while remaining compact in terms of height” says Flavien. LENS TINTS & COATINGS Black is beautiful, has always been and will always be, especially in eyewear. From Appertiff’s “all black,” to “Black Chrome” from Bollé and TSG, to “Smoke Chrome and Black” from Ashbury, to anthracite at gloryfy, “Dark Smoke” at Quiksilver and “Everyday Smoke” at Ovan. Carve Brand Manager James Robinson agrees that “traditional tints are still strong” and adds that “it’s more about the coatings or finishes,” mentioning Iridium in silver & spectrum colours. Electric feature a new base tint colour called Brose. “It combines the best properties of our best selling Bronze lens tint with the highly versatile and performance enhancing qualities of Rose. Brose is now the base tint colour of choice in our line and it’s awesome.” Spektrum also use a brown base “that works for a wide range of light conditions,” says Robert Ohlsson, CD & Co-Founder. Mirror coatings continue to be important for many brands, like Bollé, Brunotti, gloryfy, and are now even used for low-light conditions, as Robert from Spektrum describes their Clear Red Revo: “a lens for low light conditions that still has a Revo mirror finish that makes the lens much more attractive than your regular clear, pink or yellow lens.” Red is becoming more popular in general, like in Spy’s “all-new Happy Red Spectra™ lens”, Nike Vision’s “new light rose tint in addition to grey activation,” anon.’s Red Solex™, Dirty Dog’s Red Fusion, as “multilayer red with an orange base” from Rossignol, Ovan’s “Code red low-light lens, designed to improve contrast and terrain clarity in extremely flat light,” and Quiksilver’s new HD lens tint, “a kind of pink – amber mix of tint, which offers you the best contrast,” as Stephanie Fontenille-Leuridan, Goggles and Helmets Product Manager for Quiksilver and Roxy explains.

Matching outerwear and goggles, Roxy and Quiksilver cross over patterns between both segments, including “camo inspiration with hand made painting,” for the guys, next to “an urban-inspired line for endless park and pipe sessions,” called Treeline for the ladies. Nike Vision takes inspiration from their sportswear and Shred from their sunnies, mimicking “the designs of our sunglasses that offer natural wood temples.” Appertiff have a camo pattern too, Ashbury opt for stripes, Melon for “Marble, Galaxy, Denim,” Rossignol feature “geometrical and modern patterns, Sinner have a wide variety from “bright coloured tropical flower prints” to Aztec/cabin colours, Nike Vision offer a “tortoise print on a translucent frame and a pop swoosh logo,” while Zeal incorporate “elements like conifers or Aztec patterns.” COLLABORATIONS Last but not least, one of the major trends for next winter is design collaboration. Dragon has Brian Iguchi and Teton Gravity Research on board, Giro made capsule collections with legendary shaper Gerry Lopez and famous punk band the Descendants’ singer Milo, Ovan collaborate with talented artists, anon. teamed up with Black Scale, L.A.M.B, Playboy, Disney and Marvel again, and in addition to their athlete-inspired ID collection, Smith collaborate with Woolrich, High Fives Foundation, Coal Headwear, and artist Matt Furie. VonZipper and Airblaster take it even further, adding most snowboarders’ favourite drink to the mix in their collaborations with breweries, making the metaphorical “beer goggles” almost real. VZ have teamed with local California beer brewers St. Archer Brewing Co., and Airblaster feature “classic PBR colourways with a PBR logo branded strap”, saying “Air x Beer can be a dangerous combination, but beer goggles are always a good time.”

HIGHLIGHTS Adapting & Contrast-enhancing Lenses Rime & Frameless Designs Quick Change Systems Collaborations Neutral Colours

pictorial

GOGGLE PRODUCT PICTORIAL FW16/17

Airblaster - Airpill

Airblaster - Shifty

Anon - WM1 meow

Appertiff - Bruce

Bern - Eastwood Teal

Airblaster - PBR colab

Anon - M2 fragment

Anon - M3

Appertiff - Dawg

Bern - Monroe

Bern - Jackson Hunter

Bolle - OTG

Bolle - Schuss

Bolle - Tsar

Brunotti - Hasolo

Brunotti - Hilan

Brunotti - Hisano

Carve - Chamonix

Carve - Eskimo

Dirty Dog - After Burner

Dirty Dog - Mutant

Dirty Dog - Stampede

Dragon - NFX2 TGR collab

Dragon - X1 flex

Dragon - X2S

Electric - Charger

Electric - EGX

Electric - Electrolite

Giro - Balance

Giro - Scan

Gloryfy - GP3 Transformer

Gloryfy - GP4 Fabio Studer

Melon - Parker

Melon - Jackson

Melon - Tropical

Nike - Fade Volt

Nike - Mazot

Nike - Command

Oakley - Lineminer Premium

Giro - LE Blok Gerry Lopez

pictorial

Oakley - Lineminer

Oakley - Prizm Inferno Hero

Ovan - Magni camo

Ovan - Magni

Ovan - Magni MK

POC - Fovea

POC - Iris

POC - Lid

Quiksilver - Fenom art series

Quiksilver - Hubble Travis Rice

Quiksilver - QS R

Rossignol - Maverick 2 lenses

Rossignol - Maverick HP

Roxy - Hubble

Roxy - Pop Screen

Roxy - Rockferry

Shred - Simplify

Shred - Simplify Blackout

Shred - Simplify Martial

Sinner - Marble

Sinner - Mohawk

Sinner - Snowstar

Smith - IO 7

Smith - IO Reactor

Smith - Riot Sriracha Cuzco

Spektrum - G001

Spektrum - G004

Spektrum - G005

Spy - Ace Stitched

Spy - Bravo

Spy - Raider

TSG - Goggle one Viking

TSG - Goggle two EA

VonZipper - Feenom

VonZipper - Jetpack

VonZipper - Skylab

Zeal - Automatic Forecast

Zeal - Fargo

Zeal - HD2 Camera

ride o’meter

SNOWBOARD MEDIA ANALYTICS RIDE O’METER Tracking action sports media content globally, through print, web, online videos and social networks, RIDE O’METER is showcasing a selection of the 2014/2015 snowboard season highlights. Presented by RIDE O’METER.COM Snowboard Analyst : Adèle Hoffman / Data Engineers : Vincent Charpentier & Valentin Barit

WEB / TEAM EXPOSURE RANKING

TOP 5

TEAM EXPOSURE

LOGO FACTOR

420 623 ¤

10%

Monster Energy

392 081 ¤

Oakley

387 090 ¤

Dragon

374 669 ¤

Red Bull

385 963 ¤

RANKING

TEAM

Burton

2 3

This ranking shows the 5 teams with the highest exposure over the period in international snowboard web press between August and November 2015. Endemic snowboard brand Burton tops the ranking with over 400k¤ of advertising equivalency value and an impressive 10% logo exposure (% of clippings where the logo is identified), thanks to superstars Danny Davis and Mark McMorris, scoring some of the biggest online highlights of the season’s first half. The 4 other spots are taken by top players in the snowboard sponsorship landscape, with an exposure value between 350k¤ and 400k¤. Stay tuned to see how this season will unfold, with hyped video productions and promising contests highlights...

Period analyzed: 1/08/2015 - 30/11/2015

VIDEOS / RIDER AUDIENCE RANKING RANKING

NAME

1 2

TOP 5

NB VIDEO

TOTAL VIEWS

CUMULATED AUDIENCE (hrs.)

TOTAL PART (sec.)

Travis Rice

1 574 766

15 858

781

Danny Davis

909 360

21 593

2 504

Ben Ferguson

869 561

46 280

3 570

Mark McMorris

817 797

23 056

2 237

Ethan Deiss

740 769

121 689

7 584

Period analyzed: 1/08/2015 - 30/11/2015 This ranking shows the 5 riders with the highest combined number of views in snowboard videos between August and November 2015. Travis Rice tops the ranking with 15 video parts over the period, most of them released last season but still generating over 1.5M views in 4 months. Danny Davis scored strongly with his Peace Park video series, making every snowboarder on the planet dream of riding with friends in his impressive looking park setup. Ben Ferguson is seeing great momentum too with over 850,000 views. Mark McMorris and Ethan Deiss also saw a successful period with their respective Burton features averaging out at 150,000 views per part.

ride o’meter

SOCIAL / RIDERS

MATCH UP

TOP POSTS #ISPO

Former team mates and lifetime buddies, French pals Victor De Le Rue and Victor Daviet are seeing serious traction from the international snowboard scene, and it’s well deserved. Their latest video parts broke the internet - their style and commitment haven’t gone unnoticed and they are at the forefront of Europe’s snowboard scene, which is stronger than ever before. When it comes to social performances De Le Rue has a bigger fan base with over 15k, where Daviet has 5k, both with promising fan growth of 6%. Looking closer, both have a fan engagement ratio around 0.3 representing a third of their fans in terms of monthly active engagement on their posts over the 3 platforms.

Shaun White 66k interactions

VICTOR DE LE RUE

VICTOR DAVIET

15 400

Follower Fb/ Inst/ Tw

5 200

2 075 3 297

Av. Monthly interactions Facebook Instagram

731 1 066

0.35

Fan Engagement Ratio*

0.36

Mark Mc Morris 31k interactions

*Comparison between own rider posts interactions and interactions created by posts when tagged (Brands, Medias, Contributors & Riders).

PRINT / COVERS RANKING RANKING

NAME

FIRST NAME

1 2 3 4 5

ELHARDT ANTHAMATTEN ETTALA MULLER SMOLLA STRAUSS

Elias Aurel Eero Nicolas Marco Philip

Find out what’s hot in social media with the 3 top snowboard-related posts of the season. Athletes Mark McMorris, Shaun White and Ayumu Hirano top the charts.

Ayumu Hirano 3k interactions

TOP 5 COVER VALUE

17 500 ¤ 13 253 ¤ 11 721 ¤ 7 634 ¤ 7 319 ¤ 7 319 ¤

Scoring a magazine cover remains the top honour and a true career highlight. This ranking shows the 5 European riders with the highest cover value (¤) in international snowboard magazines between August and November 2015. Elias Elhardt sits on top of that ranking with his unmatchable style on the cover of Method, followed by Aurel Anthamatten on both MBM and The REASON, Eero Ettala as part of a beautiful piece of art for ACT, Nicolas Müller pushing his tweak on PLAYBOARD and Marco Smolla / Philip Strauss sharing a inspiring 7th Sky cover.

Period analyzed: 1/08/2015 - 30/11/2015

Hungry for more ? Drop us a line at info@rideometer.com 60

Photo : Russel Dalby

bigwig interview

BIG WIG: CAPITA FOUNDER BLUE MONTGOMERY CAPiTA opened The Mothership, the world’s most eco-friendly snowboard factory in Austria at the end of 2015. It’s an audacious move from an exciting company with an inspirational leader at the helm; Blue Montgomery started CAPiTA when he was 26 and 15 years later, they are one of the most respected snowboard brands on the planet. For this issue’s Big Wig interview, Blue gives us some more details about the Mothership and goes into great depth on subjects including entrepreneurship, responsible production, later winters and the changing retail landscape. By Harry Mitchell Thompson. Please could you tell us how you got into snowboarding, Blue? I grew up in Iowa, which is a state in the middle of the USA. There were no mountains around, only hills. The closest resort was 170 vertical feet and it was 45 minutes away, so we just hiked one of the hills on the local golf course in my hometown every day after school. The storyline here is very similar to a lot of kids that grew up snowboarding in the Midwest, or parts of Scandinavia, or the UK for that matter, or just anywhere that there are no mountains. But somehow the friendships and the camaraderie and the snowboarding is still somehow epic. Often times, when the resorts are really small it fuels the snowboard dream for people. Look at what the Yawgoons do at their little resort, or how many true legends have come from Talma. If snowboarding had a hall of fame, there would probably be more inductees from Talma than any resort in the world, and when you compare that little spot in Finland to Chamonix or Whistler, it’s

laughable. Why does a small resort produce better riders than a giant one? I think it ties back to the search for the unknown and the basic desire for more. It was that way for me. There was no rope tow or runs or warming hut at my local slope… just the fairway of the 7th hole of a golf course. But I was hooked. I read every single magazine cover to cover, studied every single snowboard video, and dreamed of someday riding places like Mt. Baker, Jackson Hole, Japan, or the Alps. I was so obsessed with that dream that somehow I never grew out of it. We can debate about whether snowboarding is a lifestyle or a sport or an activity, but one thing that is not debatable is the fact that it changes lives. It certainly changed mine. After high school I moved to Utah and rode at Brighton at a time when the scene was fresh and exciting there. I was lucky enough to live the pro snowboarding dream in the 90s, and then in 2000 I moved to Seattle and eventually we founded CAPiTA.

We know that for snowboarding to be at its best we all have to be more than participants, we have to be believers, contributors, investors and curators of what we love. 62

bigwig interview

What’s the thinking behind the building of The Mothership? The idea - or the dream - of controlling our destiny and creating our own product has always been there, but the actual planning started in 2011. We were analysing our business in a challenging marketplace and we wanted to have more direct control over our fate and future. We felt that the best way to do this was to be in control of the production component. We came up with a three-year plan to transition into a producer and putting the finance and people in place. We found the location for The Mothership and it was so perfect that we took a leap of faith and purchased the land. While we were working through the planning stage, our producer at the time unexpectedly declared bankruptcy. This was an uncertain and scary time for everyone but while other OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) brands scrambled to find production elsewhere, we already had our structure in place to make an offer on that factory and buy the assets. This enabled us to keep our product consistent while having flexibility on our design/ build timeline with The Mothership, acquire proprietary machinery that we wanted, retain our multi-generational workforce that had been building CAPiTA boards for 10 years, as well as control the outflow of product from what was the biggest factory in the world. While that factory was amazing, it wasn’t our goal to have the biggest production facility. Our goal was to have the best, most efficient facility that perfectly suited our dreams, goals, and the realities of the modern snowboard market. What were the risks involved with opening the factory? For the most part, the major risks have been obvious ones. Some that we can control, some that we cannot. Most involve investing into uncertainty. Uncertainty about the current weather, future weather, and what global warming will mean for snowpack and snow sports

ability. But our answer is the same as it’s always been. While we appreciate the interest, and as tempting as it may be to try not to miss any sales, our goal is to be sold out of our production run every year, ship the best products in the world, with great customer service, an extremely low warranty rate… and sell through at retail so that we will be given the opportunity to take another small step forward the next year. Media is changing so quickly - video is a massive part of CAPiTA’s DNA, how do you see this changing (platforms/movie tours) in the future? It is changing rapidly, primarily because it’s easier to send messaging and becoming more difficult to send a cohesive message. There is so much static in the bandwidth, that message retention as a goal presents some real challenges. On a general level, we’re committed to helping our snowboarders with a platform for their endeavours. Whether that’s media partnerships or producing our own content - and how it will be released - seems to be changing daily, so we just adapt and evolve. What advice would you give to anyone starting their own brand? Fully commit or don’t do it. Entrepreneurship in the current market landscape is too hard to do halfway. The mentality has to be full-gas, total dedication, absolute refusal to fail. Many times, smart people that understand risk management are too conservative with their good ideas. They try to launch something part-time or without risking another income source. But risk and reward go hand in hand, and I look at it very simply: If an entrepreneur doesn’t fully believe in what they’re doing, why would anyone else?

Even if we shifted our cycle by one month and called the main retail window October to January instead of September to December, that would improve the machine of our industry a lot. It would save a lot of money on both sides in logistics and discounts, and more accurately reflect to the start of the season. But I understand that the buying and selling psychology around Christmas is a tricky one.

as the years go by. Investing into a sport that is perceived to be in a decline presents a certain amount of long-term risk. However, we are optimists in general, and specifically when it comes to snowboarding. We know that for snowboarding to be at its best we all have to be more than participants, we have to be believers, contributors, investors and curators of what we love. Please could you explain the employee setup there - how many staff will be employed? We have 70 employees at The Mothership in Austria. Many of which are craftsmen and women that have spent years or even decades making the best snowboards in the world. We also have an office in Seattle, I share my time between the two locations. CAPiTA has really gone from strength to strength over the last five years - please explain your strategy here. Our last five years really is no different statistically than the give years before that or the five years before that. We have never been greedy. We have never tried to grow quickly. We have never flooded the market with product, or taken a big leap of growth in any one year. We have grown very slowly, step by step, every year, for 15 years in a row. We only produce what is pre-booked by our retailers. Currently we have many in-demand models on back order that won’t be filled and we get requests to make extra production now that we have that

We are now seeing a definite shift in how late the snow is coming each year in Europe. It’s easy for us to tell retailers to keep their heads, that snow will come, and that they should resist at all costs going on sale in December. What do you a) as a brand do to help reassure retailers, and b) think we, as an industry needs to do to accommodate this new, later winter in Europe? The later winter isn’t specific to Europe, we’re seeing the same thing in North America. We all know the retail landscape is changing due to technology, and this change in weather is also something we need to address. It would be foolish for any brand to reassure retailers about the weather, so I’m not going to go there, but I do think that there are some interesting ideas presented by both the brand and retail side about shifting back our current timelines. The season used to start around American Thanksgiving in November, but now we’re lucky if resorts in many areas are open before Christmas. Even if we shifted our cycle by one month and called the main retail window October to January instead of September to December, that would improve the machine of our industry a lot. It would save a lot of money on both sides in logistics and discounts, and more accurately reflect to the start of the season. But I understand that the buying and selling psychology around Christmas is a tricky one, influenced by the economy as a whole, and we respect the expertise of our retailers in this area. So that said, it’s a worthwhile discussion and I hope we can find solutions that work better for all in the near future.

photo: O’Neill

trend report

WETSUITS FW16/17 : TREND REPORT Comfort in cold water is priceless. To make the most of the glory season, consumers are prepared to do anything, including investing in a high-end wetsuit. Frigid conditions no longer have the upper hand on good surf conditions and improbable new destinations are cropping up. The efficient, warm and lightweight nature of the top-of-the-rangers make you almost forget about the icebergs floating beyond the sets. A study by Denis Houillé. LUXURY FOR ALL It’s a fact; the winter demand for neoprene is continuing to expand, just like the surfing public is in general. Younger and younger, older and older, we all want to surf more often, for longer and further. Faced with continually increasing demand year after year, the range of products is expanding and we can see that the market is fragmenting “and the consumer now has various options from smaller independent brands,” confirms Finisterre Founder, Tom Kay. It’s the same story at C-Skins where Technical Director Mark Brown observes that “more and more clothing brands are launching a wetsuit in parallel to their clothing lines and we are expecting this trend to continue.” You can also see more women in the water, in the middle of winter, commanding respect and, inevitably, participation of men is also on the rise. Fiona Bray, sales manager for Glide Soul, is noticing a constant increase in the number of women participating in watersports all year round. Whether it’s surfing or swimming, wakeboarding or kiteboarding, “neoprene has to be an extension of their wardrobe,” says Fiona, so now you have to add “crop tops, leggings, bodysuits and not just full wetsuits” to your order. Moreover, to complement its range of technical wetsuits, Roxy have even decided to add a fashion collection, the Pop Surf Capsule, “designed to add wow factor to the water with colour prints and offer the best in terms of cut and performance,” explains Xavier Faucher, EMEA Product Manager.

More specifically, surfing in cold, or even glacial waters has never been so accessible and “as winter wetsuits become more efficient, lighter and more flexible, the physical demands of paddling in the cold actually decrease,” describes O’Neill Wetsuits’ European Product Manager, Joe Turnbull. Denmark, Iceland, Russia… every country wants to be able to kit themselves out and make the most of their coastlines, lakes or rivers in a workable way, without shivering or breaking the bank. As Xavier Faucher from Quiksilver sums up, “the price of wetsuits remains very reasonable considering the technology that they carry and their manufacturing process.” Indeed, we can see that sales of 5/4/3 and 6/5/4 models with integrated hood - in other words the most expensive - are increasing each year and the price doesn’t seem to put people off. “Sales can fluctuate according to the mildness or harshness of the winter,” observes Mark Brown from C-Skins, but ultimately midwinter quickly helps the customer decide on that extra 100-150 euros-worth of warmth. To meet the rising demand for water of 0-3 degrees, found mostly in Europe, Patagonia decided to add an R5 to their range. No matter what the latitude, the water or air temperature, winter surfing is benefitting from increasing popularity year after year, pulling the market into new territories.

trend report

“The quality of all the brands is really high now, so the brands work now on really good sizing & fitting.” Benoit Brecq, Marketing Manager, Madness/HOFF

Furthermore, the top-of-the-range is not the only segment to benefit. We continue to see these technical characteristics filtering down towards the mid and entry level ranges. This is especially true at Alder, whose basic models are blessed with quick-drying liners and reinforcements at the wrists and ankles “directly borrowed from our top-of-the-range”, as John Westlake describes. Rip Curl are also using the strong points of their best-sellers (Flashbombs and EBombs) to benefit their mid-range models (Dawn Patrol), girls and juniors especially. At Billabong, the focus is on the entry-level, “It’s very important to be able to offer high-performance wetsuits at a reasonable price”, states Technical Division Manager, François Leits. Insulation, comfort, elasticity… in the end the consumer wins here at all levels and as Phil Bridges, Tiki Wetsuits Desinger highlights, “we are getting a better quality/price ratio and tangible sales arguments rather that pseudo-scientific advertising.” Even the manufacturers with their headquarters in the Unites States are playing the game and preventing the Europeans from suffering (too badly) from the increase of the dollar on imports. More than just a trend, cold water surfing is establishing itself as an authentic, enduring, extreme discipline. Even more striking than crystalline tropical waters, the dark, snowy beaches of the Nordic countries offer sensational landscapes that make for some refreshing surf photography. This is a phenomenon that will inevitably be seen in advertisements, as observed at Gul Wetsuits from whom “cold water surfing has become a real focus of our communication every winter.”

their habits but we are sure it will be effective in the long term.” Also, at Rip Curl, even though the zip-free trend still has the wind in its sails, they have found that some people find them hard to get on and off, “so we called upon our cut specialists in Australia, Sparrow, to work on a new entry system for the last nine months.” The results are already proving really promising as Borja Torres from design enthuses. C-skins have attended to the very delicate internal neckline area of the wetsuit. By creating the “Iris Closure”, they have managed to imitate a camera lens that makes it easy to get into, keeps it high and without water entry or exit. Not feeling the cold or tiredness are amongst the priorities at Onda Wetsuits who year after year are working on “their wetsuits working correctly with each muscle in the body, especially on

photo: Rip Curl

ASSEMBLY AND COMFORT OF USE Previously, the assembly of the neoprene panels was considered as one of the more random things “to watch for” in wetsuit production. We even thought that the more panels a wetsuit had, the more it would prove supple and ergonomic. This is not the case at all.

“As winter wetsuits become more efficient, lighter and more flexible the physical demands of paddling in the cold actually decrease.” Joe Turnbull, European Product Manager, O’Neill Wetsuits the thicker models,” specifies Global Activator Paulo Green.

Henceforth, even before judging the warmth or resistance of a wetsuit, the first criteria for customer satisfaction is comfort and fit, particularly when trying it on. “The quality of all the brands is really high now”, states Benoit Brecq, Marketing Manager from Madness/ HOFF, “so the brands work now on really good sizing and fitting.” In reality, not many wetsuit brands have their own templates for each body size, this is delegated to the manufacturing factory. Only the sharpest surf outfitters have specialists in their development teams who are capable of producing and adjusting each panel of neoprene. This is a difficult level of expertise to reach when launching into this market. Alongside frontzips, wetsuits without zips or “zip-frees” are enjoying growing popularity. Their ease of use and faultless ergonomics confirm that this trend is here to stay. But to please everyone, ION Wetsuits are now offering 2 fits, regular (back zip) and tailored (front zip). “We did that simply to accommodate all body types”, explains Carlo Rauen: “At first shop managers and customers had to change

Finally, the floatation capabilities of wetsuits is a point that Benoit at Madness insists on highlighting when talking about the future of surfing. Given the fact that in winter surfers are confronted with heavier and more dangerous conditions, wearing a lifejacket is sometimes unavoidable. “A mix between a wetsuit and life jacket could be the future of surfing,” he confides. MAGIC LINERS There’s a real concentration of technologies (hydrophobic, anti-odour, anti-bacterial) in wetsuit liners this year and they are proving to be real innovation vectors. Practically non-existent a few years ago, these interior fabrics add to the properties of the wetsuit. On one side they add stretch and warmth (by creating an extra layer of air) and on another they reduce the weight of the wetsuit thanks to a hydrophobic treatment that prevents water absorption and speeds up drying when out of the water. The latest generation of the E5 liner from Rip Curl is said to be even lighter and 25% stretchier. The whole Flashbomb range will therefore carry it and to quote their European product manager, Borja Torres

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who had the privilege of testing the prototypes this winter, “the level of comfort and warmth that this wetsuit provides is incredible.” Infrared technologies from Quiksilver and Roxy bring a few extra degrees to your wetsuit thanks to a fabric enriched with mineral fibres that insulate and retain body heat for even longer. Blood circulation and oxygenation of tissues are thereby improved for better performance.

to declare themselves “a paperless organisation”. So even though products are going around the world before reaching customers who then go and travel to spots all over the place, everything is done to make the production process more environmentally friendly and to reduce the carbon footprint of the whole neoprene supply chain.

At C-Skins, the cold water specialists, they also have a heat conductor integrated during the lamination process by way of a glue made of aluminium foil, which has an impressive effect on the back of the neoprene. Stay active in the water and your temperature won’t drop.

“We can’t forget that we are trying to make the best wetsuits out of the best materials and sometimes eco doesn’t mean top.” Borja Torres, Rip Curl European Wetsuit Product Manager. ECO DESIGN…ALMOST THERE From packaging, via delivery, to the actual materials used in design, the efforts made by the surf industry and through each of its players is considerable. Recycled card and biodegradable wrapping bags (like O’Neill’s made from corn starch) are starting to become the norm, delivery by boat is the most used (and soon to be aided by wind) and the brands themselves, like Quiksilver, submit alternative elements (non toxic glue, water-based inks, recycled jerseys etc) to their suppliers. The digital age and emails allows for brands, like Gul,

photo: Alder Wetsuits

Lastly, although still comfortable, wetsuits are becoming easier to take on and off because of their texture, the liner doesn’t stick to the skin as most materials do when they get wet. Because of their sanitised treatments these new wetsuits are garnering praise from all audiences, particularly those with sensitive skin, relays Carlo Rauen, Wetsuits Product Manager at ION: “It’s really good to know that we are now able to offer a solution to those who have suffered irritation from wetsuits in the past.”

But it’s in production and composition that the most noteworthy advance has been made. Started just two years ago by Patagonia, plant-based rubber, and not oil, has become a reality thanks to the company Yulex. Only just available to the public, these “green” wetsuits are now “available in 21 styles, for water between 0-23°”, Patagonia tell us. Confronted with products of guaranteed 0% neoprene, it didn’t take long to hear the first reactions, somewhere between enthusiasm and caution like at Rip Curl where Borja Torres declares that: “We can’t forget that we are trying to make the best wetsuits out of the best materials and sometimes eco doesn’t mean top.” It’s a similar reaction at O’Neill Wetsuits who have carried out very strict tests on these alternatives to finally consider that “the stretch and quality consistency were not yet satisfactory compared to the level of the market,” says Joe. Mark Brown at C-Skins is pragmatic, saying we need to check the reliability of alternatives before being able to really market them. For Finisterre, “the most eco-friendly products are those that last over time and are built to be used,” as Tom says. So for their very first wetsuit on the market, the brand has concentrated on “maximising the amount of time spent in the water and the durability of the product.” Finally, we can note some interesting eco-innovations, notably through RG8 (Regenerate) programmes from O’Neill and Resurrection from Rip Curl that are expanding this year; if you take your old wetsuit back when you buy a new one, you’ll get a free neoprene seat cover. Then your old wetsuit will be handed to a company to recycle it into bracelets, wallets and other accessories.

HIGHLIGHTS Magic liners: lighter, warmer, more practical

photo: C-Skins Wetsuits

Accessible top-of-the-range and beneficial

to mid and entry levels. Comfort and ergonomics reign over heat and durability. Explosion of new surf destinations and populations “Green” wetsuits gain some ground

market insight

FROM EGOSYSTEM TO ECOSYSTEM: A HORIZONTAL STORY Albert Einstein said that we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. SOURCE’s Surf Editor Iker Aguirre took this as an invitation to think outside of the box and has conjured up some food for thought as he continues his exploration of boardsports’ new paradigm. One of my biggest revelations on the path to the new paradigm came from an unlikely source. Wogi, a young Swiss man living bare-foot and often alone in the wild, explained the logic of nature and animal life to me. With simple words and ageless wisdom, he revisited ancient philosophy and dedicated a large part of his discourse to the circle. From the Greeks to the Native Americans and living ecosystems, he made me understand how observing nature brings you indubitably to the perfection of the circle and its endless cycles. This was a revelation that transformed my businesses into three key words: triangle, circle, ecosystem. A PYRAMIDAL LIFE From our most tender childhood years we have been raised in a pyramidal logic. At the top of the functional organogram: the boss. Behind, in the underlying layers, is a hierarchical gradient. Everything is structured according to this system, inspired by the Roman legion. But did you know that, mathematically, the pyramidal organogram is the best way of connecting all parts of a system…with minimum interaction? Read the end of this phrase again: with minimum interaction. It’s an ideal structure for crisis situations where information has to get round quickly, easily and without question - in the midst of a legionnaire’s battle for example. But it’s also the ideal structure for maintaining control over a group. Only one person is in contact with the whole system, the one at the top of the pyramid. Information circulates easily if it’s descending, and quickly blocked if it is ascending or if it needs to freely circulate between the concerned parties. In other words, the pyramidal structure is perfectly unsuitable to modern businesses and to the agility required by the contemporary market. But how can we change a model that’s so deeply engrained?

LIBERATED BUSINESS A burn-out in 2009 forced me to review all the logics of my businesses. I had three at the time and two almost sank because of my prolonged absence. I became aware that I could not be the cornerstone of my businesses. From that day I did everything so that my businesses functioned without me. The same year, Isaac Getz in the U.S. published a key book on the question, but it only arrived in France in 2012: Liberté & Cie. He was also the source of the notion of a liberated business. A liberated business gives employees the freedom to take the reins. The notion of hierarchy changes or even disappears and, on the premise that by nature man is good, what might seem utopian has become a reality. Still today, many CEO and business leader friends refuse to believe that such a change is possible. “A business without hierarchy? Rubbish…” they tell me. Do you also think that? Without straying from our industry, let’s look just at Gore-Tex. There are 10,000 employees, called associates, all ready to challenge your idea of how a business should be structured. If you still doubt after reading Getz, check out Frederic Laloux and his book (in English) Future Organizations, a veritable demonstration that the new paradigm is conjugated in the present tense within thousands of businesses worldwide. FROM THE CIRCLE TO THE ECOSYSTEM Pursuing liberated business logic without even knowing, the words of Wogi were a major key. Is there a system that’s more complex, sustainable and efficient than nature? No. Breaking the triangular pyramid to get to the circle could be an answer. Straight away I imagined the circle with man at the centre; pyramidal logic had taken over. A circle built like that is just a pyramid with a

market insight

Isaac Getz highlights that the liberated business is above all a philosophy and not a method. circular base when seen from above. A false change to the model. The business circle is only possible if it has a project at the centre. By project, the business supposes a mission, a strategy, a product, a department... If the project is at the centre, all people are on the circumference. So let’s get to work: 1. The circle is a wheel, the project is the axle. The wheel has to turn for the project to work. 2. To build a wheel, everyone has to turn to the centre to see and understand the project. 3. For the wheel to turn the circle has to be perfect, everyone equidistant from the centre. In other words, everyone understands the project.

THE HUMAN AT THE CENTRE Isaac Getz highlights that the liberated business is above all a philosophy and not a method. This phrase is worthy of a genius. Liberating a business is putting the human at the heart of every equation. As soon as the human takes the upper hand, modelling becomes (almost) impossible. Any modelling, as virtuous as it may be, will reach its limits in front of the fact that each person is unique and each situation as well. As a result it has to adapt and evolve, forcing us to accept that the miracle, pre-set formula doesn’t exist. You will only have the ingredients; it’s up to you to whip up a nice little dish with them. From the mechanical, administrative economy where man is a cog, we move to the philosophical economy where man is at the centre and meaning is the inert force that drives the engine of the business.

4. For there to be a circle, individuals have to make up the circumference. So it’s impossible for everyone to see the project from the same angle. Everyone has to understand the project from their own perspective but there is a common base. Developing this base is putting people at equal distance from the centre. 5. If everyone is on the circle, the presence of both the CEO and the cleaning lady turns the wheel. Every man and woman forms an arc of the circle. Together the wheel turns and without one piece it doesn’t work. 6. In a circle, no arc is different from the other, not bigger, wider or thicker. In a circle there is no hierarchy. Leadership ceases to be a right or an acquired, nominative, obligation of undetermined duration. It passes through the hands of those who have the skills needed to resolve a determined problem at a given time. The next day, the given time might have changed, the skills required too. Leadership is non-nominative and has a determined duration. What will become of hierarchy? How about the role of leaders, “followers”. Charisma and the role of the director? If you open this door, prepare to be further astounded... Once you have built your circle, a cell will come to life at the heart of the structure. As soon as the structure is constituted of cells, their interaction creates a living organism that evolves and changes. It will be a logical, autonomous, self-regulating and sustainable ecosystem. When it’s no longer a person directing everything but a network that leads the dance, the ecosystem takes the place of the egosystem. WE ARE PRIMATES No sooner than last month, I was hosting a round table on the economy of tomorrow with scientists, journalists and economists of international renown. When I presented this challenge to leadership as a fundamental base of the new paradigm, one of the scientists categorically replied: “We are primates and in this sense, we are built to respond to a hierarchy. All horizontal hierarchies are impossible by nature”. A decorated scientist from one of the top American Universities putting you in your place could throw you off but if you yield to the slightest resistance, you will never change the paradigm. Primate logic revolves around the law of the jungle, our modern economy and all 20th century economic thought as well. It is the result of a bad interpretation of the liberalism of words from poor old Hobbes: “Man is a wolf to man”. It’s basically an economy based on the fact that we are monkeys without brains, responding to violence and inherently nasty. Except that I am not a monkey, I don’t like violence and I think I’m nicer than nasty…and there are many of us like this. We are developed people, not primates so why can’t we think that how we interact with others might have also developed? What if enough companies prove it (Favi, Gore-Tex, Poult, Zappos…)?

LET’S TALK ABOUT SENSE When I turn towards boardsports, I discover, once again, an industry that has always intuitively subscribed to circular logics: the workings of a network, communitarian instinct, horizontal relations with others in most SMBs (small/medium businesses) and VSBs (very small businesses), rules of respect for others, the importance of reputation, passion and meaning to work, personal fulfilment through professionalism, autonomy and recognition, leadership through action, not nomination, meritocratic, changing leadership… Wherever I look, I get the feeling that the boardsports industry always lands on its feet. Its DNA is 100% new paradigm. Take a look at Holacracy at Teal Management, sociocracy in business, at the virtuous applications of Lean Management (not its excesses) and at the many examples popping up in the world and you’ll soon recognise that the fundamentals that actually work subscribe to our boardsports DNA. We are holding the key to much more than just another success; we have the key to a changing world. We just have to remember where the lock is!

New paradigm, boardsports market and corporate well being: follow Iker Aguirre’s articles on ikeraguirre.com

photo: Nikita

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WOMEN’S OUTERWEAR FW 16/17: TREND REPORT Women’s outerwear is a category beleaguered by high street plagiarism and price competition. It’s hard to sell an expensive technical piece when vertically integrated high street chains are offering a similar-looking thing for pennies on the Euro. But reassuringly, today’s female snowboarders are a growing segment, and more independent and adventurous than ever before. From park to backcountry riders, piste shredding seasonnaires up to girls-only splitboard campers, women continue to push their limits in snowboarding - and large it just as well as the guys on the terrace at après-ski. So let’s figure out how we’re going to make sure next season’s client gets exactly what she’s looking for in our FW16/17 Women’s Outerwear Preview. By Tom Wilson-North. TREND OVERVIEW The first key trend is the technical one; every brand we spoke to aspires to create the perfect “mountainwear” jacket and pant with a modern and clean look with on-point technicity. The main goal here is comfort - durability and design mixed together with feminine lines and the perfect fit. The silhouettes are extended longer and the femininity comes out in details like metallic zippers, leather patching, colour

keep you cosy, comfy, fluffy, warm, dry, fun and elegant”, according to Co-Founder Klaus Zenker. DC also reported a major tweak of their women’s outerwear skinfeels and linings to drop resistance and enhance comfort.

palettes and washed look fabrics.

by having one jacket, which is as functional on the mountain as it is in town. Billabong has added some removable features - principally the waist gaiter - for greater versatility.

Comfort is a big FW16/17 trend too. Burton’s VP of Soft Goods, Andrew Burke told us about their long down jacket which hits at the knee - a direct port from the high street. Templeton back this up - the key piece of their new women’s line due for launch at ISPO is “the baggiest slim fit pant ever, with the best freedom of movement, which will

There was an underlying sustainability trend running throughout the conversations we had with brands. The idea is to be more sustainable

As well as sustainability, there is a clear focus towards planet-friendly production and work processes. This links into a colour palette inspired by earth colours and a fabric range selected for their eco

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"The only hot trend I can see is producing and acting on an earth and human-friendly level." Klaus Zenker, Templeton

Mons Royal

credentials. The ethos is one of enjoying the beauty of the mountains and respecting them. When we asked Templeton’s Klaus if he could identify any general theme to next year’s lines, he agreed, saying: “The only hot trend I can see is producing and acting on a earth and human-friendly level.” Volcom epitomise this with their Boarding for Breast Cancer Foundation partnership, which sees an outerwear and accessories capsule collection next year. A portion of the proceeds goes directly to the Foundation. Picture Organic’s sustainable ethos speaks for itself and has been key to the growth of the brand, and Bleed are also fans of the planet-friendly approach. “Every person we can convince to choose sustainable fashion, whether by style or functionality, is a valued customers to us.” Next year’s primary tones centre around nature and the environment: a real ‘into the wild’ trend. Colours will continue to run along the earth colour and jewel tones theme, which is neutral, inoffensive and critically - easy to wear after riding. Prints centre around the military theme, with the still-huge camo, though there are some Hawaiian prints we liked that are a port from the green trend.

686

686 KEY NEW PIECES The main idea is to be eco by using the same outerwear in town and out riding on the hill, then. Cue Zimtsern’s “shreddable streetwear” - particularly their new Mazonka jacket which works as a transition piece for riding as well as for city life. Rip Curl went in a more fashionforward direction by designing a new crossover parka called the Amity Gum which features a heather stretch fabric as well as Primaloft insulation - they went for “warmth, sexy fit and max comfort” in this piece, explained their PLM.

Airblaster

On the other hand, Westbeach is playing with new 20k/20k performance stretch soft lightweight fabrics which they claim make their new Amery pant as comfy as wearing yoga pants - whilst we can’t confirm that yet, what is sure is that the pant looks primo, with a huge range of motion. Don’t forget slightly more bling jackets, which feature heavily next year. Billabong’s new Rich Dip jacket features a luxurious design highlighted by metallic copper prints and details. The 15K/15K mechanical stretch twill combined with Primaloft Eco insulation adds comfort on top of the unique design. Rojo’s Always Lux jacket is another option - it’s got textured fabric in a puffer style, finished off with leather trims. You’ll see it in traditional high-class colours of black, white and alloy grey. Conversely, masters of technical wizardry Norrona add some military styling to their new Tamok dri2 Jacket, using soft organic cotton and cordura mixed face fabric over a waterproof and breathable membrane. Also on the military theme is the Yoko jacket from L1, which has vintage

Roxy

Roxy 75

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“No longer ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach” Homeschool

military roots and is made for someone in need of a serious snowboard jacket that still looks feminine and stylish. Finally, the choice piece from Bonfire is called the Safari Jacket, which has a tailored fit, extra insulation layer and tech increase to 20K/15K. Marketing Manager Vicki Vasil agrees - “It’s our female riders’ go-to jacket”. Burton

Burton NEW FITS Next winter general snowboard fits will be much more of an urbanderived look. It’s all about being contemporary, nonchalant and comfortable. The key catwalk takeaway with relevance is the long down-the-knee tailed or fishtailed jacket. There’s also a khaki tailed feminine parka with fake-fur trim doing the rounds. Holden fits perfectly into this concept with their new longer fitting fishtail jacket loaded with rock ‘n’ roll style and some on-point colours, typical for this fashionforward brand.

Dakine

Light

Dakine

Light

There is a widespread gravitation towards this longer style, which is more feminine and trendy than the square jacket of years past. It seems that the development teams are profiling a girl riding hard during the day with her long jacket and slim-fit trousers, then wearing the same jacket during the evening with a hat, skinny jeans and cool shoes. This isn’t too far wrong - but for this to work girls want to look like they bought their jacket at Zadig & Voltaire without compromising on the solid performance and reliable technical features of classic snowboard outerwear. There is square pocketing and slightly longer cut jackets over at Colour Wear, and Airblaster’s new Slim Curve Stretch pants are a great new option for ladies with curves. Brand Manager Jesse Grandkoski explains “we realized that our Slim Fit (My Brother’s Pant) is an amazing and well loved fit for women with slim to medium builds, but doesn’t accommodate ladies blessed with junk in the trunk - whom it should be noted that we love as much as anyone!” You’ll also see tweaks to the bigger sizes of Rojo’s pants to accommodate curvier figures. Three major retools to report: Nikita have an all new style this year with pieces that carry high end streetwear vibes - their Blonde Roast Chicken jacket is dope, with a quilted hood and sleeves and drawstring waist. Nitro have changed their pant programme with fit updates for overall slimmer and more flattering silhouettes. Our favourite was their Tate Pant. Over at Billabong, Outerwear PM Alexandre Berthonneau told us that all their fits have been “re-engineered for next year to offer more modern silhouettes, tailored to be worn in the city and not just on the mountain.”

Nikita

In general, cuts are longer and slimmer for more feminine silhouettes. Slim overalls like we used to see in the 70’s have inspired bib pants; DC’s Collective Bib is a 15k tailored fit piece, which comes in a washed soft oxford, with detailing true of a denim overall. Airblaster are good

trend report

Make winter jackets that have essential capabilities but aren’t designed to be used only for snow

on bibs next year too, and there’s a flattering overall from L1, which is worth a look. You’ll also see some cool fashion inspired fits from Roxy and Brunotti, particularly their dropped shoulder look, which sees the shoulder line slightly less fitted than in previous collections. Lastly, Volcom’s new Tapered Drop Rise Pant has a fashion-forward fit featuring a long, dropped rise and narrow hem. Nikita

Nikita

Bonfire

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS It’s good to know that female snowboarders are no longer short changed when it comes to feature packages. Roxy are introducing more technical details than ever before, whilst Homeschool provide female riders with exactly the same features without going too girly on the aesthetic. “We made truly authentic snowboard products designed specifically for the demanding sporty woman. We didn’t take the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach”, says their designer Erika. Brands seem aware that when in the market for a technical piece, girls aren’t prepared to compromise on functionality. Dakine agree; “Our FW16/17 line is for women who ride hard and don’t want to settle for a downgraded version of a men’s technical jacket. We’ve thrown that theory out the window and built an awesome women’s line based on the girl who blazes trail, drops in first and always shows up in the liftline on a powder day,” says their lead women’s designer Brittany Crook. COLOUR TRENDS As referenced above, colours are reflective of the overall eco/ sustainable trend, being inspired by nature, the elements - water, trees, ice and marble - and, of course, the mountains. Colours that are out front are olive green, lagoon blue and heather grey. These reflect the palettes we have seen recently on catwalks in ready to wear fashion weeks, and will remain important in the year to come. White is also making a comeback as well as pink, orange and blue, with gold also making a significant appearance at Roxy. Overall, though, khaki and olive green will be the colour of FW16/17; this is a direct port from some à-la-mode streetwear brands like Balmain, whose last collection had a strong army theme.

Nitro

Nitro and Bonfire’s colours are inspired by jewel colours like dusty pink, dusty purple, burgundy and emerald. There will also be rich autumnal tones with a mix of washed back muted colours at Urban Beach and Animal are going with “winterberries and the natural colours that surround us; deep purples, inky navies and khaki with fresh accents of bright mint,” states Leon Young, their Technical Outerwear & Lifestyle Designer. It seems the bright colour blocking that has been popular for a few years is done; now colours are much closer to the streetwear tones you’ll see people wearing in city centres. PRINTS On top of having earthy colours there are - as usual in snowboarding - a lot of all-over prints, particularly camo. We particularly liked Zimtsern’s, which is principally in green but also available in a dusty pink or blue

Picture 78

Picture

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“Shreaddable streetwear” Zimtstern shade. Bonfire go for a darker Floral Camo version and DC use a Duck camo that’s particularly easy on the eye. Animal introduce a “handdrawn blanket stripe that features as the AOP this season,” confirms Leon.

Rip Curl

The yoga industry is undeniably a huge movement right now, and yoga leggings have inspired prints: Picture have an overprint style which mashes different types of prints together in the same way as hot yoga leggings do right now. There are plenty of tropicals out there too, notably Hawaiian prints, which we saw at Roxy and Homeschool - the leaves and dusty pink flowers gel well with next year’s colour palette. There’s acid wash and tie-dye from L1, and an urban jungle print from Light. Horsefeathers have washed-effect fabric dots and a carousel full of colour print and leather look fabrics. Retro patterns are also making a gentle return - but thankfully not to the extent we saw back in the 1980s and 1990s. It’s a little more retro, grown-up old-school - think back in the day industry logos and outline chest prints.

Westbeach

Urban Beach

Westbeach

Urban Beach

CONCLUSION It’s clear that female riders are becoming more savvy and are demanding fashionable and modern cuts; garish colours and technicolour clown barf patterns are things of the past. Looking loud for a week on the slopes before ashamedly donating the vile item to a charity shop a few years later is definitely ‘out’. It’s refreshing; we’re dealing with much more natural tones, more muted colours, universally wearable styles and a fit that is so sorted that girls will want to wear their new jacket for winters to come. The general inspiration behind FW16/17 is to upgrade established ranges by optimising style, functionality and cut. We are back to the basics with the main focus on performance and usability. The main objective for many brands is to create two jackets in one; snow jacket and street winter jacket. We applaud this trend; customers are invited to spend a little more and spend once; by choosing well they can keep their piece for a long time, just like in the good old days. And if this modest production keeps winters cold and mountains alive a little bit longer, so much the better for us all.

HIGHLIGHTS Nature meets technology Warm sexy and comfortable Stylist and Versatile Natural colours Earthy print inspired by the elements like Hawaiian and camo prints

Horsefeathers 80

Horsefeathers

photo: Bonefire

trend report

MEN’S OUTERWEAR FW 16/17: TREND REPORT Snowboard outerwear has had a tough couple of years and a bunch of brands have had to make big changes to stay relevant in a fast changing and competitive business environment. The ones that couldn’t keep up have disappeared entirely. But more positively, the outerwear world is dotted with some runaway success stories; brands that somehow manage to land the right formula and are paying everybody’s wages and keeping consumer interest piqued. Let’s find some more of those money-makers as we examine the details in our FW16/17 Men’s Outerwear Trend Report. By Tom Wilson-North. PRIMARY DIRECTIONS - TECHNICAL Next year the high-tech look remains strong for brands identifying with the backcountry rider, big mountain rider, splitboarder or lottery winner. This means taped seams, thin fabrics, waterproof zippers and eye-watering price tags. Norrøna have a brand new line called Tamok coming out which focuses on darker tones, and 686 have made their first foray into Gore-Tex within their GLCR range. Quiksilver’s Highline is a capsule collection featuring Travis Rice’s signature pieces and Gore-Tex C-Knit backer technology. “This is really the pinnacle of waterproof outerwear technology: gear that will keep you warm and dry all day, every day, whatever the mountain throws at you”, explains their Global PLM Thomas Bourgault. A sub trend of this popular and well-selling direction is the trend towards pieces with minimal stitching. The most innovative brands are using multi-density fabrics and high-science fusing technologies

to reduce the need to stitch panels together. This means fewer holes, less waste, reduced garment fragility, greater comfort and prettier aesthetics. Whilst Picture acknowledged The North Face for their efforts in marketing their Fuseform technology, founder (and happy

The most innovative brands are using multi-density fabrics and high-science fusing technologies to reduce the need to stitch panels together. This means fewer holes, less waste, reduced garment fragility, greater comfort and prettier aesthetics. new father) Julien Durant is adamant that his company’s new Eno2 jacket is unmatched worldwide in terms of outerwear innovation. The package includes seamless double density fabrics with jacquard, seamless colour blocking, seamless body mapping and a lifetime warranty on the fabric.

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Quiet jackets that don’t sound like a wind turbine when you’re walking around are trending too, so make sure you give your fabrics a good rub when you’re sashaying around ISPO.

Airblaster

Bonefire

Brunotti

Airblaster

Bonefire

Brunotti

The North Face’s Fuse Brigandine using a similar multi-density tech counters with a twill based fabric structure that, along with a knit backer, allows the jacket to feel very different from a traditional 3L. It’s got better breathability than ever, moves easily and is very quiet. Quiet jackets that don’t sound like a wind turbine when you’re walking around are trending too, so make sure you give your fabrics a good rub when you’re sashaying around ISPO. PRIMARY DIRECTIONS - CROSSOVER Consider adjusting your approach to selling outerwear, because we found that multi-activity snowboard jackets are a big part of next year’s product lines. “We’ve transitioned to make an entire collection of lifestyle jackets which are as functional as outerwear but slightly detuned for a more street environment. The brands that we see growing aren’t sports specific...they’re stylish and versatile,” says Burton’s VP of Softgoods, Andrew Burke. “There’s no real need to segment”, he continues. “Of course we’re focused on making the best equipment for snowboarding, but the lines in the marketplace have been blurred for the consumer... there’s no reason to keep them up”. Urban Beach agree: “We’re really focusing on multi-functional, so we’re working our outerwear to perform as well in a city as the mountains or beach, but just as functional and usable in cold and wet weather”, they say. Animal mirror this: “Although we take our winter sports seriously, we also realize that our customers’ needs go beyond the mountain slopes,” states Leon Young, their Technical Outerwear & Men’s Lifestyle Designer. Perhaps it’s time to pad out the streetwear part of the store a little more with crossover winter jackets by accepted boardsports brands, then. Careful, though. Technical full-function outerwear that looks like streetwear is not the same thing - and this is where it can get confusing for customers. Zimtstern cited ‘shreddable streetwear’ as a big FW16/17 direction; their Leifz jacket has a rough surface, metal chest zips and felt badging to look steezy on the mountain but still appropriate around town. Volcom’s HR&S outerwear line is all about street influenced snowboard gear. And every brand we spoke to has something similar in the pipes. Where does this come from? Well, take even a cursory look at the hot urban snowboard videos of the moment and you won’t see a single snowboard jacket - it’s hoodies, jeans, cords, jumpers and workwear. Some snowboarders don’t want to look like they are going snowboarding. PRIMARY DIRECTION - MILITARY Military styling and boardsports fit together like toast and peanut butter, and there’s no change next year. You’ll see this done well at Dakine, and DC twist it up with military influenced streetwear style. L1, as ever, gather their inspiration from vintage military, which comes through clearly in their on-trend, clean and functional line next year.

Burton

trend report

For a while it’s been long jacket, skinny pant for the freestyle guys and straight cut all over for the big mountain dudes.

Dakine

PRIMARY DIRECTION - OTHER DIRECTIONS Other directions you’ll want to look out for in the showrooms (or at least drop into conversation with whoever pays you) are the long bomber jacket/down jacket trend, and the retro surf vibe which is a big direction for Quiksilver and Burton next year. There are double knee pants abound, and bib pants remain un-ignorable in snowboarding and you’ll see them from practically everyone. Holden’s Fader Bib is a corker; it’s 20k/20k and the MSRP is very reasonable. TECHNICAL FEATURES Gadgets and gimmicks are important features in an outerwear collection - the forward looking and futurist customer loves that stuff, and they make great talking points on the shop floor too. They’re also often the first things to go wrong, giving shops fabulous opportunities to provide excellent aftersales service.

Horsefeathers

Light

Horsefeathers

Light

Rip Curl’s Ultimate Search Outfit is a zip-free onesie which has an also-available avalanche safety vest with integrated inflatable Mammut Airbag 3.0, as well as avalanche equipment pockets which will excite the safety-conscious client. Meanwhile, Billabong have a new Boa hood adjustment system on their Polar Star jacket, and Westbeach are using a new super-technical material in their new 30K Cove Jacket and Birch Bib. In fabrics, Under Armour make their first foray into the European outerwear market with a cool-sounding Reactor Jacket which uses a fibre foam called VLAB. “The fibres are placed in a V shape, which yields a very high loft at low weight. The insulation actively helps to move moisture away from the body, and the shape of the fibres causes a turbulent air exchange with low velocity, thus keeping wind away from the body,” they told us. FABRICS Speaking of fabrics, there’s nothing utterly revolutionary out there next year - it’s more about consolidation and improvements to working practices. Burton have an in-house development facility in China called Threadworks, in which they designed a face fabric using Cordura with Gore-Tex. The final high-tech product is pigment dyed and enzyme washed, which gives it great performance and durability with a unique street look. Mountain White play safer with classic British Isles fabrics like Harris Tweed and Ventile, and Horsefeathers are showing washed effect fabrics and a gorgeous dark denim-like fabric that’s well worthy of a closer inspection once you touch down in Munich. FITS For a while it’s been long jacket, skinny pant for the freestyle guys and straight cut all over for the big mountain dudes. This remains the core silhouette, although there are some variations to look out for.

L1xKR3W 88

L1xKR3W

trend report

Muted, vintage and drab colour palettes continue to be the most popular. Things are definitely lightening up though

DC are big players in the street-inspired arena with a Drop Crotch fit on their Asylum Pant. This means more comfort in the upper thigh whilst maintaining a clean tapered leg look. 686 noted an increasing popularity for straighter cut pants for freestyle riding, and Ride are adding two new jacket styles - a roomy Parka Jacket and a tailored fishtail called the Roanoke. Colour Wear echo this theme with new tailored parkas too. Mons Royale

Mons Royale There are new fits galore at Sessions and The North Face with full retools, and Bonfire have a bunch of tweaks that promise to increase ergonomy. We also saw some interesting raglan cuts and tightersleeved jackets from Light. COLOURS Muted, vintage and drab colour palettes continue to be the most popular. Things are definitely lightening up though, best reflected at Brunotti. “Our colour card is based on natural sources, mountains, minerals and the forest”, explains the brand’s PR Manager, Anouk van Haaster. Rip Curl echo the natural palette inspiration with water, trees, ice and marble featuring heavily in their workbooks.

Neff

Nitro

Neff

Nitro

Earlier we mentioned the new collection from colour masters Norrøna, which is slightly less ‘yo’ than before. Their Tamok line is “darker, rawer and more toned down, appropriate for the true, gloomy northernNorwegian winter”, according to PR & Marketing Manager, Amanda Lanza-Rygner. At North Face and Urban Beach, however, colour remains key. The pantone-style purity of Urban Beach’s colours offers some nice contrasts, whereas TNF told us that their riders prefer to let their riding - not their jacket - do the talking and are thus asking for one or two strong contrasting colours per piece instead of three or four in previous years. From a manufacturing perspective it was interesting to see Light’s approach; they produce in a partially owned factory, which lets them do away with annoying minimums and sample room hold-ups. This allows them to offer way more options - they offer all their pants in 15 colourways and each jacket has four different variations. Next year their colour focus is on classic mountaineering tones as well as street style looks with a focus on melanges in khakis, burgundy and anthra. Finally in colours we’re seeing a wider adoption of good old white, particularly at fashion forward brands like Templeton and L1. “We’ve got lots of white”, explains L1’s Jon Kooley. “This was a demand from our team riders which felt reasonable as most snowboard outerwear tends to stay away from white altogether.” PRINTS Love them or hate them, there will always be a demand for the all-overprints in snowboarding. Zimstern have one called Paperwork and Nitro have a cool sounding reflective print that looks tone-on-tone until the light hits it.

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Pally’Hi

trend report

Consider changing your approach to selling outerwear slightly, because we found that multi-activity snowboard jackets are a big part of next year’s product lines.

Picture

Airblaster have a cool pattern called Night Jungle - palms on a very dark background - and partner with Lucas Beaufort on a repeat camouflage pattern that’s called Critterflage. “It’s a reflection of Lucas imagining and creating friendly monsters and appears on first glance to be a classic vintage camo”, says Brand Manager Jesse Grandkoski. Homeschool keep the tropical thing going too with a Hawaiian Galaxy print showing watercolour florals on a subdued palette. BASE LAYERS First layers are a key part of every snowboarder’s riding gear, whether that means rails outside the sports centre at 2am or splitting yoyo couloir laps in a storm. Whilst not outerwear, baselayers ought to be represented in your shop. Shouldn’t they? Templeton’s Klaus Zenker doesn’t think so. “Base layers is a tough market and almost impossible to sell in average snowboard shops…plus we don’t want to offer the seventh copy of a Ninja Suit”. Airblaster are well aware of the impact their seminal piece has had on the worldwide chilling-gear market. “Despite a lot of mainstream brand corporate knock offs, The Ninja Suit is the original one piece hooded base layer suit and still the best long underwear on the planet”, they say.

Protest

Protest There are some interesting new movements in baselayers next year. Brands we spoke to universally agree that merino is still the best stuff out there. Westbeach have an all-new merino line in three colours, super.natural are bringing out a 230gr merino Expedition Series with some cool prints and Horsefeathers go merino in various levels of colour insanity. There’s a full new baselayer line from Norrøna cantered on a merino-wrapped nylon thread. While we’re on the subject, it’s worth noting two interesting pieces of trivia about merino; firstly, the sheep that provides the yarn is one of the strangest-looking beasts you’ll ever come across, and secondly - and critically - a small percentage of people are allergic to it and can’t wear it.

Quiksilver

With that in mind, it’s important to propose an alternative. Volcom’s baselayer programme gets a revamp using drirelease and recycled polyester, and Bleed have a cool base layer using Tencel, a material obtained from eucalyptus with soft skinfeel and high breathability. There’s also a new base layer from Picture using Polartec Powerwool. “We’ll be selling at 99¤”, says Picture’s Durant. “We won’t do price point because we don’t want to sell low quality polyester products like our competitors - even if some of those are very popular”. Consumers need educating in this category because the overriding

Rip Curl 92

Rip Curl

consumer misunderstanding is that a 10¤ baselayer from certain brands will do the same job as an expensive technical piece in the boardshop. Luckily established players are doing their best to help us. Pally’Hi are communicating around the benefits of their blend, which contains recycled materials and bamboo to their merino blend, whilst industry heavyweight Mons Royale are pushing their FWT partnership. Their signature Mons colours are very strong and - from next year their higher necklines will offer face protection. They’re also shouting

trend report

the merino story to whoever will listen. “Because merino comes at a premium price point and most base layers stay in your drawer unless you’re out on the hill, the customer doesn’t get great value. But if it’s styled so it looks good too and you can wear in on the street, to the bar or the gym it becomes a much more useful garment – more valuable. In the same way that the activewear trend sees people wearing their sportswear to the café, with a Mons garment you can wear it as activewear, casualwear or - of course - as a performance base layer”, shouts Mons Royale spokesman Richard Birkby.

Urbanbeach

Homeschool

Urbanbeach

Homeschool

KEY PROMODELS More than ever brands have been putting their riders in the driving seat in terms of product development, and also collaborating with the world’s finest shapers to create some unmissable pieces. Dakine’s fourpocket Control jacket was developed by Peter Line and Eric Pollard, and 686 are showing Tor Lundstrom’s first signature jacket called the Cult. There’s a Scotty Lago jacket from Neff called the Parker with Realtree camo, and Protest have a 10K piece designed with Nadasurf Powderboards. Frank April gets a signature 32 ensemble called the Kaldwell, and Eiki Helgason’s signature models – the Baker jacket and Cronus pant - are looking good over at Horsefeathers. Then there’s brother Halldor Helgason’s atrip brand, about which you’ll have heard unless you have been beneath a rock for the last two months. Park-wise, Nitro have developed a jacket called the Shaper’s Choice with the qparks crew, and DC have added an outerwear component to their Snow Park Technologies partnership. “The #1 initiative was to create something that would support SPT’s standards in what they do on the hill. From hood to hem we worked very closely with Gunny to design something that we believe compliments both brands”, they told us. CONCLUSION So there you go; a ton of twists on classic trends, some pimpin’ base layers, lots of white, multi-density fabrics a go-go and a few new approaches to selling snowboard clothes. Over to Airblaster’s Jesse for the last word: “There are a lot of timeless elements that are considered ‘just trends’ or ‘played out’, but I think this is more a result of brands that try to hop on perceived trends, instead of manifesting timeless style through their design. Good music is always good music. Just because a certain genre gets popular doesn’t mean that it is no longer good”. Amen to that, brother.

Westbeach

HIGHLIGHTS Technical and minimalist Multi-density fabrics Vintage military styling Multi-activity winter jackets Base layers with face protection Rider developed outerwear Dark tropical prints

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686

Photo : RECCO

trend report

MOUNTAIN SAFETY EQUIPMENT FW16/17 : TREND REPORT It’s a pretty safe bet to say that most people who like the mountains, love the white gold as well, especially when it’s fresh, fluffy and untouched... And while avalanche trainings are crucial to help you avoid peril and provide vital advantages when you’re out there, nothing can ever guarantee avoiding sketchy situations. The best option is to prepare your customer as well as you possibly can and ensure the best chances for survival. By Anna Langer. Besides properly educating oneself on what’s going on in the backcountry and where the major risks are hiding, riders need to ensure that everyone in their group is tooled up in order to search, and to be searchable should the shit hit the fan. This is the main drive behind Recco’s “Be Searchable” campaign that aims to dramatically decrease the burial time - one of the most crucial factors in surviving an avalanche. A growing number of brands and over 800 resorts and mountain rescue organizations worldwide are partnering with Recco, adding reflectors to their gear with corresponding detectors to increase avalanche safety. They are even working on detectors and apps for drones that are able to search even the most remote terrain without much difficulty. Next summer their first helicopter Search and Rescue detector, the SAR1 will launch, enabling the search of a square kilometre of terrain in three to four minutes. Searching with a transceiver for a companion also wearing one is still the first and most effective measure, but there isn’t always someone with such a device on hand. Many tend not to pack all the right gear when chasing freshies just off the side of the piste - statistics from ANENA cited by Recco even states that alarmingly 50% of burial victims off-piste do not wear transceivers at all. Which is still far too high, considering that there has been tremendous innovation in the last few decades, that not only make being found much easier, but also the process of searching and finding someone. Whereas before these devices were extremely costly, there price has come down – a factor that not all consumers are aware of. Most state of the art devices use three antennas as well as acoustic and visual aids on digital displays to make operating in emergency situations as easy as possible. Automatic switch back to sending mode in case of an avalanche during search is included in many models as well, such as the Ortovox 3+ that combines smart antenna technology, real-time display, flagging function and much more into a mid-price device that works on just one battery. Mammut’s Barryvox also combines a digital and analog device with three antennas for quick,

easy and intuitive operation when you don’t have a second to waste. Pieps now have digital displays with visual aids in all models. But no matter how fast you can be found, you’d preferably not get buried at all – enter airbag backpacks. There are slightly different systems on offer from different brands. The Arc’teryx Voltair Avalanche Airbag can be deployed multiple times and also taken on aeroplanes thanks to its rechargeable battery – an industry first. Black Diamond’s JetForce balloon is a little bigger with 200 litres and takes 3.5 seconds to expand around the neck and towards the sides, and is not compromised by the low temperatures, thanks to cold-resistant electronics from Pieps. Ortovox have dropped electronics completely for their new Avabag, making it “the lightest and smallest airbag system in the world,” and less prone to corrosion, dirt and icing up. Mammut have updated their whole line of avalanche airbags, both backpacks and the inflating system, eliminating all kinks and makes wearing them even more comfortable. The brand says there is now “virtually no excuse left to not take this part of your personal safety equipment on any trip off-piste.” With their new P.RIDE, airbag trailblazers ABS take functionality to the next level. Enabling radio connection between up to 10 partners, every group member can not only inflate their own airbag, but also that of another active rider, who may not see what’s building up behind them. Their new wings that inflate on the sides of the pack, ensure a “beneficial horizontal position, minimizing injury risk,” and have a 30% bigger effective surface for even more float. For anyone who prefers to fly downhill with minimum weight, Dakine’s Poacher Vest offer storage for all backcountry essentials without the bulk of a proper backpack. And through their cooperation with Mammut and the RAS, the Removable Airbag System, you can add life-saving airbag “wings” to the vest as well. Enjoy the mountain and be safe out there!

buyer science

BUYER SCIENCE Torleif Aarskog Myhre joined the Session team in Norway at the age of 19 as a sponsored snowboarder. Torleif started working part time in the Session Stavanger store, and moved up through the company after finishing his studies in 2008. Now head buyer for the chain with 12 doors and the webshop, Torleif shares some buying knowledge and also tells us what he thinks brands could be doing to help shops increase sales. How long have you been a buyer for your store and how did you end up in this position? I got hooked up on the local Session team at the age of 19 and I started working for Session in 2004. I was really proud to get the opportunity to work for Session, which was, and still is the strongest and biggest skateboarding and snowboarding chain in Norway - we’ve been here since 1988. I started part time in Stavanger (Flagship store) for a couple of years while travelling and studying Sports Science. After finishing my studies in 2008, Bjarne (CEO) offered me a Shop Manager position at Session Kvadrat. I worked there until 2011/12. After this I started as head of the buyers group combined with more back office work and assignments. Looking back at past seasons, what have been your biggest lessons on writing orders and selling products? In the early days most of our buying was based on “hands-on” experience and expertise. I’ve learned it’s easier with better systems, better sell-through reports and statistics. We often do our order sheets by shop and compare products with stock/inventory. The biggest challenge when you are buying new products is to balance sales statistics and to predict future sales – what’s hot and not. This was easier before when the market didn’t change so fast. Today with social media the change is really fast and you need to be on your toes to keep up. If you could ask brands for support - what would it be for? Product information must be easy to understand for customers. Easier access to marketing support such as pictures and product information that can be used as selling tools would be a bonus. An easy-to-use B2B site would make e-marketing and the whole process from storage to sale much faster and smoother. The goal should always be to get your products ready for sale as fast as possible. Marketing is too far ahead of retail. It needs to be more like: Products in store + marketing = sales and happy customers, instead of: marketing + a delay in product arrival = inpatient customers. What’s your opinion on the current state of snowboarding? The current state of snowboarding as a sport is good! The level of snowboarding is insane and it’s still pushing forward. From a selling point of view we had a good year in 2014/15 with increased hardgoods sales of 30%, and it seems like the trend is going in the same direction for this coming season. The freestyle segment is of course the strongest but we see a growth in the splitboard and backcountry

market too. From our point of view this opens new doors to new customers. Do you have any advice to upcoming brands on how to be attractive to retail buyers? If we are talking about winter products it is easy. The deadlines are way too early for key accounts. It’s really hard to place big orders when the season has just started. This can result in wrong decisions and wrong products. Punctuality is important especially when it’s seasonal products. Which tradeshows do you attend and how important are they for your decision-making? ISPO is important for the industry and for us as retailers to see brands’ position in Europe. We don’t do any pre-orders at ISPO, almost every deadline for us is before the tradeshow so the decisions have already been made. Of course there’s some deadlines after the tradeshow too. In Norway we have distribution for some of the biggest brands and all the buying happens the two first weeks of January (way to early!). What techniques do you have for putting together your order sheets? I use excel sheets with all the information on every SKU. It can seem pretty heavy, but we import all our sheets into our system to build up inventory information. We make one master and then we do one sheet per shop together with the shop manager. It’s a pretty demanding and heavy job, but it’s the most important part of the buy-in. When we include the shop managers it gives us a more tuned “inventory package” for each shop. Local knowledge is really important in our industry. Small adjustments can make a big difference on sell- through. 99

dwindle interview

SKATE FOCUS: DWINDLE DISTRIBUTION’S STEVE DOUGLAS Interview by Boardsport SOURCE Skateboarding Editor Dirk Vogel. Steve Douglas has seen the highs and lows of the skateboarding industry from every angle. As an upcoming vertical skateboarder, Douglas left London, England in 1984 to pursue his dream in the promised land of skateboarding – sunny California. “I had only one thing on my mind… to turn pro,” he remembers. The dream became reality in 1987, when Douglas earned his pro model on Schmitt Stix skateboards, making him one of a select handful of Europeans with a fully-fledged pro board from a U.S. hardgoods company.

and Zero Skateboards, plus Fallen Footwear at the company’s headquarters in El Segundo, California. For our 80th issue, the seasoned veteran shares his insights on the health of the industry, the European market, and explains why hardgoods brands are still the lifeblood of skateboard culture.

Then came 1989 – and skateboarding flat lined. When the music stopped and many of his fellow vert skaters found themselves without a chair, Steve Douglas joined his board sponsor Paul Schmitt in co-founding New Deal Skateboards in 1990. A catalyst for skateboarding’s creative (and commercial) renaissance, the company ultimately grew into Giant Skateboard Distribution, home to marquee brands such as Element, Mad Circle, 411 Video Magazine, and Destructo Trucks.

Passion runs deep within our industry, also when it comes to choosing the companies you work for. What were some of the factors that attracted you to Dwindle and its brands? Ever since my first US brand I rode for, which was Madrid in 1983, I always rode for a brand that had its own wood shop. After Madrid it was Schmitt Stix, and then when we started New Deal. So Dwindle had that box checked with DSM [the Douglas Street Manufacturing woodshop in Shenzhen, China] being a global company with a footprint in three continents. Being very similar to Giant [Distribution] as a multi-branded company was another factor, together with the people.

Staying true to his passion for skateboard hardware, Steve joined hardgoods powerhouse Dwindle Distribution in 2005 together with fellow 1980s UK pro skater Bod Boyle. As Dwindle’s Vice President, Douglas now maintains leading hardgoods brands including: Almost, Enjoi, Tensor Trucks, Blind, Cliché, Darkstar, Dusters, Kryptonics,

PERSONALS

Who are some of the people you connected with at Dwindle? Gary Valentine was an old team rider on Schmitt Stix and I had

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dwindle interview

We work really hard on trying to push skateboarding forward. I believe it is the role of every skateboard company to do this. But when you don’t have your own factory, you are quite limited.

always respected the Hill brothers. So when they invited me down to Australia on the [Globe’s 10th anniversary] ‘Swindle Tour’ [in 2004], I was like, “My goodness, these guys are incredible!” It was an easy decision and then having the opportunity to work again with my longtime friend Bod [Boyle] – it was a done deal! You and Bod were among the first European pros with fully-fledged sponsorship and pro models from US companies in the 1980s. What was being a European pro like back then compared to today? It was totally different! There were way less pros, way less companies, and we had way less support from the global distributors. I think that today’s skaters have it a lot easier, which is great, because it could not have been any harder in the old days. THE MARKET Speaking of support on an international level, how does Dwindle help European pros and retailers? We participate fully in the market and many of our pros live in Europe full-time. Our European pros include Youness [Amrani] and Willow for Almost; Ben [Ramers] and Wieger [Van Wageningen] for Enjoi; Lucas [Puig], Lem [Villemin], JB [Gillet], Flo [Mirtain] for Cliché; Manolo [Robles] in Spain for Darkstar; and Sewa [Kroetkov], and new rookie pro Sam Beckett for Blind. And this line-up doesn’t even get into the ams… Not only do we work directly with the key shops and websites on making custom marketing assets, we also have people on the ground working with local media and all of our distributors from offices in London and Barcelona. What is your estimate on the health of the skateboard industry right now in terms of active participation? It is down for sure across the board all over the world. But the great thing is the amount of skate parks being built. This means that when participation comes back, the skaters will have many quality places to skate. And what about the business side of skateboarding, how healthy is the market and what are the risks and opportunities right now? For the established hardgoods companies it has its challenges. It’s not a very healthy business and this is the reason you are seeing so many hardgoods companies struggling right now. The opportunity lies with having our people and riders in the market and taking market share. So many of our U.S. competitors do not have the ability to focus on a key market like Europe and many don’t understand or even care about it, quite honestly. On the subject of Europe, how do you see the boardsports retail landscape in Europe evolving? I think you will see it become more like the U.S., with more [boardsports] retail chains growing across Europe. You can already see it with mail-order companies. THE COMPANY What are some of the synergies with Globe as the owner/parent company behind Dwindle? Does it help in terms of manufacturing, distribution, and so on? There are so many synergies: Our woodshop DSM, Hardcore

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distribution in Australia, and all the backend logistics. Plus, with Globe we have financing from a strong, global, and publicly traded company with no debt, in which the Hill brothers – who are also skaters – are the major shareholders! The positioning of all the individual Dwindle brands is quite unique. How do you safeguard the artistic integrity and direction of each brand in the portfolio? We pretty much let all the brands have free rein. We only really get involved when we have to, which does happen from time to time. We also meet with all brand managers in person every six weeks or so, which totally helps out. Out of all the hardgoods brands still in business, Dwindle is among the most seasoned. What’s the secret to remaining relevant and respected as a hardgoods company for over two decades? It’s like the old saying: ‘Adapt or die!’ We are continually looking at the business in the same way we would look at our skating – every day going out there and striving to improve and never being satisfied. We try to instil that sense in everyone at our business; that sense of continuous improvement. And it never stops. Dwindle is a major driver of new, improved technologies in hardgoods – from IMPACT to lighter trucks to wheel formulas. Is it still hard to convince the average skater, and by extension, retailer to adopt better technologies, at a higher price point? It’s challenging just to get shops and skaters to try out new technologies. But once they do, they get hooked! It was the same with our pros at first, but now our riders are so stoked that over 60% of our team rides technology boards and can’t ride anything else. Some countries and some shops totally embrace technology. And I would like to see more, for sure, because these are not gimmicks – they actually work. Our Mag Light Tensor trucks are 29% lighter than the industry standard truck, just pick one up and you will see that it’s incredible how light they are. We work really hard on trying to push skateboarding forward. I believe it is the role of every skateboard company to do this. But when you don’t have your own factory, you are quite limited. OUTLOOK Pushing ahead, what is the overall vision for the Dwindle brand portfolio? We want all the companies to stand on their own two feet and be the best they can be. We want to have a brand for every type of skater out there and we want to have a board for every type of skater. On top of that, a price point for everyone out there, also. Where would you like to see the skateboard industry five years from now? Hopefully, the industry will be a lot healthier for everyone. The hardgoods companies need the money to make full-length video projects to drive excitement. We need to do more global tours, so the entire industry needs a healthy hardgoods industry, because we are the ones that drive the whole thing forward, in my opinion. And finally, what will you be doing after this interview? Going straight into a meeting about skateboard videos!

THE FASTEST GROWING SNOWBOARD BRAND IN EUROPE VISIT US AT ISPO B6.320 SCANDINAVIAN FREESTYLE MACHINES

DISTRIBUTION/AGENT OPPORTUNITIES IN FRANCE, ITALY, GERMANY AND AUSTRIA

photo by marius svendsen

brand profil

WESTBEACH Started in 1979, Westbeach are a true heritage snowboard outerwear brand who have totally overhauled their back office and product aesthetics/tech for FW16/17 thanks to extensive market research and a renewed energy from the new management team since moving to the UK in 2008. Westbeach are focusing their outerwear game on the backcountry market, with their lowest tech piece coming in at 10K/10K going right up to their backcountry specific pieces at 30K/30K. Please tell us the reasons behind the rebranding of Westbeach. Westbeach originated in Canada in 1979 but has been UK based since 2008. Although we are proud of our Canadian roots and our heritage as one of the original snowboard clothing brands, growth in new markets and new product categories meant it made sense to refresh the logo and creative direction of the brand. Having researched and tested several concepts we are delighted with the reaction to the new branding, which we have received both in Europe and North America.

what is required. 3. We are Empowering - we aim to empower the global snowboard community to continue to push boundaries on a mental and physical level. 4. We are Positive - a simple attitude that underpins everything at Westbeach, simply seize any given day and get the most out of it. We feel these brand attributes have enabled us to produce an incredibly strong and innovative product range for the fall 16/17 season. It is our most comprehensive range for some time covering new product categories and demonstrating a clear brand DNA.

In what ways have you changed the company to meet the needs of the re-launch? We have looked at every aspect of the business over the last three years form supply chain all the way through to design and branding. It’s not unfair to say that very little of the old structure remains and we are confident in saying that historical quality and delivery issues are now firmly in the past. We now place a huge emphasis on quality control right from the sourcing of fabrics and trims through to a final check before dispatch. We also have a fully integrated business management and warehousing system providing us with the ability to rapidly turn around orders. These two factors have resulted in high-level customer service and satisfaction. We have defined and focused on four positive attributes for the brand: 1. We are pioneering and the vanguard of our industry and this is more evident in the 16/17 line than ever before. 2. We are Authentic, after three decades in this industry we have seen it all come and go and we draw from this experience and understand

Where does Westbeach now sit in the boardsports market place? The brand had a small slice of market, we were producing only outerwear, the range structure was confused and there was no clear product or price hierarchy. Once we had examined the brand in depth it became clear we had a strong following of consumers who were only able to buy outerwear from Westbeach. These loyal followers were continually requesting products in other categories and everyday price accessible products. From this it was clear we needed a streetwear offering and also technical mid layers, base layers and accessories. As a brand whose origins are firmly routed in surf and skate it also made sense for us to develop product in these categories. We have new stretch boardshorts and technical skatewear in development for summer 2017 and let’s not forget Westbeach was born from the famous reversible boardshort we produced back in the late 1970’s! Please talk us through your target market,

which customers will be buying your products? We took a good look at our customer base over the last decade to see who they were, this process proved much trickier than we ever imagined. We found Westbeach appealed to a broader audience and it was more about lifestyle choices and attitude rather than your traditional age and demographic split. For example the Westbeach consumer has an attitude that they will push themselves to the limits and they want kit which will allow them to do this, therefore we will only produce product with a high level of performance hence our decision to make 10K/10K our entry level outerwear spec, make the bulk of our range 20K/20K and introduce 30K/30K into our new Backcountry range. So as you can see being armed with this knowledge has enabled us to produce a product range tailored specifically to the requirements of this audience. It has also enabled us to make informed decisions on how and through which channels we communicate with this audience. definitely heart and soul in our products. How do you see the development of the apparel market in general? I think consumers are becoming more adventurous with how they accessorise. Wearing a beanie is now less about the need to just keep warm but a way to express your style, on the mountains or in the city. There’s a new generation of younger people wanting to experience the love of adventure, which has led to a larger variety of brighter and much bolder clothing and accessories.

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brand profile

MOONSHINE Moonshine MFG is a Washington-based company specialising in high-end longboards. Their products are all handmade in the Pacific Northwest by local employees from ethically sourced local wood and International Sales Manager Colin Jacobs explains how this helps the company stand out from the rest of the crowd. Can you tell us about the history of the company? Moonshine MFG is a grassroots brand founded on the factory floor. Workers at Slingshot Sports’ wakeboard and kiteboard factory in the small town of North Bonneville, Washington, saw the potential to apply the same materials and technologies used in Slingshot’s high-end twin tips to create longboards unlike anything else on the market. These workers were given the freedom to experiment in the factory on their own time, and before long it was clear that they were on to something truly different and special in the industry. Who is behind Moonshine Longboards and what are their backgrounds? The factory workers remain a key component behind the Moonshine brand and research and development. Officially, Moonshine MFG is a sister company of Slingshot Sports; both are operated under the umbrella of 7-Nation, a parent company created alongside Moonshine to facilitate operations of the separate brands. Slingshot was founded in 1999 by brothers Jeff and Tony Logosz, both of whom remain integral to the brand. The factory, called the Distillery, is managed by Bryan Trullinger and continues to manufacture the vertically laminated wood-core boards for both brands. How do you differentiate from the competitors? Moonshine boards truly are unlike any other longboards on the market. We use the same advanced processes for our longboards as for our kite and wakeboards, which include features like vertically laminated wood cores instead of standard maple ply, precision machined and 100% level truck mounts,

compression moulded and CNC machined wheel wells and, last but certainly not least, fibreglass finish and fully lined urethane rails and truck mounts that make all of our boards impact resistant and completely waterproof. No other brand is employing the same materials and techniques as Moonshine MFG; when you see one of these amazing boards you can tell the difference instantly. Do you support/collaborate with any athletes? Although relatively new in the industry, we already have a very strong following of riders collaborating with our brand. Our list of official team riders is growing as we speak, particularly in the racing arena, where we have quickly made a name for ourselves as one of the hottest new brands on the market. We have a core group of fully sponsored team riders who are paid for their services and provide direct insight and feedback to our R&D department. In addition, we have several flow team riders who represent our brand, help test gear and create regular media content. How do you use local resources in your products? We are very proud of the fact that all of our boards are hand made in the Pacific Northwest by local employees, from Pacific Albus wood sourced from a sustainable tree farm just up the river from the factory, that’s as local as could be. How has the longboard industry developed throughout the years in your view? We’re still the new kid on the block, but one development we noticed, and one that sets

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Moonshine apart from much of its competition, was the trend of brands moving manufacturing overseas to cut costs and increase production to maximize profit. This contributes to the cookie-cutter line-ups we see from many brands; shapes and graphics might change slightly from year to year, but true change and innovation is lacking. How do you stay ahead of the game? Although our price point may be higher as a result of keeping manufacturing local, sustainable and uniquely high-tech, we feel the quality of our product speaks loud and clear to the benefits of our processes. As we forge ahead, we remain dedicated to these core values. Our future ambition is to continue innovation in the build of our boards as we expand our line-up to more sizes, shapes and styles. You are also present on the apparel/ accessories market. How do you transfer the Moonshine spirit from the longboards to the tees, caps etc.? Moonshine’s branding is catchy and has a good general appeal that we try to translate to our accessory line. Admittedly, our accessory line is still in its infancy, but as we grow as a brand and build a larger following, we expect that our accessory line will evolve along the way. Our new line-up of 2016 accessories is about to launch and includes several new designs we feel are rich with the Moonshine spirit. Visit Moonshine.Mfg at ISPO Booth #B6.228

brand profile

MAMBO Australian based surf and lifestyle brand, Mambo aims to help artists gain exposure by providing a platform for their work. With art, music, humour and surfing at the core of the brand, Mambo has over 30 years of history and still creates fresh collaborations every season. Please could you explain the current Mambo setup? The design and creative HQ is in Sydney, where the marketing originates, and helps keep our core philosophy. The brand has two trademarks - a unique reality which occurred when it was sold in 2002. In the European territory, Andrew Gerrie is the CEO (ex-CEO of Lush), Mark Tydeman is the MD and was involved in Mambo from 1993 - 2003. Stan Wan is the Global Creative Director. We work in Europe with a local creative team called Beach London, who are coordinating artists, graphics and events, allowing us to focus on the territories and cooperating on the global marketing. There is a sales office in London, which handles all European distribution. Jarrod Clarke is UK Sales Manager. Jeff Bradburn (ex Quiksilver) is European Sales and Distribution Consultant. How has the brand changed between now and when it was founded 31 years ago? Mambo began as an anarcho syndicalist collective of stirrers and modern mystics, which went from a garage in East Sydney to becoming a much-loved institution of ratbaggery. It became an international clothing business that presented a manifesto of concepts and cartoons attacking hypocrisy, politicians and organised religion, whilst at the same time promoting Australian eccentricity to the world…’ Today we are still endeavouring to be the same and preparing to re-focus our battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation. We have changed the way in

which artists are involved with the brand. Previously, artists would turn up at the door and show work in various forms of completion. Dare Jennings, the owner, would pass judgement, offer advice or sign off. So it was very Sydney-based. It expanded over the corresponding years, and the internet has now offered global cooperation with artists. What makes Mambo different from the competition? Mambo operates according to four essential pillars 1. Art - When Mambo started, it began with the aim to help artists find a medium to exhibit their work, contribute to a brand and make some money. The artists were into surfing and/or music, so the brand naturally raised the bar of the traditional surfing ethos through an injection of humour and intellect. The mentality of surfing, music and art culminated in a freethinking, light-hearted, even cynical irreverence to retailing and the surfing industry in general. It bridges the gap between high art and commercial production by injecting humour into what was initially a logo-driven industry. One of the most important contributors, Richard Allan, posed the initial statement that drove the ethos of the company with his tee shirt and accompanied by the line; “More a pair of shorts than a way of life.” One of the highlights of Mambo’s existence was its contribution to the Surrealist Exhibition featuring Salvador Dali and Renee Magritte, amongst others. This history of promoting WWW.MAMBO-WORLD.COM

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fine artists is still a cornerstone. 2. Music - What revolution hasn’t had a musical base? Mambo is no different. Reg Mombassa, one of the artists who defines Mambo, was in Mental as Anything (Aussie new wave/rock band). 3. Surf - In our own words, we are “the bastard children of surf culture”. 4. Humour - This is about the irreverence of a nation. One of the brand’s enduring images is of Mambo’s iconic dog farting a musical note. Numerous major brands have tied themselves to some animal as their company mascot - we just added a fart to ours! What marketing are you currently running? We have a major exhibition, featuring the largest collection of Mambo art ever assembled, touring Australia - 30 Years of Shelf Indulgence (opening in London in May). A collaboration with Emma Mulholland has just launched on ASOS. There is also a new collaboration with Anya Brock. What opportunities do you see in the apparel market? We see opportunities to develop some of our core lines - printed rayon shirts, printed hemp shirts and shorts, and re-invent them for the current market. Using new sustainable materials is a clear opportunity, and the companies we work with are developing distribution to allow retailers and distributors to buy direct, reducing the overheads and increasing margin.

brand profile

HEIMPLANET Heimplanet make iconic tents with inflatable structures allowing them to be erected in two minutes. The Hamburg-based company also makes functional luggage, which allows their consumers to live their outdoor life to the full. Started by two friends with a love for the outdoors and travelling, Heimplanet presents retailers with well thought out products allowing the consumer to spend longer outdoors. CEO Stefan Clauss profiles the brand for us. Could you tell us the history of Heimplanet in a few sentences? Heimplanet was born during a surf trip along the Portuguese coastline in 2003. We travelled along the coast and had to set up our tent several times. One day we arrived quite late, it was getting dark and it started to rain while we were trying to pitch our tent. It was then we started talking about the idea. At the time it was just fun speculating about a tent from the future, it wasn’t until 2008 that we took it seriously and started to really work on letting this idea become reality. How would you define the brand’s identity? With Heimplanet we want to represent a travel inspired lifestyle. Traveling means a lot to people and the way we travel has changed. Traveling, now more than ever, means to search for real experiences, and what could be more real than waking up outside in the middle of nature. Who is in the managerial team, and what are their backgrounds? Heimplanet was founded by Stefan Schulze Dieckhoff, who used to work as an engineer, and myself, a former consultant for strategicmarketing. We grew up together and wanted Heimplanet to represent the way we have been travelling all our lives. How did you get the idea for inflatable tents? We asked ourselves: “What would the tent of the future look like?” and stumbled across the work of Buckminster Fuller who was a huge inspiration for us. He made the concept of geodesic domes famous, which are now known for their great stability. We then translated this concept in the future by using

air to set up the structure. You just unroll and inflate it. The whole set up takes about two minutes. What sets Heimplanet apart from your competitors? Every Heimplanet product offers something unique. It starts on the material level and accompanies the whole design process. The results are products that fulfil the highest quality standards and offer great versatility so that they adapt to your needs. No other industry has higher standards and expectations when it comes to functionality than the outdoor industry. This is our benchmark and inspiration. How would you position Heimplanet in the European ‘outdoor’ market? From our point of view, the European outdoor market focuses very much on the expedition side of outdoor travels. If you had asked us in 2008 if we would have called ourselves outdoor people, we would have denied it, but looking at our lifestyle we were exactly that, just not in a way that conforms to the typical ‘outdoor’ market. Most of the action sports that we grew up with are outdoor sports and the whole experience is much more than just the action. Getting to the next spot, meeting new people and staying outside where things are happening are equally important. What other projects are you working on? We are working on some great collaborations right now. It is exciting and equally educational to work with partners from totally different backgrounds. At the same time we keep our focus on our core products to extend our range. In 2016 we will introduce a new WWW.HEIMPLANET.COM

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range of packs and a new tent design. Where would you place Heimplanet in this development of the outdoor market? The outdoor market is a very conservative market and even though innovations play a major role, you really have to earn your acceptance. We saw a great shift this year, which resulted in great customer feedback and the first editor choice awards. So far the outdoor channel is the most important for us, but our direct channel shows the potential that is coming from the action sports and lifestyle world. People want more, real function and they are searching for iconic products. This is where Heimplanet products bridge between these two markets. What would be the ultimate Heimplanet camping experience? Think of surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking or any other outdoor sport; you are constantly searching for new spots and traveling there is a huge part of the experience. We have everything you need to get you and your equipment there and keep you outside, be in the moment and make yourself at home, wherever you go. including a merino terry-looking cotton. Our outer layers include garments like our Mtn Shirt, worn for riding or chopping wood. Socks have become a category our retailers love. The category getting the biggest growth right now is our neck and headwear. Our range has doubled in size for winter 2016 and includes a variety of balaclavas and neckwear (tubes). We have some interesting innovations in this area, like merino mesh allowing easy breathing whilst keeping the cold at bay.

supplier profile

KOROYD SUPPLIER PROFILE Koroyd has been supplied to brands including Nitro, Salomon, Smith and HEAD. Using it in manufacturing is 70% lighter than a normal wooden core snowboard whilst having more than twice the elasticity. Implementing the material into helmets and protection provides smaller, lighter and more absorbent products. Look out for Koroyd at ISPO to see how they can help increase the performance of your products. Please could you summarise what Koroyd is and the different forms it can take? Koroyd is an innovative tubular core material. Our patented production process creates a honeycomb like material with unique material characteristics that offers superior performance compared to existing technologies, specifically when applied as a lightweight core material inside snowboards and skis and as an open cell energy absorber in helmets and body protectors. Which action sports brands have you worked with over the years? Our first sports partner was Nitro snowboards. At the end of 2010 we presented to them and they set about testing Koroyd in a range of boards and construction types, which led to the launch of the Nitro Ultimate and the Factory series at ISPO 2012; lightweight boards, which didn’t suffer from increased stiffness and chatter. Nitro gave Koroyd its first opportunity in the sports market and helped us establish the business we have today and are our exclusive partner in snowboarding. In skis Koroyd is integrated inside Salomon free skis, HEAD ladies and touring skis and Elan jumping skis. We have launched truly revolutionary helmets in both snowsports and cycling with our partner Smith Optics. Last year we launched the ‘Evolution of protection’ (EOP) range of thin and lightweight back protectors, which can be integrated inside vests, backpacks and garments. Endura, Nitro Snowboards, Fly Neo and Squirrel have built products around these protectors. In Moto we collaborate with EVS and UFO. Any more action sports collaborations in the pipeline you can tell us about? In each market we are developing with different premium brands. We identify premium by reviewing a brand’s perceived position in the market, technical capabilities, communication channels and quality of final product. In each market we try to identify three or four potential partners who meet these criteria and then approach them to introduce Koroyd and see if there is common ground on which to collaborate on. We have developments with further brands in watersports, ski, cycle, moto and outdoor pursuits. 2016 partners will be communicated at the time of launch. How does working with Koroyd benefit an associated brand? Our priority is to understand the brand’s product offering and identify how Koroyd can bring genuine innovation to their line up. Achieving these technical advantages by integrating our cores is essential. Through our close cooperation with the brand we strive to bring the end user a unique experience to enhance their activity. Something measurable, which cannot be achieved with existing materials or technologies.

The main benefit for brands is the success from bringing innovative products to market, which lead to increased consumer demand. In many cases our brands have increased retail prices, increased margins and seen increased sales in store. Additionally to developing products with different brands, we also saw that you have your own range of back protectors. We recently developed and launched our EOP central spine and back protectors, which various brands are integrating inside their backpacks and garments. The EOP 1.0 is an ideal way to protect your spine, by inserting it inside your backpack. It is the thinnest and lightest, homologated to the highest standard (EN1621-2 Level 2), which leaves more capacity inside the backpack for your equipment and does not weigh you down. Nitro is launching the new Slash 25 Pro backpack with a pocket designed specifically to fit the EOP 1.0. Retailers will be able to purchase the EOP 1.0 back protector in retail packaging and offer consumers the option to upgrade their backpack by purchasing it in store. What are the benefits of Koroyd compared to regular materials being used in existing products? Koroyd is 70% lighter than a normal wooden core snowboard whilst having more than twice the elasticity. It leads to a very lightweight final construction, with a familiar ride to existing wooden boards - the first lightweight core material that doesn’t negatively affect experience on snow. When applied in body protection and helmets, Koroyd absorbs more energy than EPS, PU and Visco elastic foams whilst having lower densities. So it opens the option to produce smaller and safer products that are also lighter, and at the same time increasing ventilation.

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green page

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IN BOARDSPORTS: BE TRUE, JUST START… Everything is changing; the climate, the people, and their behaviour. But when it comes to changing towards corporate responsibility, most major boardsports brands are lacking strategic direction. In search of answers on how the boardsports business can overcome these challenges, Franck Laporte-Fauret from EuroSIMA helps us to understand where the surf industry is at and where it’s headed. By Cira Ridel at GreenroomVoice. Not too long ago, “consciousness” was the major buzzword in our industry. Magazines in the late 2000s were full of high-gloss advertisements depicting recycled boardshorts and products supporting philanthropic causes. And now? Did many initiatives fizzle out because the product failed to compete with conventional goods in terms of price, performance, and design and therefore didn’t convince the consumer? In the bigger picture, it seems like our industry has lost its environmental lead to major players in the textile industry, who are pushing sustainability with more success. Agreed, sustainability is not the easiest philosophy to implement, especially in an industry where a carefree, laissez-faire, and even reckless attitude is the main cultural driver. But that might be changing as well, as individual creativity and accountability are stealing the spotlight. As part of the #keepitreal mentality, sustainability is gaining momentum again, this time on a personal level. Roll up the sleeves! Just look at Dutch teenager Boyan Slat, founder of Parley for the Ocean, who set out to fish 20 billion tons of plastic waste from the oceans! The solutions are out there, together with mass amounts of good will. All we need are authentic initiatives that get the scene excited. Every child wants to save the planet on Instagram, youth does care and there is a true way for meaningful business with a future. TRANSITIONAL PERIOD From a sober perspective, shouldn’t shredding in a pristine, natural environment and conserving said environment go hand in hand? As long as business was booming, most large brands in our industry would have whole-heartedly agreed. “The first step consisted of supporting environmental projects on a financial level through the EuroSIMA Environmental Fund,“ said Frank Laporte-Fauret, Director at EuroSIMA. “This was easy at the time, since the market was in a growth phase.” “Next, some brands bonded together into an environmental committee to work on ‘good practices’ and implemented environmental management in their headquarters via the EcoRide Label,” said Frank. “Almost 20 brands were involved and this collective dynamic still applies. But we are also noticing that several large surf brands are reducing their commitment in terms of their corporate responsibility.”

For a new hope, look towards family businesses and upcoming brands. Burton Snowboards remains a leader in terms of authentic and responsible management practices. The brand has been increasing its annual share of bluesign-certified materials, while also strongly implementing the Higg Index for measuring environmental impact in the supply chain. “We are also noticing that smaller and rising brands in Europe show great initiative!” said Frank, enthusiastically. “They are deeply committed and willing to go to great lengths. They start their business with environmental management already integrated into their supply chain and products – right from the start. It’s all a matter of faith.” SMALL AND LOCAL There is an encouraging number of emerging companies with values, good community spirit, local influences, heritage and a much more integrative approach. British brand Finisterre are an exemplary company when it comes to environmental management, who created their wetsuit in an open innovation process, involving over 300 consumers including their athletes. Picture Organic Clothing is another young brand with a commitment to sustainability, which has won them a large community of supporters. Brands such as Pyua, Bleed Organic Clothing, Verkor, Shelter, Surfin Estate, Api’up, Wetty, Defocus, Lastage, Inbô, Notox, Earlybird, Borealis Snowboards, Bureo Skateboards, Ruffboards, etc. are authentic in their commitment towards responsible practices, and also rally largescale communities behind their efforts. It’s all about taking a first step. “Just start,” is what Jill Dumain, Director of Environmental Strategy at Patagonia told me seven years ago. Support your local economies, repair your clothes, and keep an open eye for what can be salvaged and recycled. Every euro invested into sustainability is a step into a more liveable future.

CONNECT AT ISPO Visit the GreenroomVoice Booth “INSPIRE” (B6/526) at the upcoming ISPO tradeshow in Munich to witness solutions implemented by progressive companies in the outdoor segment. Also don’t miss the “Boardsports Get Together” on Tuesday, January 26 at 6 p.m. at INSPIRE #reconomy.

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NEW PRODUCT 02 01-LIGHT BOARDCORP – ISUP Light Boardcorp are Launching a complete line of premium ISUP models in 2016. The range includes a 10´2” and 11´2” Allrounder as well as a 12´6” Tourer and 14” Race model in various colours. All models are manufactured in top level 2 layer technology. The set includes a solid backpack trolley and Bravo´s latest double action pump. www.light-surfboards.com

02-NOW BINDINGS DRIVE BY JEREMY JONES No stranger to anyone, big mountain legend Jeremy Jones is just that - a legend. The unbelievable descents he’s made, and locations he’s been to, leave you itching to embark on your own shred quest. Designed by Jeremy himself, the 2016 Drive is now equipped with Hanger 2.0. www.now-snowboarding.com 03-BURTON - ALMIGHTY BOOT The Almighty Boot offers ultimate, whilst providing a firm flex, with PowerUP Tongue for greater response. The total comfort construction, Shrinkage footprint reduction technology, awesome snow-proof internal gusset, and Level 2 Molded EVA Footbed with ESS support shank, and an Aegis™ Antimicrobial Coating, ensure your feet are kept warm, dry, comfortable and hygienic. The Almighty Boot also has the NEW Life Liner, with Dryride Heat Cycle Lining, and Tuff Cuff. The DynoBITE EST® Optimized Outsole with strategically placed rubber traction pads and ReBounce Cushioning ensure this boot offers outstanding comfort. With Burton’s Speed Zone™ lacing system, powered by Burton exclusive New England ropes (with a lifetime warranty) you’ll be on your board in a flash. www.burton.com 04-ARC`TERYX VOLTAIR AVALANCHE AIRBAG A trim profile avalanche airbag capable of multiple deployments within the same backcountry excursion. The heart is a 22.2v Lithium polymer rechargeable battery that powers an advanced engineered centrifugal blower for superior inflation performance in adverse conditions. The Voltair has a mechanical ‘always available’ trigger handle, easy-to-use leg loop and perfect for airtravel (battery is easy to remove). Made in Canada at ARC`TERYX´s own advanced manufacturing facility. www.arcteryx.com

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05-AMPLID - THE AUGMENT BINDING Based on the chassis of Amplid’s popular Balance binding, the Augment features a new injection moulded ankle strap which takes responsiveness and edge control to a whole new level. Customisation comes in the form of Amplid’s Surf Strap, a narrower ankle strap for the rear binding which allows a looser, more agile riding style. www.amplid.com

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06-ELLIOT BROWN - ELECTRIC BLUE FACED CANFORD Gaining many fans in this year’s Elliot Brown line up is their range of interchangeable strapping - offering literally thousands of combinations. This dark brown pull-up leather on an electric blue-faced Canford has leather that develops a subtle sheen as it wears in, giving the whole watch a unique and very personal character. www.elliotbrownwatches.com 07-AIRHOLE - INSULATED AIRTUBE CINCH The Cinch is back with an updated ergonomic shape for maximum comfort and protection. With 100% down fill, the mask is field tested as the warmest for weight. The direct injected silicone Airhole allows the user’s breath to enter and exit freely, keeping your face dry and warm, especially with the super soft tricot face lining. www.airholefacemasks.com

08-MONS ROYALE BELLA COOLA TECH ZIP HOODY The ultimate base layer for girls who push their limits, this fuses all the natural attributes of merino with technical performance in one product. A slim athletic fit, contoured mesh panels and flatlocked seams give close-fitting, breathable comfort. Raglan sleeves maximize freedom of movement and thumb loops keep everything in place. The long front zip provides ventilation or insulation and the hood lets you batten down the hatches. www.monsroyale.com 09-RECCO - ACTION VEST XV D3O The high-end product of the XV range, the Action Vest XV D3O, offers the main features of the Action Vest XV including a Recco reflector and adding the D3O technology associated with an anatomic belt for comfort and better fit. A new optimized back protection area, focusing on spinal injuries with a longitudinal plate, combined with an adjusted belt makes you feel safe and does not limit your range of motion while riding. www.recco.com 10-PICTURE SPREAD HELMET Picture have developed Composite Fusion Plus, an impressive new innovation in the helmet industry, which will be introduced for the ISPO Awards. The technology brings more safety by quickly dispersing impact across the helmet to soften hard blows. Picture continue their green story, ensuring 100% of their products are made with recycled EPS from the Japanese car industry. www.picture-organic-clothing.com

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11-ALUMINATI - DRIP DYE GREEN CRUISER “Tastier than a fresh candied apple”, Aluminati cruisers are dripping with graphical goodness. Though, you won’t find wood or plastic at the core of this board. All Aluminati decks are made from aircraft grade aluminium meaning you have one sturdy, eye-catching ride. www.aluminatiboards.com

12-PHUNKSHUN WEAR DOUBLE BALLERCLAVA Phunkshun have taken their two best selling masks and combined them to create the ultimate product for protecting against winter weather. The Double Ballerclava is made from recycled plastic water bottles, using Repreve fabric, has a water repellent double tube construction around your neck/face, is lined with mesh and also features an added hood, for seamless integration when wearing a helmet. www.phunkshunwear.com 13-SP-GADGETS – REMOTE POLE 40” Extend your range and your possibilities with the SPGadgets Remote Pole and get the best possible shots of the action: simply attach your GoPro Wi-Fi Remote, Smart Remote or even your mobile phone (with SP-Gadgets Phone Mount) to the Pole and get going! The rugged and ergonomic handle gives you extra stability and control and, together with a remote, enables you to shoot exactly what you want the way you want it. Extendable from 14–40” (36–99 cm) to give you even more freedom for your shots. www.sp-gadgets.com 14-BURTON - CARTEL EST BINDING The Burton Cartel EST Binding has a dual-component EST baseplate. The single-component hi-back construction features a Living Hinge, zero-forward lean, canted hi-back design and with DialFLAD. Trust the new Hammockstrap with flex slider and NEW Supergrip Capstrap to keep your feet in place, with added security from the double take buckles, featuring Insta-Click for speedy entry. This medium cushioned binding has an AutoCANT SensoryBED cushioning system, with B3 Gel so you can ride all day. The medium-stiff Cartel EST Binding rides exclusively with Burton Boards Featuring The Channel™. Burton have created this awesome binding using re-ground materials to reduce waste. www.burton.com 15-SANUK - DONNY TRIBAL CLASSIC SIDEWALK SURFERS “Steeze” the day in these funked out editions of one of their most classic sidewalk surfers. The ultra squishy footbed ensures ultimate levels of function and comfort for those ole’ dogs of yours. This mean, clean funky machine will keep you movin’ and groovin’ from morning till night! www.sanuk.com 16-POW GLOVE CO - THE ALPHA GTX The Alpha GTX leads the pack as an example of the POW Glove Co commitment to building gloves that feature innovative technology and quality materials. The Alpha GTX is backed by the GORE-TEX guarantee - to keep you dry, and also features the Premium Pittards Oiltac Dragon etched leather, merino wool lining and Primaloft Gold insulation amongst its key features. To see the full POW Glove line drop by at ISPO Hall B6 Stand Number 406. www.powgloves.com 120

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2015 was an interesting year for the boardsports business in Germany that showed different faces and facets in different sectors. Jörg Ludewig, Co-Owner of Urban Supplies Skateboard Distribution in Wiesbaden sums up the year, “as the saying goes: inconsistent”, with positive developments in skate hardware, where decks and completes are selling well, and “bad” experiences with apparel, while online retailer WeAre.de talks about a “fantastic year,” even the “best in the last five years” as director Steffen Oberquelle reports. Stefan Zeibig, owner of the Switch Boardershop in Straubing, is happier than he’s been about the last two years too, although he considers the main reason for that being footwear and longboard sales. And even though shoes will “always work”, Stefan suspects a decline in the longboard market next year, that is already looming on the horizon and has already been mentioned by different retailers and distributers. Jörg at Urban Supplies also recognised this trend, even though they are not “intensely involved in the longboard business” and hence didn’t feel the “downfall of longboards” so dramatically. In general the “pace has become noticeably much higher,” says Steffen from WeAre.de: “Brands and trends alike rise and fall much faster than they used to in previous years. Within one season, a brand can move from strongly growing sales and stable margins to dwindling sales with smaller margins. We’re not going to point out anyone in particular here, but it’s a fact, that the ups and downs are coming much faster now, and the curves are much steeper too.” Except for shoes. “Sneakers have been our top issue in 2015,” Steffen at WeAre.de notes, “with a special mention for Adidas with their Superstar and Stan Smith models, which were among the top performers. Other sneaker brands in our range like Nike SB, New Balance and Asics had a really good year as well.” A trend running similarly in bricks and mortar retail as well, where “the Swoosh sells extremely well” as Stefan from Straubing reports. “Everything that falls into this runner-style category is working really well at the moment,” Stefan states, confirming the global trend for a sporty-fit lifestyle, that is already conquering the textile sector with activewear. But to Stefan it’s also important to still stock “real skate shoes” from proper brands Emerica, éS or Globe; authentic brands who have been part of the business for decades. Because there are still “fans of that too, who don’t really buy into the whole runner trend but prefer a classic skate shoe.” He even thinks that “they will never die out – I even think this target group will emerge again over the next couple of years. One day the runner trend will be over too.” Bearing in mind the trends and developments Steffen observed within his online client base, he could be spot on with that. Jörg says that the whole market has become “very price sensitive,” meaning he has had to balance out the majority of price differences (due to the dollar shift) within the distribution itself, to make sure their goods are not “out-pricing” themselves. “The price level of textiles imported from the U.S. has moved up a lot,” he continues, “so a lot of customers are switching to cheaper alternatives. That has become socially acceptable. Primark etc. are real competition.” Sadly, Stefan shares this experience in his shop, too: “Apparel was rather weak, people aren’t as brand-conscious with their clothing anymore, as they are with shoes,” and sums it up Bavarian-style:

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“They don’t care what they wear.” Of course a little “gang” of die-hards, who want to show the world that they’re skaters or snowboarders through their t-shirts all year long will always stay, but the “logo brand shirt wearer” has gone. There’s far more to boardsports than logo tees, and nothing is more crucial to boardsports than the hardware we need to surf, skate or snowboard. “You’re not earning big bucks with hardware, but if I’m a boardsports shop, it’s part of the deal,” Stefan explains, who is holding on to his approach, contrary to many other core shops, who have cut this sector. “I can’t just follow every trend, selling longboards and sick t-shirts. Of course it’s nice to have the other stuff that sells, but I do need the hardware too, otherwise I’m not an authentic shop any longer.” For snow, he works a lot with Burton, one of the most authentic labels for him that’s not just still owner-led but also invests a lot in future customers with their kids programs. Mervin, Bataleon and Lobster are important for him as well, generating the most demand on the customer side these days. “People are specifically asking for them. And I really like Goodboards too, they’re doing great snowboard business. From 365 days a year, it feels like these dudes are on the mountain for 500!” And authenticity is not just important for him and his shop, but also the brands he sells. “When you went into a core shop back in the day, you knew that all labels were involved in the sport somehow.” Today a lot of big online retailers also stock denim and other fashion labels, “which also has its part in the culture,” he admits, but says the identity of a brand is portrayed so much better in a stationary surrounding. At the same time, connections and relationships between “too many or the wrong retailers“ are just as important for internet suppliers such as WeAre.de, especially if specialising in boardsports as much as the Hamburg-based company does. “Brands who don’t follow a clear strategy here and simply sell their stuff out to random shops have lost already. While it’s obvious that there is no such thing as THE strategy that works for all brands, I’m stunned and speechless that in the year 2015 there are still brands out there who send their reps out to take orders and then produce 20% more than their total pre-order bookings as standard. That’s like driving down an autobahn in fog at 200kmph, knowing there have been 20 crashes already,” Steffen sums up. It seems like it’s time for a real change in attitude, not just in our industry but also with consumerism in general. Jörg takes this even further: “Unfortunately mainstream media, tradeshows, and big corporate groups seem to blank out reality easily in order to be able to continue sending out ‘positive news and reports’. This has gone much further than keeping up good spirits and now borders on simple denial of reality. So much is being corrupted, almost no one is earning proper money any more so some rather harsh cuts are sure to follow.” Of course these are hard words that need some time to be digested first, but boardsports have never been known for being soft – boardsports are all about hurting yourself until you nail that trick, and about doing what it takes to follow our dreams. Anna Langer 123

MARKET INTELLIGENCE GERMANY

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What a year it’s been. The end of the winter season blessed us with some pretty good conditions. Summer – the best we can say is that it was not a complete washout and did bring some decent swells - if not sustained sunshine. Autumn blessed (!) us with some amazingly mild weather and the watersports market continued well into October and even into November. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, and the winterports business was really slow to get going. At the time of writing this (early December) we’re still waiting for some real snow to fall so that people will start to feel like parting with their cash. Though it does seem as if many are already in the mood. Having just returned from Kaprun for the Nitro meeting, the glacier boasted plenty of snow, and sun, and wind. But the valley was greener than green with only patches of artificial snow remaining. That said, some resorts are opening early, meaning like our business - it’s mixed. As I am sure you know, these meetings are to look at the new products, ride the new kit and sink more than a few beers. We see old faces for the second time in 12 months (the first being ISPO) and we swap stories, ideas and anecdotes. Then we go our separate ways. From a distribution perspective (and with Credit Control in mind) there’s no doubt that this has been one of the hardest years. We’ve had more procrastination than ever and we’ve had some fair sized casualties. Those that remain in business still retain that amazing ‘stiff upper lip’ and an unwavering faith in our markets – it is always my fervent hope that the failure of some retailers will benefit those remaining in business rather than seeing it get swallowed up by Amazon. Sadly I feel that this may be a forlorn hope, as Amazon continues to eat away at the outdoor market. And what of Black Friday for the UK? I made a point of not buying anything (apart from a beer or two) and I particularly loved the REI approach in the USA who closed their doors, gave all their staff and extra days paid holiday and encouraged people to get outdoors. The cynics will say it was a well-planned PR stunt. Who cares - good on them for spotting the opportunity. Let’s all get on the bandwagon and see if we can join them outdoors – whether it be on water, tarmac or snow. And as for our own coalface… I spoke to three diverse retailers starting with Peter from PJ’s Surf on The Gower in Wales. Peter sums up the year: “Not bad but not a year to write home about”. PJ’s is one of a couple of dozen ‘real’ surf shops in the UK and he gave me a clue as to his success when he corrected me on a question I asked about the sport. “For me it’s not a sport – it’s a way of life. Those retailers that follow this way of life will always survive. Of course we’ll never be millionaires but love what you do, and do what you love. PJ’s survive by offering honest sensible advice from people who do what they love. Those corporate boys cannot offer that. Our customers know it.” Duly corrected on the way of life (which I totally agree with), I asked Peter about clothing. “We’re really a hardware store but of course we 124

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do sell clothing. I’m pleased to say that our biggest brand is our own label stuff. People want to be part of our store and are proud to wear our brand. It’s great and it’s something that you’re simply not going to get from all these online giants.” 2015 on The Gower has been blessed with some good swell but only mediocre weather: “It’s been another OK year. Nothing spectacular, but just OK. You can’t have everything can you?” This was how the conversation ended with a very philosophical, very happy and really solid gent. Darren at The Snowboard Shop in Fleet is of the same ilk as Peter. “We’re in this game because we love it. We love talking snowboarding and skating. That’s what we’re about.” Of course talking the talk doesn’t pay the bills but business is not so bad for Darren: “We’re up on last year and we’re busy. Whilst it’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride – up one month, down the next, up for two weeks and down the next – overall it’s good. Pricing is brutal with all the onliners fighting it out but we still believe that our strength is our bricks and mortar store. We’re totally confident in that but at the same time, we realise we may have to get in the mix” Darren has a novel solution to the problem of showrooming: “If someone comes in for a boot fitting we charge them £20. If they buy the boots then, of course, they get the £20 off the boots. If they don’t buy the boots they get a £20 credit to spend in store which, of course, encourages them to come back.” Personally I think this is a really good approach to the showrooming problem – he is basically sifting the wheat from the chaff and if someone wants to use his expertise and buy elsewhere then they have to pay for the privilege. All this said Darren has a great footfall-conversion rate: “I reckon that up to 70% of people coming into our store make a purchase – I may be a little optimistic at that but it isn’t far off.” Finally it’s changing times for Darren and his team “The scooter business is over and we’re out. But we’ve introduced SUP this year and hope that it can bring in some much needed summer business” Now I have to finish off the year with Jeremy at TSA and, in his own words, he’s storming: “We had good growth last season and it’s continuing this season – particularly in entry level boards which I’m really pleased to see.” TSA has seen a 10% decline in the average price of a board but this is not down to discounting or price matching. Far from it: “Top end boards are still selling well but entry level boards are flying – it’s fantastic to see. This, on top of kids stuff flying out the door means we have a good sustainable business for the future.” But surely Jeremy is affected by the bun fight? “Not so. We made a call to get out of the sh*t fight years ago – we’re different and that’s paying off!” Finally the last word goes to Jeremy on Black Friday: “It’s boll**ks. There was one UK store offering 30% off for Black Friday. Then next weekend it was their birthday so what do they do… 20% off again. We did nothing for Black Friday on our hardware and we had a stonking three days.” It can be done. Gordon Way

MARKET INTELLIGENCE GERMANY

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For France, 2015 was an annus horribilis, punctuated more or less by horrendous violence. January 7 and November 13, 2015 will remain engraved on our memories forever. The French government has declared a state of national emergency until February 26 after seven simultaneous attacks in Paris and Île-de-France saw the deaths of 130 people and left hundreds wounded. It was in this context that popularity for François Hollande saw a spectacular rise. According to one survey, 50% of French citizens interviewed had a favourable opinion of the Head of State who regained the same popularity as he had in summer 2012, just after being elected. But the state of emergency in France only seems to be benefitting the National Front, which is rising and embedding. Testament to this is the party’s record scores at the last regional elections. The National Front pulled off another historical breakthrough on Sunday, December 6, at the first round of regional elections, with a national score approaching 30% and a leading position in six of the thirteen new metropolitan regions following the territorial reform. On the economic front, whilst the establishment is still charting growth of 1.2% in France for 2015, it quickly reviewed its projections for 2016 and 2017, dropping to 1.4% and 1.6% respectively instead of the 1.8% and 1.9% they had anticipated up to now. “Outlooks on economic upturn and inflation remain subject to the threat of a decline”, underlines the Banque de France, explaining the erosion of its forecasts by “a slowdown in global growth”. According to the French central bank, the economy picked up because dynamic exports were up despite “the slowdown in global commerce identified at the start of 2015”. As for unemployment, the recovery was very short-lived. The number of people registered as unemployed at the Job Centre rose again sharply at the end of October with 42,000 more jobless (1.2%) - bad news for the government that last month believed that the unemployment curve had started to take a turn for the better - a promise from the François Hollande campaign. The boardsports market now has an unprecedentedly sellable image. The French are attracted by these sports and the image they carry. Examples of this can be seen in various international brands’ advertising campaigns, using the different sports as well as their images to promote products that are sometimes far-removed from our world. In the four corners of France, all shops agree, the French public are more and more attracted by these sports but as Tim from ALL’s Bro in Toulouse confides, “this is not necessarily felt in shop sales.” For retailers, 2015 started with good weather and snow conditions. Snowfalls in February 2015 were significant across the whole of France and especially in the Pyrenees. Abundant snowfalls in February and record snow depths helped sales along and purchases of technical outerwear prevailed over equipment. In resort, these snowfalls had a positive impact on sales, more specifically on accessories, particularly gloves, beanies, socks and small extras. More generally, the number of shop visits was quite stable. This trade has always depended on the weather but that’s nothing new and does nothing to explain the major trends either. This year access to resorts was particularly sketchy, which put off day and weekend visitors.

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The months of April and May were also slightly up; an improvement essentially in technical equipment and everything that touches the surf world. The start of the summer season, however, was hardly encouraging. The current economic conjecture, the war between physical shops and online shops and the rise of prices were significant factors in this timid start. The sources of this setback were various: the later dates of the school holidays, the less than

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perfect weather, how the bank holidays fell not being conducive to work, etc. There are so many factors to explain why the start of season had trouble getting started. The general rise in prices due to a historical $/¤ exchange rate certainly didn’t help out. While the start of the season was pretty quiet, “sales in June and July saw a good improvement on last year”, confides Gontrand Marchal from OGM Bodyboard Shop in Capbreton. This trend was confirmed by all the coastal shops. “While the month of June was slightly up on last year, it’s certain that July was much better,” Fred Tisné, manager of Tao Surf Shop, Hossegor tells us. The glorious weather of the 2015 summer season seems to be one of the factors for our industry’s situation. Indeed “extraordinary temperatures in June and July combined with really nice waves for the period encouraged tourists to come and prompted them to consume,” according to Didier Poupon from Bud Surf Shop in Longeville-sur-Mer. The same goes for the Mediterranean coast where “the nice weather and the little waves led to sales of entrylevel boards,” according to Patrick Colin from the shop Aloha in Six Fours. The story was similar in towns. In Lyon, David from ABS noticed “a good rate of sale in summer wear and notably shorts and baseball caps.” Even still, other “products such as bucket hats or skate shoes seemed to be slightly down this season” for Florian Bathaud from Okla in Toulouse. The skateboard section seems to be the “section having most benefitted from this extraordinary weather,” for David who confirms a trend already well established for some time now in France: “The cruiser remains a really good seller and the start of the season didn’t seem to show any signs of this slowing down, on the contrary.” As for SUP, the weather also lent a hand to the market, notably in relation to sales of “inflatable excursion stand ups and beginner SUPs, which constitute the biggest chunk of sales,” according to Patrick from Aloha. Regarding the back to school period for street shops, after a pretty quiet summer, sales were “up on last year and the year before,” according to Romain at ABS in Lyon. Florian Barthaud from Okla in Toulouse backs up this trend: “We noticed a slight improvement compared to the 2014 back to school time; this period brings large increases in sales”. The start of the winter season in France was relatively mild and as Catherine and Norbert from the shop Atmosphere in Gap explain, “the change of season was relatively slow and winter arrived later than last year.” So we saw a reduction in back to school season sales for shops more geared toward the mountains. Nevertheless, in Stand Up Paddle, Pat Colin from Aloha in Six Fours noted a slight increase in sales: “We are always improving, especially in sales of technical products like wetsuits and boards, etc. This is still due to the rise in popularity of SUP and the continued infatuation with the sport.” One thing is even more obvious this year than ever, online purchases are taking a bigger and bigger portion of Christmas present sales volumes. Indeed, e-commerce is growing once again this year and it’s now mobile phone and tablet purchases that are seeing the most growth. This is a trend that retailers are taking on board and adapting to by offering more services and advice to their customers. Benoit Brecq

MARKET INTELLIGENCE GERMANY

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I’m going to start off by looking at online business here in Italy. In 2015 the turnover for Italian online business will hit 16.6 billion Euros, and that will be an increase of 2.2 billion (16%) in comparison to 2014. Here is a little breakdown from where the growth is coming from: tourism (+14%), informatics and electronics (+21%), clothing (+19%), media (+31%) and these segments have also increased: food, interiors and cosmetics. According to Milan-based online research outfit ‘Osservatorio Digital Innovation’, online business in Italy has established itself in the same way as it has done in other nations including France, Germany, the UK and the U.S.A. Good numbers, but the question is where is all of this turnover going? Talking to different retailers we notice that the big chunk of this online business is ruled by the big players and by well known online retailers from Germany, Austria and France who sell into the Italian market. But just running a website with lots of products doesn’t mean you’ll sell. A well coordinated marketing push combined with good service and an easy to use, good looking website is needed to make it work. Even if an online store isn’t providing huge turnover, it´s still important for many retailers to serve as a shopping window. In general, 2015 was a tricky year for many retailers. First of all the weather and climate conditions played their part; really hot temperatures during the summer with over 40° degrees and very warm temperatures until the end of December didn’t help in selling snowboard hardgoods and heavy jackets. Competition between core stores and big box stores grew bigger, while brands try to expand into mainstream consumer stores, which makes the core stores struggle. And what’s happening in bricks and mortar boardsports retail? Lukas Höller from Sublime shop in Bolzano reckons customers are becoming far too familiar with multiple

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The Spanish economy has seen continued growth in the second half of 2015, although at a somewhat slower pace compared to the first six months of the year. GDP experienced an estimated increase of 0.8% during this period, with a year-on-year variation rate of 3.4%. As in previous quarters, this progress in the markets was propped up by a strong private domestic demand, whereas net external demand seems to have maintained a negative product contribution. Overall, economic and financial performance in recent months along with the changes identified since June in the applied technical assumptions, confirms the recovery scenario anticipated in June’s Quarterly Report, with an estimated growth of 3.1% and 2.7% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Expanding economic activity in Spain is expected to continue through the end of 2015 and throughout 2016; in particular, the average GDP growth is expected to hit June’s estimates of 3.1% this year and 2.7% next year. After successive positive figures in June and July for the first time during the last year, the CPI fell again in August (by 0.4%). This new disinflation is associated to recent further reductions in oil prices in the international market. CPI may see a slight upturn of the yearto-date rate at the end of the year although losing 0.5% on annual average. In 2016, this rate would stand at 0.8%.

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With the aim of translating this overall scenario to sliding sports, I took to the streets to talk to Kike Arranz of Boardsport Daktak, one of the leading shops in this field in Madrid. “The array of surf customers is wider than years ago. More and more male and female customers are taking up the sport. We have noticed this, for example in the number of wetsuits we are selling. Surfing, along with snowboarding, are the most booming sports at the moment. After a stagnation period in snowboarding sales, they have now consolidated again. Starter surfboards are selling very well and that means people are beginning to take it more seriously. Last season we noticed some

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discounts throughout the year, and they are holding out for events such as Black Friday to make their purchases. Gianluca Tognoli from Frisco Shop in Brescia would like to see more support for core stores because he says they were the ones who put these product categories on the map and made it relevant for bigger stores by creating a cool image for the product in the first place. Gianluca also says stores need to focus purely on brands that are concerned with ‘keeping it core’ in this new type of industry where everyone has to compete against big box stores and huge online discounters. When talking about brands, the bigger players lost a bit of traction in the core segment because of their wide/large distribution through many different channels. Products such as GoPro are seeing slower sell-through in the core segment because kids can find the product everywhere nowadays. And as Gianluca from Frisco said, the real core has returned again where brands such as Thrasher, Diamond and Palace are selling like hot cakes because of their exclusivity and more limited distribution. Nike as a major player stands out from the crowd and still seems to do well everywhere, showing strong results in all kinds of stores from core to mainstream. It´s a thin line and every store needs to find a product selection that works for their customer base. Overall the boardsport segment is trending and numbers are good but with distribution becoming more mainstream it is a struggle for many smaller retailers. Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ recently reported that skateboarding is fashionable, but the brands it featured weren’t core with the exception of DVS. This shows that what the mainstream needs is education and only core stores can tell the story. See you at Bright in Berlin this upcoming January! Franz Josef Holler

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improvement and we hope it will continue this season. Regarding skating, this sport is always going to be there, despite the fall in sales due to the longboarding boom. At the end of the day, skateboards are both very affordable and easy to use anywhere. If kids save their pocket money they can have a good set-up for a small outlay.” After retail, we explored the manufacturers’ opinion and in particular that of Eduardo Cenzano, General Manager of Trinity Techonologies (boardsports service and product design), and a member of the surf industry cluster Surf City Donostia. “As a company dedicated to producing B2B products, this year we have detected a major increase in the interest in our products, especially from international markets. The industrial sector translates this interest into longer term orders when compared to sales to private individuals, so we expect most leads made in 2015 to transform into orders in 2016. Regarding end customers, international sales have experienced a very significant rise due to the launch of new products under licence by the leading brands in the sector, which has finally consolidated the innovative and differentiating nature of our products in the USA and Asia-Pacific. At national scale, we have seen some recovery from 2014, however, this improvement lags well behind that of the international market. We hope that this positive momentum that appears to emerge consolidates in Spain in 2016. In any case, we have definitely detected a clear trend in the boardsport sector towards exploring new technologies, innovative trends or even radical products. Years ago only expert visionaries in the sector could visualise this trend. In the national market this trend is much more limited, and sales concentrate on more consolidated and conservative products.” Jokin Arroyo Uriarte

MARKET INTELLIGENCE GERMANY

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The summer from a fairy-tale, an autumn for the books and a late winter – 2015 may not have been ideal, but it sure was an interesting year. A season start as late as the last can have its perks too, as Didi Feichtner, Sales Rep Austria for Mervin Mfg, Faction Skis and Lokahi Boards explains. “Despite the very late start, the season was pretty good for us, with stable sales until Easter.” Most shops sold pretty well compared to the previous year, so much so that some retailers even took advantage of so-called “close-ups,” buying boards for cheaper prices at the end of the season. “And not just when there was still snow, but also after” Didi continues. Hence he’s not too worried about another late start to winter. “November was quiet, but still strong in sales. Some of our retailers have already sold all of their pre-orders and are now in full swing for winter.” This may be aided by the fact that many shops have cut down their hardware ranges. “Most smaller shops nowadays only stock one premium brand plus one, maximum two cheaper ones. Classic multi-sports retailers like Intersport for example even stopped selling boards,” Didi explains. Didi is still confident for a good winter, an attitude Christoph Bammer from Motion Sports Distribution with headquarters in the capital Vienna shares and confirms: “Splitboarding continues to be a must and a great revenue driver for shops,” especially Karakoram and SP Bindings, which are “really rocking!” he froths. “New events like splitboard and freestyle camps, banked slalom and freestyle sessions will strengthen the snowboard sector,“ Christoph continues, feeding hopes for a stable market in future. Skateboarding has already accomplished that in Austria, with a continuous rise for some years now, the last being no exception. “2015 we sold more completes from Blind and Darkstar, and also the DC Super Hero completes from Almost were pretty good,” says Christoph. “U.S

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The watersports market, thanks to the growth of SUP, is holding up pretty well and it’s bringing the wetsuit market with it, which, while still not exploding, does represent attractive revenue for some specialists. The surf market, although very small in our country void of waves, is steadily growing and with the Swiss fondness for quality and travelling spirit, don’t hesitate to buy equipment at specialised Swiss shops and pay the cost of transporting their boards on their surf trips. The segment is small of course, but it does have the advantage of not being too reliant on the weather and doesn’t really depend on tourism. The skate market has remained more or less similar to last year, maintaining good sales figures even though we can clearly see an abatement of the craze for plastic cruisers in most shops. The problem with skate sales is not really the sales volumes but the margins that are made on them, firstly this margin is small but also the base price, which is not very high, has substantially dropped in recent years. It is therefore very hard to make any decent money. Being the number one business in the boardsports world in our alpine country, the snowboard market is at the centre of the debate. Firstly, the market is decreasing by about 10% each year and has 130

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brands are losing ground in the active core skate scene though. A lot of skaters now prefer to buy Euro brands, like Magenta, Polar, Isle or the Sweet successor company Sour Skateboards.” Cruisers and drop-through longboards remained strong as well. But since August, Didi has noticed a slight decline that Christoph confirms: “By the end of summer the market felt saturated, probably due to a load of cheap suppliers and the incredibly wide spread availability of longboards, from book stores to supermarkets.” But he keeps a positive outlook on 2016 nonetheless: “We had pretty nice pre-orders for 2016 and are positive that longboard sales will even out on a rather high level.” Softgoods and apparel are not as clear, unfortunately. “A lot of retailers ordered less from bigger brands and are trying out smaller ones,” says Christoph, suggesting, “a lot of them are in trial mode right now. No one knows what will work and what they should stock up on.” Didi shares similar experiences with outerwear: “Retailers bought less and more selectively, not filling their warehouses.” The golden November didn’t help either. “When it stays warm this long, many customers don’t even bother buying a new jacket, but will continue to wear their old stuff for ‘those couple of weeks’.” Since a lot of shops are “trying new things,” it’s “hard to make out in which direction the trends are going,” thinks Christoph. “Skullcandy had good results with their Sports Performance line this summer, and just in time for Christmas the new Wireless In-Ears and OnEars came out to the shops.” GoPro seems to be “running out of steam a bit as well,” he says “albeit on a very high level. The sales in cameras are definitely declining though, although accessories from GoPro and SP Gadgets continue to be strong sellers.” Anna Langer

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What an emotional year; the scarce snow in winter, a mixed spring, a summer of extreme temperatures followed by a rather warm autumn, bar a few days. All this didn’t really help the Swiss boardsports market in 2015. But beyond these meteorological facets, there were a lot of macro-economic changes such as the price reductions due to the strength of the franc against the euro, the intensification of the struggle against foreign websites, the decline of tourism and the overall drop in shop visitations.

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done so for ten years now. Secondly, consumption has changed; today we estimate that 30%-35% of boards sold are destined for the rental business, which means that there is a greater proportion of low-end boards sold and in turn is drastically reducing the turnover for brands and distributors. Next up, obviously the Internet has completely changed the market and is giving a large number of “traditional” shops massive headaches and leaves them searching for solutions more than ever. These days the consumer is three clicks away from being perfectly informed about both the equipment and the price. This poses two problems, firstly, customers are arriving in the shop knowing exactly what they want, are not easily advised and then unless the said equipment happens to be in stock at the retailer, who is having progressively more trouble selling his/her own stock, the retailer is forced to sell on special order. This is largely facilitated by the more and more frequent use of B2B platforms put in place by suppliers. They are very useful, efficient tools but they do not encourage the retailer to take any risks during purchasing at all. Then we have the obvious problem of price comparison, indeed, some German, French and Austrian sites are really aggressive and their Swiss sales are increasing each year. This forces Swiss retailers to redouble their efforts and creativity to offer a morethan-perfect service to prevent their customers from ordering online. Above all, this often leads to a drop in their margins with a systematic 10%-15% reduction on the recommended retail price and to offering more and more benefits like free lifetime services, repairs and other free after-sales services. The game has changed, everyone knows it and is working flat out, but no one seems to have found the solution yet. Fabien Grisel

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133

EVENTS#80

SURF / SKATE / SNOW / SUP TRADE

JANUARY 19-21

23-27

24-27

TELFORD/UK WWW.SLIDEUK.CO.UK

VALLNORD-ARCALIS/ANDORA WWW.FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM

GERMANY WWW.ISPO.COM

SLIDE

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR

SIA INDUSTRY & INTELLIGENCE SEMINARS

ISPO MUNICH

COLORADO WWW.SIASNOWSHOW. SNOWSPORTS.ORG

FEBRUARY 28-31 SIA

DENVER/COLORADO WWW.SIASNOWSHOW. SNOWSPORTS.ORG

05-06

AIR + STYLE

INNSBRUCK WWW.AIR-STYLE.COM

31-02

PRO SHOP TEST

BARDONECCHIA/ITALY WWW.SNOWSHOPTEST.COM

HALFPIPE & SLOPESTYLE OPEN

GRINDELWALD/SWISS WWW.AUDISNOWBOARDSERIES.CH

01-02

03-04

COPPER MOUNTAIN/COLORADO WWW.SIASNOWSHOW. SNOWSPORTS.ORG

LONDON/UK WWW.JACKET-REQUIRED.COM

SIA ON SNOW DEMO

JACKET REQUIRED

06-12

15-17

CHAMONIX WWW.FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM

LAS VEGAS/USA WWW.AGENDASHOW.COM

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR

AGENDA

MARCH 20-21

07-09

LOS ANGELES WWW.AIR-STYLE.COM

MÜRREN/SWITZERLANDWWW. AUDISNOWBOARDSERIES.CH

LYON/FRANCE WWW.SPORTAIR.FR

AIR + STYLE

WHITESTYLE OPEN

17-25

SWATCH FREERIDE WORLDTOUR

SPORT ACHAT

ALASKA WWW.FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM

APRIL

17-24

24-05

BASEL/SWITZERLAND WWW.BASELWORLD.COM

AUSTRALIA WWW.WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM

BASELWORLD

RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH

02-10

05-10

VERBIER, SWITZERLAND WWW.FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM

TIROL /AUSTRIA WWW.WORLDROOKIETOUR.COM

SWATCH FREERIDE WORLDTOUR

VOLKL WORLD ROOKIE FINALS

MAY

JUNE

08-19

20-21

10-21

02-05

AUSTRALIA WWW.WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM

MUNICH/GERMANY WWW.PERFORMANCEDAYS.EU

BRAZIL WWW.WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM

AUSTIN/TEXAS/USA WWW.XGAMES.ESPN.COM

MARGARET RIVER PRO

PERFORMANCE DAYS

RIO PRO

SUMMER X GAMES

JULY 07-19

TBC

FIJI WWW.WORLDSURFLEAGUE.COM

SPIAGGIA DI SANTA SEVERA WWW.ITALIASURFEXPO.IT

BERLIN WWW.BRIGHTTRADESHOW.COM

BERLIN WWW.SEEKEXHIBITIONS.COM

FIJI PRO

TBC

JACKET REQUIRED

LONDO/UK WWW.JACKET-REQUIRED.COM 134

ITALIAN SURF EXPO

BRIGHT

SEEK

TRADESHOW EVENT

SNOW EVENT

SURF EVENT

SKATE EVENT

ONE-EYED MONSTER

#80

LOW PRESSURE STUDIOS SALES MEETING

Austrian agent Bjorn

Creative director Danny Kiebert

DBK is stoked on the new gear!

Halldor and Dennis Dusseldorp preparing for the Switchback presentation

International team manager L’Arrogs

Jeremy Sladen of The Snowboard Asylum

Malachi (BC Surf and Sport) gets a tattoo from Galya Gisca

Malachi, and the US sales team touring Amsterdam the traditional way

SPLIT & RELAX 2015 - SPLITBOARD TESTIVAL HOCHKÖNIG

Amplid’s Rich Ewbank

Elan crew

Muck (Munchie Konsilium) and Jakob (Burton)

Pia Schröter (Vökll) and Muck (Munchie Konsillium)

Robert Login (SP) and Willi Schiedermeier (Element Sports)

Splitboarding.eu Boss Patrick & friend

Test booths

The crew

WORLD SNOWBOARD DAY 2015

Airhole Face Masks crew with 28cm of Fresh

Happy World Snowboard DAY from the Stubai Zoo

136

Antti Autti, Ounasvaara

Boarders’ Shop, Bucarest, Romania

Gian Simmen - Laax

Snowpark Nesselwang, Germany

Travis Rice celebrating with friends at Jackson Hole mountain resort.

WSD15 in Jilin, China