#054. SEPT 2011. €5
EUROPEAN SURF/SKATE/SNOW BUSINESS
LOOK ME IN THE EYE SUNGLASSES MARKET ANALYSIS
FROM GREENROOM TO BOARDROOM MEN’S SS12 SURFWEAR REPORT
BIG WIG INTERVIEW NIKE TALK EXCLUSIVELY TO SOURCE ON THEIR NEW BRAND STRATEGY
HOT DAMN!! IT’S THE WOMEN’S SS12 SWIM TREND REPORT
THE ECONOMIC MODERNISATION ACT
FRENCH BUSINESSES ARE YOU PREPARED? PLUS: BRAND PROFILES – LIGHT BOARDS & HYDRO FLEX. BRIGHT & B.A.S.E SHOW REPORTS. SKATE EVENTS. SPLIT BOARDS
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CONTENTS English Editor Jojo Cook jojo@boardsportsource.com
NEWS TRADE SHOW REVIEWS
Surf and French Editor Iker Aguirre iker@boardsportsource.com
RETAILER PROFILE
Snowboard Editor Rémi Forsans remi@boardsportsource.com
ECONOMIC MODERNISATION ACT SWIMWEAR PREVIEW
Skateboard Editor Holger Von Krosigk holger@boardsportsource.com
SPLIT BOARDS
German Editor fine lines marketing gmbh source@finelinesmedia.de
SUNGLASSES MARKET ANALYSIS BIG WIG INTERVIEW
Art Director Owen Tozer at MadeUp owen@boardsportsource.com www.thisismadeup.co.uk
SURF FASHION SKATE COMPS
French Editorial Assistant Denis Houillé denis@boardsportsource.com
BOARDSHORTS PICTORIAL
Web & News Editor James Dalzial james@boardsportsource.com
BEST SELLERS BRAND PROFILE – LIGHT BOARDS
Proofreaders Jo Fairweather, Lydia Heckl, Marie-laure Ducos
HYDROFLEX
Contributors Uwe Ballon, Chus Castéjo, Dave ‘DC’ Colwill, Fabien Grisel, Franz Hoeller, Muck Müller, Digby Reed, João Rei, Luke Van Unen, Dirk Vogel, Denis Houillé, Matt Barr, Chris Moran.
NEW PRODUCTS MARKET INTELLIGENCE OPPORTUNITIES
Jobs and Distributor Services Digby Reed Digby@boardsportsource.com
EVENTS ONE EYED MONSTER
Advertising & Marketing Clive Ripley clive@boardsportsource.com
13 17 21 23 25 29 31 34 37 41 45 50 52 54 56 58 68 70 72
Germanic Markets Advertising Konrad ‘Kone’ Heigl kone@boardsportsource.com +49 (0) 89 5526 0915 Production Manager production@boardsportsource.com Accounts Manager accounts@boardsportsource.com To Subscribe www.boardsportsource.com subs@boardsportsource.com
Studying the economy these days is like theorizing on the reasoning of the Chaos theory.
Publisher Clive Ripley clive@boardsportsource.com Published by Extreme Sport Business 22 Friars Street, Sudbury Suffolk, CO10 2AA. UK Boardsport SOURCE is published bi-monthly © Extreme Sport Business. All Rights Reserved www.boardsportsource.com
On The Cover
Rémi Chaussemiche (RUSTY Europe Marketing Coordinator)
CONTENTS As above.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission, except for permitted fair dealing under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Application for permission for use of copyright material including permission to reproduce extracts in other public works shall be made to the publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source must be given. The views expressed in this publication are not those necessarily held by the Publisher. ISSN # 1478-4777
Understanding it, is, for some, an art of divination, and for those who live with it a migraine-inducing mix of pessimistic expectations at best, or apocalyptic ones at worst. But the question that really bothers me is: why are we banned from living in optimism? Oh how we nostaligically remember the good old days. How we dwell on the misfortune that once separated us so suddenly from that Belle Epoque where growth and development were taken for granted. But I only have to immerse myself in some back issues of SOURCE and I realize that we were equally pessimistic back then too – as if nothing was good enough, as though we took it for granted. The only difference is that now, we really do have reason to moan… Yes we blame the economy, but my theory is that its not the economy that ‘s our real enemy but it’s our aversion to change. We need to evolve our thinking and abandon the status quo in order to survive. A dire winter caused a mutilated retail sector, that was too concerned with survival to mourn its fallen comrades. Then came a mild mid-season, which brought faith and hope for some for the first time in years. Finally a time for
hope? To believe the figures published by some of the giants like Intersport, we would have been tempted to say yes. But seeing the limp summer that followed, we would more likely answer no. The sounds from Europe’s streets, however, are many and varied, as you’ll discover in our Market Intelligence pages (p. 58.) In France, the application of the Economic Modernisation Law is inevitable and we explain why retailers, distributors and manufacturers will have to unite (p.23). One thing we are all united about is that the sun will shine and people will always buy sunglasses, so brush up on the new trends with our Market Overview (p. 31.) And, as we know you are fond of such reports, surfwear & swimwear are the focus of our Trend Reports. Our Big Wig Interview is dedicated to Nike. Read it well and, above all, analyze the intrinsic messages that resonate between the lines. If there was one day a status quo in our industry, it is well and truly over. There will be a before and after Nike. Extrapolate, speculate and anticipate and then answer this question: how do you see the industry of tomorrow? Always sideways, Iker Aguirre
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INDUSTRY news corporate
VF ACQUIRE TIMBERLAND & SMARTWOOL
ICONIX BUYS THE REST OF ZOO YORK
VF Corporation, home of Vans, North Face, Reef and Eastpak is buying Timberland and Smartwool. Timberland is forecasting 2011 revenues of $1.6 billion, of which over half are generated internationally. Commented Eric Wiseman, Chairman and CEO of VFC, "We believe the unique rugged outdoor positioning of the Timberland brand will perfectly complement the premium, technical positioning of The North Face brand, while Smartwool will provide us with a leadership position in a new category. This acquisition will continue the transformation of VF's portfolio, propelling its Outdoor and Action Sports coalition businesses to 50% of total revenues. Timberland will remain headquartered in Stratham, New Hampshire. This acquisition creates a $10 billion Global Apparel and Footwear powerhouse that rivals other big players in the boardsports markets.
Since taking a controlling stake of the brand in late 2009, Iconix has partnered with Li & Fung in the core sportswear market and has expanded Zoo York’s distribution in the USA into large-scale department stores including JC Penney and Kohl’s. Now Iconix will buy the 49% it does not own for $18 million as it positions the brand for further expansion.
FOX GO DIRECT IN FRANCE Fox Head Europe Ltd. have recently made the decision to transition to a direct sales force in France. Fox see France as a key territory and plan to begin shipping clothing and mountain bike lines directly to retailers from the beginning of 2012 and MX in September 2012. The new French sales team, customer support service and marketing teams will be based in France. A strategy to ship direct to retailers means that they will have immediate access to the inventory at Fox’s European distribution centre. Fox Europe is already operating a direct sales force in Benelux, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
JOIN THE THIRD ANNUAL WOMEN IN BOARSPORTS RETREAT Some of the most inspirational women in the worldwide boardsport industry will gather in Saas-Fee, Switzerland from 28th September – 2nd October for a long weekend of networking, workshops, learning and sharing. Participants will also get to enjoy spa treatments, yoga classes, delicious food and of course snowboarding. The latest updates will be featured on http://womeninboardsports.blogspot.com
CARHARTT SELECTS BLACK DIAMOND GROUP Following a selection process Carhartt has appointed Black Diamond, the maker of protective footwear, as the new licensee for Carharttbranded footwear. Commented Rick Fecowicz, director of licensing at Carhartt, "Black Diamond understand the industrial footwear marketplace which is essential to our core consumer." The initial product offering will include 30 styles and will be available to the public through select Carhartt retailers and on Carhartt.com for Spring 2012. Headquartered in Dearborn, MI, with approximately 3,500 employees worldwide, Carhartt is still privately owned and managed by the descendants of the company's founder, Hamilton Carhartt.
POINTER TO BERLIN With Berlin becoming one of the leading creative hubs in Europe, Pointer decided to establish their first ever store there. At Münzstrasse 11, the 100m2 retail unit reflects Pointer’s ethos - a meeting place for design simplicity and forward thinking footwear concepts.
HURLEY LAUNCH BOARDSHORT SPECIALITY STORE As part of its focus to help boost the brand in Europe, Hurley has remodeled its first store in Hossegor as a boardshort only retail space. Based on the original in Bali, The Boardshort Store creates a space for consumers in the heart of the European surf community to interact with one of Hurley’s key items. The new 38m2 store will feature a spectrum of Hurley boardshorts including the three-time SIMA award-winning Phantoms
SURFBOARD CARBON CALCULATORTM LAUNCHES De-carbonated Sports, a UK-based environmental consultancy has launched an innovative tool called the Surfboard Carbon CalculatorTM. The tool will allow users (both individuals and companies) to calculate the carbon footprint of their surfboards, The CalculatorTM takes into account over 90 variables, from size, resin and foam type, fibre layers (type and number), fin set up and number of repairs. They are also offering the user the opportunity to purchase carbon credits, annually ¾ million surfboards are made a year which equates to roughly 220,000 tons of CO2. www. decarbonated-consultancy.co.uk.
For up to the minute news goto: www.boardsportsource.com
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more INDUSTRY news distributor news
BEATNUTS DISTRIBUTION TAKE ON SKULLCANDY IN GERMANY Effective from July 15th, Beatnuts are now responsible for the boardsport and lifestyle channels in Germany. Beatnuts was founded in 1994 by Armin and Jochen Bauer and currently distributes Dragon, Westbeach, Bataleon, Neff and Playboard. International Marketing Manager for Skullcandy, Tim DeBrincat said; "This is a key move as Skullcandy is focusing heavily on Europe. Developing and maintaining positive relationships in the boardsport and lifestyle channels is key to our brand's success.”
ULTRA SPORT TAKE ON COUNTOUR
Ultra Sport Europe has taken on the distribution of Contour throughout the UK and Ireland. Contour is a market leader in the hands-free video camera category. The Contour range consists of three hands-free cameras, ContourHD, ContourGPS and the new Contour+. These, together with a host of accessories, enable you to capture HD video content just about anywhere on the planet. For more information visit www.contour.com
movers & Shakers BRUNOTTI EUROPE has appointed Peter Korver as Sales Director Benelux. Previously he worked at Nike, Puma and Euretco where he was responsible for several sales and marketing management jobs. Peter will be responsible for the brands growth, brand image and the brand positioning in Benelux. FORMER VOLCOM CFO JOINS SKULLCANDY BOARD Doug Collier left
Volcom shortly after its sale to Paris-based PPR SA became final in June. He has spent 17 years at Volcom, from its days as a startup and through its initial public offering in 2005 and recent sale to PPR SA. Most recently he held the position of Executive Vice President, CFO and Secretary. Collier joins Scott Olivet, another recent addition to the Skullcandy board who previously served as CEO and board member with Oakley.
NEW CEO AT O’NEILL Willem Haitink has been appointed CEO of the O'Neill group from September 1st 2011. Willem is 48 years old and is a Dutch national. During the past 16 years he has been working for Nike where he successfully built up and ran international businesses in the USA, Canada, Mexico and China, most recently at Converse where he has been general manager of Converse Europe, Middle East and Africa. NEW JOB FOR JUSS APIVALA
Juss Apivala is the new EMEA Product Manager Footwear and Equipment for Vans and Pro-Tec for the categories Core, Syndicate, OTW, Surf, SBB. Previously Marketing Manager and Sales Manager for SBB and outerwear for Vans in the Baltic States, Juss has been snowboarding since 1994.
14.
Surf summit 5/6th October This year the surf summit celebrates its tenth anniversary and will be held at the Hossegor Casino Conference room. The first day opens with an address by Fred Basse, EuroSIMA President and General Manager of Rip Curl Europe and is followed by 4 seminars, two either side of lunch. Seminar 1 is International Sports Team Management and Coaching, how to manage success and failure presented by Thomas Lièvremont, currently the coach of the Aviron Bayonnais rugby team and selected 37 times to play for the French National Rugby team. In Seminar 2 Cortney McDermott (USA), chairperson of the European Outdoor Group’s Sustainability Working Group from 2008 until mid-2011 will show how industry should collaborate around sustainability. After lunch Alex Striler, former Osiris shoes CEO and author of X-Play Nation, will examine the action sports market and look at the processes that created the growth in action sports and how the processes may develop into the future. Finally Remi Huppert will look at how sensitive intelligence and in particular Art has a contribution to successful business and personal development. In the evening the Surf Summit Dinner is at Hotel de la Plage on Hossegor Beach. Day two starts with a session out on the waves and then everyone is dragged kicking and screaming back into the real world for a panel debate on the evolution in surfing over past few years that has created two new opposite generations of surfer movements: Performance and Counter Culture. The discussion will be led by Franck Goudou, EuroSIMA Board-Member, Marketing Manager at Insight and President of the ASP. Panelists include Mick Fanning, Patrick Flores, Philippe Malvaux, Grégoire Puget, Dane Reynolds, Clovis Donizetti and Steve Gorrow. The afternoon is in two sessions, Philippe Wargnier Président evioo.com, will examine how E-Commerce is an opportunity for brands and retailers to grow together, followed by a review of the European trade shows and an open debate on possible opportunities for the upcoming professional events in Europe, led by Iker Aguirre, EuroSIMA Board-Member and General Manager of H.O.5. group (NSI). Early evening beers and movies are on offer with a showing of Stoked and Broke and The StillPoint. For the full programme and registration go to EuroSIMA.com
TRADE SHOW NEWS
The boardsports trade fair calendar continues to evolve with two new shows: the Ledge in London and Le Salon des Glisseurs in Southwest France. The Ledge (4-6th September) will be a new section of the Edge show that has been running successfully for many years. With the demise of the Hub, the UK’s only summer boardsport show, the Edge with its collection of fashion with-a-difference brands should prove an interesting venue for skate and street brands. The show will occupy the gallery level of London’s Olympia’s National Hall and will focus on skate menswear, womenswear, footwear and accessories alongside hardware including skateboard decks, wheels and trucks. So far around 80 brands have signed up including footwear brands Dekline, Element, Habitat, Lakai, C1rca and Osiris and a large number of hardware brands including Blueprint, Alien Workshop, Antiz Skateboards, Birdhouse Skateboards, Black Label, Destructo, Flip, Independent, Plan B. Clothing brands including Santa Cruz, Fourstar Clothing and Zoo York are also in. Managing Director Carole Hunter is also supporting small brands and commented; “The skatewear and action sports sector generates some incredibly creative small brands and we feel strongly about supporting them. We’re mindful of the varying financial situations of potential exhibitors and have created stand schemes to suit all budgets. We’ll also be giving some of the growing companies a commercial platform by offering a limited number of fledgling company sponsorships at Ledge. A skate park will be part of the show with a competition each day. For further information contact +44 (0) 1162 898 249. www. londonedge.com Le Salon des Glisseurs will be held from 1st – 3rd October, just before the WCT Quiksilver Pro at Seignosse in Les Bourdaines. The show will combine surfing, skateboarding and freestyle (bodyboard, SUP, kite, snowboard, ski etc) and is co-organised by the staff of Freesurfing Magazine and Alain Sevellec, aided by MC Box events and Roland of Rock Food. This will be the second trade show of the summer season in Southeest France, as the Base summer show was held there in July. This new show will differ from the Base in offering a consumer-meet-the-brand area as well as a trade-only section. As the Le Salon des Glisseurs is later in the year the focus is more on surf hardgoods than softgoods. In the consumer part of the show, autograph signings and exhibitions/demonstrations on the beach will keep visitors entertained. More than one hundred brands have signed up at time of going to press including NSP, BIC, Oxbow, Billabong, Surftech, Sinner eyewear, Kustom, Crème, Dakine, Rip Curl Sector 9, UWL and FCS. For more info go to www.salondesglisseurs.com
www.boardsportsource.com : for up to the minute news
Changes at Podium Distribution: Tim Gavin Clears the Air Podium Distribution’s VP of Marketing explains recent developments and future plans. Interview by Dirk Vogel It’s been a challenging few years
for Podium Distribution; one of skateboarding’s most respected core outfits with a history stretching back to 1994. After news of Lakai Footwear moving over to Girl Distribution surfaced, the rumour mill has been in full swing about the future of the California-based company. Is Podium up for sale? What happened to Lakai? And what to make of the new additions to the business team? To clear the air, SOURCE interviewed Tim Gavin, Podium Distribution’s VP of marketing and founding member of DVS Shoes. The good news: Podium is in a safe place, after what Gavin calls, “probably some of the toughest times in my business life.” Here’s the former pro skater in his own words.
Tim, what are some of the rumours you would like to clear the air about? It’s important to make clear that we are not up for sale... we are not trying to sell our brands! We have secured a long-term financial agreement with our credit facility, so we can now fully tap into the potential of our brands and finally hit the ground running. We see an enormous amount of potential for DVS and Matix, as well as Diamond Footwear. The response on Diamond has been incredible; I really am looking forward to growing it as a brand overseas. And has Lakai Footwear moved over to Girl? Yes, that was a long process that was finalised in middle of May. It was personally very difficult for me, probably the toughest time of my life. With Lakai, I’m not only dealing with friends - but also some of my best friends. But I’m glad now that everything has worked out for the better for both parties. Things happen for a reason and I've learned that. Both parties got what they wanted out of the situation. I know all three brands: DVS, Matix and Lakai; will be able to prosper from this change. What happened? We’ve been working together for all these years now (since Lakai started in 1999) and we learned a lot from one another. One thing we learned during this process was that our business philosophy was different to Girl’s. After countless hours of consideration, we all felt it was time to move in a different direction and we sold our shares to Rick [Howard], Mike [Carroll], Meg[an Baltimore] and Spike [Jonze]. Our relationship is still very healthy as we continue to help Lakai with manufacturing through our China office, Podium Asia. What is the back-story to these changes? Over the last year we have had some financial issues with our credit facility. Basically, all the news that you heard about the financial crisis and the credit crunch materialised right in front of us. Our lender became very difficult to work with and the relationship became increasingly confrontational. We never missed any payments, we were very up front and cooperative, but they were being very unreasonable. We kept grinding and finally worked out a long-term solution. It was painful but we are better off now because of this restructuring.
And to remedy the situation you also made some changes to the business team? Yep. We brought on three new partners, which bring a wealth of experience in all aspects of our business. We are very excited about our new CEO, Paul Gomez, formerly the co-founder and SVP of Global Events and Brand Entertainment at Hurley. Paul has been a staple in the action sports industry for decades and brings an enormous amount of leadership qualities to the table. His vision and ideas really mirror ours and we can’t wait to start implementing these new concepts. Our other two partners are extremely successful businessmen who understand our culture and bring back end operations and systems expertise to our company. Our new management team is working so well together and everyone is really fired up. How will these changes affect Podium’s business? In one word much more clarity. We have really streamlined all aspects of our company, which will allow us to focus better on our relationships, product and overall brand stories. What about the relationships with distributors and retailers, also in Europe? It will be very positive with the increased focus and clarity as I mentioned before. We have a great team of people running our European operations. They have all bought in to our new management team as well as our action plans. Europe is a huge part of our business and we plan to ramp up our exposure and devote whatever resources necessary to make more positive strides. What are some of the next steps we can look forward to from the “new” Podium? Podium now consists of DVS Shoes, Matix Clothing Diamond Footwear. We have lots of exciting stories to tell that we believe will translate really well to the retailer and consumer. We have several new marketing initiatives, which we can’t wait to roll out. Diamond clothing is extremely hot here in the US, and we need to help expand that reach globally. We are also looking at some potential acquisitions that will fit nicely into the Podium Distribution umbrella. Are you going to send out an official press release to silence the rumours? I feel that communication through credible media outlets like Source is the best way to go. We sent out an internal message to all our employees and sales force weeks ago so they have known what is up. The rumour mill is hilarious to be honest and it will obviously never end as it jumps from company to company. I could not tell you how many times I could not stop laughing at what I heard. Regardless, it’s all about action and not words. I do want to say thank you to all our employees, riders, distributors, retail friends and everyone who has supported us over the years. Okay, thanks for the interview, Tim.
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trade show review
IT’S ALL BRIGHT IN BERLIN
Attendance at the recent Bright tradeshow in Berlin topped the 15,000 mark. Founders Thomas Martini and Marco Aslim reflect on their most successful show to date. Bright’s summer show in Berlin maintained the traction that is building the event into a key component in Berlin Fashion week. In particular the skate plaza gave Bright an outside event that was equal to any of the other draws on offer in Berlin. Since the move from Frankfurt two years ago, the number of visitors has pretty much doubled to just over 15,000 and this summer’s attendance was up 20% on last year as the increased number of stands and the new brand village and skate competitions brought in the crowds. This summer there was also over 4000 sqaure feet of additional floor space with a new exhibition area located in the former entrance hall working well with visitors and taking them straight into the thick of things Hurley, Makia, Globe DVS, Planet Earth, Vans and LRG all had stands in this area. Elsewhere most of the brands kept the same locations and the traffic circulated well around the loop on each floor. Brands were either in their own small rooms (reminiscent of Frankfurt) or in more traditional layouts in the larger spaces but as usual brands had worked hard to integrate their displays into the strange Stasi HQ décor.
on the international calendar for anyone interested in the latest street and skate trends.
Away from business, it was good to take time out at Art Bright with works from international galleries and artists. Stand out was Wayne Horse’s combination of cock-type photos and images, and artists Think and Prost and Segej Vutuc. Outside the HQ the Bright festival concept was launched as Berlin Fashion Week’s only open air and public event. This enabled the end consumer to experience the atmosphere that had only been available to the industry and The growth of visitors from outside gave everyone working inside somewhere to let of steam, have lunch and catch some Europe, in particular those from rays. The brand village on Normannenstrasse, between the main building and the Hans America, Japan and China, were further Zoschke Arena, kept the public happy with WESC, Volcom and Skullcandy stores. The proof of the arrival of Bright on the 3000m2 Relentless/Bright Skate Plaza which took up a large chunk of the football international calendar for anyone arena on the other side of the road from the Stasi building, was a major attraction with interested in the latest street and great skating, €10,000 in prize money, great weather and a lot of beer consumed in the stands. Highlights included the Globe skate skate trends team with Rodney Mullen and the Emerica skate team and Tweak Bird performing live.
On the top floor the restaurant and seated area was busy all throughout the show with distributor meetings. The SOURCE job agency saw a steady stream of visitors (though none were prepared to be photographed for One Eyed Monster!) The new ‘All Tomorrows’ exhibition area was dedicated to a handpicked selection of new designers and creative labels including Diamond Footwear, Polish label Mleko, Alias one, Flaek, Monstore and Mishka, attracting visitors looking for something new. International visitors made up 38% of the crowd with most coming from France, Switzerland, Austria, UK and Netherlands - in all 56 countries were represented. The growth of visitors from outside Europe, in particular those from America, Japan and China, were further proof of the arrival of Bright
This summer’s Bright evening for those hard working industry folk was at KTV in Berlin Mitte, a private courtyard with a club attached to one side. Everyone sat down to a BBQ, got nicely lubricated and went indoors for fun with Daniel Wang, Christian D’or, Djuna Barnes, Dr.Dunks, DJ Kaos, Adam Port, Reznik, Skism and Forty, Each night plenty was on offer with pop-up stores, parties, product launches, including DC’s Burning Ink, Supra’s Skytop III at Muenzsalon and Vans Syndicate, Civilist launch, never mind the hidden side of Berlin’s nightlife that might come back to haunt me. See you on 19th - 21st January 2012 for the next winter edition.
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trade show review
GET BACK TO B.A.S.E The second edition of B.A.S.E (and the first of its summer showings) took place recently in Biarritz and the reaction from buyers and exhibitors was extremely positive. The B.A.S.E Workshop demonstrated its potential to be a far-reaching tradeshow, offering an ideal working platform for the world of boardsports and streetwear. Despite the added challenge for show organisers The Brotherhood team, who had the challenge of fitting the event in between larger industry gatherings like Bright, BBB and Capsule, achieved a fine balanced show of mixing business with pleasure.
resist the board tests offered by the hardgood brands outside. Formal or informal, meetings could be held on the stands or on the terrace outside. This laid back approach made it easy to do business as Seb Gilbert (SUPRA NIKITA RIDE sales rep) commented; "the synergy between brands is excellent and that benefits everyone."
Aware of the significance of such an event, as much for the industry as From an organisational point of view, simplicity and efficiency reigned for their order books; several brands accepted the invitation to get involved. thanks to logistics that were simple and targeted at brands. As Nicolas Pinot Alongside the trade show, Red Bull also (Lightning Bolt, France) pointed out; "you're decided to organise the finals of their manual in a good cost/risk ratio because the cost of skateboard contest ‘Manny Mania’ on the With its awe-inspiring views over the the trade show is attractive and you quickly plaza of the Biarritz Casino, starting on the recover your costs." first day of the show. line-up of the Grande Plage; it was hard The general feeling from retailers therefore Still in its infancy, the B.A.S.E. Workshop has to resist the board tests offered by the seems very positive. We are talking about a already become a key gathering for brands tradeshow that earns you time, money and and specialist boardsport and street culture that ultimately facilitates the life of retailers hardgood brands outside. retailers; 90% of the exhibitors consider when they are making their pre-orders for B.A.S.E. as an essential gathering of the the following summer. It's a chance to see boardsports industry. This year, the trade show oozed with quality from both the new brands, compare collections, meet representatives and commercial exhibitors and visitors, as Laurent Guillot (Royal Outdoor/Makia) pointed out; directors, to all come together under one roof," enthused Michel Edery from "what matters most is the quality of the retailers who are really the target of the shop Street Univers (Mérignac, 33). the brands present.” The same sentiment can be found amongst exhibitors, of which 64% estimate Moreover, the regional magnetism of the trade show quickly pulled crowds that the B.A.S.E. Workshop helped them to optimise their sales. Finally, the from all over France and even beyond as Yves Clémont (organiser of B.A.S.E.) one single reservation and adjustment that may be foreseen is that the dates explained; "out of the thousand professional visitors who attended, 13% were do not necessarily suit all retailers as Rémi Chaussemiche (RUSTY Marketing foreign." Coordinator) commented; "the timing is still a bit delicate because its the start of the season for coastal shops and the sales period for others." The exhibition space itself also seems to have appealed to everyone. Far from the cold, impersonal exhibition spaces of the big cities, the Municipal Get out your diaries! The next winter edition of the B.A.S.E Workshop is Casino in Biarritz welcomed this second edition of the workshop. With its already set for 5th – 8th February 2012. awe-inspiring views over the line-up of the Grande Plage, it was hard to
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retailer profile
SURF WORLD BUNDORAN DONEGAL IRELAND
"Our surf shop Surfworld Bundoran opened its doors in March 1990. It was started by our family ‘The Fitzgeralds’, my Mum Peggy was the driving force behind opening the business along with my three sisters, my brother and myself. When we opened it was one of only three surfshops in Ireland and the first in the northwest of the country. We opened it more out of nessesity than a good business idea because at the time as a family of surfers living in a great surfing area, with a good population of local and visiting surfers, there was nowhere to buy any surfing equipment or get any info. It started out very small scale and has grown into one of Ireland’s largest surf shops. Since 2008, myself and my wife Briohny own and run the business. She has a good business head on her and has transformed the place into a thriving business now incorporating two surf shops, a surf school and surf academy." What are the benefits of having a phyical shop over having an online shore? Having a phyical store is one of the strong points of our business. We have world class surf with a vast array of beaches, reefs and points for every level of surfer. We get surfers from all over the world coming to our coast year round for the waves, and being in such a core surfing destination hardware is a huge part of the business. Surfers want to pop in, buy their surf gear off real local surfers, try on their wetsuit, feel their board before buying, get daily surf info, forecasting and advice on where to surf. They like to see a face with the product and advice you can’t get that online. With what brands do you do most volume? In our hardwear section our top four sellers are C Skins, Billabong, Rip Curl and Alder. In our clothing and accessories range Animal, Protest and Billabong are our top three. What
makes
your store
different
and
in
what way does your store excel beyond your competition? Our store is unique firstly because of our long heritage in surfing both as a family and as a business. Secondly our business is growing and exceling because we provide the whole package of services from retail, to rental, accommodation and surf school. We always put customer service first and have a friendly atmosphere in the store providing a well organised service at a good price. How do you stay in touch with the needs and wants of your customers? I feel it is very important to listen to your customers and stay in touch with current trends and services while also maintaining the integrity and soul of your business and image. Social media sights like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are priceless in communication with your customers. In the modern market place you really need to be connected to your customers and it’s crutial to keep one step ahead and knowing what your customers want and expect. Customers needs and wants change all the time. You need to stay on top of this. How strong has the Irish financial crisis affected you shop? It has affected us in both ways good and bad, but thankfully mostly for the good. We have sourced different products and cheaper options for our customers, especially in hardwear, plus we have cut our margins on certain products. But it balances out and we have been growing every year throughout the recession. On the plus side many Irish and UK people are holidaying at home over the past three years, opting for shorter more frequent breaks at home - this has hugely helped our surf school and shop as more Irish people want to trys surfing. In addition, without the recession we wouldn’t have had the choice of staff to employ. We have young, enthusiastic, hard working and highly motivated staff working
for us and we couldn’t do it without them. What advice can you give other independant retailers who are trying to compete against the big box megastore? It’s all about hard work, commitment, honesty and consistency. Treat your customer as a person, not a sale. Differentiate yourself by offering something different and just run your business… don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. If you’re doing ok, then that’s all that matters. We have a 24/7 work ethos. We open early seven days a week before any other store. We have our daily shop, surf report and surf photo from that morning online on our website, Facebook, Twitter and MagicSeaweed before 7:30am every morning… so customers can go online and check the surf forecast over breakfast or on their way to work. They get all the info they need first thing. We have a very well stocked store with over 600 surfboards and 2000 wetsuits. We have loads of clothing and accessories and also a large range of second hand boards and wetsuits properly displayed. We have a range of surf rentals and a range of options to choose from the surf school. It’s also very important to be price competitive but not to undervalue your service and never ever drop your standards to compete for price. Most importantly make your store whether its big or small a destination for your customer that they can’t do without by having the right stock, services, staff and ALWAYS put customer service first. What is the biggest challange an independent retailer faces today and how do you meet the challenge? There are loads of challenges for the independent retailer. The biggest challenge is competition. For us we know that if we maintain our ethos of excellent customer service in addition to a great product and service for a fair price we will stay ahead and do well.
Richie Fitzgerald, Founder, SURF WORLD, MAIN ST, BUNDORAN, DONEGAL, IRELAND WWW.SURFWORLD.IE
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industry insight
from 1st January 2012, for every infringement of the Economic Modernisation Act (missing payment deadlines, not executing fines, not stipulating these new clauses in terms of use), a manufacturer/ distributor will run the risk of a â‚Ź15,000 fine - per offending outlet!
The Economic Modernisation Act Explained
by iker aguirre
Created on 4th August 2008, taking effect from 1st January 2009, the Economic Modernisation Act is meant to be the spark that reignites competition. Passed in France and pertaining to companies based on French territory, it will change the face of retail commerce. The Economic Modernisation Act (Loi sur la Modernisation de l’Economie) modifies the laws of articles L441-6 and related articles of French Commercial Law (Code de Commerce) and basically sets in stone a modification to clauses relating to payment deadlines. Retailers have to pay off their invoices within a period of no more than 60 days or 45 days end of month under penalty of late payment compensation, which must not be less than three times the legal rate of interest. Perceiving this law as a source of difficulty for the sector, EuroSIMA, following a joint effort with the French Federation of Sport and Leisure Industries (FIFAS), the Professional Federation of Sport and Leisure Businesses (FPS) and the National Council of Professional Cycling (CNPC), filed an interprofessional dispensatory agreement that provides for the progressive application of this law over the course of three years. This period is reaching its end. Used to finding the right solutions to minimise risk and maximise commercial potential of all parties, brands and retailers have always been able to count on creative means to provide some leeway from the letter of the law. So, from 1st January 2012, for every infringement of the Economic Modernisation Act (missing payment deadlines, not executing fines, not stipulating these new clauses in terms of use), a manufacturer/distributor will run the risk of a ₏15,000 fine - per offending outlet! Look at the Treasury coffers; do you really think they won't check? Companies who have recently tried to apply the law, even gradually, have had to withstand resistance, continual hassle or even operating loss due to deteriorating customer relations. Others, faced with the financial pressure of the crisis, have not been able to risk weakening an economy that's already in bad shape and have made the most out of the respite of the three-year period without considering that its coming into effect is inevitable.
But what options are available to us? Solution 1: The industry goes from a pre-order economy to re-stock and permanent stock. Retailers order according to their needs and according to stock availability. Risks: Predicting the needs of seasonal markets that are linked to imponderables such as the weather is a divine art. Every bad season will translate into monumental excess.
Stocks at brands/manufacturers who, under the weighty threat of bankruptcy, will empty their warehouses like mad...a sequel to 2008/09 if you prefer. It's pointless to hope for an improvement in banking conditions in such dicey circumstances. In the short term, retailers will see their situation improve but in the medium term they will be tributaries of hard to control destocking policies. Another important point is that only the strongest companies will be able to withstand the demands and risks of a permanent supply policy. Solution 2: Affiliation. The retailer sells products put at his disposal by brands that then remunerate them based on pre-negotiated commission. Risks: Loss of retailer independence and a standardisation of supply. What's more is that only the most powerful can allow themselves to finance affiliation commissions. The situation for the retailer is improved, especially if the affiliator does a good job and meets the demands of the market. Not all brands fit into this bill though... Moreover, can our industry survive without the creative independence of its retailers, without their flair for unearthing trends and new brands? Solution 3: Outsourcing their supply and invoicing centres to countries outside the Union. Risks: the Economic Modernisation Act ensures more competition but favours foreign countries to which the law does not apply. Henceforth, only French companies will suffer the consequences of a law that can be seen as a market share free-for-all that France is excluded from. The result will be a general decrease in competitiveness within the French boardsports industry to the benefit of foreign and often bordering countries' economies. Major implications, therefore, in terms of regional wealth and employment or even outsourcing and not starting up at all, which benefit the less restrictive European territories. Solution 4: Pick up the phone and call your suppliers/retailers and look for a solution together. Retailers, stop pinning these hardships on your suppliers. You are, alas, all fighting the same battle. To sum up: If you are French, prepare to follow the law from 1st January 2012 and ask yourselves the right questions in relation to your WCR, your accounts, and your sourcing policies and stock management. If you are not in France and you do business with France, you have another string to your bow. In France, we are sparking competition by making our own companies' lives more difficult. Competition (from abroad) is therefore strengthened. And if there are any survivors, the bar has been raised to such a level that only the biggest or financially strongest can survive. Very Darwinian... hats off to the brilliant economist who made a name for himself with this travesty.
photo:TSG
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trend preview
SS12 WOMEN’S SWIMWEAR PREVIEW There can’t be a girl (or a guy) on the planet who doesn’t dig women’s swimwear! Whilst the men’s options range from boardshorts to the banana-hammock, ladies have the luxury of choice, from the swimsuit to the Brazilian, and everything in between. And you can bet your bottom dollar that every girl will have a range photo: O'Neill
of bikinis in her arsenal and always need more in her drawer! Welcome folks to the SS12 Bikini Trend Guide. By Jojo Cook. THE BIG PICTURE
Cult Australian brand Insight have become a real player on the market, with A newer kid on the bikini-block is Fox, who launched their line in 2010. their women’s swim line now representing 30% of their global business. “Our customer really responded to the shock value and risks we took with “We definitely think our swim collection is one of our strengths… fun, the branding which no other swimwear brands would dare to take, so we frivolous, flirty and always fashionable, Insight’s line-up of swim stays pushed that a little further in our 2012 styles like ‘Ride On’ and ‘Rock On,” true to the naughtiness that a summer’s tide brings,” says CEO Stéphane comments Danette Drake, Director of Merchandising. The range reflects Vinolo. Another big player on the scene is Billabong; their SS12 range their moto roots and heritage combined with a tough edge and a touch of carries on the same themes as the apparel collections – namely music femininity. Staying on the motocross heritage brands, Brunotti say their festivals, art and the beach lifestyle. Says women’s Marketing Manager, inspiration is closely related to the romantic ocean lifestyle, such as the Christelle Kipping, “The line includes pieces treasures from the ocean and beach, like in eye-catching colours and flattering styles. shells, fishes and driftwood. Their collection The prints vary from simple solid colours to The dominating style for next summer brings five series with five different fits in ten stripes, floral patterns, polka dots and photo different prints and four colour lines, which prints. And the styles vary from the more will be the bandeau bikini, which is hot- creates a wide choice of combinations. romantic, with ruffled detail, to the ‘80s style surf bikini in bright colour blocks.” on-the-lips of many brands, including Protest, who say they have experienced “big, big growth” in their swim lines; “have Another established name on the scene Protest, Billabong, Reef, O’Neill, a complete and embellished swimwear range is O’Neill, who celebrate their diamond containing all sorts of bikinis, swimsuits anniversary next year. “The swimwear Lightning Bolt, Reef, Hurley, Pull In and and tankinis inspired by our exotic, voodoo, collection celebrates these 60 years of far east, ethnic, animal, and construction innovation by looking back over the illustrious themes. New for SS12 is our Deluxe bikiniBrunotti to name a few history as well as moving forward into the line containing 13 pieces for surf-lifestyle future. This is reflected in swimwear inspired fans but with a more mature and luxurious by the ‘50s with green and yellow pastel colours, a playful pineapple allover feel to it!” Meanwhile Oxbow say they have two themes for SS12, both based as well as a scribble allover taking its inspiration from Hawaiian surf culture on the great resurgence of surf culture: ‘Breaking the Line’ is inspired and in the style of ‘50s chic with high bikini bottoms and bandeau bustier by the concept of the line-up, interpreted by a play on horizontal waves. shapes,” says PR manager Lara Ellsworth-Jones. Meanwhile Rip Curl’s “The style is uncluttered, very minimalist, urban and young. Graphically, collection is also sounding hot, “the Rio Soul theme brings together the very the stylised wave lines come with photographic prints from the surf world,” best from the beaches of Copacabana. Multiple shapes and modular tops and they inform. The second theme, ‘We Come From The Sea’, is influenced shorts. You can practically here the samba playing on the fun-filled, vibrantly by a new movement of surfers on the North-Cal coast, “there are vintage colours of the ‘samba stripe’ – a multitude of small motifs set against a allusions… the treatment of the materials and colours gives a weathered, background of old picture postcards of Rio. Mix the prints and match the washed-out look.” shapes!” enthuses Communications Manager Marie-Pascale Delanne.
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trend preview
STYLES
photos: Volcom & Billabong
Moving on from themes to styles, the dominating style for next summer is the bandeau bikini, which hot-on-the-lips of many brands, including Protest, Billabong, O’Neill, Lightning Bolt, Reef, Hurley, Pull In and Brunotti to name a few! The obvious advantage of the bandeau is that it avoids strap-marks from sunbathing, and it also fits well under a strapless dress for après beach. Another emerging style set to take the rails by storm is the ‘50s shape, for example Pull In offer a high waist bottom, with a foldable belt for a retro style. Whilst most brands now offer a wealth of styles, they’re also paying attention to the diversity of the female body shape and offering them as separates. For example, Reef; “We provide all our bikinis separately as tops and bottoms. The end consumer can chose the required sizes and combine each item together. All bikini tops are available in three main shapes, halter-neck, triangle and the bandeau. Innovative bottom styles are provided as well.” Mix and match and separates have in fact become a key selling point for women’s swimwear, says Jessica Kent from Iron Fist, “it’s very important as all girls are different shapes and sizes, a size small girl may need a size large top!” Brands are also giving more consideration with tie-in to the mainline, providing increased merchandising opportunities for retailers. Hurley YC swim tell us that even their swim linings are colour-coordinated to achieve fantastic mix and match display. And Pull In, who are renowned for their fun prints, say that half of their swimwear prints are also available in the underwear collection and can also be found on beachwear accessories like flip flops, towels and headbands. Oxbow also offer a similar offering of complementary items, and Chiemsee say that due to several successful seasons they have now doubled the amount of beachwear items, shoes and bags in matching colours and designs to complete next summer’s collection. Body Glove are another brand who emphasise the importance of mix and match and tie-in back to the main clothing and accessories line. And Billabong swimwear can be coordinated with a variety of beach apparel called ‘Overswim’, which allows you to embellish your favourite piece with a beach dress, tee, pant and other swimwear accessories.
TECH
This season sees the progression of the O’Neill Superkini. This bikini is made from a Nanofront fabric that is designed to stick to the skin when wet. Developed with team surfers and seen on the O’Neill One Way Runway in Ibiza, the Superkini comes as a bandeau, an envelope as well as last year’s successful triangle shape for SS12. Another exciting innovation for next summer is Hurley’s Phantomkini – launching in Europe for the first time. “The Phantomkini is stretch woven, which contours to your body and provides support, it’s also lightweight and quick dry and comes in a signature palette of sun-kissed neon,” explains Hurley’s Nicolas Fouchet. It seems ‘sculpt’ is the name of the game next summer, Rip Curl launch their Mirage swimsuit (a continuation of their Mirage boardshort line), fronted by Hawaiian surf-goddess Alana Blanchard (who played a big part in its design, we’re told). It’s made from Italian Meryl microfibre, more commonly used in top-end ready to wear clothing. Explains Communications Manager MariePascale Delanne; “Regarded as the ‘silk’ of the lycra world, its fineness and softness gives it a second skin effect. It’s then lined and has strengthened stitching - its swimmer back and sexy lines define and sculpt the body.” Other technical innovations of note for next summer are the Oakley Compression Short, which has seen strong sell-through so far, and returns for SS12. Protest have developed “extra support innovations for bigger cup sizes”, whilst Oxbow say they have introduced “air-cushioned graduated cups” to improve comfort and drying on their push-up styles. Fox inform that they are always looking for the next new fabrication or technique; “shine and foil have always worked really well for us, so we found a new foil technique that is gunmetal iridescent and is fresh and new to the market. We also worked hard to find a new ‘wet look’ fabric that looks like leather but stretches and is fully functional swimwear.” And Zimtstern reveal a new line of boardshorts that tie-in with items in their mainline.
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PRINTS
A key trend in the new collections is the vintage-inspired theme. It’s evident at Pull In, who say there is “vintage spirit in their collection, thanks to dots, stripes and prints that make you think of the early surf years, as well as old guitars and rackets that make you think of the early tennis years.” O’Neill comment, “One of the most important prints we have in the collection is the Vintage Flower print which is featured in the Mix & Match program. It’s a garden flower with a very vintage feel. It’s mixed with a stripe to freshen it up.” Also on the nostalgic tip is Chiemsee, who celebrate 30 years of business next year, “hence we are going back to our roots, and Chiemsee aficionados may be reminded of the early collections and the revival of characteristic logos... the collection is dominated by allover prints in different styles like small checks, fine stripes and floral designs.” Prints play an integral part and make their distinct way to the Insight swim range each season, weaving their way into a tropical landscape; ethnic waves of batik, patchwork stripes and textured floral embroidery all form a stellar for the collection. At Iron Fist, three key themes and prints will be visible through the swimwear collection; crazy English Summer consisting of ginghams, polka dots, floral and some fun takes on patriot prints. Last Night’s party including slogans and animal prints reflecting the party culture of well-known fashion icons and finally Iron Fist’s original designs using a mixture of rebellious tattoo and stencil inspired artwork. So whatever styles/prints/ brands you go for, be sure to stock up on coordinating accessories, and give the girls a nice changing space with good lighting (preferably near the bikini rails) so she can feel comfortable and relaxed when she tries on that bandeau top and Brazilian thong.
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market insight
photo: O'Neill
T H E O NLY W A Y I S U P For some time now, snowboarders who love the great outdoors have been converting to split boarding. Having tried everything in the pursuit of their summits; such as snowshoes and mini skis, many riders have finally settled on the split-board, a set-up that allows easy access to the backcountry, and above all, doesn’t add extra weight on the way up. Remi Forsans investigates this developing market through an interview with Tom Wilson-North, buyer at Zero-G in Chamonix. It's difficult to say for sure who out of Duotone and Nitro were the first to delve into this market 15 years ago but one thing is certain, they were the two pioneers. Duotone really turned the screw by collaborating with several brands renowned in the touring world, launching the complete split-board package well before anyone else (beeper, shovel, probe, airbag). World market leader Burton caught hold of it at the end of the ‘90s and since then many manufacturers have started up and standards have been established. The American brand Voilé has undoubtedly become one of the leading brands thanks to their reliable interface (most other brands have also been using the Voilé interface for the last decade). Technical progress made in this sector, as well as snowboarding's natural demographic progression, has contributed to the increasing number of participants. In fact, the snowboarder population of the ‘80s, now aged 45+, hasn’t wasted any time in combining the pleasure of riding with the pleasure of exerting oneself in nature. Several other brands have joined this movement, such as global brands such as Atomic, Volkl, K2 and more core labels like Jones, Gnu or Lib Tech in addition to local independent brands. Technology from classic models transfers smoothly onto split-boards in two or three sections making them perform better. "People have been splitting for years,” explains Zero-G’s Tom Wilson-North. “Firstly in the States in the ‘90s and then toward the turn of the century in Europe. We had some of the first splits in Europe - Burton boards with the doomed Burton interface. I read about Johnny Barr being all excited about the things arriving at the shop and going straight up to Les Grands Montets to test them... then breaking both the setups within 20 minutes!” “Thankfully Voilé, the Utah-based telemark company, developed a competing system that was superior to the Burton interface and has become the standard for split-boards worldwide - it now works great. In Europe, every split ships with Voilé hardware. This is different to the States, where
boards are sold with hooks and tip/tail clips only. Of course everything really exploded last year with Jeremy Jones' Deeper movie. We held the premiere at the Cinema Vox in Chamonix late on a rainy Sunday night in October and it sold out way in advance. The film touched a lot of people, and most could relate to Jeremy's diatribe. His interest level in the sport had reached a plateau because of geographical limitations so he set out to find new challenges. That appeals hugely to the middle-aged snowboarder who's looking for the next development in a stagnated sport. How do your brands rank? Tom W-N: "Our ranking in terms of sales is as follows: Burton, Jones (not far behind), Voilé (long way back), Lib Tech (long way back as 2010/11 model didn't ship drilled or with hardware).” How big is the market? Tom W-N: "Let's not forget that although splitboarding is the new hot thing right now, that doesn't necessarily mean that there are an outrageous number of participants. France is definitely the biggest territory in terms of volume, but we've sold boards to buyers from the UK and Scandinavian territories because they just couldn't find what they were looking for in their countries." And the consumer? With a retail price between €750-1000 with the interface, split-boards are aiming at an affluent clientele who will not necessarily buy in a core shop. Mountain equipment shops might well become quickly interested in this new segment that is proving so key in the market reaching maturity. "We sell splits to the middle and older segments of the market. No one under 30 has bought one from us. It's a group of people with reasonable disposable income; who have been influenced by the Deeper film and the increasing choice of product. We don't really sell to gear-heads, who seem to be more into splitting their own stuff and want something a little more unique. There's not a huge amount of margin in split-boards, because they are a pain to set up and since it's a big-ticket purchase, the client always walks out with a little geste commerciale."
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trend preview
photo:Von Zipper
Look me in the eye ! Eyewear Trends 2011-12
The accessory is the promised land of profit for those who know how to harvest it and a dust gathering, hard labour camp of loss for others. Sunglasses are no exception so what better than a trend report for turning metal to gold. Report by Iker Aguirre. General Trends
The market is moving toward a subtle transition that will leave oversized frames and other eccentric shapes in the dark. Immo Paulsen of Arnette explains that; "With a weak economic situation, the majority of people go for the safe option that can last for a few seasons. That means classic styling, low base-curves and basic colours with colour accents." Lance Hakker from Ashbury simply told us that ‘creative wearability’ is where it’s at for them; "we always try to remember that we’re making sunglasses that you’re supposed to wear on your face, something you’re supposed to wear. Nothing too spacey or distracting." Technical aspects, whether intrinsic characteristics or the materials used, are becoming a major factor once again. Suddenly we are confident that the transition to a new technological era has begun after a decade of fashion calling the shots. Sunglass geeks can rejoice because we are entering a new era of innovation. Oakley, besides classics like HDO®, are putting faith in easily interchangeable lenses with Switchlock® technology. Dragon and Brunotti are heralding the arrival of lenses that are water and oil repellent, and chromatic (i.e. adjust to lens colour to light levels automatically). Stronger than ever, polarised lenses have become a necessity for all brands with some innovations such as Tri-Pel from Rip-Curl that feature Carl Zeiss filters, the same optical laboratory that supplies Ashbury lenses. We also recommend that you try out the new Von Zippers in the range and particularly Meloptic® lenses, Light-Sight Glass Polarised and the TriMotion Polarised. You should also check out the mineral polarised lenses from Electric, which could offer a promising return. In our market, he who says technical says sport, a taboo word that rhymed
with dork in the new millennium. These days, however, it has become a synonym of opportunity once more. We will see what the market tells us in 2012/13 but we are ready to bet that sport will continue to gain some market share. This time, sports functionality will rhyme with fashion and, as Maarten Weidema from Brunotti assures us, the objective is to "combine fashionable products with functional features specific to sport." Rip Curl, Animal and Dragon are aiming in the same direction without neglecting the importance of a popular look. So it's fair to predict that brands such as Oakley, Animal and Quiksilver, the heavyweights of the category, will benefit from this trend. Oakley is stating loud and clear, "We cover a variety of segments, one of which is lifestyle, but our heritage is performance eyewear where we lead the market with breakaway technologies and aggressive designs." Bolstered by their design intelligence, the Swedish brand Poc, having already revolutionised the world of sports protection, now have a clear vision that won't take long to start bearing fruit. Oscar Huss expands; "Since design and trends are subject to subjective opinions, our strategy is to make sure we have the highest level of performance and designs that we are comfortable with - trendy or not." Refreshing, a brand that dares to differ! If sport is regaining its noble status - a base trend that will take years to prove -demand for sunglasses will be passed onto sport retailers rather than opticians, good news for boardsport shops who dream of reliving times-of-plenty like the Golden Age of Arnette Ravens and those gems from Oakley. As for eco-friendly products, they don't seem to be a major preoccupation any more. It's hard to accept but the inevitable has come to pass: 'green' has run out of steam like a passing fad. Props go to Rip Curl with their RPC (Rip
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trend preview
Curl Planet) Eyewear, Smith and Animal who are paying special attention to their own environmental responsibility. Finally, many brands are handling the women's market with care. Trends often change too fast in relation to the brands reactive capacity and their stock rotation. Many are therefore hiding behind unisex shades while Roxy are stealing the show. We have to commend the efforts of Von Zipper who have dedicated a campaign exclusively to promoting their feminine products. Oakley have "identified the active women's market," launching a range exclusively aimed at them, which "combines attributes from our performance product line and is inspired by fashion trends."
Surface Trends
After two seasons; “colour is again making a comeback from the more subtle palettes of the past few seasons” as Hillary Balch from Dragon explains. Axel Brosch of Oakley doesn't hesitate to add an important point, “Colours are becoming more important and matching your sunglasses to your outfit is essential.” Indeed, more than ever sunglasses are becoming an important accessory and almost everyone has more than one pair in their quiver. Colour, type of day and purpose – there are lots of reasons for diversification. Playing with transparency and matte tones also has a role to play, in Fox's Crystal Clear Collection for instance. Classic models inspired by '50s and '60s films have crept back into current fashion are the big trend for 2011/12. It's what Ryan Nix at Sabre calls "modern interpretations of shapes from bygone eras." Pacôme Allouis from Electric describes it as a "retro-rock, vintage and oldies" trend. Lens colour is becoming the new playground for fashionistas, especially mirrors of all tones. Oakley excel in their choice of lens even with all other brands pulling out all stops to offer an alternative to this demand. Gigantic logos, now the kitsch reserve of luxury brands, have lost their lustre and VZ’s Sébastian Marcq confirms that "Consumers have less desire to wear huge logos on their heads", concluding that "we offer designs with more subtle branding." Along with Rip Curl, Hilary Balch from Dragon aims a bit further and assures that, "in high fashion and boutique styling lately, we’re seeing a lot of mixing of unexpected elements and patterns, sort of a ‘juxtapose’ trend. This trickles down to eyewear, but in a more subdued and diluted manner. Unexpected colour combos, details, and materialisations are strong design trends for the present and the future of eyewear."
Challenges for the Category
"In the boardsports channel, the eyewear category represents a mere 2% to 4% of the revenue of a retailer and sales staff are missing technical education to better sell our products to consumers," proffers Sebastian Marcq from VZ. Indeed, the training provided to product advisors in shops is a major weakness in the category. It's impossible to sell a product at €100 or more when, as Pacôme Allouis points out, "you can find entry level sunglasses at very attractive prices." Quality is worth it but you have to be able to get your point across! Pragmatically, Lance Hakker of Ashbury sums up, "The more the sales people know, the more the retailer is going to sell." There are many who perceive the competition of entry-level products as a major problem for the market. Sébastian Marcq is very direct about this, "Shops shouldn’t carry cheap frames as the lens quality is very poor. The liability could be deadly for the store if a consumer complains of a burnt retina."
32.
photo: Oakley
Compared to last year, certain trends have persisted without showing signs of fading away like the '80s influence as seen with the Aviator style models and the crushing domination of the Ray Ban Wayfarer, property of Luxottica, a group that is only really throwing scraps to the others in the category.
Classic models inspired by '50s and '60s films have crept back into current fashion are the big trend for 2011/12. It's what Ryan Nix at Sabre calls "modern interpretations of shapes from bygone eras We identified the children's category last year as having development potential, particularly because of the increase in shop footfall of preadolescent customers seeking an 'adult' image. However, only Quiksilver, Roxy, Animal, Arnette and Brunotti are present in this segment at present. Oscar Huss of Poc is also condemning a lack of originality in the market because "many brands are running in the same direction, making frames impossible to identify without looking at the logo." Yet, as a renowned optician explained during an off-the-record interview with your correspondent, "The main challenge for boardsports brands in sunglasses is that their style has strayed far from a purely boardsports look. They have the tendency to be inspired by what's around them and their legitimacy in action sports is no longer a sales argument for nonparticipants like it was in the '90s so the consumer will look for this legitimacy at its source, even at who inspired the trend." And so, backed up by Rip Curl and Von Zipper, Pacôme Allouis from Electric underlines that boardsports brands are suffering from a "return to the fore of historical, mass appeal brands." Moreover, Sébastian Marcq of Von Zipper, pragmatic as ever, knows how to face reality head on. "Due to the increase of financial pressure of holding inventory of the right products, companies will certainly look to reduce their SKU count on their line plan." This is a reality that we can already see at some brands. So boardsport sunglasses are still trying to find themselves. Brands today face the great challenge of daring to be different and finding the Holy Grail look that is specific to us and not borrowed from fashion brands whose only guarantee is inconsistency in their lasting appeal. Nowadays, the boardsports look is a borrowed look, an illegitimate copy. Is there one that we can all agree upon so we can become a force of inspiration and not of reproduction? This is the real challenge for the boardsports sunglass market that, until it overcomes this, will be reduced to the lowly rank of follower, behind opticians and big luxury brands, a position that hardly suits us.
www.boardsportsource.com : for individual brand opinions
We want to be a leader, but more importantly, we think there is so much opportunity to grow participation globally.
bigwig interview
Dan Burris
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Bastian Renard The infamous Nike Swoosh logo is beginning to gain real legitimacy in boardsports, although the path to success has not been an easy one. SOURCE talks to Dan Burris, Global Action Sports GM & Bastian
in everything we do, not only in product, but on marketing initiatives: the way we bring events and experiences to the consumer. When we look at an event like The Pool in the UK, it is a great representation of bringing something fresh and having a story telling around the athletes. It is also a great example of our commitment to each of the sports. We really want to create excitement in the industry and bring something new and fresh to the consumer. Nike has been airing action sport commercials on mainstream TV channels throughout the summer. Is that something you are expecting to do in Europe too? Bastian Renard: Yes - we launched our TV campaign on mainstream TV and cinema in eight different markets this summer. We are also launched the first 3D spot in cinema which you will see in Europe by the time this article appears. Europe, besides some sporadic national ad campaigns on TV, has never witnessed a consistent presence of action sports on mainstream TV, besides non-endemic brands making a non-legitimate use of these. Will Nike help cover that gap and help change that? Bastian Renard: Our campaign is a great example of Nike leading in that direction but all action sports are coming up and getting more and more visibility. In that sense, the gap in shrinking a lot between Europe and the US and we need more effort from everybody: brands, media, event organisers to bring more awareness of action sports.
Renard, Global Brand Manager Action Sports about the Swoosh, the future, and their commitment to action sports. Interview by Iker Aguirre.
BECOMING A KEY PLAYER IN EUROPE So you don’t think the evolutionary differences between Europe and the US may generate a difference in the results you will obtain in terms of business?
FROM OUTSIDER TO INSIDER Finding the formula to get into boardsports has not been easy for Nike. What have been the biggest lessons you have learned when finding a way to penetrate a market such as action sports? Dan Burris: It is all about commitment. When we are not committed as a brand we are probably not at our best. It takes form a few ways. First it’s about working with the best athletes who really want to work with the Nike brand, who want to make performance products and are passionate about growing the sport. Second it’s about committing to retailers and to the core, building relationships and trust for the long term. Then it is about committing to the industry and going deep into the community. For me it is also about being humble and willing to learn and surround yourself with people who can teach you about the industry; and letting people know you are there for the long term. Those are the biggest things we took away. Sandy Bodecker had a similar experience through soccer and we were able to learn from that.
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What role will Nike play, beyond intensive marketing, to stay legitimate for the long term and maintain its insider position? Dan Burris: We want to elevate action sports and help them get to the level of other sports. That is what gets us excited about it: the opportunity.
MARKETING PILARS Nike is bringing avalanches of freshness to the market with intensive, creative and superlative marketing operations such as The Pool, The Chosen campaign, the JDI campaigns and the Nike Roundhouse in Anglet. What are the most important values Nike wants to transmit through these? Bastian Renard: Nike is a symbol of creativity and innovation. Innovation is really embedded in the DNA of the company. Those two pillars are critical
Bastian Renard: No, every market is different and we adapt to each of them. We have a great team in Europe and there are lots of passionate action sports enthusiasts. The gap we used to have a few years ago is shrinking drastically. But there are no action sports retail chains, such as Zumiez or Pac Sun, in Europe. How can you remain core and reach volumes in a market where you are either core or mainstream with no real meeting in the middle? Dan Burris: That is an interesting issue. There is a bit more complexity in the European marketplace but we want to make sure we commit to the core. Action sports is an industry where the specialty
retailer is important. The small guys add up and make a difference. You need to remain committed there. The opportunity is to look at future partnerships that lead you to a Pan-European opportunity around retail and action sports. That is what consumers are going to demand. In Europe, word on the street says Nike is a company who knows how to invest and commit to the future without letting short-mid-term return on investment demands dominate all logic. Is that true? Dan Burris: Yes. One of our commitments is always doing things right. It takes patience to do that. We always look long-term when we talk about building a business. You have to have some patience for that. There is a balance about doing things right to the core and being able to inspire the mainstream. It is that long-term commitment. Which are the main countries in Europe for the brand? Dan Burris: We are focusing in Western Europe now: UK, France, Spain and Germany specifically. These are some of our primary focus. They are the most developed when it comes to action sports communities and culture. We see a great potential in central and Eastern Europe, where the culture and the participation are growing. Nike works on a generation base. You focus on a new generation to send your message, in a long-term strategy, is that correct? Dan Burris: Yes, we speak generationally. And that is ten years. There is a big commitment when you talk about a generation. Nike 6.0, when it started, represented that, focused on the next generation of action sports athletes. That is the kind of commitment you have to have as a brand.
ALL FOR THE SWOOSH Nike ACG, Nike SB, Nike 6.0, Nike Snowboarding… Wasn’t that confusing for your consumers? Bastian Renard: I don’t think so, in a way that all those brands were dedicated to a different type of community. Look at Nike SB and how it has committed to core skateboarding over ten years now. It is a great example of us going deep, being patient and committed to that particular community. Nike 6.0 is the same way. We targeted a different generation and a different group of kids. It was about building blocks and building different areas of the industry and going deep in each of these communities.
But don’t all those communities see you simply as Nike? Bastian Renard: Eventually, yes. That is exactly where we are going next. We listen to our athletes, to our consumer and after 10 years the consumer’s shifted a little bit. If you look back 10, even five years ago, the consumer was probably not ready to embrace the Swoosh as much as they are today. If we are talking about the future, this is exactly where we are going. It is about Nike. The first example is our athletes simply saying they are part of Nike, they want to be like Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James. It is about the Swoosh and about Nike, not about Nike SB or Nike 6.0, it’s about Nike. We listen to that feedback and realise the consumer is ready to make that shift and that is what is going to happen over the next year. Can we imagine in the future everything will be under the same umbrella, with no sub-brands? Bastian Renard: Yes, we do want to elevate the Swoosh. It is about Nike in action sports. We are committed to each of the sports we are in today. Sub-brands are going to fade away after a while so the Swoosh can be elevated to take ownership of who is Nike and what the brand brings to the industry and each of these communities. Part of Nike’s success has been your commitment to the core (particularly in skate) and the special attention to details with even the creation of sub-brands. What will the brand do to remain true to the core and specialty skate retailers if the sub-brands go away? Dan Burris: We are elevating the Swoosh and the conversation we are having around the brand. Our commitment to the core is going to be stronger than ever. But just so we’re clear, SB isn’t going away. That is not going to change. We are still going to deliver exclusive products and service to our retailers. It is what we call our Gold Standard Service for retailers. We will continue building deep relationships with them. Bastian Renard: Nothing else is changing within the 6.0 brand. The same amount of energy is being put into marketing; none of the athletes are being dropped. The only thing that is changing is the switch towards the Swoosh logo. We are talking about a label that is evolving but our commitment, the way we bring participation to the market, and the way we commit to the athletes and the consumer all stays the same. Our role and what we bring to the industry is not changing. It is going to get better and stronger. Which brings consistency, correct? Dan Burris & Bastian Renard: Exactly.
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photo: Rip Curl
trend preview
From greenroom to boardroom
Men’s SS12 Surfwear Trend Report Surfwear. Yep, that’s what we’re calling it: surf and beach wear, perhaps even a little streetwear. What granddad would call ‘surf lifestyle clothing’ actually it’s really just more like the apparel collections of the surf brands we all love. Find out what’s coming in Spring/Summer 2012 and prepare your shop for a more workable inventory. Category Surfwear?
It seems logical, especially for larger brands with broad sweeping appeal, that present volumes of SKUs each catalogue, to categorise surfwear as its own line within a collection. And although this is not yet the case, there was a definite acknowledgement of surfwear as a unique category of apparel, itself segmented based on functionality: in-water (swimwear next issue) and out of water, essentially surf-inspired streetwear. “Different usage asks for different designs and fabrics,” say Protest. “Surfwear is definitely more technical. Streetwear lines are also designed towards other moments of the day… from casual hoodies or t-shirts when you just come out of the water to nice shirts to wear in town.” Brunotti presents a ‘Sport and an Explore’ collection, the latter consisting of “after-surfing” articles like tees, polos, shirts, walkshorts and hoodies. “This way you can live the boardsports lifestyle during office or school times.” Fantastic! So you can cutback those work hours or race the section of the school day you don’t like… Oakley, on the other hand say they do not separate ‘surfwear’ and ‘streetwear’ lines in a classic way; “We’re a Californian brand celebrating its heritage by erasing the line between form and function.” While at least acknowledging this functional distinction is unavoidable, there is also a pragmatic motivation behind avoiding blatant segmentation. Namely: appeal. Lightning Bolt say that they are “a lifestyle brand that we feel has a natural appeal to both markets (i.e. surf and non). The company was originally built by surfers for surfers, but has evolved to become something that I think everyone can appreciate.” And what’s not to appreciate?
Themes and Influences
Although it’s not essential, checking out the trailer of a movie helps you decide on whether or not to bother heading to the cinema. In much the same way, discovering the inspirations and themes of a clothing collection can
help you understand their intent, and further, assist customer purchase. However, simply remembering this stuff can be just as valuable as actually understanding it, so take note. While surf may be the dominant underlying inspiration of all surfwear collections, there’s got to be a greater influence producing the diverse end results we find ourselves dressed in. “Reef operates in the surfwear lane. We look to all areas of fashion, music and athletes for inspiration. We are also a global brand and are inspired by travel and exotic locations. We then filter all trend information through our ‘Modern Gypsy’ and ‘Exotic Beach’ points of view to make the product Reef.” For the SS12 RVCA collection, influences are definite but diverse: from a “70's Venice Beach style – a feeling of Californian vintage skate era” to a “Clean black style, which reminds the powerful personality of Ian Curtis of Joy Division…” Insight is also pulling inspiration from the hippy’s glory decade, with a “70's bohemian vibe, reflected through ethnic detailing and embroidered finishes.” Again distinct while diverse, they contrast this with military influences, punk references and “New wave grunge – the manner in which the whole collection is styled together - taking a laissez-faire approach and mixing all of the above to create your own vibe.” As if to counter logic and statements made, albeit with huge success, DC comes in from a roots point of view; “Our heritage is skateboarding and we bring that street vibe to surfing... so our apparel line has a more street aesthetic with a nod to surf.” Whatever works! And it sure appears to be working.
Colours To Come
While there was some mention of tonals, pastels and washed-outs within brand response for SS12 surfwear, most notable was talk of definite colours. Specifically blue, in a wide array of shades thereof. Protest say
photo: RVCA
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trend preview
they will be using, “Black, of course, and aqua or other strong blues.” Body Glove: “Pink, green, blue /navy.” Santa Cruz: “Grey, green and navy.” Rip Curl: “Lake blue (mix of green and blue).” Reef: “Blue, and all shades of it.” Even Fox: “Feel really good about bold colors like orange and variations of bright blues. Of course black is always a dominant color for us as well.” At least, then, perhaps we won’t be hearing that blue is the new black.
"We can expect the more fitted cut to continue most prevalent for SS12, offering cleaner lines for a more considered presentation"
But don’t let all this give you the blues, there’s a lot more colour coming your way in SS12. Chiemsee talks of fresh and funky colours like yellow, raspberry and the well-known signature orange. Besides the great range of classic colours, Oakley say that we can expect to see a lot of fresh mixtures of… wait for it… “An intensive blue, such as our fluid blue together with some greys and whites for the lifestyle/streetwear customer. A light and bright red, which we call redline in combination with black and neutral colours for a customer with a more mainstream assortment and an existing, fresh mix of sulphur yellow with directional greens and purple colourways for the core consumer.” DC’s colour pick consists of brights such as our kelly green, blazing red, blazing yellow and olympian blue. “Of course, black never goes out of style for us. We're also incorporating some of the pop colours, such as hot red-orange into our staples...” they divulge. Lightning Bolt elaborates a little further, presenting for a “strong coloration that ranges from earth tones to pop colors. The earth tones relate the natural aesthetic where the pop colours have always been good for the water where its all about fun and sun.”
Surf Silhouette
While inspirations and colour names seem to change each season, almost through necessity, cut and style take a more gradual approach to transformation. We’ve been witnessing the slimming of the male silhouette for a few years now – all the way down to jeans that would make Iggy Pop proud and back up to slim/fitted, with the consumer adapting their style within this range.
Beyond this basic tendency, RVCA notes that they are backing what they term the “Basquiat style”, which combines different silhouettes as the oversize top with a fitted bottom. Rip Curl notes that we can expect to see a more “loose (wider) collar for t-shirts.” Both looks, you’ll agree, are exhibited more frequently on the street. In terms of bottoms, one notable change occurring right now, and continuing stronger into SS12, is that of shorts becoming shorter; Ripzone sees “shorter inseams becoming increasingly important in swimtrunks and walkshorts,” although they feel “the 22 inch outseam remains the standard length in boardshorts category.” An additional shorts feature that garnered strong mention is their ability to be worn both in and out of the water, aided by what Rusty describe as the continued importance of “technicity and fabrics.” Reef feel that this category “has really taken off as it speaks to many types of customers.” These hybrid, or amphibious, items may just be the next big seller. These, and walkshorts, and amphibious shorts for walking.
Back to Core
Given surf’s strong heritage and the wide scope of influence it has exerted, it should come as no surprise that surfwear is experiencing a return to its roots; perhaps as a need to claim its own in a world of biters and claimers, or maybe simply in rightful self appreciation. “If you look at the key trends in fashion you will see surf play a big influence on the contemporary market.
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photo: Rip Curl
Without doubt we can expect the more fitted cut to continue most prevalent for SS12, offering cleaner lines for a more considered presentation. “In shorts and t-shirts we will see a slight tendency towards a slimmer fit, such as we saw in denim before,” say Oakley. However, “due to the functional aspects of surfwear this will be decided at point of sale on an individual level by the consumer, depending on what he uses the surfwear for the most.”
High-end designers are referencing the idea of surf culture to promote their campaigns, although, they haven't established relevance within the actual market. Lightning Bolt's roots will always stay true to surf culture and those who participate in it. We don't look at it as a trend, rather a constant source or inspiration from which we progress.” Whether remaining consistently in touch with surf roots or coming from a contemporary surf standpoint, retro will play a big role in coming seasons, which is refreshing. From the apparel office at Reef: “I feel that design is returning to what surf is all about and its heritage in 2012.” Let’s hope that doesn’t mean giant, cover-all bikinis in their next calendar… “The core trend at the moment is the come back to a more retro style, really inspired by the late 60's early 70’s”, say Rusty. “Which is funny because definitely core surf, but at the same time it can seduce a way wider target.” Read: increased sell-through! Stocking an apparel collection is never easy, and like sex there’s never anyone there to hold your hand to ensure unwavering success each time – you’ve just got to jump in and trust your instincts. (That, and do a little extracurricular reading.) Here’s to surfwear celebrating itself in SS12, to all shades of blue, and to wearing shorts straight from the green room to the boardroom.
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industy insight
Stoking out the Scene
Skateboard Events Trend Report 2011
photo: Vans
Every skateboarder remembers his first skate event. Maybe it was at a demo, or a big-ticket comp. Maybe it was just a video premiere, highest ollie contest, art show or Game of S.K.A.T.E. at the core shop downtown. No matter the event format, you will remember it for the rest of your life. Because on that day you connected with skateboard culture in a broader context. You met like-minded skaters. You saw the pro with the ripping video part in real life. You got an autograph or walked home with some free product. In any case, you were stoked to be a skateboarder. At the end of the day, it’s hard to arrive at an exact number value of how much events contribute to sales or profits. But even despite the recent economic crunch, select core brands keep stoking out the scene while finding new – and even inexpensive – ways to spread skateboarding’s message. In this SOURCE Trend Report, we ask about their motivations and success formulas, and learn about the three ‘Mega Trends’ in the events segment.
Different formats, different outcomes
Traditionally, skate events can be divided into two main categories: contests and demos. Each format offers distinct benefits for companies and the scene at large. “Only a few years ago, competitions were the only occasions for the kids to see and maybe meet their favorite pros, but they were also the proving ground where unknown skaters could have the possibility to make a breakthrough appearance, and get some attention from leading brands,” says Mathieu Tourneur of Podium Distribution. A demo tour, on the other hand, “means promotion for a certain brand, and by extension all the brands for which the [participating] pros are skating,” comments Jörg Ludewig, co-owner or Jefferson & Urban Supplies Distribution. “The ideal outcome would be for the brand to get a real boost from the tour, but of course that is hard to measure.” Recently, a third category has emerged, which could be called “interactive” events (see Mega Trend #2) that invite the scene to come out and play without involving organised demos or competitions. The most prominent example is Emerica’s annual ‘Wild in the Streets’ series. For the seventh installment on Go Skateboarding Day - June 21 2011, more than 1,000 skateboarders hit the streets of downtown Los Angeles for a day of all-out mayhem with pros including Andrew Reynolds, Leo Romero, Jerry Hsu, Brandon Westgate, and Bryan Herman. Says Don Brown, VP of Marketing at Sole Technology: “Emerica’s Wild in the Streets is a community event that raises awareness for skateboarding and its positive impact on today’s youth. It has drawn thousands of skateboarders to events in New York,
Vancouver, Montreal, Madrid, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Tampa…. basically all around the world!” This year’s events benefitted the Sole Tech charity ‘Boards for Bros,’ which empowers underprivileged youths with refurbished skateboards.
Doing it big: Event highlights
A quick look at the European events calendar reveals some clear standouts. In terms of competitions, the Copenhagen Pro Event (CPH) is the biggest magnet for international pros at the moment: “The event started with 1,000 visitors and now gets 45,000 viewers on live podcasts and coverage in more then 14 countries,” says Mathieu Tourneur. The event is also supported by Dwindle, whose European marketing manager Sami Seppala says; “The increasing prize purses show the status of skateboarding, no matter what your take on that is.” Over in the US, big payouts await at the Street League and Maloof Money Cup series, with up to $180,000 for first place per event. “We put on events to continue our recognition as a core skate brand, as one of the most popular skate shoe manufacturers and distributors,” says Christophe Deneulin at DC Shoes, official sponsor of Street League and European events such as the Riot Tour, Lace'Em Up and also CPH Pro. For the European scene, the annual etnies European Championships in Basel are the biggest ticket: “For ten years, this event has bought together the best skaters in Europe. Not only did it create a platform for the top riders to be recognised, it also helped to promote skateboarding to millions of households throughout Europe,” says Don Brown. Nick Street, Marketing Manager EMEA Vans, Reef & Pro-Tec says; “Over the last 45 years, Vans has organised many Events, more recently some globally important ones for us are the Pro-Tec Pool Party, Maloof Money Cup, Downtown Showdown and Bondi Bowl-a-Rama to name a few. We actively adapted the Downtown Showdown for EMEA, giving the European Hardware Brands an opportunity for exposure. Events such as this have a considerate financial and resource commitment.”
How It’s Done: Success Formulas
Events don’t have to be mega happenings to hit home (see Mega Trend #3). Mathieu at Podium says: “Sometimes less is more!” Sami at Dwindle points out: “The closer and the more interactive with the audience, the better. Food, beer, and a sick spot equal a winning combo!” Christophe at DC puts emphasis on keeping it real: “You need to be involved in the
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industry insight skate scene to get a good network and have credibility in order to make skaters come to your events. Everyone knows each other in this market on a certain level.” Nick Street at Vans said: “With everything we do, we listen to our most valuable asset - the team. We share initial ideas and get their feedback before we execute any event. Having some of our ex-pros working full time at the brand really helps to make sure we take care of all the important details. “It's not about the biggest VIP area or the best after party - it's about creating something that the competitor as well as the spectator can enjoy and come away from with a lasting impression.”
1 2 3 4 5
Five Rules for Successful Shop Events Be realistic about resources. If your town is lacking a skate park, you can still throw a contest outside your store on a manual pad or flat rail, or have a Game of SKATE or highest ollie contest. Video premieres and after-parties can be hosted at the local club or concert venue (see trend #3). Know your scene. If the skaters in your town are deep thugging hiphoppers, don’t invite a team of heavy metal hessians for a demo (and vice versa). If the skaters in your town lack a competitive streak – or are too young – a demo may work better than a contest. Network your event, even outside the skate scene. Get some ‘mainstream’ sponsors on board, such as the local bank, brewery or the Boy Scouts (heck, Street League is sponsored by the US Navy!) Talk to local venues into hosting your party, and get skater bands to play a show. Beat the marketing drum. Distribute flyers in advance at schools and skate parks, and reactivate your message in the days running up to the event. Update your shop website, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts. After the event, post videos and photos. There’s always the Internet. If a live event just isn’t feasible, you can always host a best trick video or best photo contest online and let your scene vote on the winners. You don’t even need your own website – just count who gets the most “Likes” on Facebook.
Don Brown suggests connecting events to a bigger cause, “such as a fundraiser that raises money for a local charity. This really helps to generate good will in the local community, stories for the local press and helps the non-skaters hear about it and give the skate community more respect. There’s also a better chance of the community embracing a local skatepark being built.” Based on these learnings, skate brands are always progressing their event offerings. Here are the three biggest Mega Trends at the moment:
MEGA TREND #1: Digital connection
The Internet provides a chance for the entire global skate community to watch events via webcast or updates. According to Sami at Dwindle, their events are, “always on the brands’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. A lot of the riders have their Twitter accounts and the dudes have a following so the fans are on the pulse.” Don Brown at Sole Technology says: “Digital marketing has really helped events with their ROI since today you can reach a much wider audience whether you are doing a live webcast or just doing updates throughout the event.”
MEGA TREND #2: Interactive formats
We live in a time where everyone’s a star in their own right, so involving the kids is only logical. Live events like Emerica’s Wild in the Streets mobilise thousands of skaters for a no-holds-barred public happening, and practically anyone can enter Manny Mania or the éS Games of SKATE. Savvy brands also use events to collect contact information from spectators on-site, most of which are already followers on Facebook. Says Christophe at DC: “Nowadays, social networks are a boost. They allow a direct, quick and efficient interaction with customers. Web 2.0 allows them logically to be part of the brand, for example by liking an article, adding comments and so on.” Interactivity can also blend the “real” world with online formats, for example Nike SB’s “The Chosen” video contest in support of the brand’s latest ad campaign. On a similar note, European hardgoods brand Nomad Skateboards is hosting a Best Trick Contest – entirely online. Anyone can participate, anyone can vote – and the winners receive big product packages. What’s not to “Like”?
MEGA TREND #3: Back to the roots
Grass roots activity still rocks. “I'd estimate we're involved in 20 grassroots events across EMEA on any given summer weekend,” said Sami at Dwindle. Mathieu at Podium notes: “There are already loads of grassroots events, mostly at retail level, that are supported by brands, and even ready-togo concepts like the Lord Of The Line competition.” Nick Street at Vans said: “Vans is built around its people and the ideas that come from it and events are one of the best catalyst to showcase these. An event can still be core but it can be in a public space talking to people not familiar with skateboarding. If one kid picks up a board because he or she has been inspired then it has already been worth the effort.” Letting the good times roll and remembering what keeps us all stoked is worth the cost and should be enough to justify the investment. Says Don Brown: “Don’t get too caught up in ROI and metrics… just measure success by how big the smiles are on everyone’s faces!”
photos: Top: Etnies. Bottom: Vans
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DON'T GET CAUGHT SHORT... Alpine Stars
Alpine Stars
Alpine Stars
Alprausch
Alprausch
Alprausch
Analog
Analog
Analog
Animal
Animal
Animal
Billabong
Billabong
Billabong
Brunotti
Brunotti
Brunotti
Chiemsee
Chiemsee
Chiemsee
DC
DC
DC
Element
Element
Element
Elwood
Etnies
Etnies
Etnies
Fox
Fox
Fox
Globe
Globe
Globe
Gotcha
Gotcha
Gotcha
Horsefeathers
Horsefeathers
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DON'T GET CAUGHT SHORT...
Horsefeathers
Hurley
Hurley
Hurley
Independent
Independent
Independent
Insight
Insight
Iron Fist
Iron Fist
Iron Fist
Kr3w
Kr3w
Kr3w
Light
Light
Light
Lighting Bolt
Lighting Bolt
Lighting Bolt
Loreak Mendian
Loreak Mendian
Makia
Makia
Makia
Nike 6.0
Nike 6.0
Nike 6.0
Oakley
Oakley
Oakley
O'Neill
O'Neill
O'Neill
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Oxbow
Oxbow
Protest
Protest
Protest
Pull-In
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DON'T GET CAUGHT SHORT...
Pull-In
Pull-In
Quiksilver
Quiksilver
Quiksilver
Reef
Reef
Reef
Rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm
Rip Curl
Rip Curl
Rip Curl
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Santa Cruz
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Volcom
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Zimtstern
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B E S T SELLERS
Retailers... Would you like to be featured in Best Sellers? Email clive@boardsportsource.com
BRINGING YOU THE LATEST NEWS & VIEWS FROM THE RETAIL FRONT LINE
skate
SKATE
SKATE
SURF
surf
snow
*Pure
Attitude Sk8
Criminal
No Way Surf Shop
SantoLoco
Funparks
What is your best selling category and why? In past year, skateboard hardgoods are our best sellers. There are several reasons for this, most importantly, *Pure is the only core skate shop in the northern part of Athens. Moreover, skateboards and their accessories are more expendable in comparison to clothing. To your core skater it is top priority to buy a new board instead of a pair of jeans.
What is your best selling category and why? Men’s skate shoes, especially while the trend market is more oriented to boardsports.
What is your best selling category and why? Shoes and clothing, because we have the greatest brands in the city that have got real style.
What is your best selling category and why? Kitesurfing and skateboarding in summer, snowboarding in winter.
What is your best selling category and why? Surf hardware, because we’ve got a great selection and we offer good customer service and advice.
What is your best selling category and why? Snowboarding, we are located near Snoworld and the locals know where to get the best stuff and good know-how because we all ride ourselves!
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? DC shoes. DC not only produces shoes for core skateboarders, but for a wider target market.
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? Dragon Alliance sunglasses now, because the price/quality balance is awesome, and they’re crazy good looking!
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? Kitesurfing gear because there is more often wind than waves here in Rome.
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? FCS fins, because they get destroyed easily at the Eisbach river wave…
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? Plan B, Element skateboards and Quiksilver/ Roxy swim shorts/bikinis because it’s summer vacation and nice weather.
Athens, Greece open for: 2 years www.pureskates.com
What is your best selling single product at the moment and why? Skateboards and more specifically 5Boro. It's a high quality brand with great graphics, core image, fair pricing and an amazing local and international team to back it up. That is something people pick up on and again, we have a large core following of skateboarders that simply get it. How are sales compared to this time last year? A lot has happened in Greece the past year that have affected the economy to say the least. Sales are down almost 20% in comparison to last year - this is due to the national debt crisis. There have been extensive pay cuts and a large amount of layoffs. Businesses are closing down. And to worsen the situation the government has imposed higher taxes on just about everything imaginable. This has created fear and uncertainty in people, which alternately affects consumer tendencies. It's tough times in Greece. How do you decide what to buy? Quality, pricing, and brand image (in that order) are of great importance and then what matters is who the distributor is. I've been an active skater for over 20 years now and have been working in the Greek action sports "industry" for 15 years. I'm up to date on all the brands and I know all the distributors. When it comes down to it, I'll buy from the distributor that has good products, fair pricing and most importantly gives back to the skateboarding community (be it by hosting contests, demos, sponsoring local talent, etc). A distributor could carry the best brands but if his motives are to just suck the blood out of the skateboarding community, then I will not buy from them or support them in any way.
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Hossegor, France open for: 7 years www.attitudesk8.com
How are sales compared to this time last year? In comparison to last year, our business volume has doubled on the French market and we have started selling in Spain, Italy, Benelux and Germany. How do you expect business to be over next six months? We will surely increase on the French market and we expect to have a huge impact on new markets like Spain, Italy, Benelux and Germany. Which upcoming brand would you like to stock in the future? We want to push our sales in new countries and in fact we are interested in small local brands. Our goal is to be the local skate shop everywhere. What can brands improve on to support independent retailers? Brands should collaborate with shops in producing special items. That would bring both parties together. What's your view on brick and mortar versus online? While our brick and mortar shop is located in Hossegor, selling is mainly only possible in the summertime. Therefore it is important for us to reach our clients with our webshop in the offseason. How do you decide what to buy? Because we are still skateboarding, we have an instinctive feeling in deciding what to buy. But we also visit trade shows to get in touch with new products and trends.
Budapest, Hungary open for: 15 years www.criminalskate.hu
How are sales compared to this time last year? We are developing gradually, very well, thanks to the God of skate shops. How do you expect business to be over next six months? More promotion, more events, good prices, good stuff. What can brands improve on to support independent retailers? More selling, better quality support, more sponsored athletes and development of skate and extreme sports culture at Hungary. Which upcoming brand would you like to stock in the future? We are waiting very excited for our new brand, Axion Footwear in Fall 2011. What's your view on brick and mortar versus online? We have local magazines where we can advertise, but ways to shop online are getting more important nowadays. That's very different and always changing, but you always have to surf the best wave. How do you decide what to buy? We are always thinking about what would be the best products for next season, through tours, sellers meetings, trade shows, demos, and contact with our customers and retailers.
Rome, Italy open for: 15 years www.no-waysurfshop.com
How are sales compared to this time last year? As there is a global economic crisis I can say that used gear is more asked for rather than new gear, and customers are buying only if they need to. How do you expect business to be over next six months? Here in Rome it’s quite difficult to know, as the weather nowadays is really strange. Let me explain, we mostly work on weather conditions, if it is really hot from May onwards, we sell a lot if not we are stuck. The same goes in winter on hardware and clothes. Which upcoming brand would you like to stock in the future? Iron Fist. What can brands improve on to support independent retailers? Be more flexible on payments. And more merchandising support such as billboards on streets and stickers for the customers. How do you decide what to buy? Customer demand. Plus we really try to offer brands that are not so famous as commercial brands such as Billabong or Rip Curl etc.
Munich, Germany open for: 4 years www.santoloco.com
Landgraaf, Netherlands open for: 3 years www.funparks.nl
How are sales compared to this time last year? At the moment it’s not going too well because the shop is separated from passing trade due to construction works near the shop.
How are sales compared to this time last year? Well, sales are almost doubled since last year because we are growing very fast.
How do you expect business to be over next six months? Unfortunately the construction works will be there for another two years, but we’re hoping it will get better.
How do you expect business to be over next six months? We are very optimistic. We are all very enthusiastic about the new products coming in and we get a lot of good feedback for the way we do business.
Which upcoming brand would you like to stock in the future? We would like to develop our own brand more.
Which upcoming brand would you like to stock in the future? That’s difficult to say... we would like to stock more small brands, maybe Private's street ware, Ride snowboards and Zimtstern.
What can brands improve on to support independent retailers? Better communication and don’t always say, “with more revenue it will all get easier.” What's your view on brick & mortar versus online? I don’t think that online is the ideal sales channel. There will always be enough customers who don’t want to miss out on the upsides of real shops (buying advice, dealing with people, trying apparel before buying). How do you decide what to buy? We prefer to go to the showrooms or to meet with the reps. Then we only order where we are 100% convinced.
What can brands improve on to support independent retailers? Organise more snow/skate events with the shops and keep in touch with them. What's your view on brick & mortar versus online? We think that it’s best to do both (as we do). Online only is no option for us because we would miss our customers and all the fun would be gone. How do you decide what to buy? We listen to our customers and we try to be a part of the scene! And of course trade shows and sales reps.
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brand profile
light boards
They started back in ’98 in a garage, selling boards to local kids. Now they run GTA Distribution, as well as
producing their own line. Founder/MD Gerd Weisner explains their route to success. Please give an overview on how and why the company began? Back in 1988 we started as a grass roots surf and snowboard shop in a room under my father’s garage. In 1990 we opened a larger store and the whole business became more professional. Those were the heydays of snowboarding and sales grew quickly. In those early days we created our own market organising travel packages to the Alps, which lead up to 4,000 people a year learning snowboarding. In 1992 we founded GTA Distribution which operated as a sales agent and distributor for numerous snowboard brands such as Ride, Black Flys, Snowpro, Hot Snowboards, Rusty, Mambo, Palmer - to name just a few. We spend more than 70 days per season on snow with our customers in the French Alps as well as retailers for product demos and competitions in Austria and Switzerland. Our network and business grew and mid of the ‘90s we were asked to create snowboards in Japan. We developed high tech boards and received orders for 10,000 snowboards - this was the initial spark to start our own snowboard brand. Deeply involved in surf and skate culture LIGHT snowboards focused on freestyle and freeride snowboard products. What is the company ethos? Respect and create! Respect nature, respect our partners, consumers, team and competitors and create innovative premium boardsports products with our own DNA. You produce surfboards as well, what’s your product mix? In 2002 we launched our first range of technical snow outerwear and we’re proud to say that we have managed to run this part of our business
successfully for ten seasons now. This has been a natural progress of building snowboards and today premium technical outerwear is the biggest part of our turnover in the winter season. In 2004 we created a softgoods range that reflects all aspects of surf, skate and snow culture. In the same year we started our surfboard product program - we teamed up with Basti Poelzbauer and today you will find a quality surfboard factory in Bali that not only manufactures our own brand but some of the premium brands as well. What sets you apart from your competitors? We are run by surfers, snowboarders and skaters and grew organically over the last 14 years. Our DNA is in hardgoods but we also offer great surf snow and skate softgoods. We’ve built a team of riders as well as friends who we call “the allstars” and we love to sponsor the up and coming hot groms. We are ‘under the radar’ of the competition but grew the brand profitably year by year. No third investors, no concerns about public stock market and growth rates. We teamed up with the premium factories for each category. Which European countries are your strongest markets and where are you planning to grow? Our biggest markets turnover-wise are Germany, Austria, Canada, Indonesia but you will find lightboardcorp products in France, Spain, Czech, Switzerland, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Portugal and the UK. We hope to grow quickly in France and Spain in the next two years, as we have recently appointed great distributors in these markets. How do you support athletes and boardsports? We sponsor grassroots contests run by shops and resorts and we are partial sponsors of bigger events like the Padang Padang Pro. We support
skate, surf and snowboard team riders. We love to sponsor the ‘whose next generation’ and believe in the youth. What other marketing are you running? On the classic side we ship a nice package of POS to all retailers including a large number of product catalogs, stickers and flags… but we also concentrate on the digital world and launched a web banner marketing campaign in 2011 on special interest websites. In September we’re launching a new website and it will reflect the next generation design with daily news, product presentation and product videos. Inline with these activities we will start two campaigns “we love” and “100.000 seamile warranty.” Why should retailers sell your brand? Easy question – because it sells and consumers will love it. Surfboards, snowboards and clothing work on the highest level of performance and we have great design. The price is not cheap but never expensive. The retail margin is fair and above the average - our product doesn’t have to be discounted to sell. What do you see for the future of your company? We keep going our own way – step by step. Happy consumer - happy retailers. We are actually building a future forward retailer reorder online store with online stock information, marketing product information and pictures. It has been never that easy to get a lot of information or distribute that information and use it for the individual retailer websites. Next step: future collections information and preorder systems via web. Good product, happy retailers & consumers, and good margin = happy retailers again!
Gerd Weisner, Founder and Managing Director, Light Snowboards. www.lightboardcorp.com
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brand profile
hydroflex
"We developed the first flexible stringer-less surfboard in 1998. In 2003 we overcame delamination by anchoring the fibreglass in the foam core. We recycled the first surfboard in 2008. Over the years we came to realise that there is no perfect flex for every surfer and every condition. So we made it adjustable." Rouven Bufo Brauers - surfer, shaper and inventor of the patented Hydroflex Technology Please give an overview on how and why the company began? We built our first boards in the late eighties, because we couldn’t get the shorter boards we were looking for in Germany. We got our very first stringer-less epoxy board glassed in 1987. Years later we started building flexible boards for team riders for their competitions. In 2001 we sold the first stringer-less surfboards to customers and started working with other shapers.
Who is on the management team, and what are their backgrounds? Rouven “Bufo” Brauers, shaper and driving force behind the technology, founded Hydroflex Surfboards together with his brother Sven Brauers, who does product development, marketing and distribution. Markus Land has an engineering background and takes care of the business side of things. Along the way we had a lot of support from friends and colleagues.
Working together with other shapers, what does your business model look like? We see Hydroflex as a platform to provide technology to shapers. We join forces with the board builders driven by the goal to make the best surfboards possible. Now, under the Hydroflex brand we produce our own Bufo boards next to boards by international shapers such as Matt Biolos (Lost), Robert Weiner (Roberts), Mark Phipps, Ben Skinner, Nigel Semmens, Donald Takayama and many others. It’s pretty straightforward, for example we can order a custom 5’8 1/2” Lost Rocket; the blank is then shaped and signed by Matt and then laminated in our factory.
What is the company ethos? We want to build high performance boards with low impact on the environment.
What sets you apart from your competitors? Our 3D glassing process offers unique flex characteristics and a high breaking strength. This full customisable technology forms an ultra-light board with outstanding riding characteristics. On our SuperCharger version flex and dampening comes fully adjustable.
How do you support athletes and boardsports? There is a growing Hydroflex team in Europe, US and Japan. We build boards for pros like Chris Ward and Mason Ho, Kolohe Andino, Droid, Gorkin in the US, and Ben Skinner and Jayce Robinson in Europe. We put a lot of resources and effort into R&D…. What other marketing are you running? We organise demo events in cooperation with local surf shops and contests. The feedback we’re getting there is incredible, word of mouth is our biggest marketing tool. But of course we also use social media to communicate news and videos. What is your approach to CSR and sustainability? Together with the Volkswagen network we developed a process to recycle our boards
completely - and actually reuse the materials for new surfboards and repair kits (check the Hydroflex surfboards recycling on Youtube). Why should retailers sell your brand? Well, if you try one out you will know why. We can offer a complete range of shapes, from Lost’s performance shortboards over Ben Skinner’s competition longboards to Ekstroem’s asymmetrical boards and many more. The adjustable flex gives people a new way to experiment with their surfing. And on top of that you can serve customers who are looking for an environmentally sustainable product as well as new school surfers looking for the best performance and weight/strength ratio. What do you see for the future of your company? We want to enable glass shops all over the world to offer Hydroflex Technology, so everybody can have their custom build high tech surfboard from their favourite shaper. The search for both better performing and greener materials will always continue. Where can we check out your products/videos/ stuff? You can tweet us on Facebook, email us on Twitter and like us on Google or even talk to us on the phone! w w w . fa c e b o o k . co m /p a g e s / H y d ro f l exSurfboards/244565583831 Twitter @HydroflexSurf
Sven Brauers, Co-Founder and Director, HYDROFLEx. www.hydroflex-surfboards.com 54.
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new products 01.
01. TWOTHIRDS – The System
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The new T-shirt is made from 100% organic cotton with a carbonised surface, which gives that soft peach hand feel. Apart from the smooth print on the chest in fresh colours it has a small hidden MESSAGE print inside. www.twothirds.com
02. MAKIA – Gardener Shirt
This model is called the Gardener Shirt. A summery collared shirt with fresh patterns and subtle Makia detail. www.makiaclothing.com
03. OLOW - Money
With its undeniable liking for Russian roulette and counter-current swimming, OLOW has led the star-system creativity for others since 2006. For this collection, the brand offers a good slice of authenticity. www.olow.fr
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04. SALTROCK – Bolted Backpack
Stylish and super useful men’s backpack with loads of compartments, internal pockets and chunky, comfortably padded straps. Reduce the volume with the adjustable straps on each side. www.saltrock.com
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05. Seven nine 13 - Shoelace belts
7/9/13 is another entrepreneurial manoeuver from the Helgason brothers. Shoelace belts never tightened properly and were impractical. 7/9/13 addresses that with a buckle which stays put and releases quick. Amazing colourways and promodel graphics come three to a pack. www.sevennine13.com
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06. VANS - Era Daecon
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Throughout it all, Californian fashion and design has been influenced by the melding of carefree beach culture and the progressive style emanating from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Vans’ designers put this rich design heritage on display with the California collection, a footwear capsule grounded in core styles and crafted with upscale materials. www.vans.com
07. NEFF – Digi Stripe
Features: alarm, military time, backlight, date, water resistant up to 50 metres. Colours: cyan, stripe, black, white www.neffheadwear.com
08. SANUK – Mason Green
The Mason, inspired by the classic lace-up, has a slimmed down footbed, rubber-sipped outsole, and it is the most comfortable Sidewalk Surfer Sanuk as ever made. www.sanuk.com
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www.boardsportsource.com : for more exiting new products
market intelligence
Germany
By Dirk Vogel
Over the past few months, the media has speculated about the “Death of the Euro” or the “Downfall of the Monetary Union.” For the longest time, the underlying problems appeared limited to the Southern Italy, in countries like Greece, Spain or Portugal. But with the recently surfaced woes of the Italian economy, the problems that could crack up the common currency have arrived right next door in our own back yard.
going really well, especially Loaded, Indiana, Fullbag and MDCN Cruizer boards; and wheels by Orangatang.” The whole longboard phenomenon seems to be saving many a board store these days. But who are these long board customers? “Well, there are some pretty trend-affected people among them,” Richie said, “but also a lot of passionate longboarders who are taking the whole thing really serious.”
Nevertheless, the German economy continues its upward momentum, and is actually setting new records. “The German economy is in a robust upswing,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, President of the Institute for Economic Research (IFO). The German economy, according to the Federal Statistical Office, grew by 1.5% in Q1 of 2011, and by 4.9% compared to the same quarter in 2010. For the first time since February 2011, the IFO’s index for economic optimism among German businesses reported growth, up from 114.2 points in May to 114.5 points in June.
Other hot categories include, “skate shoes for the little ones for up to €55, a positive sign of our times,” said Daniel Kraus at 540 in Kaiserslautern. Kay-Uwe at F.U.2. added that, “shoes are in demand in general, especially those you can actually skate in, not just the ones that look pretty.”
It also appears that consumers are finally trusting the recovery, with many ready to stop saving and start spending money again. The propensity of private consumers to make purchases, reported by the Association for Consumer Research (GfK), rose by 3.6 points between May and June to an all-year high of 35.1 points. Overall consumer confidence in Germany on the GfK Index is also on the rise, climbing to 5.7 points in July. Asked about the boardsports segment, Jörg Ludewig, co-owner at Urban Supplies and Jefferson distribution companies in Wiesbaden said: “June and July went really well for us, but since we only deliver some parts of a shop’s entire inventory it is hard to get an overall estimate. But skate hardware is really strong right now, followed by t-shirts.”
Trends and developments: Mail order boards
Bright Skateboard and Street Wear Trade Show in Berlin in July proved a great opportunity to meet and greet brands, retailers and distributors from all over Germany, and a strong international contingent from all over the world. But getting an overall estimate of the current situation is difficult, said Ludewig; “You can’t get a coherent picture for the entire country. At Bright we heard everything from great sales to total stagnation. The mail order merchants are getting stronger overall, but even that segment is not consistent.” This estimate is echoed by current market research data from the German Association of Mailorder Resellers (bvh). For 2011, the association expects the German mail order business to generate total revenues of €32.4 billion for 2011, a 7% increase from 2010. Online retail, which now accounts for 66 percent of all mail order purchases in Germany, is expected to grow by 17% compared to last year, reaching revenues of about €21.48 billion. In brick and mortar retail, boardsports shops are increasingly re-shuffling their brand selection to heighten their core positioning with exclusive styles. Kay-Uwe Lorck at “Fuck You Too” store in Leipzig also likes to heighten variety among existing brands. “We have not really kicked out any brands lately, but we tend to take a break with a brand here and there, so we can give another brand a chance to get better sales and get the skater’s attention. They have a hard time seeing a brand sometimes, with the overflow of companies. So, we are really putting a lot of thought into which brands will find their way onto our shelves right now.”
Brands and segments: Long boards, big profits
Speaking of brands, what are the hottest brands and segments in Germany right now? A known taste-maker and trendsetter, Richie Löffler of Mantis Lifestyle Store and MDCN Distribution in Hamburg, said: “Longboards are
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The shoe segment proves an anchor for many stores, and Richie points out Nike SB and Lakai as strongholds, together with a new addition to his store line-up, “Servant Footwear is a new shoe brand from Sweden, which is really convincing due to excellent quality and typical Scandinavian mature stylistic excellence.” In the hardware segment, Kay-Uwe says, “Independent Trucks are leading the truck field by a long shot,” while he names Girl, Real, Anti Hero and enjoi as strong US brands. The hottest European labels include TRAP, Nomad, Antiz in boards and Cleptomanicx in soft goods. Pretty much every store is shooting for a good balance between American brands and homegrown labels right now. This eclectic mix is also supported by distributors. Says Jörg Ludewig at Urban and Jefferson: “We have always been a skateboard distributor and have been working with our US brands for a long time now. We also try to get some European flair into the mix with Sweet and Cliché. And we also got DUFFS back in our line-up, as a new addition for 2012, which actually closes the circle since they were our first shoe company when we started back in 1994.”
Outlook: Enjoy summer while it lasts
While July proved unseasonably cold and rainy in most places – to a point were shop owners said they have to “come to terms with the Fall weather” – pre-orders for Fall/Winter 2011/12 were already hitting stores right on schedule. Looking into the new season, retailers are still proceeding with caution, but many have also identified a set of strong sellers on which they want to re-supply during the season. Based on last year’s experiences, Richie Löffler said: “I want to stock up on more snow skates by Ambition and I also want to be able to follow up on jacket demand a lot quicker.” On the distributor side, Jörg Ludewig said: “We are trying to deliver all pre-orders as smoothly and punctually as we can. At the same time we have reduced our supply of instantly available SKUs in sweatshirts, hoodies and zippers once again, because the demand for instant resupplies in these categories has dropped significantly. With t-shirts being the only exception, almost nothing’s moving right now in off-theshelf soft goods.” One thing that’s moving heavily in soft goods; is Hamburg-based apparel company Cleptomanicx. Their entire team is on tour across Germany at the time of this writing, premiering their new video release “Rollen Aaller Pt.3” to cheering crowds. They also have a new apparel collection out, together with new bedspreads and boxer shorts designed by UK artist “French.” That’s it for this issue, we’ll be opening Fall/Winter season next time with a snow special.
market intelligence
france
By Iker Aguirre, Lucy Paltz, Luke van Unen.
At the time of writing this, there is talk of France having to fend off the austerity monster that has hopped the Mediterranean from Greece over to Italy. Although France’s public debt is 85% of its GDP with an annual deficit of 7%, it’s in far healthier shape than its neighbour Italy. Economic growth may have slowed from Q1 to Q2, but nonetheless it maintained the 2.0% growth projections; the INSEE is even confidently saying that those major factors contributing to the slowdown are expected to pass with a consequent rebound in the second half of the year. All this without counting, of course, on the appalling collapse of international stock exchanges. Did we fear 2008? Right when we were writing this, the CAC 40 registered a new record ten consecutive days riding downhill and the USA were downgraded. The economy is akin to scaffolding on the verge of collapse... Hopefully, at the time of publication, it will still be standing, but allow us to doubt...
the French shop closure rate thankfully continues lower than in recent years.
In terms of overall skate sales in France this summer, things generally seem to have gone a little slower than predicted. When comparing against pre-order confidence, caution tempered any great gambles on over-stocking. Which is not to say that sales were not strong; retailer response regarding year-onyear performance showed a general trend of an increase over 2010, both in store and online. Gus Barba, General Manager of the BTR Shops in Carcassonne, Narbonne and Perpignan, feels that the market fluctuations of the previous few years have encouraged the most responsible boardsports shops to refocus their orders on “the flagship collections, meaning your safe bets” to ensure sell-through. Demand has even prompted reorders this summer, what he rightly referred to as “holy” in shop accounting.
Having said that, it’s not all that dark, since surf has never done that well. Thus, hardware sales show dynamic and interesting numbers, as pointed out by Thomas Cardinal from UWL in Angoulins, Charente Maritime. He emphasised, however, that commodity prices have had a definite impact on the price of the boards even if sales don’t seem to have been affected. Another interesting fact is, that orders for custom boards are increasing. It’s a clear sign of the maturation of new customers having tried surfing in recent years. However, the phenomenon of growth shows no signs of fading. Thomas emphasises that hybrid and entrylevel boards for beginners are the true best sellers. A trend that allows us to glimpse more seasons of surf growth to come. For many years, UWL has been at the forefront of the eco-friendly movement and, sadly, Thomas Cardinal made a rather pessimistic inventory since the demand for this type of product is strongly slowing down. He reckons it is just another fad reaching the end of a cycle.
Surf is doing well for some, bad for others. However, the pre-season had been pretty good with radiant sun, waves and rather optimistic expectations for summer. Yes, I said optimistic, even though, for many years, that word seemed to be taboo in France. Indeed, regardless of the economic indicators and signs of potential prosperity, there is always a spoiler to calm expectations. And summer 2011 will be no exception, despite apocalyptic expectations of drying soil and murderous hot days, the month of July has passed in rain, clouds and cold. Thus, coastal stores are full of stock and show wry faces, while burning incense, candles and other utensils to try and change a rather overwhelming fate.
Economic growth may have slowed from Q1 to Q2, but nonetheless it maintained the 2.0% growth projections
But not all months were equal. Frédéric Lefrancq from Zeropolis Skateshop in Lille says that although; “sales increased again, some months have stagnated, while other months are on the rise, especially when receiving deliveries of shoes.” And it’s shoes that came back as the strongest performing category this summer, along with… hardgoods. “In a shop like Zeropolis, hardware has always sold well. As for footwear, it’s been two years, and now it prepares for a return.” Earlier this year he correctly pointed out, that “all these new brands like Adidas Skateboarding, Nike SB, Supra or Cons make older customers come back to the skateboard stores, even if they don't skate anymore.” Stock it, and they will come! “Reboarding” – stopped skating and starts pushing again – continues to be a strong influence in French hardgood sales. Whether on a longboard, cruiser, retro or regular shortboard (of course with marshmallow-soft wheels), this is bringing business back into the skate shop for all the right reasons, and keeps the fundamentals selling through. Alexis Papadopoulos of Nozbone skateshop in Paris noted that regardless of ups and downs, “The essentials still work: what you need to skate is shoes and hardware...” Unfortunately this is not the case with apparel, which, as a category still appears to be slow in France. The French government’s 2008 Law on the Modernisation of the Economy (“LME”, or "Loi de modernisation de l'économie”) that oversees trade negotiations along the supply chain, continues to be mentioned by retailers as a factor effecting productivity, particularly with regard to payment terms. Alexis Papadopoulos of Nozbone skateshop in Paris feels that with the current and coming potential economic storm fronts, the LME; “will certainly provoke fatal financial difficulties for lots of retailers”, although
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Stanislas Rinaldi from Woodstock in Biarritz also draws a less obscure panorama and claims to be “less bitter than other shops on the coast facing the bad weather", thanks to a more assiduous attendance of his shop in urban areas. Indeed, when the public deserts the beach, it goes wandering the streets. He said he had a pretty good month of May, a very good month of June and, finally, an okay month of July. The only categories suffering from weather conditions, no matter what, are boardshorts, slaps and other products directly related to the beach and good weather. As with skateboarding, shoes seem to be the key category, with Nike ruling it hands down. As for hardware, he confirms the words of Thomas Cardinal that the bulk of sales are focused on price points and first acquisitions. Stan regrets however, a very competitive neoprene market, dominated by the majors. That makes it difficult for smaller brands like West, whose turnover mostly focuses on price points, to perform. As for accessories, Stan can not help but mention how much of a cash cow Power Balance was in 2010 and how much, this year, when the hype has completely vanished, the product has disappeared from the consumers’ shopping baskets. And finally, let’s not forget mentioning their sales performance in snowboarding! Having chosen to maintain a section active throughout the summer, with products on sale, it proved to be a good alternative, especially for tourists from cold countries seeking bargains. If the stock market hasn’t collapsed before this text reaches you, the snowboard video premieres will be abound in France and we will soon have to put our brain chips in winter mode.
market intelligence
UK
By Gordon Way, Ultra Sport
People go bust. It happens all the time and my gut feeling is that we are going to see an increase in bankruptcies in the next year. That’s only my gut feeling from looking at our own Debtor Days and talking to a few other distributors. Let’s hope I’m wrong. Sadly we’re a nation, unlike the USA, who tends to treat people who have gone out of business as second-rate citizens. As people to be avoided in the business sense. In America they say “good on you for trying. Pick yourself up and try again.” Going out of business is a good lesson in life, to be avoided if at all possible, but if it happens then we have to accept it as a good lesson. But here’s the one that really gets my goat, the guy who goes bust, leaves you in the lurch for money, sets up again and then ignores you completely, whether through embarrassment or for some other reason. My thinking is that the least they could do is spend some money from their new venture with the supplier that helped them in the past. Anyway that little opener was prompted by a surfing shop bankruptcy. A sad tale, which I am told is not one for these pages. Suffice to say I wish the owner luck in the future. $hit happens – let’s get on and make the best of it.
Chris Sturgess from Revolutionz in Norwich, a hardware and fashion shop, was happily surprised by the fact that he has not seen a decline in the past quarter contrary to the indications given by his non-surf/skate retail neighbours. Why is he fairing better than them? “Not a clue!” says Chris “but we don’t seem to be suffering as much as many other shops locally. Better weather does mean that people head down to the coast but it also means that they go out and ride or skate. If they are doing that then they are breaking parts which they need to replace!” Chris is another retailer investing in new premises and will be opening a new “superstore” on the outskirts of Norwich as well as maintaining a smaller city centre location. I also spoke to someone from one of the larger brand own chains and he was honestly candid, but I thought it best not to name him for fear of his job. “Current business is down,” and yet he was anticipating growth in the coming quarter. Why? “We are going into sale.” Of course we are – the whole retail network in the UK is in sale! But then there are sales… and there are sales… Sports Direct are on permanent sale. Independent retailers are not on permanent sales and cannot afford to be!
“It is less bad than it was”
Jeremy Sladen from TSA/Ellis Brigham is more than happy – well actually that’s not quite true – to quote OK, so apart from that miserable bit of news how is the UK Jeremy “it is less bad than it was” is precisely what he doing? Of course most are faring better than bankruptcy said. But the numbers that he is reporting belie the ‘less but there is no doubt that it is hard in every aspect of bad’ tag, “we’re 42% up in June and look like being 25% retail and never more so than in the ‘discretionary spend’ to 30% up in July.” And this is not on the new stuff. arena, which is our playground! The pinch is being felt Jeremy has held back the launch of any new kit to help and more is to come; 20% rises in home energy costs, with the sell-through of the hangover stock from 2010/11 petrol costs have stabilised but at a miserable high! No winter, which they are busy clearing out. A strategy wonder discretionary spend is under threat. Yet it seems that is clearly working. He’s also optimistic about the that our customers are still prepared to spend, but only coming season. “It’s exciting,” says Jeremy, “all the new in certain areas. board brands and new innovations means that we could be in for a good season particularly on boards for this Peter Caldwell (PC) of O’Neill Wetsuits (Firewire, Dragon, coming winter and that should lead on to good additional Stance and Freewaters) commented on something that sales in other areas.” TSA are without doubt the leading Jeremy Sladen, TSA. we at Ultra Sport can confirm; “inexpensive surf boards snowboard retailer in the UK and Jeremy, by virtue of are not selling – expensive surf boards are.” It seems his position at TSA, therefore buys more kit than anyone to be a widely accepted fact that the market for cheaper surfboards is else – if he’s feeling good then we should take heart that maybe he’s right. not buoyant to say the least. On wetsuits, PC is actually optimistic for the Of course if he’s wrong… well let’s just hope he’s not wrong! O’Neill brand but believes that he is gaining market share and it’s certainly not coming from market growth. He also observes that, “there is a shift in One longer-term indicator of how distributors feel would be bookings at clothing with customers no longer beating a path to the door of the surf trade shows. Following the demise of HUB there appears to have been brands. Hardware, including wetsuits, is keeping the shops going.” an immediate surge in the number of collaborative showrooms springing up and whilst they cannot take up the slack of a good trade show they Other retailers seem to confirm this trend. Dave Buckland (FunSport, will help to fill the void. The OutDoor Trade Show (yes it will have some Rhosnegir) is optimistic and at the same time cautious. He cites the good boardsports presence – albeit little) is booming and bigger than ever. Slide weather as having helped the start to the season but also admits that his (February 2012) has just opened its bookings some 10 weeks earlier than natural cautious nature has lead to him decreasing forward orders with last year and Lesley Beck, Show Organiser, is pretty buoyant, “Really good” suppliers “It’s harder than ever to predict but if the sun shines and the says Lesley, “we have confirmed 60% of last years space which is a great wind blows then it’s going to be a good year” says Dave. Whether or not result so early in the process. Considering the 2010 show was 12% bigger you want to call Dave cautious or an optimist, you should know that he than 2009 I feel extremely confident of a successful Slide 2012. With 50 is currently investing in a massive extension to his beach side premises Exhibitors confirming their space some two months in advance of the ‘price that will see the shop double in size and add a café and roof terrace. I advantage’ deadline it shows a real solid commitment.” Telford – love it or think we can deduce that under it all Dave is optimistic about the future. hate it – looks like it going to continue to be home to Slide for some time Shaun Taylor of Sorted Surf Shops is similarly buoyant and confirms that to come. business is up, and his optimism also comes with a caveat for the big brands about the coming quarter “Large surfwear brand clothing is slow So it’s actually a pretty positive outlook considering the overall economy and and being overtaken by smaller brands!” hey, let’s look on the bright side, the Murdoch family and News International are having a rougher time than us!
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market intelligence
AUSTRIA
By Uwe Ballon, Motion Sports
With his Pro Model at Antihero Chris Pfanner is the third Austrian after Manuel Magreiter and Roman Hackl to receive a signature board with a U.S. company. This was probably not the reason why, in June inflation in Austria climbed up to 3.3%. In Salzburg at Sport Seidl this year skateboards are selling great, mainly completes and longboards which are the big thing in 2011 so far. In the fashion department Volcom is the only brand that is shifting excellently, the rest is sometimes better sometimes worse. "Unfortunately no brand is setting trends anymore on which we could orientate. The boarsport fashion industry is hanging in the air and doesn´t know how they will reinvent themselves. Many brands are not authentic anymore, and getting lost in the brand jungle, so the client doesn´t know what to wear and in the end wear anything. The kids lose their brand awareness, which will benefit discounters." In Gmunden plain shorts sold out in spring. Boardshorts are selling very well from Liquid Force, Jet Pilot, and from Volcom - strong colors and unusual patterns are highest in demand. The
SWITZERLAND After a bad winter, the prompt, warm spring should have been a good omen for some streetwear specialists. They could start selling earlier and had more time to sell light garments before the sales. However, we can see that despite this helping hand by the weather, sales did not go as well as hoped and most retailers were in fact dissatisfied with the results. Footfall in shops seems to have considerably dropped off, as much as the general desire to buy or consume has. Once again it is difficult to find a reason why. Is the boardsport trend really a thing of the past? Is the renewal of collections too slow or do people simply not have the money? It’s hard to say. Maybe people's economies are just being invested in different consumable goods. Technological development quickly renders our multimedia tools obsolete and these are now indispensable for a great number of people of all ages and are also very expensive. Laptops, tablets and smart phones are increasingly commonplace and this is
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shorts are shorter and in muted colors at Insight and Matix. Skateboard sales are going well and again with the kids demanding completes. In general, the bestsellers are Girl and YUX deck, the STF Bones Wheels and trucks from Indy. It's not always easy with today's economy, as the girls from Sweet Dream in Innsbruck know. Nevertheless, consulting and friendliness are their top priority, and by the positive attitude along the lines of "the glass is half FULL," the customers to whom it is clear that quality has a price, always return into their shop. In hardware the summer trend is definitely longboarding again, and Sector 9 the bestseller. For fashion, bikinis are doing great, for shoes DC and Vans, and for snowwear Nikita, Nike and Volcom. The current clothing trend for tops is wearing it wide, while on bottoms you add a narrow pant or leggings made out of a "light" material. Hot colors are mint, coral, pink, purple and white. In summer, Die Börse in Innsbruck is relying on freeride and downhill bikes, and as well on BMX
bikes. But also accessories, body protectors, helmets and clothing are good product categories. Longboards turn out to be their best seller, with brands like Loaded, Sector 9, Madrid, Gravity, Arbor and Never Summer. In the clothing sector there are long shirts and hoodies from small scene brands such as Phil Park requested, and in the girls segment they are very successful with Femi Pleasure. Out are logo prints on girl shirts, short cuts and the big surf brands who are involved in the snow area. Volker from Die Börse is worried by all the major outlets that are currently playing an increasing role with the big brands. And the great influence of the rating agencies on the market who can’t be kept under control by neither the policy nor the economy. However, they defy the online and Outlet Store boom with a good concept and excellent customer focus, so that they had the strongest June sales ever recorded. We hope that in Austria the consumer not only finds his and her way into the swimming pools, but onto their boards too helping us all stay in shape.
By Fabien Grisel perhaps to the detriment of interest in boardsports innovations and their equipment. A good illustration of this is the pitiful rate of sale in boardshorts from all brands at the three main big-store chains. The rate won't even reach 30% before the sales start! This could be explained by somewhat off-kilter weather. It was nice and hot early in the season, maybe too early though because people weren't interested in buying boardshorts, when holidays seemed so far off and the lakes were still cold. We normally see this product sell well in June, when the heat and sunshine become more prevalent, but this did not happen this year because the weather was much worse than in March/April. Sales in the month of June were generally very calm. Some retailers say it was the worst month in years. Footfall is on the decrease in most sales outlets and consumers really seem to be waiting for the sales before making a purchase, even more so than usual.
We can never emphasis it enough: Switzerland is expensive, very expensive, and even more so with the Swiss Franc staying so strong against all other currencies. This means that our goods are even more expensive while goods from abroad and the majority of what's on offer on the web is even more appealing. With price alterations by importers in Switzerland being risky and taking time, it's tough to get on par with our European and our 'cyber-neighbours.’ Switzerland is not competitive and probably won't be as long as the main exchange rates stay as they are. As for fresh news, Ochsner Sport, one of the main sport shop chains in Switzerland has bought Beach Mountain, one of the two chains specialising in boardsports and urban fashion. Since this takeover, we can see little change to the Beach Mountain outlets, except the one in Glattzentrum in Zurich, which was absorbed by its neighbour Ochsner Sport.
market intelligence
ITALY
By Franz Hoeller
Times are hard for the Italian economy. The Italian state is struggling with a mountain of debt and the government has to present a package of cutbacks. Otherwise we will get into serious trouble, as the international rating agencies will rate us down. We need to show that we are strong enough to manage it by our own economic power. Now it’s up to the government in Rome to put together some serious plans. But overall the Italians are not scared, as it’s nothing new; we’ve had problems like this in the past. I’m travelling back from Berlin while writing this, where I was visiting the Bright trade show and I have to say it was amazing - lot’s of good things going on and a good vibe. Many Italians found their way to Berlin and were really stoked about the quality of the show. Italy still doesn’t have a real streetwear and boardsport tradeshow. For the last two seasons, a show called The Last Call was something similar in a smaller way, but there wasn’t enough interest from the industry. Hopefully they will make it happen again as a trade show always pushes the scene and all the surroundings. Pitti right now is the only big
RUSSIA
The summer sale season is in full swing and some retailers really need a good time of it because some were struggling with bad sell-through in spring. Mid or central Italy found it the hardest. The best moneymakers this spring surely were shorts, boardshorts and of course T-Shirts in lots of varieties, beside the shoes that always are one of the best sellers. Hardgoods also performed well, and completes still sell well, also because lots of brands introduced some price-point products in this category. This is confirmed from Luca Basilico from Blast Distribution out of Milan. Pre-bookings for SS12 is also underway which is quite stressful for retailers as every brand wants to be the first one showing their sample line and getting the biggest slice of the cake, but often the retailers still haven’t finished their past spring business. Retailers around the country agree that everything is moving faster now, and lot of companies are putting a lot of pressure
on them. If this is a good or bad thing, let’s leave that open, but overall the companies in the boardsport business have reached a certain size where growing turnover is a must and often it is a struggle for the retailers to follow their demand to grow. Hopefully this will not end in our business getting too mainstream in the near future... this can also lead to the positive result, that more and more smaller brands get involved as they are happy with every order they can get whether the amount is huge or small. The real streetwear shops are still only very few in our very fashion oriented country. Often it’s hard for a shop to get the right mix of streetwear, skate and snow stuff. A problem that occurred over the last three or four seasons is the girls stuff. Many shops are suffering bad sell-through with it and many retailers agree that introducing a boys/kids section instead of the girls could create more turnover. To be trendy as hell in Italy nowadays, you should wear plain v-neck tees with chino pants and boat shoes. I’m out taking a ride on the boat... peace.
By Yuri Kolobov
At first sight there is nothing new to be said on Russia. Summer is always like this and now summer is over. This year, distributors are delivering fall products even earlier. The focus is now on winter. It will be quite an interesting fall season, as we will see who has actually survived and who has become history. On the snowboard scene, Burton is dominating with a super big advantage. Second and third are brands, supported by retail-distributors, there is a new trend coming. Despite the extra margins these guys have the trend is obvious, they are switching to major brands. Some realise that the distributor’s part in the whole margin is rather small compared to possible stock increase due to uncontrolled ordering of unknown (or known) brands. There are not many boardsports stores left, as I wrote before. Soon we will probably have fresh blood coming. While becoming stronger, the biggest distributors and retailers are investing more into marketing and events. We had a skateboard tour, organised by Red Bull and supported by the biggest
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trade show we have, but it’s too fashion oriented for streetwear and boardsports to become a real point of interest for our industry.
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distributor Sport Style and local brands. The Volcom distributor recently organised a very nice Wild in the Parks get-together, and more ramps are popping up here and there (at least in Moscow). As for snowboard activities, there are three snowboard video premieres announced for this coming Fall; Burton will be showing its ‘Standing Sideways’ in mid-September, Yes Snowboards is planning some action for the end of September, and Quiksilver will be doing their show early November. A few words on chains: Sportmaster is developing its new project, a 6000m2 store to compete against Decathlon. It looks like the Big D is losing ground. However, there are more and more talks on whether Sportmaster should be competing with Decathlon obsessively. Brands are kicked out and more house brand projects are started. One may ask why I am writing about Sportmaster in this article. The thing is we have lost too many action sports doors within the last three years, but chains (and SM is a good example) are not picking up the brand’s
sales. The one and only way for the brands to cope, is to develop their own retail business. Oakley will open their first five trial Shop-inshops this fall. Rip Curl has a new distributor - Trassa Company. Previously they did Vance and Quiksilver, and rumours say that they will be pushing their own retail stores as well. The great fight for customers has started. The constructions for Olympics are in full power. However, there are alarming reports coming from Sochi; that the main buildings are running behind schedule already. This however does not stop developers from promoting real estate projects in Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana. A 300m2, two-level penthouse (construction has not started yet) is listed for about €5m. Let it be. Let it also be a good ski resort, snowpark, a few hotels with less than 4*s, together with a decent airport and a road to the mountains and I will eat any shit about the 2014 games in Sochi. Wish you well and a cold fall to all of us!
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Surf SKATE SNOW TRADE
EVENTS
SEPTEMBER/SEPTEMBRE/SEPTEMBER 4-6
THE LEDGE
LONDON
UK
4-15
QUIKSILVER PRO NEW YORK
USA
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
6-11
LUSIAVES FIGUEIRA PRO
PORTUGAL
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
11-18
SURFING CHINA FESTIVAL HANGZHOU
CHINA
TRADE WWW.SURFINGCHINA.ORG
13-18
FERROLTERRA PANTIN CLASSIC
PANTIN
SPAIN
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
15-18
CABREIROA SURFING GIRLS
PANTIN
SPAIN
Surf WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
18-24 HURLEY PRO
TRESTLES
USA
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
26-29
BILLABONG WOMEN'S AZORES PRO
SAO MIGUEL
PORTUGAL surf WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
27-2
BILLABONG AZORES PRO
SAO MIGUEL
PORTUGAL
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
SAAS-FEE
SWITZERLAND
SNOW
28-2 WOMEN IN BOARDSPORTS
FIGUEIRA DE FOZ
TRADE WWW.LONDONEDGE.COM
OCTOBER/OCTOBRE/OKTOBER 1-3
CAPSULE WOMEN
PARIS
FRANCE
TRADE WWW.CAPSULESHOW.COM
1-3
SALON DES GLISSEURS
SEIGNOSSE
FRANCE
TRADE WWW.SALONDESGLISSEURS.COM
4 - 13
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE
SW COAST
FRANCE
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
5-6
SURF SUMMIT
CAPBRETON
FRANCE
SURF WWW.EUROSIMA.COM
15 - 24 RIP CURL PRO
PENICHE
PORTUGAL
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
19-23
METROSNOW
LONDON
UK
TRADE WWW.METROSNOW.COM
28-29 RELENTLESS FREEZE
LONDON
UK
SNOW WWW.RELENTLESSFREEZE.COM
29-1
MODENA
ITALY
TRADE WWW.SKIPASS.IT
SKIPASS
NOVEMBER/NOVEMBRE/NOVEMBER CONFITAL
GRAN CANARIA
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
1-12 RIP CURL SEARCH
1-7
ISLAS CANARIAS OCEAN AND EARTH PRO
SAN FRANCISCO
USA
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
11-13
PLEASURE JAM
DACHSTEIN
AUSTRIA
SNOW WWW.PLEASUREJAM.COM
16-27
ASP LONGBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ITALY
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
19-20
TELEKOM EXTREME PLAYGROUND
GERMANY
SKATE WWW.WCSK8.COM
BERLIN
DECEMBER/DECEMBRE/DEZEMBER 8-20
OAHU HAWAII
SURF WWW.ASPWORLDTOUR.COM
10 NIKE 6.0 AIR & STYLE
BILLABONG PIPE MASTERS
MUNICH
GERMANY
SNOW WWW.AIR-STYLE.COM
17 RELENTLESS BIG AIR
STUTTGART
GERMANY
SNOW WWW.BIGAIR-STUTTGART.COM
JANUARY/JANIVER/JANUAR 2-7
O'NEILL EVOLUTION
DAVOS
SWITZERLAND
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
7-14
BURTON EUROPEAN OPEN
LAAX
SWITZERLAND
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
15-17
SNOW AVANT PREMIERE
LA CLUSAZ
FRANCE
SNOW WWW.SNOWAVANTPREMIERE.COM
16-17
SHOWROOM AVANT PREMIERE
ANNECY
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TRADE WWW.ASAP-ANNECY.COM
18-20
BREAD & BUTTER
BERLIN
GERMANY
TRADE WWW.BREADANDBUTTER.COM
22-24
PRO SHOP TEST
TRENTO
ITALY
SNOW WWW.PROSHOPTEST.COM
22-25
SKI TEST TOUR
MERIBEL
FRANCE
SNOW WWW.SKITESTTOUR.COM
27-28
MONSTER ENERGY GLEMM.BANG
SAALBACH
AUSTRIA
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
29-1
ISPO
MUNICH
GERMANY
TRADE WWW.ISPO.COM
FEBRUARY/FEVRIER/FEBRUAR 2-4
BILLABONG AIR & STYLE
INNSBRUCK
AUSTRIA
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
5-6
SKI TEST TOUR
PEYRAGUDES
FRANCE
SNOW WWW.SKITESTTOUR.COM
5-8
BASE WORKSHOP
BIARRITZ
FRANCE
TRADE WWW.BASE-WORKSHOP.FR
8-9
SKI TEST TOUR
SERRE CHEVALIER
FRANCE
SNOW WWW.SKITESTTOUR.COM
11
STARS OF THE STADIUM
SALPAUSSELKÄ
FINLAND
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
12-14
SLIDE
TELFORD
UK
TRADE WWW.SLIDEUK.CO.UK
12-19 WORLD SNOWBOARDING CHAMPIONSHIPS OSLO NORWAY
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
17-18
SONY ERICSSON SNOWBOARD FEST
DRIENICA
SLOVAKIA
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
21-24
BURN RIVER JUMP
LIVIGNO
ITALY
SNOW WWW.TTRWORLDTOUR.COM
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one eyed monster 54
BASE
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