Shop-eat-surf.com’s Tiffany Montgomery is reporting that DC Shoes cut 10 percent of their employees today. And we believe her.
The spokesman said about 10 percent of the workforce was cut previously at Quiksilver and Roxy, and the DC reductions are of similar size on a percentage basis. . . DC has been Quiksilver’s best-performing brand and its major growth vehicle. A new financing deal with the private equity firm Rhone allowed Quiksilver to keep the brand rather than sell it to pay off debt.
Sometimes it’s good to leave the house and travel to Orange County. The Greg Weaver Art Show may be one of those times. August 28, 2009 from 6-10 PM at Hurley Headquarters, 1945 Placentia Ave Costa Mesa,CA.
We’ve always liked Oakley A Frame goggles (it is all we ever wear), but now we find out they are even better because they’ve been blessed by the designers at Lifted Research Group, Inc.
This collaboration will introduce two limited edition Oakley A Frame snow goggles set to hit the shops for 2009. Each model is available in one of two exclusive L-R-G designed styles.
So there’s no real performance difference between this and a regular A Frame. Just the colors, strap, and and “the L-R-G logo is laser-engraved on the lower corner of the Black Iridium® lens,” because these days one can never rep too many logos. [click to continue…]
Circa’s work for Transworld Skateboarding’s Skate & Create II proves that epic creativity arises out of artistic constraints much more fully than from unbridled freedoms. When you see how small an area they shot this in, it’s even more amazing.
Former Coal Headwear employee and Seattle resident Logan Neitzel is the latest action worker to end up on reality TV, according to a post on The Tackeled Box.
Logan used to work with us at COAL. He was the dude that did all the spec’n for the O.E.M. customers. He also worked at Markus Martini Bar where the Seattle Paper voted him the “Hottest Bartender in Seattle.” No doubt now with this TV action, Logan will be swimming in tail.
Well, he’ll at least be recognized by women and gay men everywhere. . .
The Courier-Mail says Billabong got hit with a “wave of excess boardshorts” and that has caused the company’s annual profits to drop for the first time ever (13.3 percent).
Chief executive officer Derek O’Neill (pictured right) said retailers worldwide were cautious and curbing their forward orders. But he ruled out deep discounting. . . “Late last year we couldn’t unwind our costs fast enough,” Mr O’Neill said. “We were left with a lot of inventory after we saw a rapid slowdown in sales, especially in the US and our wholesale customers were holding back deliveries. . . “Our model was excellent for a long time and we got a bit of a slap but our brand is still strong. . . “Ultimately we need to work with the retailers to get the best product, but they need to give us the indication of what they want and when they want it otherwise it’ll be like a lucky dip with product shortages. . . “Everyone says they are buying less product so I hope the dice comes up how they want it but it’ll come back, I just don’t know how long it’ll be.”
The company still made a profit of AUS$153 million.
Zumiez didn’t really have the greatest news to report yesterday during their Q2 conference call (click here for a complete transcript). Their same store sales were down 18.8 percent vs. last year, total sales fell $6.5 million, and they operated on a loss of $3 million ($.10 a share) for the quarter (down from a $2.7 profit a year ago). But, it wasn’t as bad as analysts thought, according to a story in Puget Sound Business Journal.
Over at Pacific Sunwear things were a little different. Their Q2 same store sales dropped 24 percent and they had a net loss of $14.2 million ($.22 a share) for the quarter.
Discussions on Twitter yesterday were asking why there was such a difference between two retail chains that basically sell the same product in the same malls. To us the answer is obvious. From the sales people at the mall all the way up to the executives running the company, Zumiez knows that first and foremost they are selling a lifestyle. And they know that in order to sell the style they need to be connected to the life. This shows in Zumiez promotions, branding, and especially in their employees. PacSun, on the other hand, appears to be simply trying to sell clothing.
This is why, more than anything else, we believe Zumiez is doing better the PacSun in what is a pretty dismal market. And with Zumiez stock up 17 percent this morning and PacSun is down 12 percent, it would appear that the street agrees.
Today the two big action sports fashion mall retailers are going to kick down their quarterly earnings and make their pitches to analysts who have an inordinate amount of control over the companies’ stock prices.
Pac Sun will go first at 1:30 PST followed by Zumeiz at 2 PM. Both will likely be reporting more dismal news from the shopping centers of North America, but we never know. Back to school could be coming up hard.
5th & Ocean, a privately held firm, is a minority-certified manufacturer of licensed team sports and private-label items ranging from fleeces and tank tops to hooded sweatshirts and athletic shorts. Its client list includes Major League Baseball, Victoria’s Secret/PINK, Disney Theme Parks, the Dallas Cowboys and K2 Sports. . . “To ensure the long-term growth of New Era in this changing economic landscape, we need to look for strategic ways to diversify our business,” said Chris Koch, New Era chief executive officer. “This acquisition of 5th & Ocean continues to move us forward with our strategy to become a well-rounded lifestyle brand. This was an opportunity we simply could not pass up.”
Shop-eat-surf.com’s Tiffany Montgomery is reporting that DC Shoes cut 10 percent of their employees today. And we believe her.
