Zumiez CFO Trevor Lang has reportedly resigned from his position at the core mall retailer effective in June 2011, according to a story on Reuters.
Lang, who has been with the company for four years, also resigned as chief administrative officer and secretary. . . Zumiez . . has started looking for a suitable successor.
The street apparently misses him already as the stock was down 2 percent in after hours trading.
[Link: Reuters]
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Encinitas, California based Super Heat Games, makers of the Superheat Skateboard trading card game which is set to launch on May 24, 2011 has just received $1.6 million in a first round of VC funding from Diamond Ridge Ventures and DFJ Frontier, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The funding comes after Super Heat said in February that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Japanese trading card giant Konami Digital Entertainment, which distributes the popular Yu-Gi-Oh collectible cards. Konami will be the sole distributor of Super Heat cards in North America and South America. . . “The action sports industry is one of the fastest growing youth segments in the U.S. We feel our Super Heat Skateboard Trading Card Game will appeal to a rapidly emerging audience of action sports enthusiasts,” said Robert Reynolds, the company’s chief executive.
The trading cards feature is solid line-up of pros including Bucky Lasek, Erik Elliington, Mark Appleyard, Geoff Rowley, Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Christian Hosoi, and more. If kids are still playing card games, and not fiddling with their iPod touches, then this could be good.
[Link: San Diego Union-Triubne]
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We don’t follow the energy drink world too closely. We find few things uglier than cool, respected athletes peddling caffeinated sugar water. That said, we had to laugh we we saw the recent article in AdWeek touting Red Bull’s new (in America, anyway) magazine Red Bulletin. No one explains what they’re after better than URB Magazine publisher and Red Bulletin associate publisher Raymond Roker.
“The perception is that there is content and there’s advertising,” Roker adds. “We’re challenging that perception that the media industry is still holding on to. The audience grows up and understands their athlete has brand logo stickers all over the board and the helmet, and that’s OK. If the end result is a good piece of content, parsing where it comes from is missing the point.”
Roker has worked in the music media business for years so we understand why he finds it hard to believe there should be a difference between editorial and advertising, but people should understand that anyone with Roker’s perspective on “content” is definitely working solely in the “advertising” space.
For a better look at where Red Bull’s “perception challenging” eventually ends check out David Foster Wallace’s The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, or Morgan Spurlock’s POM Wonderful presents:The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. It isn’t pretty, but then we’ve been purposefully missing the point for years.
[Link: Adweek]
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Forzani Group, the parent company of Canada’s big box sporting goods store Sport Chek has reportedly been purchased by Canadian Tire Corp., according to a story on Bloomberg.
When we first saw this story this morning, we couldn’t have cared less about it, but after a few emails it became apparent that action brands who depend on mainstream, big-box sales to keep them rolling actually care about this stuff.
Canadian Tire, which has more than 1,200 retail and gasoline outlets, already sells bicycles and other sporting goods, as well as home items. The acquisition gives Canadian Tire Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wetmore stores under the Sport Chek and National Sports brands.
It’s nice to know that this is the last time we’ll have to mention either of these blown-out mainstream retail establishments. Good riddance.
[Link: Bloomberg]
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Rip Curl added 19 Victoria, Australia retail shops to its quiver with the purchase of Ozmosis, according to a story on Ragtrader.com.
Rip Curl Asia Pacific CEO Steven Kay said the company was looking forward to working with its new Melbourne-headquartered team. . . . “Melbourne is one of the great epicentres of youth culture and Victoria home to some of the best surfing, skiing and snowboarding in the country, and Rip Curl wants to provide its customers with better access to the lifestyle products they need. Ozmosis can really help us do that,” Kay said.
This means Rip Curl has added 34 Australian store fronts in the last year. Looks like they’re set on staying in the game.
[Link: Ragtrader]
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Market Watch’s Jeff Harbaugh was wondering what happened to the Skullcandy IPO and did some nosing around. He discovered that on April 30, 2011 Skullcandy filed a revised form S-1 with the SEC. In his latest column he looks into exactly what changed and what it might mean to the company and it’s potential public offering. He says:
Skullcandy is counting on the success of its IPO to reduce its leverage and give it the working capital it needs to execute on its plan. Shareholders and executives have taken a bunch of cash out of the company in the fourth quarter, resulting in a big loss. They were entitled to do that under existing agreements, but how does it look to a potential stock purchaser? Those potential investors also see a company whose 2008 net income of $13 million fell to $3.5 million in 2009 even as sales grew 47% to $118 million. Now, on sales of $160 million, there’s a loss of almost $10 million.
For Harbaugh’s conclusions (and some interesting reading), click the link.
[Link: Market Watch]
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Skullcandy is expanding its reach in the headphone space by picking up the San Francisco-based video gaming electronics company Astro Gaming for $10.8 million, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.
Some will remember that in addition to the companies listed below, one of Astro’s other investors is Nixon co-founder Chad DiNenna.
Astro Gaming was backed by investors including Triangle Peak Partners LP and Fayez Sarofim & Co. . . Skullcandy also disclosed in the new filing that it generated a net loss of $9.7 million last year, compared with a $13.5 million profit the year prior. Though its revenue rose 35.7% to $160.6 million thanks to increased sales to large national retailers, a one-time charge for management incentive bonuses took out a $17.5 million chunk of its profit.
Good thing Skullcandy is going public. Looks like that money is going to come in pretty handy.
[Link: Wall Street Journal]
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French fashion giant PPR, the parent company of brands like Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, and Puma, has announced its intention to purchase 100 percent of the shares of Volcom for $24.50 a share “for a total equity value of $607.5 million and an enterprise value of $516.1 million.”
Not surprising the Volcom Board of Directors “has unanimously recommended” that shareholders take the money and run. This explains so much. . .
“PPR is the perfect partner to help take the Volcom and Electric brands to the next level of success,” says Volcom Chairman and CEO Richard Woolcott. “For more than 20 years we have worked to inspire a movement that provokes freedom of thought and expression, and celebrated this spirit through our athletes, worldwide events, rock tours, feature films and, of course, our apparel. PPR, with its expertise gained through both Puma and its Luxury Group, could bring international market knowledge, sourcing capabilities and other operational expertise in areas such as product development and retailing to help the company grow Volcom globally, while preserving the elements that make the brands authentic.”
That means Wooly’s shares alone are worth approximately $61.5 million. How’s that for an exit strategy? Follow the jump for the official details on how Volcom will become a French fashion brand.
[click to continue…]
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A month ago, when the Snow Industries of America announced that they would be moving the dates of their annual trade show up to the middle of January beginning in 2013 we thought it was kind of silly of them to so brazenly stomp all over dates historically used by the regional rep shows. That would be just plain dumb, we thought. Well, apparently, those same thoughts finally sunk in to the SIA board of directors because:
The Board of Directors for SnowSports Industries America (SIA) announced today that the SIA Snow Show will continue to be held in the late January/early February timeframe. Given the many factors and constituencies SIA’s Board had to consider, the goal was to provide Show dates that would be beneficial to all aspects of the industry. . . “At the end of the day, the voice of the retail community and our sales reps was heard loud and clear,” said Tim Petrick, SIA’s Chairman. “The earlier dates were not going to work for the U.S. retail community, so we needed to find a solution that worked for our customers.”
And what a solution it was. Keep the dates the same. Just think of all the meetings that were required to do absolutely nothing about the SIA dates. For the rest of the details, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
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Click here to jump straight to the photos.
More than 130 skateboard industry titans joined the International Association of Skateboard Companies for their fourth annual Skateboarding Summit in the California Ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel in Orange, California.
Day one of the conference featured a keynote address by Stone Brewing co-founder and CEO Greg Koch, lively retailer and manufacturer panel discussions, and an evening interview with Alien Workshop founder Chris Carter (click here for video of the entire interview).
Day two featured the incredible panel on Managing A Modern Career and the compelling Future of Skateparks discussion.
For our live blogging coverage of the entire IASC 2011 Skateboarding Summit click here. Or, click just here for the photos.
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