by The Editors on April 20, 2011
ABC News has a profile of Jake Burton in which he talks about his business, the legacy of Craig Kelly, and where he believe snowboarding is right now. It’s the same old story, but Jake does add this:
“I think the sport is in a very good place right now,” Burton said. “It’s not about having the latest goof rack on your BMW or how good the food is at the hotel you’re staying at. It’s about just getting out and shredding and having fun with your friends and as long as that remains at the core of the sport, it’ll continue to do well.”
We know that’s not exactly how the high stakes world of big business snowboarding functions (as Jake well knows), but for those actually out on the snow we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
[Link: ABC News]
by The Editors on April 20, 2011
Westlife Distribution LLC, the parent company of 686 Technical Apparel has formed a strategic partnership with Canadian-based NRI Distribution Inc. to provide “boutique, turn-key fulfillment services . . ; E-Commerce solutions; and finally a variety of brand support services” in the US of A.
“The combination of being both a manufacturer who successfully runs a US warehouse and one that globally utilizes 3PL facilities, gives us a unique perspective for this industry on the needs of a growing company,” states Westlife CFO/COO, Douglas Sumi. Adds Michael Akira West, President and Founder of Westlife, “Our core competencies are creating quality products and services, while quickly implementing it into the marketplace. We’ve been providing backend services for boutique companies for years. Now we’re excited to team up with a proven leader and do it on a larger scale. ”
Follow the jump for the rest of the details. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 19, 2011
Haggling over the Mavericks big wave contest is continuing even though there was no contest this year, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News.
Sponsor Barracuda Networks decided to pull out of the event even though they had reportedly agreed to a three-year deal.
“Barracuda Networks has decided to redirect our efforts and attention to other projects. We wish everyone involved in the event in the future the very best,” company Executive Vice President Michael Perone said in a statement. Barracuda had agreed to a three-year sponsorship deal for the contest with the surfers, but no contracts were signed. Surfable winter waves never materialized this year, so the contest was called off.
Jay Moriarity’s family has also requested that his name be removed from the contest going forward.
Everybody seems to be making money off Jay’s name,” said Doug Moriarity, Jay’s father. “It sounds like it’s just becoming a big business again — Barracuda was saying the surfers can’t run it, they don’t have the experience.”
What would you expect from a company named after a “voracious, opportunistic predator that relies on surprise and short bursts of speed to overtake their prey.” Sounds like it’s time to screw the prize money and take the whole thing back underground.
[Link: San Jose Mercury News]
by The Editors on April 16, 2011
With the stability of their financial empire in question and their plans to move and/or sell the Sacramento Kings NBA team it would seem that the Maloofs would have bigger things than skateboarding on their minds. But when the whole novelty of their skateboarding event hinges on “money”, then the prize purse is pretty important.
On Tuesday, April 12, 2011 the Maloofs announced that they were adding a fourth stop to the Maloof Money Cup and upping the prize purse to $2 million.
“The skating population has grown tremendously in Washington D.C. and right now it lacks the number of skate parks needed to support this growth,” said Joe Maloof, founder of Maloof Money Cup and owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. “Our intent is to build a skate park for the community like we did in New York City. We’ve been in talks with a number of cities to host Maloof Money Cup and figured what better place to expand in 2011 than our nation’s capital.”
It didn’t take The Street League’s Rob Dyrdek long to respond to the Maloof ante up with a prize purse boost of his own pushing TSL’s purse up to $1.6 million, according to a story on MSNBC.com.
“You have to understand that despite what it looks like from the outside looking in, street skateboarding is 80 percent of action sports,” Dyrdek said. “There’s 15 million participants in action sports, and 10 million of them are street skaters. It has its own self-sustaining market where it never really needed mainstream contests. But now it’s sort of this dance, which really comes between Street League and Maloof Money Cup, where they came in as I was developing this, and then that just sort of drove it up, which I think is incredible for the sport.
Incredible for the sport? We’re not so sure. Seems what would be better for skateboarding would be for everyone to work together toward one unified street skateboarding title. But then, Dyrdek and the Maloofs would have to work together. And it doesn’t seem that either enjoy sitting back while someone else makes the decisions–especially with so much money on the line.
[Link: MSNBC.com, ESPN.com]
by The Editors on April 15, 2011
The Motley Fool’s Seth Jayson takes a look at Volcom stock today in a story titled, Is Volcom Going To Burn You? In it he looks specifically at Accounts Receivables and Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to attempt to see the future of the company.
AR that grows more quickly than revenue, or ballooning DSO, can also suggest a desperate company that’s trying to boost sales by giving its customers overly generous payment terms. Alternately, it can indicate that the company sprinted to book a load of sales at the end of the quarter, like used-car dealers on the 29th of the month. (Sometimes, companies do both.) . . Why might an upstanding firm like Volcom do this? For the same reason any other company might: to make the numbers. Investors don’t like revenue shortfalls, and employees don’t like reporting them to their superiors.
Jayson doesn’t say that’s what VeeCo is doing, just that the numbers are interesting. If you understand any of this, click the link for more.
[Link: Motely Fool]
by The Editors on April 13, 2011
It was only a month ago that Michael Marckx left his position as VP of global marketing at Globe to become VP of marketing at Spy Optic. It appears he’s been chewing up the scenery at the Carlsbad-based company.
Today, the company announced that Marckx has been promoted to president and that CEO Stone Douglass is “stepping down.” Orange 21 board chairman Seth Hamot says this is a turning point for a company (that has had its share over the last decade).
“Today marks an important milestone for Orange 21 and SPY: We have a new management team dedicated to growing our firm through enhancing our brands,” says Seth Hamot, Orange 21 chairman of the board. “Our new CEO, Carol Montgomery, previously helped grow Revo from a small sunglass brand to a much larger firm. Similarly, Michael Marckx was instrumental in resurrecting the Ocean Pacific (Op) brand, and recently has run divisions for Globe International, the action sports lifestyle brand and world’s largest manufacturer of skateboards. Finally, the inclusion of Michael Angel to our senior executive ranks will help us build a stronger company on a solid foundation.
Nice 30 day plan, Marckxy. What’s on the schedule for next month? [click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 12, 2011
Western Australia’s West Suits was forced to “call in administrators” when a rough economy got in the way of continued sales growth according to a story in The West.
The O’Connor-based business, which generated about $6 million in total sales last year, has secured debts owed to National Australia Bank of about $1 million. . . Up to a further $1 million is also owed to several trade creditors, and an unnamed private investor is understood to have advanced the company several million dollars.
According to the story, administrator Dino Travaglini, from Perth firm Moore Stephens says “it would be business as usual while he sourced a buyer for the company.”
Being the little guy has never been easy.
[Link: The West]
by The Editors on April 6, 2011
If everyone got a Jim Phillips graphic as cool as Mob Grip’s new Sales Manager Bud “Mr. Griptape” Smith did when he was hired, we’d be running all kinds of business promotional news bits.
“Mob Grip is first and foremost a great product,” says Bud. “When you add amazing team riders and marketing, consistent quality and an innovative high performance product offering, it truly is a complete package. It’s all backed by a focused skateboard company committed to re-investing in skateboarding. I am very excited to be involved. I have no doubt the future looks bright.”
Sure enough. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on March 31, 2011
Volcom reportedly filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in the Central District of California on March 29, 2011 against Jay-Z’s Roc Nation brand, according to a story on All Hip Hop.
According to the complaint, Roc Nation’s logo is too close to their own, which they have been using in trade since 1991. . . Additionally, Volcom claims the logo could create confusion in the marketplace, since their label Volcom Entertainment, also uses a similar, registered trademark. . . “While Roc Nation appears to have initially used the diamond only in combination with the words ‘Roc Nation’ it is now using the diamond logo on its own, causing a likelihood of confusion among consumers,” Volcom’s complaint reads.
Can you tell the difference?
[Link: New York Daily News and All Hip Hop]
by The Editors on March 30, 2011
GoPro, the compact, HD video camera company that has completely changed the look of action sports footage, has reportedly purchased Solana Beach, California video compression technology company CineForm.
“We’re extremely excited to welcome the CineForm team to GoPro,” exclaims Nicholas Woodman, GoPro’s founder and CEO. “CineForm is an industry leader in video codec technology and is famous in professional circles for their HD and 3D content creation tools. As GoPro is focused on making it easy for consumers to capture professional quality content, we’re eager to incorporate CineForm’s technology and passion into future GoPro products.”
How Woodman took GoPro from a company that marketed crappy, waterproof, plastic, disposable film cameras on a Velcro wrist strap to a brand delivering ubiquitous micro HD video camera companies is worth a book in and off itself. Now, it appears that he’s kicking the whole thing up another notch by owning the compression technology. Smart moves from GoPro. [click to continue…]
