by The Editors on October 19, 2010
Volcom announced today that they’ve purchased the distributor responsible for their brand in Spain beginning in July 2011.
“This move enables us to service our accounts directly and further build the Volcom brand in this important and influential territory,” said Richard Woolcott, Volcom’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Historically we have been successful in growing market share in territories where we have assumed direct control, and this initiative directly supports our expansion plans in Europe.”
This means Volcom is running it’s own show in France, the UK, Switzerland, and Spain. It’s always better to do things yourself. Bumping things over is going to cost the company approximately $150,000 this quarter.
by The Editors on October 14, 2010
The marketing mastermind behind the now defunct Mtnops.com website, snowboard, and clothing company, Snowboard Mag, and Tailgate Alaska, Mark Sullivan, has finally made it back to Vermont where he will take on his newest project as Marketing Manager of Rome Snowboards (see photos from his trip east here).
Mark has been responsible for some amazing innovations in snowboard media and events over the past 20 years and now he’s going to put those skills behind some product.
What may be most important is that Mark comes to Rome with a true passion for snowboarding and an excitement for where snowboarding’s headed. With a combination of experience, creativity, and a great work ethic, Mark is a great fit for the SDS family. . . If you’d like to come visit Mark, feel free to swing by the Rome office, where Mark’s taken up temporary residency in the Rome parking lot living out of the “Pow Explorer 2” during his transitional period from living in Idaho to becoming a Vermont resident.
We seriously can’t think of a better fit. Congrats, and good luck.
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by The Editors on October 13, 2010
While the rest of us were simply praying the 33 men trapped in a Chilean Copper mine would survive, Oakley appears to have lucked into a marketing bonanza.
According to a statement from Oakley, a Chilean journalist apparently recommended the company’s eyewear to a Chilean private health insurer. The insurer called Oakley and Oakley responded by donating 35 pairs of Radar With Black Iridium lenses, according to a story on CNBC.com.
Now, thanks to all the images of happy rescued miners rocking Oakley, the company has gotten world-wide branding on an enormous scale. The sponsorship evaluation firm of Front Row Analytics figures the value of Oakley’s “protective eyewear” donation is worth about $41 million.
Eric Smallwood, vice president of project management for the company, told CNBC that the company took into account the live coverage, the recaps and a rough estimate of the audience watching around the world. . . Front Row broke the exposure down by country. Oakley will get the most exposure in China ($11.7 million), $6.4 million in the United States, $898,000 in the United Kingdom and $703,000 in Chile. . . “It’s a goodwill gesture that will turn into mass amounts of exposure for Oakley in a positive manner,” Smallwood said.
How’s that for disaster marketing?
[Link: CNBC.com]
by The Editors on October 13, 2010
Game development company Robomodo, the group responsible for Tony Hawk’s Ride and new Tony Hawk’s Shred game (and controller), has reportedly cut between 30 and 60 employees, according to a story on Kotaku.com.
Sources tell Kotaku that the layoffs were affected in some way by news that Tony Hawk publisher Activision had taken the franchise away from the developer. One source told us that a wrap party planned for Tony Hawk: Shred with the star attending was pushed back to November without notice prior to today’s layoffs.
And the Tony Hawk video game franchise rolls on.
[Link: Kotaku.com]
by The Editors on October 8, 2010
Mark Appleyard is now representing Element Skateboards and Transworld Skateboarding’s Kevin Duffel has the complete interview on how it all went down, including why he left Flip.
I was over it [laughs],” Appleyard said. “I feel like I grew out of it and the team changed so much over the years that I was just like, “this shit ain’t for me anymore,” and I just needed to feel more stoked on the company I ride for, so I had to change it up. . . Yeah it was hard to leave, but it’s a business move. Ya know? If someone’s gonna be your friend, it shouldn’t depend on what company you ride for. I just had to make a power move to benefit myself. I’m really stoked on the choice I made. It was difficult but it had to be done.
Chalk up another win for the Billabong Corporation. Click the link for the entire interview.
[Link: Transworld Skateboarding]
by The Editors on October 7, 2010
When Vans opens it’s newest promotional space inside a Brooklyn, New York warehouse it will not be to sell shoes to the general public. No. The 24,000 square foot warehouse will be used by Vans to host parties, music shows, art exhibits and skate demos, according to a Conor Daugherty story in the Wall Street Journal.
The “House of Vans,” as executives at the Orange County, Calif., company have dubbed the park on Franklin Street, a few blocks from Greenpoint Avenue, is part of a broader strategy to beef up Vans’s presence in New York and the East Coast. . . “Brooklyn is one of the best Vans strongholds outside of California,” says Doug Palladini, Vans vice president of marketing. “As big as Vans has become, we’re still really only known in a few key spots outside of California.” . . But while “you can’t just show up,” Mr. Palladini said there will be occasional chances—a special event through a local skate shop, for instance—for outsiders to get inside the park and roll around. He declined to say how much the company is spending on the facility.
NYC party space rental is expensive. Might as well just own it.
[Link: Wall Street Journal]
by The Editors on October 6, 2010
Source Interlink Media, the parent company of ASG (publishers of Surfing, Surfer, Snowboarder, and Skateboarder magazines) announced today that they have purchased Grind Networks including GrindTV.com, Newschoolers.com, Ridemonkey.com, 411vm.com, Wetsand.com, affiliate sales aggregation sites Snowboarder.com, Motocross.com, Skateboard.com, and entertainment site Stupidvideos.com.
“The addition of Grind Networks to our portfolio demonstrates our corporate strategic commitment to finding and investing in the right partners who have the vision to deliver targeted content, across multiple platforms, to our enthusiast consumers,” said Michael L. Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Source Interlink Companies, Inc. . . With this move, former Grind Networks CEO Erik Hawkins will oversee all digital sales and marketing efforts for the new group; President/COO Greg Morrow will direct all technical and digital product development aspects of the business. The two founded Grind Networks in 2005 after serving as executives at Yahoo!, CitySearch and Launch Media. Both will report directly to Norb Garrett, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher of SIM’s ASG.
Those who follow along will remember that many of these websites were purchased and/or created by Wasserman Media Group in something called Sportnet. That site was WMG’s last attempt to corner the market on digital action sports. When things turned out poorly there the sites were then rolled into GrindTV with money from Softbank Capital March 19, 2009.
It will be interesting to see what magic ASG’s Norb Garrett can work with these sites as none (aside from Newschoolers in ski and Ridemonkey in MTB) have yet to have gained any authentic traction with either advertisers or readers. And while the domains snowboarder.com, motocross.com, and skateboard.com obviously have potential, this whole deal seems like a rather complicated, expensive way to upgrade a couple URLs.
Follow the jump for the rest of the release.
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by The Editors on October 5, 2010
Thanks to $1.4 billion in dept Fortress Investment Group LLC has been looking for buyers for their Intrawest properties almost since buying the company in August of 2006.
The sales most often spoken about is Whistler Blackcomb (which was nearly auctioned off by creditors during the 2010 Olympics). There were rumors from the Wall Street Journal regarding the attempted sale to Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, and another included “oil mogul” Murray Edwards (owner of Fernie Alpine Resort, Kimberley Alpine Resort, Stoneham Mountain Resort and Mont-Sainte-Anne), but none of them were interested in paying what Fortress believes the mountain is worth. Now Fortress is reportedly trying to take the resort public through an IPO, according to a story in The Globe & Mail.
But the well-known name of Whistler may be an easier sell for an audience of retail investors, especially after the successful Olympics at the site last winter. As a result, an IPO is now the favoured option, sources said. . . “They didn’t like the valuations they got [from other buyers] so they will try the IPO market,” said a second person familiar with the situation.
When you can’t get smart money might as well go retail, but It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where this turns out well no matter how sexy Canadian resorts are.
[Link: The Globe & Mail]
by The Editors on October 4, 2010
Every month Volcom’s Chairman and CEO Richard Woolcott sells some of his personal shares of Volcom stock. Occasionally, we like to check in on the totals. Here’s what he’s been selling lately, according to GuruFocus.com.
July 14, 2010 20,000 shares at $19.44 ($388,800)
July 27, 2010 20,000 shares at $20.00 ($400,000)
August 16, 2010 10,000 shares at 16.04 ($160,400)
August 24, 2010 10,000 shares at $15.32 ($153,200)
September 14, 2010 10,000 shares at $17.49 ($174,900)
September 24, 10,000 shares at $17.88 ($178,800)
That means he’s sold 80,000 shares in the last three months and turned that into $1.4 million in cash. But don’t worry. Wooly still has at least 2,730,932 shares left. And at today’s trading price that’s worth a little over $50 million.This brings to an end our Monday afternoon pep talk.
[Link: Gurufocus.com]
by The Editors on October 4, 2010
The Frog House, Newport Beach, California’s most famous surf shop, may be getting to boot thanks to being located in an area that has been zoned residential since the 1970s, according to a story in the Daily Pilot.
In 2006, Newport Beach was updating its general plan, which included taking action on zoning restrictions. Two years later, an ordinance passed that required the city to take action on Frog House and three other nonconforming properties in residential areas. . . “[In 2008] the choice was that the commercial uses in residential uses have a year to abate or apply for appropriate modifications or permits, or they would have to leave their location,” Hunt said. . . Although the public has had access to the ordinance since 2008, Hunt said that the city did not contact Frog House directly when the change happened.
But the Frog House isn’t gone yet. . . apparently there is still some paperwork that can be done to prolong the process. Hopefully, it will be allowed to stay until the owners choose to shut it, sell it, or move it. Click here to join the Save The Frog House facebook group.
[Link: Daily Pilot]
Volcom announced today that they’ve purchased the distributor responsible for their brand in Spain beginning in July 2011.
