“I’m surrounded by great people, and we all inspire each other to do better. When I’m teaching, I invite these guys to come to my classes,” he said. . . He teaches marketing to MBA students at Concordia University and has taught at Pepperdine. . . .”There are rumors that I may teach at a couple other schools,” but Lam says he’ll stay with one at a time.
Wing is one the most prolific networkers in action sports. The guy never stops.
“The acquisition presents the opportunity to extract significant synergies in areas including warehousing, distribution, back-office support and overall retail management consolidation,” Billabong chief executive Derek O’Neill said. . . “Additionally, direct retail operations greatly enhance Billabong’s visibility into the buying trends of the end consumer and assist in the speedy development and delivery of on-trend product to both company-owned and independent retail accounts,” he said.
That brings Billabongs total retail fronts to 558, according to the Sydney Mourning Herald and will add three percent to the company’s annual revenue. Buying retailers in bulk is such a nice way to open new doors.
Their graphics have always been loud so it is surprising that Danny Kass and Grenade hadn’t done their own motocross line long ago. Either way, they’re doing it now with Grenade MX Standard Issue.
After successful collaborations with The Metal Mulisha, Hart & Huntington, and Sullen, Grenade is launching a complete line of technical dirt riding gear. The gear debuted at industry tradeshows in August 2010 and includes two styles; the higher-end “Bulletproof” and the more affordable “Macadam Series. Grenade also introduced six new styles of premium MX gloves and is offering a full casual apparel line built specifically for moto accounts.
It seems, like most boardsports brands, Grenade has finally discovered that motocross fans have money, need loads of gear, and exhibit no discernible level of shame when it comes to covering everything they own in corporate logos. For Grenade it sounds like a match made in heaven. [click to continue…]
Looks like The Program’s Bryan Knox has been doing good work for the Burton Corporation lately. Today, (September 30, 2010) it was announced the Knox has been promoted to the position of Director of Team Marketing and Media for Burton Snowboards and The Program.
As the former Director of Team for the Program, Bryan has done an amazing job over the past four years not only building up the Program’s team but also helping to strengthen the marketing of the brands. . . Bryan will oversee the current Burton Team Management group and brings a depth of rider experience, perspective and influence that will help to make the best brands in snowboarding even stronger. In this new role, Bryan will continue to work out of the Irvine offices to function as a West Coast face for the team and core media.
Hoby Darling was a lawyer on the up at the “powerhouse law firm” of Latham Watkins when he took over the Volcom account, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.
Now, six years later, he’s living the core life as VeeCo’s general counsel and helping Volcom to bridge the “divide between the Beach and Wall Street,” with what they call Volcom University.
Beginning this year, up to 20 employees can attend, free-of-charge, classes in finance taught by executives from Goldman Sachs and accounting from professionals at Deloitte & Touche. Senior Volcom executives, some of whom have also gone through M.B.A. programs while working at Volcom, then teach employees how to apply the concepts from those lessons to their specific work at Volcom.
If you’re going up against the establishment it pays to know your enemy, right?
Remember Tim Pogue? He worked at Burton in the early 90s and then joined Jamie Salter to launch and subsequently take Ride Snowboards public back in May of 1994. After exiting Ride Tim launched a retail store and denim line in Seattle called Faction.
After Faction went south he sort of drifted off our radar. Apparently, he’s now the Chief Marketing Officer at Jamie Salter and Kenny Finkelstein’sAuthentic Brands Group. They’re the new owners of both the ass-kicking “bad for the sport” MMA clothing brand TapouT and the mellow Bob Marley brand (which recently collabed with Burton on a snowboard).
The only reason we’re mentioning this is that Pogue was interviewed on FightHype.com regarding TapouT and Authentic Brands Group’s plans for the brand and we thought what he had to say was interesting:
We’re recreating a similar structure that Jamie and I built while we ran Ride Snowboards; a tiered branded strategy. At Ride, we had incredible demand for that brand, which is great, but if you sell your brand to every level of distribution, you won’t last long. So we started several other brands and even bought a few more to target certain levels of distribution to keep each brand clean. That’s what we’re doing here. . . TapouT is all about respect, discipline and the will and desire to train to be the best. We’re not afraid to say that we’re going right after Under Armour and Nike.
While we have absolutely no interest in MMA or MMA fashion, we’re glad to see that Tim is still hard at it.
If a California bankruptcy court gives the final okay, the Minnesota based Active Sports Inc., parent company of The House, Proboard Shop, etc. . . will end up paying $8 million for the Sacramento, California based Sierra Snowboard, its web site and inventory according to a story on Transworld Business.
According to court records, the purchase price includes all intellectual property, assets, good will, and none of the company’s liabilities. A payment plan has been outlined for the $8 million outlining financial milestones Sierra’s owners, Michael Anthony Management, Inc., must meet. According to Active, the Northern District Court of San Jose, California approved the sale, subject to certain closing conditions on September 28. . . Final court approval is still required.
Sierra’s self-reported 272,302 registered online community members must have factored heavily into what seems like a high sale price for a bankrupt retailer with only one location, especially considering the reported $12-13 million in “outstanding trade debt” that still has to be dealt with by someone. Then again, it’s only money, right?
DC Shoes announced today that they have officially passed the 1 million mark for facebook likes and they’re extremely excited about it.
“We’re excited to have grown our Facebook community to this size,” said DC’s President, Anton Nistl. “Facebook is one of the best ways to connect with consumers. It’s a simple, fast and exciting interface to which people have responded positively. We understand its importance and influence and will continue to bring the latest original and creative content surrounding our athletes, events and products to our Facebook followers.”
Kind of makes all other forms of media promotion seem kind of insignificant in comparison, huh?
Colin Madden, the former director of sales at Burton, DC, and vice president of sales at Neff,has joined the Holden Outerwear team, according to a release sent out today.
“Hiring Colin is the culmination of an intensive search to find the right fit,” says Holden Co-Founder Mikey LeBlanc. “We recognize that we need to do more than make a great product—we need to deliver it to the right customers on terms that are mutually profitable. We’re confident that Colin’s skill and experience will let us take this fundamental step.”
For the rest of the “Holden Transforms” info, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
TransWorld Media recently made a very small reduction in its workforce in an effort to cut costs, offset expenses and strategically plan for future initiatives that are currently in line for the company,” Ferguson said in an email. “In order to ensure the ongoing success of TransWorld Media, these tough decisions with our TransWorld Family were made so we can continue to provide an exceptional level of service to our audience, advertisers, and existing employees.”
Hard times, hard decisions. Jamey’s deep knowledge of skateboarding and dedication to authenticity is reportedly already being missed at the company. And, as most media companies are being forced to adjust staff sizes to meet new economies realities, the question many have is who will be next?
Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s co-founder Wing Lam will speak to students at Honolulu Hawaii’s Chaminade University next week as part of the school’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Program, according to a story in the Honolulu Star Register.
