It is the dream of many distributors to either be brought home by the mothership with a nice cash buyout, or grow large enough to buy the brand themselves. Volcom Australia’s John Clapham went the previous route and is selling the distributorship to Volcom corporate, according to a press release.
“We are very excited to more formally be coming under the Volcom global umbrella,” said John Clapham, chief executive officer of Volcom Australia. “We believe this will strengthen the company’s main aim to grow our share of the market and will enable us to take the brand to the next level in Australia and New Zealand.”
As usual, details on exactly what Volcom paid for the distributor were not disclosed. They also say this acquisition will be “neutral to earnings in 2010.” For the entire release, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
People sometimes forget that Ken Block has always been a businessman first and an action sportsman second. In this interview with Transworld Businesses‘ Mike Lewis Block again reminds us that DC is worn by every kid in Hicktown USA for a reason–Ken understands what drives teen passions and how that passion translates to dollars. Here’s an example:
Even a brand like Vans or Nike, they’re doing it in ways that really are counterproductive to what people thought in the past would work. Those brands do everything, they sell everywhere. Vans and Nike are both sold in JC Penney’s,” Block says. “Who would think a brand that sold at JC Penney’s would still be cool to a core consumer and a core skateboard retailer today? Well, they’re doing it and it proves that as long as you can send the right messages to the right people you can pull off some pretty interesting business moves. It’s the same thing that we do today, and every brand in our market really does – you have to continue marketing in the right way, to the right people, with the right messages. It’s pretty easy to fuck up, but there are ways to find the right paths.
Yeah, it’s as ugly as action consumerism can gets, but from the sales side it’s genius.
Looks like the high fashion diva Erin Wasson was a little too high maintenance for RVCA and they have cut her contract, according to the fashion blog Fashionista.
According to sources inside the company, RVCA dropped Erin Wasson because her team was too hard to work with. “Total chaos and the epitome of unorganized,” according to one person we spoke with. We know, what a shocker.
Then again, we’re guessing Ms. Wasson was pretty expensive and RVCA wasn’t exactly flush with cash. . . until lately.
[Update 6 PM, July 20, 2010: According to RVCA: “. . . the fashionista Wasson story is completely false, I’m sure it will be down or have a correction printed by tomorrow.” And by “completely false” RVCA means that Ms. Wasson will no longer be with the company, nor will she design another line for the company, but that’s because her contract expires on December 31, 2010. Not because she was “too hard to work with.”]
It’s rare that we have even the slightest bit of interest in any of SIMA’s Bootcamp seminars. On August 18, 2010, however, SIMA will be hosting an Athlete Management Boot Camp in conjunction with Wasserman Media Group that features a strong line-up of panelists including BIllabong’s Graham Stapelberg, Hurley’s Pat O’Connell, Firewire’s Mark Price, Mosaic’s Susan Izzo, WMG’s Blair Marlin, and the guy most responsible for “professionalizing” action sports athletes WMG’s Steve Astaphen.
“Athlete management is not only a crucial component to the surf industry, but one that is ever-changing and evolving as our sport, athletes and lifestyle continue to grow in the mainstream spotlight. At Athlete Management Boot Camp you’ll hear from some of our industry’s own experts, as well as from the preeminent managers and agents in the athlete management category, and learn best practices for managing athletes today, getting the most out of your signed athlete, what surf brands can learn from more mainstream athlete management, and more,” said Doug Palladini, SIMA President and VP of Marketing for Vans.
The seminar costs $175 for SIMA members and $275 for non-members. Follow the jump for all the info. [click to continue…]
While his analysis often pisses people off, one thing is certain: it is always entertaining, insightful, and opinionated; three things that are rare in action sports business media. The most recent topic Jeff dropped in on is, not surprisingly, Billabong Acquiring West 49.
Billabong’s strategy may be opportunistic with regards to timing (anybody’s acquisition strategy is) but I don’t think there’s any doubt that they have been planning to make retail a bigger part of their business. The presentation on West 49 says, in part, “Billabong has a long track record of successfully acquiring and integrating ‘bolt-on’ acquisitions consistent with its key strategic objectives of growing its brand portfolio and expanding its retail distribution network.” (Emphasis added) And their store count has grown from 49 in 2004 to 510 this year assuming they complete the West 49 deal.
And better yet–Jeff has posted every Market Watch column he’s written since 1995. Check it out if you care, and if you do, put him on your RSS reader.
Method Snowboard Magazine CEO Rasmus Ostergaard announced today that they moving to a free distribution model for the “pan-European” magazine.
It’s very simple, over the past 5 years it’s become increasingly clear that newsstand sales are in steady decline. Sadly, our target audience simply doesn’t buy magazines anymore. We could continue working with the old paradigm or radically change our business model to adapt to the market’s new realities. . . . Going free is a win-win situation for everyone –advertisers, retailers, readers, riders and photographers. From now on METHOD will be found where it counts most, namely core snowboard shops and other spots where snowboarders hang out.
We’ve always been big fans of free, plus, it’s just one step closer to 100% digital. Follow the jump for the official release and unleash the kitties. [click to continue…]
On Wednesday (July 14, 2010), when news began arriving that Mike Vallely was leaving Element Skateboards (and becoming one of the few objects to escape Billabong’s gravitational pull in recent weeks) we were too caught up in agreeing with Boil The Ocean’s take on the new company to get the official word from the man himself. And what a disservice that was. Here’s what Mike said on his blog:
You see, I still love Element and the people who I worked closely with there but unfortunately those people are ultimately powerless to steer the ship that is the conglomerate that owns Element. And it has become clearer and clearer to me that the parent company of Element is only looking to build their business and improve their bottom line on the backs of people like me. They can buy admiration but they can’t buy achievement. They can own skateboard companies but they’ll never be skaters. And this really bothers me. It bothers me so much that I can no longer give one ounce of my energy or another second of my time to their cause. Thus, I’ve started my own thing because I simply can’t and won’t be apart of their thing anymore.”
No one ever questioned Mike Vallely’s commitment, nor his ability to march directly into battle. We just hope he can liveBy the Sword, and not the other way around.
Mike “Chief” Nusenow has reportedly left his position of SVP Global Marketing for the Burton Corporation, according to a post on Shop-Eat-Surf.com.
Greg Dacyshyn, formerly senior vice president of creative, has been promoted to chief creative officer and will oversee all marketing and product. . . Sam Paschel, general manager of The Program, is now the Burton vice president of marketing and will oversee day-to-day marketing operations and execution, Janice [Nickloff ] said.
Lots of shifting around going on at Burton these days. . .
Billabong has been buying so many retailers lately that this one slipped under the radar. Billabong has apparently purchased four retail stores last week in Byron Bay, Australia own by brothers Gary and Mark Timperley, according to a story in the Byron Shire News.
It will be business as usual for Gary and Mark, who will stay on as store managers for at least two years and will retain the existing employee base. . . “I think these are always difficult decisions, but the fact we are selling to one of our original customers and then remaining in the business in a management capacity makes it a little easier,” Mark said. . . “When we started to talk about selling the businesses we realised we hadn’t stopped working since we left school in Fourth Form (Year 10).
The four sores include Bay Action, Big Kahuna, S-cape Byron, and not so oddly Billabong. We should probably start a Billabong tote board just to keep track of all of this.
It was a wonderful play while it lasted. Zumiez strolls, in says they’re going to one-up Billabong in the purchase of West 49 and then four days later decides that maybe it wasn’t such a good deal, according to the Associated Press.
Sports apparel retailer Zumiez Inc. said Tuesday it won’t be buying Canadian retailer West 49 Inc., saying it has not been able to reach an agreement over the due diligence process.
God know what kind of back room discussions have been going on in the last few days. Maybe this will allow Billabong to pay even less for the mall retailer now that they’ve been jilted? Or maybe West 49 will just have to go back to losing money on their own.
It is the dream of many distributors to either be brought home by the mothership with a nice cash buyout, or grow large enough to buy the brand themselves. Volcom Australia’s John Clapham went the previous route and is selling the distributorship to Volcom corporate, according to a press release.
