Wonder how Quiksilver shareholders (and former employees) feel about this little line from a Globe and Mail story on how Rossignol has pulled their company back from the brink of bankruptcy.
For a company that has shed 20 per cent of its work force and narrowly escaped bankruptcy, opening a glitzy new headquarters might look like corporate vanity. . . Not so for Skis Rossignol SA, says new chief executive officer Bruno Cercley, who hopes the glass-fronted new building will motivate staff as the 100-year old company tries to turn the page on recession by focusing on core ski brands.
Guess that page turning thing is easier to do after letting another company take the fall for you. . .
When a Japanese company (Phoenix’s X-Nix) purchased the rights to dress the 1998 United States Olympic Snowboard Team Burton Snowboards thought that the whole idea of a “uniform” for snowboarders was a terrible idea. In fact, they said that it went against everything that snowboarding stood for.
Now that Burton is been the official snowboard team supplier for a second Olympics things are a quite different, according to a story in the New York Times.
“Board sports, for the most part, are about expressing individuality — that’s what makes them cool,” said Greg Dacyshyn, the company’s creative director. “So the whole uniform thing, you know, it’s a sensitive subject.” . . . “The inspiration was sort of that classic Americana look: the plaid blazer and old jeans,” Dacyshyn said. “Yeah, it’s a uniform, but it’s also an anti-uniform at the same time.”
But more importantly, the uniforms now sport a couple Burton logos. One thing is for sure: these uniforms are going to look real smooth behind gold medals.
A graphic from Billabong’s “comrade” T-shirt series is stirring up some trouble with a group of Australian Croats, according to a story on Javno.com.
The front of the disputed T-shirt contains emblem that combines the five-pointed star with what remarkably resembles the Croatian coat of arms. . . Behind the five-pointed star is a grain wreath that resembles the iconography which, in Croatia, is commonly associated with the communist Yugoslavia. Behind a checkered coat of arms is an eagle wing, which after a brief observation, may be correlated with the eagle on the Serbian coat of arms.
Natalie Drazic a spokeswoman for the Sydney’s Croatian Youth organization reportedly contacted Billabong but was not happy with the response she got from the company. “Natalie Drazic and the SCY management urged all Croats to boycott products made by the Billabong Company until further notice.”
A little controversy never seems to hurt T-shirt sales.
Same store states at core mall retailer Zumiez fell 8.5 in November, according to a story on Reuters.
Analysts on average expected same-store sales at the retailer to fall 8.2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. . . For the four-week period ended Nov. 28, total net sales fell 1.8 percent to $32 million.
Not really sure what is going on here. But that appears to be Jake “Fall from the sky” Brown and Pat Duffy. As Bryce Kanights said on Skatedaily.net, “What the hell.” It’s certainly no Gymkana 2.1.
Last summer while in Portland we had the opportunity to take a tour of Nemo’s Portland, Oregon headquarters with agency founder Trevor Graves. Having known Trevor for a long, long time, mostly as a snowboard photographer, we were blown away by how smooth, professional, and polished Trevor and Nemo have become. [click to continue…]
A partnership that links Wendy’s and Ubisoft’s Shaun White snowboarding video game has helped the Winter Dew Tour sell out of its title sponsorships for the first time. The quick-service restaurant and the video game manufacturer struck a multifaceted partnership deal. . .
When Billabong announced yesterday (November 23, 2009) that it had “entered into a conditional agreement to acquire” online retailer Swell.com it brought to a close one of the most interesting action sports .com stories of the past decade.
Founded by former Salomon Smith Barney analyst Nicholas Nathanson and entrepreneur Jeff Berg in late 1999 following the first crash of the Internet economy, Swell.com tried nearly everything to find online success and burned through millions of dollars on the way. Management tried snowboarding editorial and e-commerce, skateboarding editorial and e-commerce, they formed a “strategic alliance with Primedia’s Surfing Magazine in early 2001 and yet nothing seemed to work. It was only after they got back to basics and became an online catalog fashion retailer in November of 2001 that the company appeared to stabilize.
Adding one more company to the list of his shrewd acquisitions over the past five years Billabong USA President Paul Naude spun this one nicely in the press release.
“We look forward to growing the Swell business and further developing it as a showcase online platform for the US boardsports industry,” he said. “The internet plays a significant role in the recreational habits of the youth market so it is important for our Group to ensure we provide them with a premium brand experience when shopping online.”
As hard as it is to believe, until this purchase, Billabong had made no real moves on selling direct online in the US. While Quiksilver hired Swell founder Nicholas Nathanson to build out their e-commerce platform, Billabong continued to sell online only through its retail network. More than anything, this purchase will allow Billabong to begin tapping into the higher margins that only selling direct can provide. That alone is a good enough reason for the purchase.
Billabong says Swell.com had an annual turnover of less that $16 million and that it would contribute less than 1 percent of the company revenue, according to a story on Goldcoast.com.au.
What will be most interesting is to see how many of Billabong’s competitors (i.e. Quiksilver, Volcom, RVCA, Rip Curl, O’Neill, Hurley) continue to do business with the online/catalog retailer after the sale is completed.
We’ve been covering Swell.com since the beginning in 1999. Follow the jump for a Sacklunch/Boardistan timeline of most Swell.com events of interest during the past decade (along with the commentary we wrote at the time) and relive all the .com good times. [click to continue…]
TheBurton Corp’s artsy, woodsy skateboard company Habitat is celebrating its 10th year in business by launching a line of skate footwear that is reportedly “designed by skateboarders for skateboarding.”
Consisting of six models, the line also infuses Habitat’s signature design principles — branded colorways, visual balance, and attention to detail. “After 10 years of building a solid presence in the hardgoods market, developing a footwear line was a new creative outlet for Habitat and a natural next step in the progression of the brand,” stated Joe Castrucci. “Footwear is a great platform for the evolution of Habitat. Pre-season sales have exceeded our goals and we are excited for the full product launch early next year,” added Chris Carter.
Guess there wouldn’t really be a worse time to launch a new shoe line. So at least they’ve got that going for them.
Up anything is a good thing, right? While not even up 1 percent, it was good to see Zumiez up something for Q3. Here are some details from CNNMoney.com.
Total net sales for the third quarter (13 weeks) ended October 31, 2009 increased 0.8% to $113.2 million from $112.2 million reported in the third quarter (13 weeks) ended November 1, 2008. The Company posted net income for the quarter of $5.1 million or $0.17 per diluted share versus net income of $6.8 million or $0.23 per diluted share in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. Comparable store sales decreased 8.0% for the third fiscal quarter of 2009 compared to a 5.8% decrease in the third quarter of 2008.
CEO Rick Brooks is very proud of the Zumiez organization.
“I want to credit our entire team for our better than expected third quarter performance. By carefully managing our inventory, working closely with our branded and private label vendors to design programs that would deliver improved merchandise margins, and finding ways to inspire consumers who visited our stores, we were able to exceed our initial third quarter expectations and saw a meaningful improvement in our same store sales trends relative to the first half of fiscal 2009.
Things are looking up. Click the link for the complete financials.
Wonder how Quiksilver shareholders (and former employees) feel about this little line from a Globe and Mail story on how Rossignol has pulled their company back from the brink of bankruptcy.
