by The Editors on April 24, 2009
According to a story published today on MediaPost by Fuse Marketing partner Bill Carter says, “Gen Y is drawn to action sports.”
The amount of money spent on traditional sports marketing far exceeds what is spent on action sports, yet action sports continue to replace traditional sports in popularity — with participation numbers in action sports rising at the expense of traditional sports. . . The power of the action sports market has yet to be completely realized. For non-endemic corporations, breaking into this market isn’t as easy as it may seem. Skaters, surfers and snowboarders traditionally are leery of non-endemic brands.
Luckily Fuse Marketing is there to let major corporations exchange their money for action sports credibility. Just look what they did for Right Guard Extreme.
[Link: MediaPost]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
West 49, the Zumiez of Canada, announced that it lost $8.5-million its fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 “after booking $9.6 million after tax in writedowns of goodwill and other assets, and is in trouble with its bankers,” according to a story in The Star.
For all of last year, which included an extra week compared with the company’s prior financial year, sales rose 2.7 per cent to $210.4 million from $204.9 million. West 49 said it lost $12.3 million, 19 cents per share, compared with the previous annual loss of $2.4 million, four cents per share. Excluding one-time items, the full-year loss was $2.6 million, down from a prior-year profit of $1.5 million.
Not too shabby compared to other mall retailers.
[Link: The Star]
by The Editors on April 20, 2009
The Salt Lake Tribune profiles their newest local business success in a story titled: Skullcandy Feeds Your Head and discovers that while the rest of the market is falling to pieces all over the place, Skullcandy is rapidly growing.
There’s a rumor that there’s a recession,” said Jeremy Andrus, (pictured right) president of the Utah-based Skullcandy headphones company. “But we’re not feeling it.”. . . In 2005, the company had $1.3 million in sales, while this year it’s on track to surpass the $100 million mark. Last fall, the company had about 30 employees. Today, it has more than 60. . . In 2008, nearly 10 million people purchased Skullcandy headphones, which are sold in more than 60 retailers. That catapulted the company to the industry’s No. 2 spot, second only to audio behemoth Sony. . . Brand loyalty is driving Skullcandy’s growth. “We’re gunning for No. 1,” Andrus said, displaying more of the company’s trademark bravado.
[Link: Salt Lake Tribune]
by The Editors on April 17, 2009
We’ve been watching Zumiez lately and thinking about all that cash and no debt and thinking it might be a great stock to invest in when Keybanc Capital goes and gives it an upgrade sending it rocketing up 23.5 percent today. Here’s what they said:
We continue to have a high degree of confidence in the long-term prospects of both the action sports industry and Zumiez’s goal to grow its domestic store base to roughly 800 units,’ the firm wrote, adding that more normalized spring weather patterns in April relative to March could help Zumiez post better-than-expected April same-store sales results.
When we look at their history, there could be a lot of upside.
[Link: Forbes]
by The Editors on April 16, 2009
Entrepreneur magazine checks in with the raddest businessmen on the planet: Ryan Sheckler, bmxer Dave Mirra, and Paul Rodriguez to see how things are hanging. From Sheckler’s “Ferrari F430 parked outside,” to Mirra’s “multimillion-dollar business” to P.Rod’s “shoe boutique” the magazine makes it look like getting paid isn’t so bad afterall.
“I’m a skateboarder,” Sheckler says. “I’ll always be just a skateboarder. But I have these awesome opportunities that I’ll never let go by. It started with skateboarding. It’ll end with skateboarding. The things I do in between are my choice. The haters can say what they want, and the people who are my friends can realize what I’m doing and realize the empire I’m building for myself, and tag along and have some fun.”
Now really, who would hate on Ryan?
[Link: Entregreneur.com]
by The Editors on April 16, 2009
Spy Optic parent company Orange 21 announced yesterday financial results for the year ending December 31, 2008 and though net sales were up 2% over 2007 to $47.3 million, their losses increased from $8 million in 2007 to $15.2 million in 2008.
“The current recession continues to have a significant impact on our sales,” commented Stone Douglass, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. “The impact is being felt not just in the US, but overseas as well. During these last few months we have reacted swiftly to reduce operating expenditures in all our companies and increase our sales and marketing efficiencies. In addition, we have been seeking new opportunities on a global basis.”
Douglass says that he is excited about some new opportunities in the future, but damn, that losing $23 million in two years seems like a pretty large wall to climb even with the office being closed on Fridays and cutting employee pay by 10 percent.
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by The Editors on April 15, 2009
According to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald Billabong is a nightmare brand for ad agencies and television networks because they are playing by their own rules all the way around.
It does not make TV commercials, it does not book space on television. And its magazine ads are produced by its own team. Billabong is not just a surf brand, it is a media company, says the person in charge of producing the hours of surf-related content. . . “This just ups the ante,” says Scott Wallace of the deal announced last week with Sony. “We are turning into a media company as well as a clothing company.”
Wallace, formerly with IMG, and now VP New Media and Strategic Partnerships, appears to be putting Billabong on the right track. As we’ve said several times: if you want to control your message, be the messenger. And it looks like Wallace is doing just that.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on April 15, 2009
The Magazine Publishers of America just released their print advertising numbers for Q1 2009 (Jan. to Mar. 2009 vs. 2008) and as might be expected things are not looking good. On average pages in the titles tracked by the MPA are down 26.1 percent and revenue is down 20.6 percent.
In the action sports magazine space Transworld Media has the only titles tracked and advertising pages were down across the board. Here are Transworld Media advertising page totals for Q1 2009 as reported by the MPA.
2009 2008 %Change
TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING 304.15 369.17 -17.6
TRANSWORLD SNOWBOARDING 359.48 429.11 -16.2
TRANSWORLD SURF 195.54 279.69 -30.1
RIDE BMX 75.16 93.34 -19.5
TRANSWORLD MOTOCROSS 244.17 259.04 -5.7
According to the MPA, in the first three months of this year Transworld Media print advertising was down a total of 251.85 pages when compared to the same period in 2008. Assuming that a page in the magazines cost on average $2,500 this drop in ad pages represents about $630,000 in revenue.
On a positive note: when compared to the magazine market in general Transworld’s titles are doing well, about 10 percent ahead of the market in every mag but Transword Surf. So by that metric, things are looking pretty good.
Then again, we don’t think the print advertising market will ever get better.
[Link: Magazine Publishers of America]
by The Editors on April 9, 2009
Yesterday, while strolling the isles of our local Walmart in search of storage bins and Giant Cheetos we noticed some attractive women’s monokinis. They were from some brand called Op and selling for $20.
It got us thinking: what is the difference between a $20 Op bikini and an $78 Roxy suit? Aside from mean girl scorn all we could come up with was marketing. For people who don’t mind wearing a Walmart bikini (and there are millions of them) there is no reason to spend four times as much.
So last night when TransWorld Business and Shop-Eat-Surf were tweeting away about how the La Jolla Group was doing a special Rusty line for J.C. Penney we had to chuckle. Of course they are. And so is Ryan Sheckler and Zoo York. Because if you’re just in the game to get paid there is really is no reason to protect your distribution. If Op is any indicator this could be the biggest sales year ever for all three companies. And what is wrong with that? You know, aside from everything. . .
For the latest on the J.C. Penney action fashion coup follow the jump.
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by The Editors on April 5, 2009
It seems that executives who leave the privately held Australian surf giant Rip Curl can pretty much forget about keeping any of the shares they got as part of their employment. Most recently Rip Curl has bought back 150,000 shares from former board chairman James Strong for $1 a piece, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It appears that the company has only paid $1 a share for Mr Strong’s stake, as part of an arrangement to buy them back at the price they were issued seven years ago. . . . But Rip Curl’s C-class stock is set at $62 a share, valuing Mr Strong’s 148,412’s shares at a nominal $9.2 million, according to documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. . . The final amount paid to the former chairman was part of a “confidential settlement agreement” relating to his departure, the company said in ASIC filings on Friday.
You don’t stay “closely held” by letting voting shares get to far from the nest, apparently.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
According to a story published today on MediaPost by Fuse Marketing partner Bill Carter says, “Gen Y is drawn to action sports.”
