by The Editors on September 3, 2013
Xavier Nidecker (yes, that Nidecker) has been named Global Brand Manager of Jones Snowboards and Seth Lightcap has been named Global Marketing and Team Manager.
“We are stoked to have both Xavier and Seth enter into marketing and global brand strategy roles within the company,” says Jones Snowboards founder Jeremy Jones. “These are exciting times at Jones and we have every intention to continue our steady growth as a leader of performance-driven design and technology in the snowboard industry.”
Sounds like Nidecker (who is also involved with Nidecker, Yes, Now, Slash and Laird StandUp) it getting some business handled. For the official word from Jones, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 30, 2013
Former Billabong CEO Derek O’Neill and his wife Nikki are reportedly selling their “Beachbreak Cauarina” home located only 15 minutes from the Coolangatta Airport. The home is pretty plush, according to a post on Property Observer.
The 2005 Paul Uhlmann designed home has spacious indoor and outdoor entertaining options behind its formal entrance complete with Frangipani trees. . . The main kitchen and living areas feature beautiful New Guinea Rosewood cabinetry, eight metre high ceilings, chocolate quartz tiles and a mixture of electric blinds and windows to maximise natural light and airflow. . . Along with the spacious master suite, there are an additional three guest bedrooms upstairs as well as a fourth ensuited guest bedroom on the ground floor. . . The lock-up garage can park seven cars. The gardens comes with pool and firepit.
Looks like the kind of house you’d only leave if you had too. Asking price is something over $5 million AUS. In other words, it’s a steal. Anyone? For more photos click the link.
[Link: Unique Estates via Property Observer]
by The Editors on August 30, 2013
A dispute between Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort and Talisker the Canadian real estate company who owns the land the resort’s lifts operate on has resulted in PCMR being served an eviction notice giving the resort until Monday, September 2, 2013 to vacate the premises, according to a story in the Salt Lake City Tribune.
This obviously has many locals worried about what Park City’s business climate would look like without the resort operating. And there’s more. Vail signed a lease in May 2013 to operate PCMR’s nearest competitor The Canyons which is owned by Talisker and we’re guessing Vail would love to run the lifts at Park City as well. Representatives of PCMA resort say this eviction notice is simply bullying by the land owner and Vail.
“Vail’s eviction notice is nothing more than a bald-faced attempt to circumvent the litigation already in process and interfere with our business,” Jenni Smith, president and general manager, said in a statement. “We will not give in to Vail’s bullying.”
The litigation behind the eviction revolves around lease negotiations between Park City Mountain Resort and Talisker. Since the 1960s PCMR has reportedly been paying a ridiculously low $155,000 a year to lease the thousands of acres the ski resort sits on. Talisker claims it simply wants to be paid a what they consider “fair rent.”
“There is no intent by Talisker to take any action that would prevent PCMR’s ability to operate their resort during the upcoming 2013-2014 ski season,” said Vail spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga. “We are very cognizant of the importance of this situation to the entire Park City community and we look forward to bringing this situation and its uncertainty to a conclusion.”
Either way, it is highly doubtful that anything consumer facing will change during the 2013-14 ski season, so everyone who is worried can relax, buy a season pass and shred on. And for the record, over the years we’ve learned that when it comes to ski resorts corporations and real estate, there is rarely a “good guy” for us to even pull for. For the rest of the story, click the link.
[Link: Salt Lake City Tribune]
by The Editors on August 28, 2013
Brixton announced today the appointment of Mike Lawson to the position of Director of U.S. Sales for the Oceanside, California based brand. Lawson, an industry sales vet, was previously national sales manager for the action sports division of Amer Sports, parent company of Salomon, Bonfire, and Nikita, but most know him from his six years at Sole Technology’s Emerica and Altamont.
“We are excited to bring on someone with Mike’s ability to lead our U.S. sales team,” said Brixton co-founder and General Manager Jason Young. “Mike is well respected and comes to us with the knowledge and experience needed to help the continued growth of Brixton.”
Yes, it appears that Lawson’s escape from SoCal is officially over and he’s back in thick of it. Welcome home, Mike! For the official word from Brixton, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 21, 2013
Souce Interlink, the parent company of GrindMedia which owns Transworld Media, announced today (August 21, 2013) that they have decided to “recapitalize the company.” In other words, they sold another piece of themselves to one of their current owners (GoldenTree Asset Management) in exchange for “enhanced liquidity” more cash.
“The tremendously improved capital structure will provide both Source Interlink Media and Source Interlink Distribution with the ability to maximize transformational opportunities across their respective industries,” said Michael L. Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Source Interlink Companies. “This transaction will put both businesses in better positions to strengthen strategic partnerships and make investments to enhance their position in their respective industries.”
Yes, this means GrindMedia will have more money to get things done, so that’s likely good for them and not so good for their competitors (yes, they still have at least three in our space). If the action media business intrigues you, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 19, 2013
Ever since the GrindMedia consolidation of the action sports media business on May 20, 2013, there seems to have been nothing but changes for the employees of both companies (no duh!). The first casualty was Transworld Surf Magazine. Now, it’s GrindMedia’s turn to take a hit as the publisher has reportedly decided to stop what little print and digital operations Skateboarder Magazine had left and move forward with their leading skateboard media property TransWorld Skateboarding, according to a post on SkateDaily.net.
“Unfortunately market conditions have forced us to have to make the difficult decision to cease publication of Skateboarder,” said Norb Garrett, SVP Group Publisher of GrindMedia. “It’s especially disappointing given the strong interest and initial success we’ve had with the new digitally focused editions; our Skateboarder team has worked incredibly hard producing a cutting-edge product that has been successful at reaching a larger audience online. We will take all of the learnings from Skateboarder’s efforts and apply them to TransWorld Skateboarding and our other brands as the digital model has demonstrated real promise.”
Yes, they say you learn more in failure than in success. If that is true, then things should be looking up nicely for the crew at Transworld Skateboarding, indeed. This also means that there’s one more face off yet to be played between Snowboarder Magazine and Transworld Snowboarding. Wonder which way that one will go? Maybe they’ll both stay.
[Link: Transworld Business and SkateDaily]
by The Editors on August 16, 2013
Billy Anderson, the longtime Volcom Snowboarding head has left the Kering-owned youth fashion conglomerate to become Senior Brand Director at Burton Snowboards in Burlington, Vermont.
“I have always considered myself a snowboarder – that is who I am,” said Billy Anderson. “So to work for a company that is 100% dedicated to snowboarding is extremely exciting. In my time within the industry, I’ve always put snowboarding first – if it’s right for snowboarding, then it’s right for the company. Burton seems to live by this motto as well. Their commitment to product, athletes and events is unmatched in the industry, and I couldn’t be more proud to join the Burton crew.”
Congrats to Billy. He begins his new job on September 3, 2013. For the official word from Burton, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 7, 2013
Spy finished off another quarter of increased sales and lower losses as they logged $19 million in sales for the first half of 2013, according to financials released today, August 7, 2013.
“We are really happy to have achieved our 9th consecutive quarter of year over year growth of SPY® brand products, with strong SPY® brand sales growth of 10% in the first half of 2013 over the first half of 2012, and the first half of 2013 was 29% higher than the first half of 2011,” said Michael Marckx, President and CEO. “Moving forward, our Happy Lens Collection is expanding to include a growing list of new styles and will be featured in our Rx, Performance and Goggle Collections, which will further leverage this innovation in many ways. On top of our successful Happy Lens launch, we are even more pleased with the combination of things we accomplished this half: solid sales growth, improved gross margins, lower operating expenses, positive cash flow from operations and income from operations. We believe this solid first half of the year helps to position us well for the balance of 2013.”
Unfortunately, the company is still not out of the red yet. Spy lost $1.3 million in the first half of 2013, down from $4.2 million in the same period of 2012. For the official word from Spy, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on July 29, 2013
The Snow Industries of America just released their 2013 Participant Study and as you might have guessed the numbers were down for pretty much everyone but those free heelers. Yeah, we see that bump in “freeski” but come on, that’s just skiing. We all know that.
Ultimately, overall snow sports participation was down 3% to 19.3M participants across all disciplines; alpine ski had a 19% drop in participation but still brought the most to the mountain with 8.2M, followed by snowboard with 7.4M, freeski with 5.4M, snowshoe with 4M, cross country with 3.3 million and telemark with 2.8M participants.
For the official release from the SIA follow the jump.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on July 26, 2013
Click here for our Agenda Show photo gallery.
The Agenda Show kicked off yesterday (July 25, 2013) for its two-day run in the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Above all it was a reminder for everyone of how great it is to get some face time with the people you do business with.
We’re still processing our one-day into the crowded aisles of Agenda and The Berrics Agenda, but in the meantime check out a few of our photos by clicking here.
Xavier Nidecker (yes, that Nidecker) has been named Global Brand Manager of Jones Snowboards and Seth Lightcap has been named Global Marketing and Team Manager.
