by The Editors on November 14, 2012
In one of their most recent steps toward becoming a big, old, new media snowboarding super site Yobeat.com has announced the promotion of their intern Justin Thomas Moulthrop Leveille a.k.a. “Stan, Young Mountain Baby, J Money the Mountain Man, Weekend Warrior, Terry Dactyl, Mr. Anonymous, Hansu Weith and Tech” to the position of Managing Editor.
Leveille will assist in content curation and creation, as well as providing entertainment and herbal refreshment at the office. He will continue to exploit his brainchild the Toeside Terrors, as well as starring in “Thursdays at the Office.” His varied skills and complete willingness to make a fool of himself on a snowboard and on camera were the perfect addition to the crew. . . “Basically I knew Justin was a keeper when my sister, who was on the UVM Snowboard Team with him, said he was ‘Not an idiot.’ That’s the kind of skill set we look for at Yobeat,” YoBeat publisher and Editor-in-Chief Brooke Geery said.
We’re wondering if this promotion has anything to do with Geery’s recent “employment upgrade” at a local Portland cobbler. Follow the jump for the official word from Yobeat. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 14, 2012
Spy Inc. is happy to report that in the quarter ended September 30, 2012 they only lost $1.8 million on total net sales of $9.9 million. The loss is down from $3 million in the same quarter in 2011. Couple that with net sales being up eight percent, and an increased borrowing capacity from Costa Brava Partnership III, L.P. and it appears things are continuing toward profitability. And that’s always good
“With strong SPY® brand sales growth of 17% for 3rd quarter of 2012 over 2011, building on the huge SPY® brand growth rate of 25% for the 3rd quarter of 2011 over 2010, we are happy to have achieved our 6th consecutive quarter of year over year growth of SPY® brand products. We feel this once again demonstrates the strength of our renewed brand positioning and exciting new product collection,” said Michael Marckx, President and CEO. “We are especially pleased that we were able to grow our North American snow goggle and sunglass businesses because of such a poor snow season last year that we believe caused many of our retailers to have relatively high inventory levels going into this 2012 fall snow goggle buying season.”
For the official word, follow the jump. Or, for all the numbers click here. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 13, 2012
Vans has chosen to bring in the professions with the distribution rights to their big action content plays. Super world wide agency IMG will now be developing and enhancing “the international distribution of all Vans content globally across all media platforms, bringing top level action sports events to both new and existing fans,” according to Vans.
“International growth continues to be integral to Vans’ success as a brand and sharing the Vans lifestyle through our action sports events and feature content connects us with consumers in the most authentic way possible,” said Doug Palladini, Vans Vice President, Marketing. “Our partnership with IMG gives Vans’ industry-leading action sports event line-up and our growing library of rich lifestyle content a broader global platform than ever before to reach our consumers worldwide.”
Sounds like a great idea seeing as that is IMG’s business. For the official word, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 13, 2012
Vans has decided it no longer wants to be in the helmet business and has sold Pro-Tec to San Diego, California based paintball company Dye Precision Inc for an undisclosed amount.
“We’re very proud of the work that the Vans® and Pro-tec® brand teams have done to build the brand globally during the last decade,” said Kevin Bailey, President, Vans. “Together, we have continued the Pro-tec® brand’s leadership role in skateboard and BMX protective gear, while expanding the brand’s position in snow sports and mountain biking. . . “The Vans® and Pro-tec® brands share a complementary action sports heritage,” he continued. “But we believe that Dye Precision can provide Pro-tec® a better operational fit and focus, which will allow the brand to thrive and reach its full potential.”
Guess it’s going to be the Vans Pool Party from now on. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 12, 2012
Burton Snowboards is getting a little more serious about Canada with the hiring of former [drink of the colored cow] employee Sebastien Paradis as the company’s first General Manager for Burton Canada.
“Canada is so important for Burton and snowboarding in general, so it’s exciting to step up our investments there in sales, marketing and retail support,” said John Lacy, EVP of Product and North American Sales. “Sebastien is the ideal person to lead this effort as he brings an impressive combination of industry credibility and first-hand knowledge of the Canadian market. We’re confident he will make great things happen for the brand and the sport in the region.”
Burton is seriously getting on top of things lately. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 12, 2012
According to a story on All Things D Google’s YouTube is about ready to “pull the plug” on 60 percent of its channel programming deals, you remember, all that money that was given to channels like Network A, Tony Hawk’s Ride Channel, Red Bull Media House etc. . .
This week, Google’s video site will start offering new contracts to some of the channel programmers/creators it signed up in the last year. But not all of them: YouTube figures it will end up re-investing in up to 40 percent of its original channels by the time the renewal process is done. . . YouTube will handle renewals in batches, starting with the first set of channels that launched in January of this year.
If we go by Adage.com’s weekly ranking of the YouTube Channels and guess that Google is going to save save their top performing channels and lose the bottom, then it would appear that number 17 ranked Ride Channel might just make the cut. But then, we have no idea how Google with sort this out. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
[Link: All Things D]
by The Editors on November 7, 2012
Mammoth Mountain’s little sibling resort June Mountain (which is closed for the season) will be relaunched with a complete makeover for the 2013-14 season, according to a story on MammothTimes.com.
“We’re going to open it up,” he said during an interview. “We submitted our operating plan to the Forest Service and now we’re waiting for approval, and part of that operating plan is letting them know that we intend to open it as normal for the 2013-14 season.” . . It is in essence a re-launch of the ski area, which is owned by Mammoth Mountain. Gregory said Mammoth would take the year to more clearly hone June Mountain’s mission and to target its marketing base.
Good news, huh?
[Link: Mammoth Times]
by The Editors on November 7, 2012
Legendary new school snowboarder Dale Rehberg has been named Director of Marketing at Flow Snowboards.
“Dale was one of a cast of characters that helped pioneer the whole jib scene in the 90’s, a period which paved the way for today’s park and freestyle scene. Unfortunately, snowboarding has lost a bit of its irreverent, pioneering ways. We believe that Dale can bring this back to the sport and most certainly to Flow. Dales is authentic, fearless and a true maverick. We look forward to all the great things he will bring to the Flow brand.” – said, Flow Sports CEO, Anthony Scaturro.
It’s always good to see people with deep, deep roots in snowboarding moving into positions of leadership in the business. Congrats, Dale. For the official word from Flow, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 5, 2012
A Stifel Nicolaus analyst named Jim Duffy reportedly upgraded his rating on Quiksilver to buy from hold and the stock jump a whopping 38 cents to $3.78 a share on Monday, according to a story in Businessweek.
The company’s updated management could bring new energy to the company. Some leaders are also approaching deadlines in their restricted stock grants that would provide a strong incentive for them to get the stock price back up. . . Duffy also said that early hints of stabilization in Europe and some lower administrative costs could improve Quiksilver’s revenue and margin picture in 2013.
Looks like Duffy’s plan is working.
[Link: BusinessWeek]
by The Editors on November 2, 2012
Thanks to a strong dollar (hard to believe we know) Rip Curl is getting yanked into the same undertow that’s been chewing on Billabong for the past 10 months, according to a story in the Herald Sun.
The prominent Victorian company is being buffetted by the strong dollar and weak consumer sentiment and will start to cut jobs and close stores overseas. . . BusinessDaily can reveal Rip Curl, which is privately owned, suffered a net loss of $4.1 million for the year to June. A year ago, it recorded a $7.9 million profit, and three years ago its profit clocked in above $30 million. . . Finance director Lachlan Farran said the group had shouldered one-off costs for a European restructure and to meet accounting rules linked to its purchase of the Ozmosis and Waves brands.
Guess this wave of bad news is continuing to roll.
[Link: Herald Sun]
In one of their most recent steps toward becoming a big, old, new media snowboarding super site Yobeat.com has announced the promotion of their intern Justin Thomas Moulthrop Leveille a.k.a. “Stan, Young Mountain Baby, J Money the Mountain Man, Weekend Warrior, Terry Dactyl, Mr. Anonymous, Hansu Weith and Tech” to the position of Managing Editor.
