by The Editors on June 6, 2012
The CEO position at Nike’s surf brand Hurley has been in seemingly constant rotation since the the footwear giant bought the Costa Mesa, California based company in February of 2002.
So news on Monday, June 4, 2012 that company founder Bob Hurley (pictured right with his grandson Ashton at the 2012 Nike Lowers Pro) was moving back into the “interim CEO” roll was really not all that surprising seeing that Hurley CEO Michael Egeck announced that he was moving to lead middle-aged wannabe outdoorsman clothier Eddie Bauer.
For those keeping track, Hurley has now had four CEOs in the past 16 months. Here’s how it has all gone down: Bob Hurley was CEO until October 2007 when he was replaced by Nike insider Roger Wyett. Wyett then handed the position off to former Dockers President Jim Calhoun in April of 2011 only to move the man over to Converse a month later. Wyett served as interim CEO until September 2011 when former VF Corp. veteran Michael Egeck was hired for the CEO position. Egeck lasted approximately eight months before exiting. Now, Hurley is back to where it started with CEOs.
Three things come to mind. One, from our perspective there is no one better equipped to guide the direction of Hurley than Bob. Two, it must be hell trying to be CEO of the Hurley brand in Bob’s shadow, especially for the kind of business jocks who love being the boss. And finally three, how long will Nike continue to juggle CEO’s before they just drop the whole thing? Guess we’ll all know soon enough.
[Link: Portland Business Journal and BusinessWeek]
by The Editors on June 5, 2012
Pacific Sunwear CEO Gary Schoenfeld isn’t backing down on his company’s stock. In fact, beginning May 29, 2012 he bought 150,000 more shares “on behalf of his children,” according to a story in the Orange County Business Journal.
The shares—bought starting May 29—were priced between $1.45 and $1.55 each.
All together Schoenfeld and other company directors bought up 300,000 shares and pushed the stock up 10 percent in trading on Monday, June 4, 2012. It’s up to $1.71 now. Just think if they bought a couple million shares? Kids might start actually start shopping at PacSun again. Or maybe that isn’t the way to stock price is tied in. . .
[Link: Orange County Business Journal]
by The Editors on June 5, 2012
Ryan Stutt and the die-hard print magazine enthusiasts behind the Canadian skate and snow magazines King Shit and King Snow are diving into the travel magazine world with a new titled called Later. Here’s their elevator pitch:
LATER. speaks to an audience of people who travel regularly to do what they love—be it surfing, skating, snowboarding or just getting weird in a foreign land. It features content from all over the globe and from a hugely diverse group of contributors —from pro surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders, to random people who just had a funny story from the road. . . “When all is said and done, you’ll never remember that week you worked overtime and went to sleep early, but passing out on a Mexican beach, getting robbed and scoring the best waves of your life are memories that will last forever,” said Editor Andrew Sayer.
From the looks of King Shit and King Snow, Later will be a lush, quality papered, fifth-color-and-varnish magazine that will go great on the coffee table, and with Keith Malloy man-handling a squid on the first cover Later promises to be “authentically hip.” Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on June 1, 2012
Don’t think that Nike is afraid to dump brands that don’t fit in with its current growth plans. According to a story on Zacks.com, the owner of Hurley and Converse is planning to “divest” soccer brand Umbro and its dress shoe label Cole Haan. And they hope to get it done by May of 2012.
We believe the reason behind the divestiture is that Cole Haan and Umbro’s performance does not match with the performance of Nike’s other brands. . . We believe the company’s decision to divest its two underperforming brands will boost its bottom line. Meanwhile,in an attempt to expand its global reach and market share, Nike is capitalizing on growth opportunities in emerging markets, especially China.
Maybe this will allow Nike to spend even more on action sports global domination.
[Link: Zacks]
by The Editors on May 29, 2012
Action headphone company Skullcandy has the honor of being one of the most shorted stocks on the market, but that hasn’t seemed to have slowed the stock down so much lately, according to a blurb on Investorguide.com.
While this should be discouraging news for most companies, an increasing number of analysts are turning bullish on the stock, believing that the stock is set to rally strongly on the inevitable short squeeze. Skullcandy has beat Wall Street estimates for the past four quarters. Meanwhile, institutional ownership of the stock has climbed from 50% to 69.18% in a single quarter, while short interest has risen from 5.1 million to 10.3 million.
It would seem that almost everyone has an opinion on Skullcandy’s future these days. We’re giving it a neutral.
[Link: Investor Guide]
by The Editors on May 16, 2012
The Snow Industries of America today confirmed what any snowboard retailer knows by heart–this last snowboard season was hard no matter how you look at it. No snow early season got everyone off to a dismal start, Christmas roared in as a valiant savior, but then things fell apart again. For retailers, the only consolation seems to be shared misery.
Snow sports unit sales declined 12% overall this season, including a 17% decrease in units sold through chain stores and a 14% decrease in specialty shops. However, Internet sales did rather well, and increased 10% this year driven by late season equipment and accessories sales. This may indicate that many retailers are using commerce enabled websites to move product when in-shop sales have slowed. Excluding carryover, online unit sales increased 15% through February and March this season, compared to February and March 2010/2011.
For more of this happy, happy news, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on May 8, 2012
Twenty-year Billabong veteran Derek O’Neill has been removed from his position as the CEO of the surf wear giant and the board has moved Target MD Launa Inman in as managing director and chief executive, according to a story in the Australian.
Billabong chairman Ted Kunkel, as as recently as February refuted rumours that the board planned to dump Mr O’Neill, thanked the outgoing CEO for his service but said that the board had decided the company needed “new leadership and skill sets for the next stage of its development”. . . Mr O’Neill, a lifelong surf fanatic who opened Billabong’s European business at the age of 26, will leave the company today.
Inman, a former chief executive at Target Australia, will start work on May 14, 2012 with a fixed salary of AUS$1.3 million a year with up to “$1.3m in short-term bonuses, plus long-term incentive payments of up to 47 per cent of her salary.” In related news, Paul Naude, the president of Billabong USA North America has been promoted to president of the Americas.
We guess the biggest question is, does Ms. Inman surf?
[Link: The Australian]
by The Editors on May 8, 2012
Wondering where Penny Skateboards came from? So were we. That’s why it was great of founder Ben Mackay to kick it all down for us on Vimeo.
From his humble beginnings to the challenges of breaking into the industry, Ben tells in his own words how early lessons in life had inspired him to chase his dream in helping to bring the “fun” back into skateboarding.
Seriously, that’s one of our favorite skateboarding stories. Click play and hear it again.
by The Editors on May 7, 2012
It was a little less than a year ago that former Hurley Senior Vice President of Global Events and Brand Entertainment Paul Gomez (on the left with Tim Gavin) announced that he was stepping into the CEO position at Podium Distribution.
If the words we’re hearing on the street are correct, Gomez has now reportedly “stepped down.” More details as they become available.
by The Editors on May 3, 2012
James Smith, the executive director of The Kona School has a pretty cool idea. Since it seems few school districts have time for anything other than improving test scores, let alone help kids learn the skills they’ll need to work in the world, Smith has come up with a better idea. Build a school at a skatepark. Plans for the first one are underway at Jacksonville, Florida’s Kona Skatepark.
By incorporating the most innovative instructional strategies with progressive technology, a focus on healthy living, and green campus construction, the mission of Kona School is to inspire in each student a desire to learn creatively, think independently, and act responsibly.
Can’t imagine that parents could ask for much more than that. Check it out.
[Link: The Kona School]
The CEO position at Nike’s surf brand Hurley has been in seemingly constant rotation since the the footwear giant bought the Costa Mesa, California based company in February of 2002. 
