World Industries parent company, i.e. distribution, has announced that former Converse Sales Director Scott Chantos has been named president of the company.
“Scott brings a wealth of leadership experience that will help bring vision and clarity to the brand direction for all the brands under the i.e. distribution umbrella. He has a strong background in building brands and creating growth. We are extremely confident that Scott will have a great impact in his role as we look to invigorate our domestic and global sales in footwear and hardwoods,” stated the Executive Board.
Chantos is filling a position left vacant when former President John Dickinson left the company to pursue other interests. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
Not that anyone was all that surprised, but Nike announced their Q3 numbers yesterday (March 22, 2012) and it appears they are owning even more of the world, according to a story on Forbes.
Nike posted third quarter net income of $560 million, up 7% from a year ago. Diluted EPS hit $1.20, three pennies ahead of Wall Street’s consensus forecast. . . The company grew revenue 15% to $5.8 billion, as demand for its footwear, apparel, and equipment products remained resilient to a weak global economy.
Year to date, Converse sales are up 17 percent to $1 billion, Blair said.“On a wholesale equivalent basis, Converse is already a $2.5B global brand with incredible untapped opportunities for growth,” he said.
And as the story pointed out, Nike bought Converse for only $305 million in 2003. So long skate shoe market. Seems like pretty soon the only two choices consumers will have when they go to the store will be Nike or Apple.
Over the past five years 500 workers have been killed in fires at garment factories in Bangladesh. Last year a fire reportedly swept through a factory that made Hawk Clothing for Kohl’s killing 29 people. ABC News used this as an opportunity to ambush Tony Hawk at a skatepark opening to see if he thought celebrity clothing endorsers should keep closers tabs on the safety of workers in the factories that make the clothes that carry their names.
“It’s tragic,” Hawk told ABC News. “I think that the safety standards need to change and I support whatever change that they can make there. . . I definitely want to follow up and make sure that it’s safe. I mean that’s the bottom line, it has to be safe.”
Nice work, Tony. Kind of a cheap shot from ABC News who obviously knows that every single thing American’s consume in mass quantities is made offshore in factories where people are paid next to nothing. But hey, celebrities sell news, right?
This is just another post to make you feel old. NHS CEO/President Bob Denike has now been with the company for 25 years, according to a post on Strange Notes. During a celebration last week Denike shared the story of how he ended up with the company.
“I first met NHS founder Richard Novak at Winchester Skatepark in 1977, he was with the “S” that day, Jay Shuirman. I was 15 years old. They gave me a set of wheels to test ride and when my Mom saw us talking, she pulled me away and told me to never talk to those guys again. They looked pretty wild back then; long hair, dark glasses, beards, smoking, and she was just being a Mom. Well, I did not listen to her. (Good decision number one for me.) I remained in contact with Richard and NHS off and on all the way through college. After graduation, I had a “real job”, working at Frito Lay in L.A. and I absolutely hated it. One weekend in 1986, I decided to go to an ASR tradeshow and I ran into Rich at what was the craziest tradeshow booth at the show. It struck me that a few people working at the NHS booth were either severely hung over and/or drinking beer in the middle of the day. Getting a taste of what I had been missing, a couple weeks later I resigned from Frito Lay (good decision number two), telling them “I need to pursue my dreams”, which at the time consisted of skateboarding, playing music, drinking beer and hanging out with my future wife Kay.
Follow your bliss, kids. For the rest of the Denike story, follow the jump.
DC Shoes is sponsoring Rob Dyrdek’s Street League Skateboarding series again. And why shouldn’t they, really. They’re in so deep with Dyrdek there would be no reason to stop now.
“There’s nothing better than Street League Skateboarding and we are really excited to sponsor the series again this year,” said DC President, Anton Nistl. “For DC it’s been a strategic and significant partnership over the years, and Street League really aligns with DC’s ‘vision’ of being the most sought after skate-driven action sports brand in the world.”
See, that’s how deep they are. Follow the jump for the official word (including tour dates). [click to continue…]
London’s “pop-up” mall BOXPARK in Shoreditch now has a Volcom “box” in the mix.
“We believe that branded retail stores are a very effective way for Volcom to promote its full range of products, athletes and brand image,” said Gaetan Le Guennec, Volcom’s European Retail Director. “Our Volcom stores regularly host events with athletes, Volcom featured artists and musicians, attracting a wide range of customers and exposing them to the Volcom lifestyle. The design and layout of the stores, which include an assortment of our apparel, art presentations, a music listening station with Volcom Entertainment titles and a Veeco Production section with all of our film titles, exemplifies our philosophy of change and our relationship with youth culture.”
This is Volcom’s third store in the UK. For the official word follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Bearded photographer Mark Welsh has joined Billabong’s luggage brand Dakine as the new snow team manager.
“We’re excited to have Welsh onboard,” said Mike Madlener, Dakine’s Creative Director. “He brings a clear understanding of our industry, the needs of our team, and our business.”
Welsh appears to be happy about the new gig as well.
“Signing on with DAKINE means working with one of the strongest and most talented teams in the industry; and I will have the privilege of working with some of my closest friends! I have immense respect for the quality and construction of DAKINE products so I’m really looking forward to this new venture on all levels,” said Welsh about his new role.
It’s been two months since the official launch of Youtube’s new “channel strategy.” As it hasn’t changed our viewing habits, nor improved our Youtube experience in any way we were curious to see how the channels were doing. Using the numbers reported on the channels main pages we lined them all up.
Just for fun, we threw Transworld.TV in the mix just to see how a site that didn’t get $1 million dollars of start up capital was faring against the Google funded players. We also factored in the potential total revenue (shared between Youtube and the channel) generated by the channels views based on the oft quoted “quality content” CPM of $20.
Here’s how they stack up:
Subs Views Revenue
Redbull Media House 386,626 259,389,937 $5,187,798
Alli Sports 28,240 10,134,195 $202,683
Transworld TV 10,526 5,470,641 $109,412
Ride Channel 32,329 4,164,433 $83,288
Network A 28,320 1,951,528 $39,030
*Note: this is not a scientific comparison and should be used for
entertainment purposes only for all kinds of reasons including the
fact that some channels have been up much longer than others.
There is money in this game, but it seems that few of the channels (aside from Redbull) have created anything that has “gone viral.” And when you compare these channels to something like the Philip Defranco Show which has 2 million subscribers and 825 million views so far it suggests that sitting someone in front of a camera in a studio with some clever writing is a much more efficient use of funding than sending a production team around the world chasing board riders. But don’t let that stop you, you action content producers you.
Pacific Sunwearreported numbers today (March 13, 2012) for their fourth quarter and things are not looking good according to a story on CBS News.
Net loss for the three months ended Jan. 28 widened to $38.1 million, or 56 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $35.2 million, or 53 cents per share. Excluding a cost for issuing convertible stock and store closing charges, net loss would have been 19 cents per share. Analysts expected a loss of 22 cents per share, according to FactSet.
For the year Pac Sun lost $106.4 million compared to $96.6 million last year. The closed 87 stores during the quarter and yet CEO Gary Schoenfeld says “sales trends improved as the holiday season progressed.” And yet they’re still buying full spread print ads in Surfer Magazine. One wonders how long this can go on. The stock was down 15.94 percent in after-hours trading.
Despite higher sales for four consecutive quarters Quiksilver still has not been able to turn a Q1 profit, according to a story on Marketwatch.com.
For the quarter ended Jan. 31, Quiksilver reported a loss of $22.6 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $16.3 million, or 10 cents a share. Excluding restructuring impacts and year-ago interest charges, the adjusted per-share loss from continuing operations widened to 13 cents from a loss of 5 cents.
The company’s stock was trading down on the news, obviously. For a transcript of the entire March 8, 2012 Quiksilver analysts call (including Bob McKnight’s take on the quarter) click here.
World Industries parent company, i.e. distribution, has announced that former Converse Sales Director Scott Chantos has been named president of the company.
