The Burton Corp. announced today that they are moving Forum, Foursquare, and Special Blend (aka The Program) to their Vermont HQ. It’s a move that had been rumored ever since the snowboard giant first purchased the SoCal-based brands back in the summer of 2004. Seems cold weather makes people work harder.
In tough times like these, we need to be very strategic and efficient so we can continue to invest in our core strengths like product development and marketing, and this move allows us to do just that,” says The Program General Manager Sam Paschel. “In Burlington, The Program will benefit from over 30 years of Burton’s product development, sales and operations expertise while enjoying easy access to Burton’s shared services. And it will be great to have the company close to the mountains where we can easily test product on snow.”
And the surf industry breathes a oh-so-tiny sigh of relief as the invasion slows.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Florida-based investment company CNL Financial Group, Inc. is close to closing on the purchase of three resorts today.
The REIT is expected to close a deal Friday that will add Colorado’s Crested Butte Ski Resort, Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont and Mount Sunapee Ski Resort in New Hampshire to its portfolio of 112 properties. The company owns several other ski properties, including Sugarloaf in Maine and Mammoth Mountain Village in California, as well as dozens of golf courses and water parks.
Seems a strange time to be investing in ski resorts, but maybe they were really cheap.
This video and song by Joe Klein is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, but it could have been shot yesterday. . . Zinka rules. (Download the free MP3 here).
Manchester, Vermont’s snow, skate shop Podium was burglarized sometime in the evening of November 30, 2008 according to a story in the Bennington Banner.
Numerous Burton snowboards, snowboarding apparel and accessories were taken from the Main Street store between 9:30 p.m. Monday and 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, according to Manchester Police.
Shares in Billabong have plummeted more than 21% since chief executive, Derek O’Neill, cut his profit outlook yesterday and said the worldwide retail gloom was the worst he had ever seen. . . .Stocks fell 18% to $8.20 yesterday, the largest decline since it listed eight years ago. Billabong’s share price was down more than 3% to $7.94 at 12.50pm today.
These kinds of stories really aren’t news any longer, but we’re going to keep posting them for historical purposes.
A goofy footer finally wins Sunset after 11 years of regular foot domination. Props to Surfing Magazine’s Evan Slater for actually writing an original story for this event and not simply posting an ASP press release.
And in the dying minutes, we watched in awe as CJ Hobgood, the lone goofyfoot of the final, positioned himself perfectly for the wave of the day, dropped beyond vertical a la Munga Barry in 1994, then bottom turned for a massive arc, an 8.5, a standing O from the crowd, and the win. “You never know what you need or where you are in the heat out there,” said CJ, who became the first goofyfoot to win at Sunset since Mike Rommelse in 1997. “It was, like, ‘Bro, you ripped out there. No, bro you ripped out there.’ We all thought the other guys killed it.”
They weren’t as far down as Zumiez, but Pacific Sunwear’s same-stores sales slide 10 percent in November “citing sales decreases in all of its regions except the midwest:” the action sports fashion gold belt.
Total sales for the month fell 8 percent to $101 million from $110.2 million in November 2007. . . . For the first 11 months of the year, same-store sales fell 4 percent. Total sales fell 2.9 percent to $1 billion from $1.03 billion during the same period last year.
In this gnarly clip for Totinos Pizza Rolls Danny Kass shows just what some action pros will do to get paid (or maybe just a year’s supply of munchies). The dude can ride. No joke. The clip has the title advertising spot on the homepage of YouTube.com today.
After Adidas Group Chairman Herbert Hainer emailed his 31,000 employees to let them know that the footwear giant would be skipping their $6.5 million holiday party this year thanks to the “current climate” not offering an “occasion to party,” the heads at Etnies decided it was time to step in and help their downtrodden footwear brothren.
In a full page ad in Willamette Week, Etnies invited the employees of Adidas to a Christmas party at My Father’s Place Bar including “special appearances by Santa Claus and his lovely lady elves.”
It is in the holiday spirite that the skateboarders and employees of etnies Skate Shes extend a warm and sincere invitation to the skateboarders and employees of Adidas USA to joing us in a symbolic “laying down of arms” for one joyous night, that we may come togethe and reflect upon life’s gifts as we share good cheer, celebrate the season and kick the new year off on a solid foot.
Nice. But now the big question: will anyone show up? Free beer does tend to draw a crowd. Either way it made CNBC and that’s probably worth the cost of the ad.Click here for the video.
The Burton Corp. announced today that they are moving Forum, Foursquare, and Special Blend (aka The Program) to their Vermont HQ. It’s a move that had been rumored ever since the snowboard giant first purchased the SoCal-based brands back in the summer of 2004. Seems cold weather makes people work harder.
