After opening their own retail stores, selling most all of their products online, and playing pretty rough with some of their highest volume retailers in recent years, it appears that Burton Snowboards (who just relaunched their website) is making an effort to give back to local shops, according to a Jake Burton letter sent to retailers and posted on The-Tackled Box.
Here’s a little of what Jake says:
While I completely back where we are at and what we have done, I also feel strongly that we need to support local shops more than ever. You are the backbone of our sport, and everyone in this industry will benefit from your growth and success. Yo will see more from us in this spirit, starting with this catalog and some of the distribution decisions we have already made. . . we know who got us here and we know how much you do for the sport. Thanks for you support and know that will will do more for you in the future.
Those are very nice thoughts. We hope local shops get some benefit from all the wonderful things Burton has planned for them because they need all the help they can get. (Click the image to read it full size)
[Link: The Tackled Box]
Tried to deposit Jake’s nice thoughts today but our bank wouldn’t take em. Want to act nice? How about waiting until your dealers have their product before selling the new gear direct?
“”While I completely back where we are at and what we have done, I also feel strongly that we need to support local shops more than ever.””
Hmmm, maybe you need to support local shops more than ever because of the way you have systematically screwed them for the past 5 years.
If you knew anything about how whacked-out your course has been, you’d never make such a naive statement. C’mon Jake. Really?
From creating the system that sells against the retailer, then dividing it against itself, so that some retailers can sell against each other, while the smaller ones can only hope for the scraps, all the while SELLING AGAINST THEM, (while pushing the reps to increase orders to grey-market scale…) you have really set this industry on its collective ear, and yes, you get all the spoils, and all the spoiled fruit too.
Your “correction” this season will hopefully take you down a couple of notches, and maybe this letter is the first sign of that. But if your past actions are any indication, you’re going to include Zumiez and REI and Sports Authority in the list of “locals” that need your support.
“See you in the Sierras! “
action speak louder than word jake.
Lets see if this is a spin move , or if you are serious.
what the fuck is our store going to do with the boxes of burton gear we have no room for we just got 3 days ago…if we refuse them we won’t get them back, and we have no other snow gear IN AUGUST…so what?
Unfortunately as everyone has suggested, the damage has already been done not only to Burton, but to the entire snowboard industry.
There is no turning back from the sins of the 90’s with ridiculously overstated sales goals, the INTERNET, the grey market and segmentation.
If the entire industry wants to save itself and the mom and pop shop (where soul still lives), shut down all internet sales , give shops some margin and local marketing incentives.
ps:…and Jake is right, no other company has or will invest as much as Burton has in technology, shapes, materials.
This is exactly why I left the snowboard industry in 1999. It was clear that consolidation, the Oylmpics and power plays by non-snowboarder run corporations were squeezing out the soul and creative spirit. Snowboarding is a zombie of what it once was.
I remain in the fight to keep this from happening to skateboarding. We’ve been able to slow the death but we are losing that battle, and Burton is in this mix too. With every corporate buy out of a core brand, and every skater with an Agent skateboarding loses the very thing that makes it so strong, independence and fearlessness.
Spenser Johnson posted this on EasyLoungin first, then Johan stole it. Don’t get it twisted.
Once its on the interwebs it’s all of ours. Claiming that shit is like saying you used to snowboard back in the day.
Shops get plenty of margin, that’s not the problem…even with that most rarely pay in full or anywhere on time. Whatever it is, the current biz model isn’t working for shops or brands(not just burton).
the industry just simply got bigger than the market. Now its time to shrink back to the sustainable level, and get all the people who were just in it for the cash out. Selling snowboards online is just plain dumb, or should I say buying them online is dumb. Well lets say they both are. You get the wrong board for you, and then you mount the bindings wrong, and then you quit snowboarding, because it wasn’t fun.
Suck it up jake, lets see you get back to your roots. I dare you to. You actually could do it if you were serious about it. You only have to answer to yourself.
Actions speak louder than words. If this is some marketing scheme, then you are going to lose more biz for specialty. You have till january
still don’t understand why if i’ve been riding for years, know exactly what i want, and would never let someone else mount my bindings why buying online is so wrong. I’ve grown tired of shit retail service in all industries (not just ride shops) and prefer the ease of having it show up at my home.
And for the social aspect? I ride at a mountain with slow as hell doubles and have plenty of great conversations with people who ride.
well maybe you are capable of doing it yourself, but I can assure you that most arent. Glad you are talking instead of being on your phone. Maybe I expect alot to. But its is a big problem on both sides, go read the angry snowboarders blog on stores
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