ASR: Good News For People Who Like Bad News

We’re guilty. Like many others we spent most of Friday standing around in the isles of the ASR Show talking about how bad things are, how much worse they’re going to get, and whether buying or selling Quiksilver stock is a good idea. The opinions on the later were mixed, regardless of what personalized license plates may have been telling us.

Mixed in with all the gloom, however, were some words of encouragement. Ocean Minded CEO Gary Ward was walking the isles with his lovely daughter Shannon and when we hit him with the “how bad is it” question he set us straight directly.

“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “It’s ten times better than we thought it would be. This industry is a family and no one is stopping this family.”

We wondered if the “family members” who committed to the January ASR show might be benefiting a little from the fact that many of their larger competitors weren’t showing. “Are you kidding? Nauds is laughing right now,” he said of Billabong’s Paul Naude. “He’s had a great year and look at their booths; they are packed. For sure, the people who stuck it out are reaping the benefits.”

Follow the jump for the rest of the story.

RVCA Vice President of Sales Eric Thomas and action icon Christian Fletcher.

Some of the people from brands that didn’t show at ASR were optimistic as well. “The retailers who are making it work are here and they are writing orders,” said RVCA Vice President of Sales Eric Thomas. “In times like this it’s more like, you know, don’t get all negative. Things are bad, but they aren’t going to be bad forever. Let’s put a smile on our faces and make next year better.”

As ET walked away he bumped into pro surfer Christian Fletcher, and patting him on the back said, “See, Christian isn’t letting bad economy bring him down. He’s here and he’s doing his part.”

Christian laughed, shook his head and said, “My economy was already down, what are you talking about?”

We asked Electric Global Marketing Director Mike Carter if he thinks Electric missed out on anything by not being at ASR this January. “We don’t have a booth, but we’re all here fully supporting ASR,” Carter said. “We just had to get the most bang for our buck and after talking to our reps and getting their feedback we decided that the best thing for us to do was to put our efforts into Surf Expo and SIA. But we will back back.”

Killer Dana Buyer/Team Member Brandt Bacha and Owner Steve “Lounge” Price.

The retailers we spoke with were more cautious than bummed, but none of them were what we could call optimistic. Killer Dana Surf Shop owner Steve “Lounge” Price was happy to have made it through the Christmas rush. “The worst time of the year for me is November and December,” he said. “We have to buy a lot of stuff for Christmas that we really don’t like having in our shop in the first place, and we especially don’t like having after Christmas. So we focused on boardshorts and T-shirts and went conservative for Christmas this year.

“We’re doing okay in the store and doing well online,” Price continued. “But Juniors got decimated. We’re 50 percent down in Juniors. We always said if this industry becomes a commodity we’re screwed and clothing has become a commodity.”

Lounge sees light at the end of the tunnel, but thinks it will be a little longer than most are saying. “I’m hearing some people saying the market is going to turn around soon, but I see us having six more hard quarters before this it gets better,” he says.

What does that mean for retailers? “The retail side is going to go back to being more surf shop and less clothing store,” he says. And he seems to be fine with that.

Billabong’s Marketing Director Enich Harris and VP of Marketing Graham Stapelberg.

We finished our day at the Billabong booth with Graham Stapelberg and Enich Harris. While we were talking we heard a grown man begin screaming for joy. It was Jeff Kinney the owner of Surf Club in Pacific Beach, California. Kinney had just won a all-expenses paid trip for two to see the 2009 Billabong Pipeline Masters next December. Billabong had entered 32 of their retail shops in a head-to-head single elimination drawing for the trip and Jeff had beaten them all out.

“We had to be here to win,” Jeff said between breaths. “Royce called me and said I was in the final drawing so I closed up the shop, drove here frantically, and now I’m going to Hawai’i!”

While some big brands and retailers may not be in business next year, and the economy is probably going to get much worse than it is now, it was good to know that we are family, it will eventually get better and at the ASR Show this January there was at least one retailer who was literally stoked out of his mind.

The unbelievably stoked Surf Club owner Jeff Kinney.