Vans released numbers today saying that the Triple Crown of Surfing served 10.4 million live streams during the 13 days of competition for the 2011 season.
Even if you figure that many of the people (like us) signed in at least 30 times during those days that’s still a lot. in fact, Vans says 1.8 million unique individuals tuned into the events. They’re calling it an action sports record.
“Surfing’s audience is passionate, active and adventurous, and, if they cannot watch in person, they’re finding Vans Triple Crown of Surfing events on their computers and mobile devices,” says Vans Vice President of Marketing, Doug Palladini. “Hawaii also helps us to reach a broader audience than any other surfing event given it’s incredible scenery, dramatic waves and rich beach culture.”
Now, if we figure that one day of modern surf webcasting costs roughly $55,000 (on the low end), then Vans, Reef, and Billabong and the rest of the sponsors of the Triple Crown ended up spending about 40 cents to reach each viewer. That may not seem all that expensive considering the brand bath viewers are immersed in while watching surf broadcasts. On the other hand, if Boardistan.com charged those ad rates then we’d definitely have someone else typing these words right now.
“It is unfortunate that we announce the cancellation of the 2012 Quiksilver Pro New York,” Dave Prodan, ASP International spokesman, said. “The 2011 installment was a fantastic event with excellent waves, tremendous local support and some of the best surfing we enjoyed all season. That said, we understand the factors leading to Quiksilver’s withdrawal of the New York event from the 2012 schedule. We appreciate Quiksilver’s continued support of the world’s best surfers with the Australian and European elite level events in 2012.”
For those who are worried, Quik CEO Bob McKnight was quick to point out that this has nothing to do with Quiksilver’s commitment to surfing, “Quiksilver is still very much committed to the ASP and the professional surfing tour in 2012 with the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast (Australia) and the Quiksilver Pro France.” No, we’re guessing it has more to do with Quiksilver’s continuing commitment to the bottom line. NYC is expensive, right?
“Amer Sports is filled with people who skate, surf and snowboard, and we’ve got great brands with Salomon Snowboards, Bonfire and now, Nikita,” said Brad Steward,Head of Action Sports at Amer. “Nikita will give us a broader portfolio in the area of Action Sports, complementing Salomon snowboards and Bonfire. Amer now has a platform to grow with new consumer groups and bring a broader range of exciting, authentic products to market”.
Nikita Co-Founder Heida Birgitsdottir seems happy about the deal. “We are all really pleased to work with a company that can give our brand and our customers a solid base. As the Head of Design, I’m excited to see what we can create with Amer Sports’ support.”
For the rest of the story, follow the jump[click to continue…]
Praxis Footwear, the Ashland, Oregon based skateboarding footwear startup has partnered with S & J Sales out of Toronto to distribute and build their brand in Canada.
“S&J is the perfect fit to launch the Praxis brand into Canada,” says Praxis co-founder Travis Matsdorf. “The Greenidge family has deep roots within the marketplace, a firm understanding of the space and a sound infrastructure. We will ensure they are supported in executing our unified vision.”
As fans of competitive surfing we’re finding it hard to care about Quiksilver at all lately what with Kelly Slater’s rumored towel throwing on number 12 and Dane Reynolds falling off the tour to become Quik’s younger, better looking, more talented, less weedy Dave Rastovich. But by being a public company Quiksilver is forced to report their earnings so we’re somewhat obliged to at least copy and paste their quarterly press releases.
On the surface Quik “beat Wall Street expectations” according to Reuters. Revenues reportedly “grew 10% to $545.2 million as compared to $495.1 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 and grew 6% in constant currency.” This great news caused the stock to go up 12 percent this morning. Even with this boost, however, the stock is still down 31% on the year, and over 78% in the last five years). Luckily, the past doesn’t matter on Wall Street.
Then there are things they don’t count like “$52.1 million of special charges.” When you look at the year including “special charges” Quik ends up with a “loss from continuing operations [of] $21.3 million, or $0.13 per share, compared to $11.5 million, or $0.09 per share, for the full year of fiscal 2010.” So, while more informed heads will explain exactly why “special charges” don’t count, we’ll put it simply: Quiksilver lost nearly twice as much money in 2011 as they did in 2010.
The other thing we found interesting is that Quik is cliff dropping back into outerwear in the Americas. In the conference call (which you can read here) CEO Bob McKnight was particularly excited about re-re-relaunching the Quiksilver Mountain division at January’s Outdoor Retailer Show:
We see a large opportunity to expand our addressable market in the middle part of the United States and Canada by adding cold weather outerwear to our product range, much like we’ve successfully done in Europe. The first step in this strategy is the launch of the Quiksilver mountain division at Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City in January 2012.
A cynic would ask why McKnight believes the launch will work this time, where it has failed in the past. In these situations and with Quik’s business in general, it’s a good thing is that investors only care about two quarters: last and next. And because of that many are now rating Quiksilver a buy, which means it’s probably a buy again. Crazy. But before you log into trade, maybe you should read Jeff Harbaugh’s Market Watch.
“As sad as it was to see Silver & Freedman decide to close its doors, I could not be happier about this opportunity,” he said. “I have been working with, both as co-counsel and sometimes opposing counsel, the guys in New York, and when this opportunity arose, I couldn’t pass it up. They represent some of the most significant clients in the music, film, media, fashion and technology industries. The sky is the limit on how we can work together.”
Glad to see that Gregory Weisman, Esq. is still deep in the game. And with a five name firm no less.
New Era, the king of collab hats, has announced that they’re joining other corporate retailers on LA famous Melrose Avenue. The store is on a block that hasn’t had the best track record. Just east of DC Shoe’s recently closed LA “flagship store,” New Era will be located in the space where Bathing Ape failed in its LA retail mission.
Located in West Hollywood shopping district at 8001 Melrose Avenue, New Era will bring its renowned headwear, apparel and accessories to the diverse culture of Los Angeles. Currently U.S. locations include New York, Chicago and Atlanta – this is the brand’s first west coast retail space.
Guess good luck wishes are in order. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
Seems like only yesterday (Spring 2008) that kids were lining up along LA’s Melrose Avenue to get their chance to meet the DC skateboarding team at the grand opening of DC Shoe’s LA Flagship store.
Apparently, those heady days of Melrose ego retailing are over for Quiksilver’s footwear brand. The phone has been disconnected, the store is no longer listed on the DC store locator, and according to a DC retail employee the flag has been down “about a month.” We must have missed that press release.
The gaming sites are all charged up over a tweet Tony Hawk sent out to followers on December 6, 2011. It went a little like this:
I’ll be announcing the upcoming release of something new on Sat; the same day as the Spike Video Game Awards. Coincidence? I think not.
G4TV think this means Tony Hawk is going to breathe new life into his struggling video game franchise saying:
“Gamers haven’t seen much of the Tony Hawk series lately, and we’re probably all okay with that. The last Hawk game was Ride, a noble, yet poorly conceived, effort that put gamers on a wheel-less skateboard peripheral (and, more frequently, on their posteriors).”
In a deal announced with PacSun’s earnings Wednesday, Golden Gate Capital will receive the option to buy up to 19.9% of PacSun’s shares at a price of $1.75 in exchange for a five-year $60 million secured-term loan expected to help PacSun buy out leases and shutter struggling stores. Golden Gate will also receive two seats on PacSun’s board.
Sadly, this is the best news the street has heard from the company all year and it sent the company stock price rocketing up 37 percent in after hours trading to a whopping $1.85 a share, according to the story. Just think if they closed 400 stores.
Vans released numbers today saying that the Triple Crown of Surfing served 10.4 million live streams during the 13 days of competition for the 2011 season.
