For a nice overview on just how bad action sports fashion retail has gotten, tune in today (Thursday, March 12, 2009) to the Pacific Sunwear’s year-end and Q4 conference call at 1 PM PST and then the Zumiez year end call call at 2 PM PST.
Click here to listen to the PacSun train wreck live online or here for the Zumiez call.
[Link: MSNBC]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Just got an invitation to Chill’s 10th Anniversary Pizza Party at the US Open of Snowboarding and it reminded us how much late-night at Stratton Mountain sucks.
After standing around The Grizzly one night yelling into the ear of the Right Coast’s most skilled advertising peddler and listening to a New York City magazine editor tell people how much money they’ll make from “just one mention in my mag” (all with painfully loud dj shrapnel blasting) there’s nothing we wanted more than a quiet late night snack. Guess what? Not a lick of food anywhere.
On the way back to our room we noticed a stack of pizza boxes flowing out of a trash can and couldn’t help but check. . . yep. Three pieces of cheese pizza. Thanks, Chill. You changed our lives.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What are we doing this weekend? Here’s a little hint. . .
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The boutique snowboard manufacturing bonanza continues in Calgary, Alberta with Jason Broz and Clyde Snowboards, according to a story in the Calgary Herald.
Determined not to get an office job, Broz started making snowboards out of his parents’ garage. Self-taught, he would make a board, test it on a slope and often bring it back in pieces to fix it in the garage. Soon, he found his interest in making boards surpassing his urge to ride them.”My passion shifted quickly,” he recalls. . . . Eleven years later, he has the skills to make excellent boards from scratch, tailored to any rider’s needs. He models himself after custom surfboard shapers, who get a sense of each rider they shape for and build a unique creation tailored to that customer.
Looks like more and more people are over riding the Anheuser Busch snowboard brands and would rather ride boards with a little more local flavor.
[Link: Calgary Herald]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
If there was one thing to take away from today’s Quiksilver conference call (and there really was only one) it was this: Quiksilver management is focused on strengthening its balance sheet by increasing liquidity and improving its capital structure.
That line was repeated over and over. CEO Bob McKnight said it. Then then unflappable CFO Joe Scirocco would say it again. During the call we imagined that line billboarded on the wall of the Quiksilver conference room as a reminder to use it as an answer for every question.
It began making more sense when Scirocco laid it all out like this:
“In our current business plan we believe we have adequate liquidity in each region for the forseeable future. Nonetheless the current retail environment is significantly uncertain and we believe that we should further improve liquidity,” he said. “To that end we expect to decide on the course of action sometime between now and the end of June. We expect to increase liquidity either through a sale of assets or by issuing secured debt as well as to arrange committed credit facilities from our European banks and a new ABL with our US lenders.”
The European lenders who yesterday gave Quiksilver a three-month extension on their 55 million Euro loan expect to be paid before June 30. And Quiksilver expects to solve a $316 million debt problem on the same timeline. What are their options? Scirocco was about a direct as he could legally be:
In terms of what types of asset sales we’re looking at,” he said. “We’ve looked at everything (some are more strategic than others) and yeah they could include a brand. What we’re after here in terms of a strategy is liquidity and improving the capital structure.
Oh really? During the Q&A several analysts tried to ask the DC Shoes question. Some very cleverly worded their questions regard the DC Shoe business and what a hypothetical sale would mean to Quiksilver but Scirocco stayed firm and answered all the questions thoughfully, reminding everyone that he really couldn’t talk about specifics related to their plans to increase liquidity.
One thing is certain: we will all know before June 30, 2009. And if we were betting . . .
[Update: In other news Reuters is reporting that Quik has hired mergers and acquisitions bank Peter J. Solomon to “help find funding or an investor.”]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The MMA clothing category lost one of its leading lights early this morning as TapouT co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr. reportedly died after crashing his Ferrari Moderna, according to a story on TMZ.com.
“Mask” was declared dead at the scene. A female passenger — who was ejected from the crash — was taken to a local hospital, but we’re told she’s in bad shape. . . Cops believe “Mask” was racing a guy in a Porsche at the time of the crash, and authorities have since arrested the guy they believe was driving the other car. That man — Jeffrey David Kirby — is being held on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter.
Our thoughts are with Lewis’ family and friends.
[Link: TMZ via SCbrand.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Quiksilver has just released their numbers for Q1 2009 and while $59 million sounds like a lot to lose, there is nothing all that surprising in the report. Net revenues were down 11 percent to $443.3 million vs. $496.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. The company lost $59 million on the quarter, but if you throw out one-time charges ($6.1 million in severance charges in the Americas and $50.8 million “non-cash charge to write off deferred taxes” in the US) then it was only a $9 million loss.
Robert B. McKnight, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Quiksilver, Inc., commented, “While our performance in the quarter was in line with our overall expectations, deteriorating macro conditions made for a very difficult operating environment. Weak consumer traffic drove lower sales and margin compression which resulted in a loss for the quarter.”
The conference call starts a 1:30 PT (click here to listen) or follow the jump for the entire release.
[click to continue…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Snowboarder Caleb Szajner, 21, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota died from injuries he received after landing on his head while attempting an what is being reported as a “backflip” at Wisoconsin’s Trollhaugen Ski Area, according to a story in the Stillwater Courier.
Szajner was transported to St. Croix Falls Hospital briefly and was airlifted later to Regions Hospital in St. Paul. On Tuesday afternoon, he was removed from life support and his organs were donated for transplantation.
Our thoughts are will Szainjer’s family and friends.
[Link: Stillwater Courier and Fox 9 News]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
We think it was Todd Richards who commented recently that he liked Boardistan “but it needs more boobies.” Well, thanks, to the crew at Snowshoe West Virginia and The Tackledbox we’re that much closer. Click the link for the NSFW version.
Oddly, those boxes look familiar. . .
[Link: The TackledBox]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
We don’t have a Wii and we aren’t planning on getting one anytime soon, but if you do, then the new We Ski and Snowboard might be a good addition to the game collection as it now includes snowboarding, according to a review on Blend Games.
We Ski and Snowboard is a really great way to use that balance board that’s been collecting dust since you realized that Wii Fit isn’t a magic lose-weight machine. It’s a very solid game that has a one-of-a-kind mission structure for a sport game. . . If you’re looking for something low-stress to play on your Wii that’s not a steaming pile of crap like 90% of the games currently being released, We Ski and Snowboard is your best bet.
It’s too bad about the skiing, though.
[Link: Blendgames]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
