by The Editors on June 9, 2008
Steve & Berry’s (200 super-stores in 33 states) has figured out that if Quiksilver can sell more trunks because of Kelly Slater, and Kohls can sell most stuff because of Tony Hawk, why shouldn’t they help move some of their cheap action clothing with Laird Hamilton. Enter Wonderwall.
Last month, Hamilton unveiled his surf-and-skate-inspired men’s board shorts, graphic T-shirts, cargo shorts and polo shirts. All 200 pieces of his new Wonderwall clothing and accessories are $8.98 or less at area Steve & Barry’s stores. . . . “I’d like to say I discovered Steve & Barry’s, but they approached me about the concept,” Hamilton says. “I had little to no knowledge of their business philosophy. After a very short discussion, I realized it was something that I definitely wanted to be part of.”
We are just glad that Laird is getting paid. Because that is what he does best.
[Link: The Detroit News]
by The Editors on June 9, 2008
According to a press release posted on Boardsport Source Burton has announced that Francesco Navach will be the company’s first “European Director of Retail.”
Francesco will strengthen Burton’s retail business and drive all of Burton Europe’s retail initiatives. He will report directly to Hermann Kapferer, Burton Europe’s General Manager and Cathy Quain, VP of Retail in the US.
. . . Francesco spent nearly 10 years working for The North Face, where he oversaw the opening of around 40 Stores, first as Retail Manager EMEA and from 2005 on as Retail Director EMEA.
Burton is bringing in the retail hitters.
[Link: Boardsport Source]
by The Editors on June 7, 2008
Ever since Al Merrick sold Channel Islands Surfboards to Jake Burton Carpenter, Santa Barbara’s “biggest and brightest” surfer Bobby Martinez has been “less than thrilled” according to the Santa Barbara Independent. Now he has official left the company to join Australia’s DHD label
. . . this spring, after test-driving some of Darren Handley’s DHD shapes during the Australian leg of the WCT, Martinez became an official convert. In a statement announcing the arrival of his newest team member, Handley said, “It wasn’t one of those million-dollar deals that you read about…We just felt we were heading in the same direction, things clicked, and it just made sense.” Not only did Martinez ride a DHD board to a third place finish at the Bell’s Beach event in April along the south coast of Oz, but both the Men’s and Women’s 2007 World Champions, Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmore, also ride for Handley.
Maybe one Kelly Slater is enough for Burton.
[Link: Santa Barbara Independent]
by The Editors on June 6, 2008
The Maloof Money Cup continues to get coverage thanks to the family’s high-rolling ways and the $500,000 in prize money. Now they’re just flaunting the parade of professional stunt jockey’s who all say the Money Cup (scheduled for July 11-13, 2008) is the best thing to ever happen to skateboarding.
Among those joining Dyrdek in the street competition will be Paul Rodriguez, Jake Duncombe and Ryan Sheckler. . . . Vert skaters entered include Shaun “The Flying Tomato” White, the Olympic snowboarding gold medalist and X Games star; Bob Burnquist, who two years ago rode a skateboard into the Grand Canyon and then parachuted the rest of the way down; Australian Jake Brown, who became an instant celebrity last summer after he survived a 40-foot fall at the X Games that was so jarring it knocked his sneakers off; Andy Macdonald; and Bucky Lasek. . . . The prizes are big, too — $100,000 for first place in street, $75,000 for first place in vert and $25,000 for women’s first place. Another $240,000 will be distributed among the first-20th finishers in street and first-10th in vert.
It’s hard to argue with all this money, but it’s even more difficult to ignore the fact that taking free money can get extremely expensive.
[Link: International Herald Tribune]
by The Editors on June 6, 2008
Grenade keeps the collab party bus rolling with their Grenade Artist Series piece with Rogue Status. And guess what? It has guns all over it. Can you believe it? A Rogue Status project with guns on it.
[Link: Hypebeast]
by The Editors on June 5, 2008
Volcom CEO and Chariman of the Board Richard “Wooly” Woolcott sold 15,000 shares of his company today as part of a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan for a cool $375,000. That should keep him rolling for a while (seems like we always say that when VeeCo shareholders get paid).
[Link: Forbes.com]
by The Editors on June 5, 2008
As anyone who has read Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay knows; all super heros must have a diminutive, effeminate sidekick. Now, thanks to T-Mobile Tony Hawk has his own limited edition Sidekick phone.
The T-Mobile Sidekick LX Tony Hawk Edition will be the first Sidekick to ship with video record, play and share. It also includes other enhancements such as a more personalized Web browsing experience, stereo Bluetooth support, easier downloads and more options for theme and background personalization.
Though sadly, Sidekicks do not sync with Apple computers.
[Link: Skateboarding.com]
by The Editors on June 5, 2008
On their quarterly conference call today at 1:30 PM PST, Quiksilver, Inc. announced results for the second quarter ended April 30, 2008. The call included Bob McKnight, Joe Scirocco, Marty Samuels, and Bruce Thomas.
Consolidated net revenues from continuing operations for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 15% to $596.3 million, from $520.4 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2007. Consolidated income from continuing operations for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 was $38.7 million, or $0.30 per share, compared to $32.4 million, or $0.25 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2007.
As usual Bob McKnight opened and closed the comments, Joe spoke the most, and Joe and Marty answered most of the questions.
Here are some highlights from the call:
- McKnight is happy with second quarter financials.
- Rossignol has been moved to “discontinued ops”
- “Rossignol Impairment Charge Drives Net Loss of $(1.59) per share”
- The list of potential buyers for Rossignol has been narrowed. The sale is expected to go smoothly but for a little less than had been projected.
- Sponsored athletes continue to dominate. Kelly Slater has won three of four ASP Tour events. His best season start in his career. Sophia Milanovich is number one on the women’s tour. Snowboarder Austin Smith won rookie of the year at the 2007 Transworld Riders’ Poll awards. Five DC athletes have been featured on the covers of action sports magazines.
- Quiksilver currently carries $1 billion in dept. $93 million of that is on the Rossignol books some of Rossignol debt is on the Quik books, but that will be covered with the proceeds from the sale.
- Company stores have been hit by the “housing issues” because 50 percent of their stores are in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.
- Online sales are up, “You don’t have to get in the car to visit our websites,” Marty Samuels said, sounding like he’s finally buying into the whole online thing.
- Thank, God for DC Shoes. It is the bright spot in Quik’s North American sales and continues to buck all the trends.
- DC has survived the PacSun loss by increasing orders in mall stores like Journeys and Zumiez as well as entering the department store channel with DC Apparel.
- Quik and Roxy were both slightly down in total sales.
- Quik is looking for 10 percent growth in sales in 2008. Low single digits in the US, mid-teen growth in Europe, and in the 15-20 percent range in Asia Pacific.
- EPS for the third quarter will be down 20 percent vs. 2007.
- Quik has survived most of the “sourcing pressure” because they are a “good customer” and the company is on track with projected supplier cost savings.
by The Editors on June 5, 2008
In it’s first quarter for 2008 (ending April 26, 2008) Canadian action sports retailer West 49 is reporting a net loss of $4.2 million and a same-store sales drop of 8.1 percent according to a story on Thestar.com.
The $4.2-million net loss – blamed on “the expected challenges posed by cross-border shopping and market conditions in Ontario” – was worth seven cents per share. This compared with a year-ago loss of $3.2 million or five cents per share, which included $400,000 in restructuring costs.
“To lessen the impact of cross-border shopping, we continued to lower our prices to be more in line with U.S. prices,” stated CEO Sam Baio.
[Link: Thestar.com]
by The Editors on June 5, 2008
Considering all the chaos going on the the financial world Pac Sun being down only two percent in May vs. 2007. Same store sales, however, were down three percent according to a press release.
Total PacSun sales for the first 17 weeks of fiscal 2008 were $353.7 million versus total PacSun sales of $356.4 million during the same period last year. PacSun same store sales decreased two percent during the same period.
Seems like it could be so much worse.
[click to continue…]
Steve & Berry’s (200 super-stores in 33 states) has figured out that if Quiksilver can sell more trunks because of Kelly Slater, and Kohls can sell most stuff because of Tony Hawk, why shouldn’t they help move some of their cheap action clothing with Laird Hamilton. Enter Wonderwall.
