I always looked first at gross margin percentages when I was running a business. Before revenue, before anything. Because those percentages were what determined how many dollars I had to pay all the salaries and operating expenses. Higher had to be better. It just had to be. Except that I was never dealing with major price differences in […]
Seems a silly question I suppose. Action sports are what we do. It’s what we’ve always done. It’s what we love. Our trade shows are more fun than anybody else’s. We get to take vacations and call them business expenses or, even better, product testing. Uh, not that I’ve ever done that, Mr. Tax Man, sir. But I’ve heard about it. I’m […]
Yes. And no. The snowboard industry consolidation that started around 1995 or 96 could probably have better been called extermination. Literally hundreds of brands went away either because their founders got tired of losing money or because the Japanese stopped paying cash in advance for snowboards. Though there were exceptions, these brands didn’t get subsumed under the multi-brand umbrella […]
At the Skateboard Industry Conference earlier this year and in these hallowed pages, I’ve argued: 1. That advertising and promotional tactics like running ads and hiring teams pass for marketing in this industry but aren’t. 2. That marketing (maybe better called market research) is the process of finding out who your customer is and […]
Some month ago, I got a call from an actual skate retailer. “It said at the end of the article that you work with companies in transition,” he asked almost as a question. “It’s true,” I told him. “Okay,” he said. “Help me with mine.” The story unfolded like this. He’d been in business for a bunch […]
I remember when this was a simple business. Or at least I thought it was a simple business. You had a pro team, ran some ads, built relationships with core shops, sold C.O.D. or on 30-day terms, and were thrilled if you could get enough product to fill orders. With supply shortages, the fact that quality wasn’t […]
A few years ago I wrote a column called “Are there Any Core Snowboard Shops Left?” It generated a good discussion, though I got burned at the stake by quite a few people. Happily, I was wearing my asbestos underwear. The question, however, is still valid because of some of the problems core shops are having and […]
As I said in the last issue of Boardsport Source, the way companies choose to compete in the action sports industry and, I suppose, in most industries, is largely responsible for the maturing and consolidation of fast growth industries. Ask the skate and snow people. People way smarter than I have acknowledged that surf’s time will come. […]
Probably both. It’s not like brands haven’t been coming and going for years beyond count in skateboarding. Historically, there have been two categories of new brands. The first was the truly new company started by some skaters who wanted in on a burgeoning industry that just happened to be something they loved. The second were the new brands […]
It’s funny how the fundamentals of business never change. Three years ago at the Surf Industry Conference in Cabo, I facilitated a panel of people from the skateboard industry because skate was going off and the surf guys thought skate was going to have them for lunch or something. Then skate sales plummeted though, happily, they are […]
