Snow Biz

The transition from a fast-growing, hot trend to a mature industry is about more than condolidation to fewer players.  It means lower margins, slower growth for many companies, and aggressive competition increasingly based on price and service, not to mention savier consumers who may care lessabout image and more about price.  This transition will happen quicker than in most industries due to a lack of entry barriers and be accentuated by the financial burden imposed by extreme seasonality.

-January, 1995

I do see the day where a  high-quality woodcore board willretail in the area of 200 dollars.

I am certain that the days of 50 percent cash deposit and 50 percent site letters ofcreditfrom the Japanese are going to vanish.

-March, 1996

Everybody should be concerned [about industry trends] because if we follow this pattern, we’ll turn into our old friend, the ski industry.

-February 1997

Fast growth and high margins can create an illusionary sense of control and invincibility.  And when the boom slowed, the boundaries [between snowboarders and others] collapsed along with an awful lot of brands.

-August, 1998

What use to be distinct specialty markets now overlap, and many new customers are as interested in fashion as they are in the sport.

-April, 1999

There is, then, a nw model for companies that want to grow quickly in the youth lifestyle market.  Be compulsive about staying close to trends and be prepared to turn on a dime.  Don’t be too closely associated with only one segment of the market.  Focus on products that permit you to make a margin that’s high enough to fund the reuired advertising and promotaional expenses.  And finally, be big.

-November, 1999

The hardgood guys slug it out with each otheer to get a bigger share of slower growing markets with lower margins and high marketing expense- an impossible financial model.  Meanwhile the shoe and apparel guys, who can appeal to a broader demographic because they aren’t tied to a particular sport, clean up.

-January, 2000

When you internalize the knowledge of who your customer is in your organization, you create a focus and a decision-making filter that improves and simplifies much of your decision-making.  For example it should be easier toform a consensus on which retailers to sell to.

-April, 2000 

Hardgoods are starting to seem like props u8sed to support the apparel and shoe sales that I suspect provide more than half the revenue and gross margin a typical store earns.  It doesn’t seem to me like successful retailers are in the snowboard business anymore.  They’re in the lifesty7le, action sports, softgoods business- and they have to purchase and make decisions accordingly to succeed.

-October, 2000