IASC and BRA did a great job putting on the annual skateboard industry conference this week at the Doubletree in Orange, CA. The attendance was good, the subjects all worthy of attention, and the beer sponsor much better than last year. Credit also has to go to Steve Van Doren and Vans for providing some food, some goodies, and use of their skate park which, happily, was within walking distance of the More…
Posts Tagged ‘Skate Industry’
Notes from the Skateboard Industry Conference and Hotel Lobby Bowling Event
Saturday, April 30th, 2011The Skateboard Distribution Model- It Never Was Broken
Friday, April 22nd, 2011I just found out I’d volunteered to facilitate the panel on distribution at next week’s IASC and BRA sponsored Skateboard Industry Summit. I had to spend some time getting my thoughts about distribution in order, and I know of no better way than to write them down. Distribution has always been a bit of a contentious issue in the skateboard industry. I’d regularly go to the IASC sponsored breakfasts at ASR and More…
Notes from the Skateboard Industry Conference
Friday, May 7th, 2010It was, by any measure, a successful conference and IASC did a great job putting it on. Attendance, at around 95, was up over last year, which was also up over the first year of the conference the previous year. The attendees were the senior people from the right companies. The food continues to improve (breakfast still needs work) and the skating at Woodward West is outstanding. Getting there from Seattle is a bit More…
What Does the Skate Industry Want From Trade Shows? I Think I Know.
Saturday, December 5th, 2009Transworld is trying to get an on line discussion of this topic going, and that’s a good idea. So far, it hasn’t generated much discussion and that’s too bad. Maybe the problem is that they’ve asked the wrong question by focusing on the skate industry. If they’d just asked, “What does a company- any company in any industry- want from trade shows?” they might have gotten some better answers. At the risk of More…
Can We All Please Just Calm Down? A Business Perspective on Blanks
Thursday, February 8th, 2007I can’t believe I’m doing this. Oh lord, how many people am I going to piss off this time? I mean, I could just lay low and let the slings and arrows fly back and forth but no, I just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to keep my mouth shut. Instead, there’s this almost pathological need to try and reduce a highly controversial and frankly emotional issue to a series of business bullet More…
Make Love, Not War; Blanks and the Park and Recreation Convention. What’s a Skate Brand to Do?
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006First time I’ve ever had two subtitles. That must be meaningful. Either I’ve been thinking a lot about this, or I’ve got nothing to say and am desperate to use up space. I suppose each reader will decide which it is. Not long after I read Cullen Poythress’s article “The War on Blanks” in the September issues of this publication, I went to the Park and Recreation Convention here in Seattle. Basically this is More…
Margins- Percentages and Dollars; Where to Focus?
Saturday, March 11th, 2006I 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 nearly identical products when I did my analysis. And I think maybe that changes the calculation More…
Doing Marketing; What, How and Why?
Monday, November 14th, 2005At 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 why they buy your product. 3. That few people in skateboarding (or in action sports) More…
Conversations with a Skate Retailer; A (Pretty Much) True Story
Friday, November 4th, 2005Some 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 of years, and loved the business. He was doing about $500,000 a year but increasingly it More…
Look! New Brands. That’s Great! Or These People Are Crazy. Or Both.
Friday, April 29th, 2005Probably 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 that came from established companies where brands came and went as their popularity rose and More…
