The Heat Is On
Shops and manufacturers reveal their summer strategies.
One upon a time when our industry was very young, manufacturers often welcomed that s-l-o-w time of year when the season's sales were complete, but production was still a month or two away. Everyone could relax, take their vacations, that sort of thing - or so they said. The reality has always been that very few people can afford much time without income. Likewise, no company wants to face keeping employees on the payroll when production slows or stops and no cash is coming in yet from new orders - the strategy of being deeply in debt all year and then hoping for a windfall doesn't seem to have worked out so well for American farmers. Conversely, if employees are laid off, there's no guarantee those same skilled people will be available for rehire when production is up and rolling again.

Snowboarding companies have ingeniously found ways to grease the machine during the so-called slow time, developing new lines or a summer market for snowboard-brand related items, and even using the time to strategize or design. Companies that started with roots in the surf and skate industries have their own year-round plans, often with two or more lifestyle sports complementing each other sales and timing-wise.

Similarly, shops that have a large snowboard department or are strictly snowboards have a challenge come summer - what to sell, what to carry, and at what point should they bring the focus back to snowboards? Instead of simply biding their time until winter (or at least fall), shops have also grown more sophisticated about snowboards and the summer markets.

Skaters At Heart

"Other companies may brag 'We don't have to work all year!'" says Select Distribution's General Manager HeidiMuckenthaler. "But we can't afford to take months off! We've always gone year round with a variety of products." Select's snowboard brands are available in T-shirts, sweats, and hats that help carry them through spring. Because Select/Vision have a strong streetwear line, these are marketed to snow and specialty shops in spring and summer as well.

Muckenthaler warns that in the snowboard business, "you get a huge jolt of money, and then it can be dry for a long time. We've hurt ourselves in the past by forgetting we are also a streetwear line and focusing too heavily on snowboarding hard- and softgoods, losing business to Mossimo, etc." Now Select is considering having reps who focus on streetwear year round.

Shorty's is a relative newcomer in the snowboard industry, but even when they were mostly about bolts and boards, the company came out with a line of bags and backpacks that included a snowboard bag. "Going into snowboarding is a risky venture," says Assistant to the General Manager and Sales Director Tracy DeLeon, "but we had a lot going for us by being an established skate company first. It's the skate business that holds us up in summer, as well as in hard times."

For now Shorty's strategy in snowboarding is conservative growth in the hopes that steady sales will allow them to avoid a boom and fizzle. "But it's such a tedious industry - both skateboarding and snowboarding!" says DeLeon. "You have to anticipate what will happen, and then hope that it does."

Although long associated via ownership and roots, Type A Snowboards keeps that business completely separate from skate-company Plan B. Going into a fourth season, Type A have been around long enough now to plan ahead, and they stay staffed accordingly. "We don't let ourselves get into a situation where there's no money coming in," says Type A President Carl Hyndeman. "In the 'slow season' we do our design, so we really don't have slow season."

Surfing Roots

Third Rail plans snowboard production way ahead, but they also produce street- and surfwear, using the same staff year round - no seasonal layoffs. In fact, the snowwear designer also works on their fall clothing line

Sending spring and summer product to shops that carry Third Rail's snow line also promotes fiscal health. "Those good, established accounts really help us out," says Director Of Marketing Garth O'Neill. "The stores don't close off-season."

Billabong is another company that has no problem staying busy all year. Four times a year the company releases a full clothing line, and once a year Billabong releases a snowboard line, including sweaters and beanies. The staff of five designers change what lines they do, depending on time of year.

Although surfwear's crossover into snowboarding seems a logical one business-wise, Gotcha Merchandiser Shalyn Kinney insists: "We didn't start a snow line to fill [calendar] space! It was to fill a need." Gotcha's busy calendar is divided into four lines for skate- and surfwear, and snowwear is their winter line break. Not only is spring/summer not Gotcha's slow time, spring and fall are the two biggest line breaks. Any lull that does occur between the two is utilized for sourcing.

Summer In The Shops

If staying busy in summer as a snowboard manufacturer or softgoods company sounds tricky, try being a shop that sells mostly snowboard goods. "They're saying it was the worst winter here [for snow] since 1902," moans Owner Jay Liska at Northern Boarder in Anchorage, Alaska. "Horrible, most of the snow stuff's marked down." In summer, Liska brings in skateboards and skate jeans, as well as wakeboards, "stuff my competitors don't carry."

At Ohio Surf And Skate in Willoughby, Ohio, skate sales take over in summer, with an inventory of about a hundred decks maintained in the shop. After several seasons, Manager Tim Rigby has a built-in snow-business predictor: "Around July, when we start selling our first snowboards, you get a pretty good feeling about winter - everyone gets hyper."

At Hobie/Surf Ride in Oceanside, California, Snowboard Manager Marc Loreau California condenses snowboard product on the sales floor and discounts it 40 percent - the store's cost - until new product arrives again: "New Zealanders and Aussies come in summer and get a great deal - and it's winter back home."

Hobie/Surf Ride's snowboard backshop converts to repair the shop's rental surfboards and prepare used boards for sale. Lately swimsuit sales and girls' clothes are really making a dent - summer is actually Hobie's busiest season.

—Sharon Harrison