Nitro Lights Up: Sales Manager John Eskow Talks Biz
By John Stouffer
10/15/98

Nitro Snowboard's Sales Manager John Eskow and So Cal Sales Rep Kent Stevens recently stopped by the Transworld offices to say hello to the staff. We just wanted to know what he was up to:

Kent and John in the Snow Biz Office. Photo: John Stouffer

What brings you to So Cal?

To visit our rep--Kent Stevens--some retailers, and to touch base with the Boarding School clinic that Gart Sports, Big Daddy's, and Sportmart is putting on in Fountain Valley, California.

How many shops have you seen on this trip?

Yesterday we hit about seven.

Being based on the East Coast, have you seen a difference between the snowboarding business vibe back there and on this coast?

One of the things I noticed that this was the Columbus Day weekend and more of the dealers back East have bigger promotional deals going on. Where out here, only a few of the shops I went to had a sale going on Saturday and nobody had anything on Sunday. Back East it's a whole weekend-type thing.

Yeah, but we celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco De Mayo here and you don't on the East Coast.

Good point.

Are people more pumped for the snow to fall back there than they are here?

I think everybody's excited about the new season and wondering when it's going to snow. It's been cold in New England and there's snow in the Rockies now, so people are definitely pumped up. I don't see much difference though. One area doesn't think it's going to happen sooner than the other. It's still too early to tell.

What has been the most surprising thing you've heard from a retailer or shop this season? Has anything caught you off guard?

Jeeze, I don't think anything has caught me off guard. Nothing really sticks out. I think it's pretty much business as usual in that sense. Everybody has had their preseason sale, but there wasn't really anything new or unusual. The First Tracks show in Boston was probably the first big consumer show, but nothing happened out of the ordinary at that show.

Kent Stevens: I was talking to Duke [Ekudas, owner] at Surfside [Sports in Newport Beach, California] and his sale just went really well. They were noticing less sale product was selling, and the kids were more focused on new product and were shopping in the store instead of out in the parking lot.

J.E.: Maybe the most surprising thing for us as a company is that we're getting reorders. The reorders started before we even shipped, so the hype and hunger for the product has definitely been out there.

Would you say that retailers have under-ordered for this season?

J.E.: It's too early to tell. One of the things we did differently this year is we put a warranty card on the back of the boards. We're being inundated on a daily basis with these cards, so we know product is checking from the shops. We used to just rely on the reps or the word of the retailers in the past to see how things were selling, but now we have proof that things are selling and we know better what's happening out on the street. People are calling up and asking for more boards and boots. By Halloween, we'll be practically sold out of boots. With boards we still have the ability to make them if we need them. But with boots, we have to buy all the raw materials way in advance and it's a little bit lengthier process. We've even seen a lot of interest from dealers who didn't give us orders at the show. Some of these have seen the product and ads and we're getting non-dealer demand for it. It's nice because everyone is saying that the industry is consolidating and we're still picking up new dealers for Nitro and still furthering our sales.

You still have a huge line.

Everything from underwear to bags to outwear to boots and bindings. We extended our two-year warranty from our boards and bindings to our boots as well. It's tough to do, looking at it and saying that part of our line only had a one-year warranty and the rest had a two-year warranty, so we just encompassed the whole thing. For us, we get so few product back that it just made sense.

That would be an incentive for any kid to buy the product.

The fit of the boot is actually selling the boot, but it's nice to know that the warranty is there. Right now we have one of the most complicated and complex liners out in our higher-end models, and we're enhancing on that even more next year. We'll also be further concentrating on the step-in market and the development of more step-in model boots. I think you'll be pretty surprised by what we're doing next year with that. It'll be pretty revolutionary.

Oh, you're such a tease. Tell me what's new?

Sorry, you'll have to wait a couple of months to see the stuff.

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