ASR Blog

Skateboarding in China

I posted a story in Industry News about the growth of skateboarding in China. The article states that skateboarding is becoming less underground and more mainstream--Chinese skate brands are popping up, making buying a board affordable, and companies such as Quiksilver and DC Shoes are now distributing their product in the country. There'€™s also an Asian X-Games, which, according to the article, was put in place in order to scout new Asian talent. China also boasts the largest skatepark in the world. The article reads, ". . . SMP International, an Australian-owned skateboarding company, finished construction on the world's largest skatepark, located in New Jiangwan City outside Shanghai. More than 12,000 square meters in size, the park features the world's biggest vert ramp, the world's largest concrete skate bowl, and a 5,000-seat stadium."

Obviously, China's potential as a contributor to action sports and consumerism is still largely untapped, and these signs show that it will explode one day soon. Raph Cooper, creator of She Hui (Society) Skateboards, the first domestic Chinese skateboarding company, hits the nail on the head when he says,€œ"If we can keep it hyped up in China, if we can keep the business going well enough to be able to feed the scene for competitions or for demos, then we could really see China putting a big impact on skating as whole."

What do you think of this? Does the company you work for sell it's product in China?

Go Skateboarding Day

You have a little over two days to figure out what you’re going to do for Go Skateboarding Day, which is this Saturday, June 21. Created by the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) in 2004, the event “originated as the day for skateboarders to have fun, to raise awareness about the issues we face, to show the world what skateboarding is really all about, to reclaim our culture and to define skateboarding as the rebellious, creative celebration of independence it continues to be.” Since that first day on June 21, 2004, thousands of people have responded and have either put on or participated in skate events, just rolled around with their friends, or even stopped by their local skate retailer to say hi. If you haven’t decided what you’re going to do to celebrate, check out the IASC site for some ideas. And, Go Skateboarding!

Helmets are good

There was a sad story in the OC Register today about a 19-year-old dying—he was skateboarding without a helmet, crashed, and died two days later from head trauma. It is such a tragic accident, made even more so by the fact that a helmet could’ve saved his life.

I was just thinking about this yesterday; the kid is really into skateboarding, and every time he pulls out the board, I have him wear his helmet. Sometimes it’s not a problem, other times it causes a toddler tantrum—not fun. Yesterday was one of those days, and me, being tired, almost let him get away with it. However, I stopped myself short, knowing that today (will hopefully) pave the way for future behavior, which will lead him to wear a helmet for the rest of his skateboarding life. I may be an optimist, but hey, what’s wrong with that?

This past winter, I wrote about how helmets are so popular with snowboarders and skiers—why aren’t they with skateboarders? This 19-year-old who passed away is most certainly not the first to skate without head protection—the majority of pros don’t wear them—what kind of role model is that? Why don’t more people invest the $30.00 in saving their lives?

My heartfelt condolences go out to this teen’s friends and family.

Photo above: Never too young to get into good habits

 

The State of the Tradeshow

Seems like the story about Sole Technologies, Circa and Podium pulling out of ASR is pretty big news for the Industry—there is a lot of talk on the message boards, and the commenter’s are all over the place on their opinions. Some think ASR is dead, while others say that there’s no way the buyers want it to go away. A lot of people are pointing to PacSun not selling closed toe shoes as part of the culprit, while others think it’s our changing climate and this wonderful recession the country is in. On Silverfish Longboarding, a commentator says that he will no longer support those companies who pulled out. On the other hand, “Mile_High_Mark” says, “Dealers will still buy those brands, and skaters will, too. Having hot-sh*t riders and models (shoes, not skaters) will do more for sales than a trade show”.

The most varied comments, however, are found on the Transworld Business site. “Jason Bergman” complains that ASR has turned into a regional show and its dead, while “Warren” says, “I think it is very arrogant of the companies to think that they can simply do more regional shows. It may work out for the shops form SoCal - but some of us travel a great distance to see all of the products in one place. That IS the idea of a trade show - right? The companies have done it to them selves - moving deadlines earlier and earlier every season.” Another user, “Big Picture”, agrees, stating that, “Tradeshows roll like the stock market and those that pull out when the going gets a little tough usually lose the most money. In a world of vertical retailers taking larger portions of the market I think these companies are better served standing united with the industry. An Island can be a lonely place.” However, the commentator goes on to say that, “ASR needs to change with the times and spice up the shows like the old days.”

So, what I want to know is what you think. If you’re on this site, I assume you attend ASR, or are looking to attend. What’s your opinion of tradeshows in general?

It's Kmart's Turn

Have you heard about this? Transworld Business is reporting that in an effort to compete with Target’s Shaun White line and OP selling at Wal-Mart, Kmart is going to be offering its own clothing line this June. The brand, called Boarding, is being designed by Orange Clothing, who is based in Florida and works with big box as well as department stores. Not only is the title unoriginal—so is the logo. Check it out—it’s a cross between Rip Curl and O’Neill’s wave with the Quiksilver script thrown in. And, to dig that knife a little deeper into the industry, Scott Deutsch, president of Orange Clothing, was quoted describing the brand as “trend right, but affordable. Our focus is to offer the same quality and look as a Quiksilver or Volcom, but be half the price.” OUCH.

*photo taken from the Transworld Business site

Stand-Up Paddle Surfing--do you do it?

It seems as if more and more people I know are trying out stand-up paddle surfing (SUP). What first seemed like a kooky sport has infiltrated our surf society. Many of those that I know who have tried it become obsessed—they find themselves participating in SUP more than regular surfing. On the other side of the coin are those that hate it and get upset when SUP surfers come into the lineup, saying they poach all the waves. (An interesting side note to this is that SUP surfers aren’t allowed in the Trestles line-up. If you are a SUP surfer, you can only surf on the very southern end of San Onofre—I’ve heard stories that if they take off on a wave at Trestles, the lifeguards actually do clear them from the water.)

 So, I’m wondering how many people participate in the sport. It’s a bit like kite surfing—it costs a lot of start-up money to get going (the boards are in the four figure range) and you’re not always appreciated for doing it. In the April issue of TW Business, retailers are saying that the boards aren’t selling too fast, and they seem to be selling on the West coast more than the East coast. Interesting, considering that the East coast has smaller waves; one would think they would want to participate in a variety of water sports when the swell is down. There seems to be more people doing it in Cardiff than in Huntington Beach—another interesting thought—why are there so many participants in one area, and hardly any in another?

*Book cover taken from Amazon.

Vulcanized or Cupsole?

If you read the last issue of Transworld Business (March ’08) you saw that there were a lot of articles on shoes which had the recurring words of vulcanized sole and cupsole. I really don’t know the difference, and I’m assuming that unless you work for a shoe company, you don’t know either. But, it’s obviously important or else I wouldn’t keep hearing about it, right? To investigate further, I sent out an email to a few contacts in the shoe world and I thought that once I got their replies, I’d educate you all. However, it’s been like pulling teeth to get the info back, so instead of me educating you, I thought I’d ask the audience—anyone out there that can tell me what the difference between the two are?

Safety First

The last time I went snowboarding, I fell pretty hard, and it woke me up to being silly for not wearing a helmet. I was given one a few years back, but have never worn it because I always felt that I wasn’t good enough to wear it—hey, if I’m not going off jumps or doing rails, then I don’t protection, right? That fall woke me up from reality—I’m a mother and a wife, I can’t afford to get hurt and be laid out. So, this past weekend we went to Mammoth and as I was packing, I reached back into the inner recesses of the garage and found my helmet. All shiny and new and still in its packaging.

So, there we are, getting ready to go out on the mountain and I’m putting it on, adjusting it, taking it back off, etc, etc, and I really thought it was going to bug me. But, wanting to be smart and to set a good example for the kid, off I went, sporting the protection. And, I didn’t think about it again. It was so light; I forgot I was wearing it. It did a fantastic job of keeping my head warm (I didn’t even have to wear a beanie underneath) and it didn’t block any sound out. Three other family members that I was with were wearing them as well, and they thought the same thing. And, we noticed we weren’t alone in our helmet club. We looked around us as we rode up on the lifts; it seemed as if more people were wearing helmets than not wearing them, which is a great thing. My sister-in-law commented that it would be like the internet, our kids would say, “You mean you were around when you didn’t wear helmets??”

You can see that four of the five people in this picture are wearing helmets.

The other thing I noticed was there was no brand that was more predominant than others—I saw a couple R.E.D.’s, some Bolle’s, Giro’s, etc. It was a good mix, which I interpret as meaning that all helmets on the market must be good. So, as the end of season sales start popping up, it’s definitely worth taking a look at the helmets—you won’t be sorry you got one.

Eco-Friendly

I know I’ve written a lot about companies that are going green, but recently, there seems to be an influx of banner ads running on various sites. For example, on Transworld Business, there are two—one for Reef’s “Redemption” program and another for Sector 9’s, “Push Don’t Pollute.” Both of these ads have been flashing before my eyes for the last week, so I finally clicked on them today.

 Reef’s program is described as, “. . . a part of Reef’s commitment to employing what we believe to be environmentally conscious and socially responsible business practices. This initiative is defined through three components: Product Series, Culture of Giving and In-House Efforts.” All are admirable and worth checking out. Sector 9’s “Push Don’t Pollute” program combines contests for the kids (which involve educating them about being green), factoids on the environment (which are scary) and what Sector 9 is doing to help. Again, worth checking out. I also read a press release on Surfer’s site today about a company called Mission Playground which not only has “performance-driven fabrications that are easier on the environment,” but “environmentally-friendlier surfboards” as well.

My point? It’s fantastic to see these companies striving to do what’s best for Mother Earth. Of course, these are three of many (see my Arbor blog), but it wasn’t too long ago when Yvon Chouinard, owner of Patagonia was the only one striving to do everything he could to be eco-friendly. (He still probably takes the cake, what the man has done to contribute to bettering the environment is amazing.) So when it seems like a pain to pick up at least five pieces of trash when you leave the beach, think what these company CEO’s are doing and do your part as well.

A question about shoe sales

I was reading Malakye’s message boards when I stumbled across a discussion on the state of our shoe market. It started with PacSun stating that they weren’t going to be selling closed-toe shoes anymore, and the discussion was on how this affected the Industry’s shoe companies. Is PacSun a big chunk of their market, or will they be doing just fine selling to the smaller, core retail shops? Alongside this question was that of why aren’t the shoes selling in the first place? To go with this, someone had posted a comment that in TW Business, the CEO of Zumiez states "We hit a wall in DEC w/ the footwear business. We're still assessing what's going on." With this statement, it seems that neither PacSun nor Zumiez are doing well in the shoe category. So, what I’m wondering after all of this is why aren’t the mall shoppers buying our shoes? I think that’s more of a factor than PacSun not wanting to sell them—the shoe companies will be fine in the long run without being in PacSun, but what does this say about the aesthetics of the shoes? PacSun stopped selling them because no one was buying—so that’s the point to be concerned about.

Shop-Eat-Surf recently did an interesting article on this same topic. To sum it up, Osiris found themselves with a smaller client base when skinny jeans came into style—skate shoes with big tongues don’t look too hot with skinny jeans. They were losing business because people where buying a scaled down shoe. Is this what’s going on, not only with Osiris, but across the board? It would make sense—the mall shopper wears the jeans, then buys something like a Puma or Adidas (which may not be necessarily in PacSun or Zumiez) to go with it. What do you think?