#81 APRIL / MAY 2016 €5 NATHAN HILL, REEF EMEA GENERAL MANAGER HOW YOUR STORE CAN UP ITS DIGITAL GAME THE LOST HISTORY OF LONGBOARDING BRAND PROFILES, BUYER SCIENCE & MUCH MORE TREND REPORTS: SURFBOARDS, LONGBOARDS, SUNGLASSES, SUP, HANGING SHOES. 1 US Editor Harry Mitchell Thompson HELLO #81 [email protected] Despite a slow start to the FW15/16 season with to meet under one roof to discuss, share stories less than favourable snow conditions making and view next season’s collections for purchase. Surf & French Editor Iker Aguirre for tricky selling conditions in the run-up to [email protected] Christmas, the fluffy white stuff did eventually In this issue, we take a look at what retailers join the party. in both our industry and the wider landscape are doing to ‘Embrace Technology’, while online Senior Snowboard Contributor The hotly anticipated El Niño reversed a recent action sports marketing expert Jérôme Harlay Tom Wilson-North snow trend in America, with the parched West talks us through a case study of his, where Coast finally receiving a winter to remember, he helped launch the digital offering (website [email protected] and the East Coast suffered from a strange and social media) for a newly opened bricks weather system, resulting in a fairly snow- and mortar surf shop in Tenerife. We have all Skate Editor Dirk Vogel free season. While El Niño mixed things up for our usual spots, with Retailer Profile going the snow business, the pacific ocean served to Bude in Cornwall, Buyer Science travels to [email protected] up some all-time conditions ranging from Brittany in France and trend reports spanning many spots on the Americas’ coastline to surfboards, SUP, longboards, hanging shoes and German Editor Anna Langer Hawaii’s Pe’ahi (Jaws) providing the greatest sunglasses. live televised XXL Wave contest ever. Not to [email protected] be left behind, snowboarding has just seen For our first surf issue of the year, our Big its highest ever air, made at the Suzuki Nine Wig interview features Reef’s EMEA General SUP Editor Robert Etienne Knights hip session at Watles in South Tyrolian Manager, Nathan Hill. Nathan’s life hit a fork in Italy, with Christian “Hitsch” Haller boosting an the road, when in the 90s he decided to swap [email protected] astounding 11.3 metres into the sky. selling cars at an Audi dealership for a career in the surf industry. Nathan fills us in on what Graphic Design Séréna Lutton As thoughts of snow turn to slush and to the he’s learned in 20+ years in the business and beach, waves and balmy days full of skating, explains why Reef’s ‘Just Passing Through’ [email protected] it’s with great pleasure that we can report on campaign has seen great success for them. the news of Sport-Achat, Nantes, Europe’s first Web Media Manager Denis Houillé tradeshow since ASR Europe with significant Always Sideways, relevance to the surf industry. Sport-Achat, Harry Mitchell Thompson [email protected] Nantes offers the European surf industry an Editor opportunity for retailers, brands and distributors Proofreaders Insa Muth, Marie-Laure Ducos, Sam Grant CONTENT Contributors Jokin Arroyo, Benoît Brecq, Gordon Way, Fabien Grisel, Franz Holler, Anna Langer, David Bianic, P.09 NEWS P.55 THE LOST HISTORY OF LONGBOARDING – ALEX Siana Ivanova, Joanne Clarke, Megan Dunbar, P.13 TRADESHOW REVIEWS LENZ INTERVIEW Elliot Harper, Jérôme Harlay P.16 RETAILER PROFILE – SURF CABIN, BUDE, P.58 RETAILER HELP: EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY CORNWALL P.61 BRAND PROFILE: CATCH SURF Advertising & Marketing P.19 SURFBOARD TREND REPORT P.63 BRAND PROFILE: BOREALIS [email protected] P.25 RETAILER WEBSITE CASE STUDY P.64 BRAND PROFILE: BOLZEN Accounts Manager P.27 SUNGLASSES TREND REPORT P.66 GREENROOMVOICE [email protected] P.34 BIG WIG INTERVIEW: NATHAN HILL, P.68 NEW PRODUCTS REEF EMEA GM P.71 MARKET INTELLIGENCE To Subscribe P.37 SUP TREND REPORT P.76 CLASSIFIEDS www.boardsportsource.com P.42 RIDE O’METER P.78 EVENTS [email protected] P.47 BUYER SCIENCE – BOARD KULTURE, FRANCE P.81 ONE EYED MONSTER Publisher P.49 LONGBOARD TREND REPORT [email protected] On the cover: Dragon’s Director of Product, Mike Tobia slotted in a dreamy Nicaraguan pit. Published by Photo: Tony Zacharek. ESB 22 Friars Street, Sudbury Suffolk, CO10 2AA. UK No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in Boardsport SOURCE is published bi-monthly any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission, except for permitted fair dealing © ESB. All Rights Reserved under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Application for permission for use of copyright material including permission to reproduce extracts in other public works shall be made to the publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source must be given. The views expressed in this publication are not those necessarily held by the Publisher. ISSN # 1478-4777 SMALL NEWS #81 shapers Tanner Prairie / Panda Surfboards / Neal Purchase Jnr / Ellis KERING SELLS ELECTRIC TO CEO ERIC Erikson / Thomas Bexon / Dyer Brand / Dead Kooks & Josh Oldenburg. CRANE Kering have sold Electric via a management buyout to a group led by VANS APPOINTS GEORGE PEDRICK AS CEO Eric Crane, making Crane the 100% owner of the brand. Under the new leadership the brand hopes to grow from what it learned under JUNIOR PR & MEDIA MANAGER VANS EMEA George Pedrick has joined Vans to assist with the running of PR & Media the Kering umbrella and apply the business analysis and KPI-related for the company in the EMEA region. George most recently served as knowledge on a more workable scale. Crane is looking forward to Senior Account Manager at Canoe Inc Ltd, where he looked after brands running the company at a pace that suits the brand, and not in the way including Burton, KR3W, Oakley and Vans. that one of the world’s largest luxury goods companies thinks it should. Crane informs us that the brand is well financed through cash and loans and that is goal is to self-finance the company’s growth, but HOBIE REUNITES BRAND UNDER SINGLE also says he wouldn’t rule out a strategic partner in the future if goals OWNERSHIP and values were shared. In operations terms, Eric says it’s simply The Hobie Cat Company are reuniting all facets of the brand under one business as usual in Europe, serving France, UK, Spain and Germany roof again, for the first time in 40 years. Previously the company had based out of their European HQ in Anglet. been split under three separate entities, but the company says they are uniting in order to “continue its strong track record for product SPORT ACHAT NANTES DEBUTS innovation while opening new doors for corporate partnerships and SEPTEMBER growth.” Sport Achat in Nantes debuts from September 17-18 to serve the west of France with a surf and outdoor tradeshow. Over 70 brands have already BURTON ANNOUNCES KEY PROMOTIONS IN signed up and the show is supported by the FPS, FIFAS, Eurosima and MARKETING & PRODUCT DEPTS OSV associations. This in particular gives the surf and SUP brands Burton has announced several key job appointments, including: Anne- their first major trade show for a number of years close to the Atlantic Marie Dacyshyn transitioning from her role as SVP of Marketing to coastline. Located in Nantes, Brittany the location is only two hours Burton’s first Chief Marketing Officer, Creative Director Evan Rose from Paris and one hour from Geneva and Lyon by train making the has been promoted to VP of Creative Marketing, Randy Torcom has show extremely well connected to the whole of France. www.sport- been promoted to VP of Brand Marketing and on the product side, achat.com Chris Cunningham joins the senior management team as VP of Global Product and will now lead all product categories in both softgoods and WASTED TALENT TO DISTRIBUTE SLOWTIDE hardgoods. AND OCTOPUS IN EUROPE Wasted Talent Agency, based in Hossegor, France have won the FOUNDER BEN MACKAY APPOINTED CEO OF European distribution for Slowtide and Octopus. Slowtide won ABSOLUTE BOARD CO LTD. AGENDA’s Accessories Award for their aesthetically pleasing towels Absolute Board Co. (Absolute) has announced that founder Ben Mackay and Octopus is a new surf traction brand on the market, coming from is to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer. The move has been California and founded by professional surfers Nate Tyler, Dion Agius made in order to ensure Absolute can continue to deliver its mission “To and Chippa Wilson. get more people skateboarding.” SURF SNOWDONIA RE-LAUNCHES SHAUN WHITE LAUNCHES APPAREL LINE FOLLOWING £1 MILLION OF NEW WITH AMERICAN FASHION RETAILER INVESTMENT MACY’S The Surf Snowdonia Adventure Park re-opened its doors for its first In his latest business venture, professional snowboarding’s most full season at on March 19, a week ahead of the long bank holiday successful son, Shaun White is releasing a line of apparel with Macy’s weekend and Easter holidays. The first man-made wave in the world in the United States. WHT SPACE will deliver a fashion-forward capsule open to the public had to close its doors at the start of the winter due collection for the retailer, which will offer “fashion-forward staples that to a mechanical fault, but thanks to £1 million of new investment, the are highly wearable and capture the faster sides of White’s style” aimed project owned by Conwy Adventure Travel Ltd is back up and running, at “the trendy and active millennial guy.” and with an all-new Total Wipeout-esque ‘Crash & Splash’ obstacle course.