Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 While researching Dead Snowboard Companies thread, saw this data that some might find interesting: Top Selling Brands In Order Units Sold Specialty Aug 07 - Feb 08 BURTON (>40% market share. Almost 4x the share of the #2 brand) K2 RIDE ROME SDS (Everything below Rome <5% market share) ROSSIGNOL SALOMON 5150 NITRO GNU (Everything below GNU < 2% market share) ROXY SNOWBOARDS NEVER SUMMER LIB TECH FORUM LTD SNOWBOARDS ARBOR PALMER ATOMIC MORROW (Everything below Morrow < 1% market share) FLOW CAPITA OPTION LAMAR NIDECKER HEAD SPORTS VOLKL STEPCHILD SNOWBOARDS SNOW JAM TYPE A AVALANCHE (everything below Avalanche < 0.1% market share) TECHNINE DYNASTAR WORLD INDUSTRIES UNITY SPICE SAPIENT BLINDSIDE ACADEMY SNOWBOARDS BATALEON ELAN USA SIMS ENDEAVOR SANTA CRUZ MAXX ATLANTIS VENUE KEMPER LIQUID SNOWBOARDS APO SNOWBOARDS VOILE VENTURE SNOWBOARDS SIGNAL SNOWBOARDS O-MATIC SNOWBOARDS OXYGEN ZUMA EMSCO GROUP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pokkis Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 I've been fighting to keep my mouth shut up of other thread, but can not resist more. How many of those are producing snowboards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 I've been fighting to keep my mouth shut up of other thread, but can not resist more. How many of those are producing snowboards Vast majority have active web sites. Do you mean produce their own boards vs. farm production out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gecko Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Vast majority have active web sites. Do you mean produce their own boards vs. farm production out? well we know Burton does both and I think K2 & GNU is in house, not sure about Ride but last I heard they were pressed in the Seattle area no clue about Rome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nils Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 more subtle add on to pokkis question: How many of them do actually conceive, proto, test the boards and have "shaping" knowledge that makes them real brands vs marketing names that just call the OEM factory asking for 1 FS 160cm + i'll find a fancy sublimated topsheet and market it. When i receive Pale price list here and then for the lower range of products they have, believe me i'm scared of the prices ( how low they are compare to how high most of the OEM things they make for other brands retails with just the topsheet beeing the difference...). Basically there is maybe 20-30 guys worldwide that could justify the shaper/conceptor competence and name...rest is marketing. Nils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pokkis Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 My sarcastic:eek: comment was for realted how many of those are/were snowboards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 more subtle add on to pokkis question:How many of them do actually conceive, proto, test the boards and have "shaping" knowledge that makes them real brands vs marketing names that just call the OEM factory asking for 1 FS 160cm + i'll find a fancy sublimated topsheet and market it. When i receive Pale price list here and then for the lower range of products they have, believe me i'm scared of the prices ( how low they are compare to how high most of the OEM things they make for other brands retails with just the topsheet beeing the difference...). Basically there is maybe 20-30 guys worldwide that could justify the shaper/conceptor competence and name...rest is marketing. Nils I'm not sure if it's fair game to ask this, ignore it if not..Is Swoard successful enough that it will be viable to move to in-house production? I recall a poo-fling fest with Virus, it would be a shame for that to happen with Nidecker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 well we know Burton does both and I think K2 & GNU is in house, not sure about Ride but last I heard they were pressed in the Seattle area no clue about Rome Ride is owned by K2, of course, but I'm not sure where they are manufactured. Rome is based in Waterbury VT. Not sure offhand if the boards are now produced in VT or not. In the beginning, their boards were pressed in Quebec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 more subtle add on to pokkis question:How many of them do actually conceive, proto, test the boards and have "shaping" knowledge that makes them real brands vs marketing names that just call the OEM factory asking for 1 FS 160cm + i'll find a fancy sublimated topsheet and market it. When i receive Pale price list here and then for the lower range of products they have, believe me i'm scared of the prices ( how low they are compare to how high most of the OEM things they make for other brands retails with just the topsheet beeing the difference...). Basically there is maybe 20-30 guys worldwide that could justify the shaper/conceptor competence and name...rest is marketing. Nils Obviously, the top ten are all legit as are many others on this list But, certainly some others are just "house" names, etc. It would be interesting to go through all the web sites and make some calls and figure it out. But I'll pass on that for the moment ... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEJ Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Wow, did I miss it or was there no mention of Coiler, Donek, Prior, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex1230 Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 I don't think the three od them together would hit 1% of all sales. I would bet that Burton sells more boards in a day than Bruce makes in a year...same with the other two, although they probably have higher numbers than Coiler, they are nowhere close to mass market boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 more subtle add on to pokkis question:Basically there is maybe 20-30 guys worldwide that could justify the shaper/conceptor competence and name...rest is marketing. Nils Taking this a step further, take a look at the top ten ... BURTON - Started making prototypes during the 77/78 season. Started really selling boards in 78/79. K2 - Ski company, the first I believe, to get into snowboarding. Also owns Morrow, Liquid, Ride, and 5150. RIDE - Interesting "ride" so to speak on the stock market in the '90s, now owned by K2. ROME SDS - Started by two former Burton guys, Paul Maravetz and Josh Reid. Maravetz has been in the biz since '91, Reid since mid-'90s. Launched in 2002. ROSSIGNOL - Ski Company owned formerly by Quicksilver. SALOMON - Ski company. 5150 - Owned by K2 under the Ride umbrella). NITRO - Been around since 1990. GNU - Owned by Quicksilver. Mike Olson has been in the business since 84 and started making boards in 77 as a middle school student (at least that's the legend). ROXY SNOWBOARDS - Female brand owned by Quicksilver So, in the top ten: The Burton tree also gives us Rome, though Burton does not own, nor have any affiliation with Rome. The K2 tree also gives us Ride & 5150. Quicksilver tree gives us GNU and Roxy, and at one time Rossi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 I don't think the three od them together would hit 1% of all sales. I would bet that Burton sells more boards in a day than Bruce makes in a year...same with the other two, although they probably have higher numbers than Coiler, they are nowhere close to mass market boards. Not one of those brands even has 0.1% market share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gecko Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 I remember when 5150 was a little brand in Sandy Ego, I sketched a prototyping press design on couple of bar napkins for one of the guys over beers at the Tavern at the beach in PB...I think I got a set of boot and bindings in trade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donek Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Based on my understanding of the numbers I would be about 0.1%. As for companies on that list and who makes them, I can fill in some blanks. Burton - Burton, Karhu, and others I'm sure Ride and K2 now made in China Gnu, Roxy, Lib Tech are all mervin. Made in the US, but I did hear last year that some of the low end stuff was farmed to China Unity - made in Colorado Venture - Made in Colorado Never Summer - made in Colorado Palmer - I believe owns a factory in Europe somewhere I think Endeavor is another incarnation of a manufacturer in California Voile is made in UTah I believe I believe the vast majority of the rest are OEMed. I'm not as familiar with the European manufacturers, but I believe that Vokl, Nidecker, Salomon, and Elan make their own stuff. The list is missing some other smaller US manufacturers like Sentinel, Solid (restarted last year), Hayes Brothers, Revolution, Smokin. I'm sure I've missed some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nils Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 basically you have two or three huge OEM makers in europe/near europe - Pale: cheapest prices available in europe mainland for OEM - Elan - Nidecker ( one factory in Switzerland, one in Tunisia that produces for many many brands ( including salomon that also has its own plant in Romania...) Those three company produce more than 300 000 boards / skis per season ! So yes, Donek, Coiler and Prior are small fish in this world :)... Nils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex1230 Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Palmer is made somewhere in switzerland, but I heard some of their high end BX decks were being made in Kessler's factory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywhit Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Elan was a big manufacturer for other companies, no ? remember Nale (elan backwards) ? Madds are made in Italy, not China. That can't be cheap. A Ferrari red Madd BX 168 , that would rule :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Salomon boards are all made in Tunisia and China their bindings were once made in Romania and the Czech republic, even Italy, so were most of the Burton bindings. now all made in china early Burton European board production was by atomic in austria (still is?) Tunisia is one of the most highly educated and well trained work force countries around, with favorable import export taxes and very little environmental law I believe that almost all of the K2 umbrella in made in china Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted December 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 Rome's boards are produced in Austria. Bindings in China. Dan Sullivan from O'Sin jumped to Rome, when Rome was formed, and that was a major acquisition for them (and retailers will tell you Sullivan's presence gave them some faith in Rome when the brand started up). That had to hurt O'Sin. Rome is the case study of how to start a snowboard company. Launched in 2002 ... number 4 by 2007. 'Course, you don't always have guys with Reid and Maravetz's smarts, connections, and experience running the show either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowriter Posted January 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Thought I'd bump this for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 This is why I will always have a place in my heart for Burton, even though I bash them for their disowning of alpine. It would just suck to have a ski company be the #1 snowboard company in the world. No reason. It just would. I despised K2 for jumping on the bandwagon with the Gyrator in the late 80's. Still do. Posers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davekempmeister Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 My Tanker 187 (06/07) is CHINESE. OMG!!!!!!!!! This has been well covered in the past but seems to have a place in this discussion. Board now has probably 20 days on it and I love it. Still holding up. All the political and economic issues put aside, the thing that bothers me about it is the relative certainty that the guy or lady that pressed it will probably never get a chance to ride one (assuming they want too). That bothers me a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Kinda OT I know, but Arc'teryx clothing is also made in China now...but retailing for the same price as when it was built in BC. Hard for me to swallow that, when I know that their production costs must have dropped significantly. Kind of the same thing for a made-in-China Tanker too, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NateW Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I'm pleased to see that Volant is no longer in that list. (I'm still bitter about their inability to make snowboards that stay in one piece, and the affect that had on the Aggression brand.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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