Which nations should I sell the big brands to, and is anything that is not Chinese really a fake?
I heard many times in Hungary, during conversations about snowboards, that "I have never heard of this brand".
In such cases, I often asked back, and what did you hear about?
Most of the time, they heard the word Burton from someone they know.
So anyone who doesn't know much about snowboarding only knows Burton.
Also, he doesn't know him, he just heard the name.
I used to call this the Sony or Nike effect, when people only heard about the brand that produces the largest amount.
That's why I thought I'd describe the snowboard brands that actually determine the sales of snowboards on our planet these days.
The germs of snowboarding started in two places, in North America and around the Swiss/French border, so it is not surprising that this is reflected in the location of the established brands.
I apologize in advance to a number of smaller brands that I hold in high esteem, who are not so decisive in terms of quantity. However, they can often be superior in quality and even in terms of ideas to their counterparts that produce large dimensions.
So I apologize to the American US SHAPE or the Canadian company PRIOR, whose factory I was in British Columbia and even lent me a test sheet for free.
Or from the Canadian company Voile, who reformed Splitboards. Either from the Swiss companies KORUA or RADICAL, who produce brilliant Freeride boards.
Or from the countless small Czech manufacturers, such as GARA, or the long-established LTB.
Or from the unique Polish CONTRACT snowboard and the Russian JOINT snowboards, which are slowly becoming popular. These are very mature manufacturers, but they are not the big fish.
Big American Brands:
- ARBOR
- DC
– JONES
– NICHE
- ROME
- CAPITA
BURTON
– K2
– RIDE
- GNU
– LIBTECH
- ROXY
– NEVER SUMMER
- SIGNAL
– TUXEDO
Big Canadian Snowboard Brands:
– STEP CHILD
– DINOSAURS WILL DIE
– ENDEAVOR
- YES
Big French snowboard brands:
– ROSSIGNOL
- DOUBLE
- APO
- SOLOMON
Big German snowboard brands:
– AMPLIDE
- NITRO
– VÖKL
– F2
Big Swiss snowboard brands:
– NIDECKER
- SLASH
Surprisingly, there is only one Austrian brand that is quantitatively significant in sales: the ski brand:
– HEAD
All other Austrian ski manufacturers have long since withdrawn from snowboard sales.
There are, however, some nations that have successfully entered sales in recent years.
– LOBSTER snowboards: Iceland
– BATALEON snowboards: Netherlands
– DOUK snowboards: England
– GENTEMSTICK snowboards: Japan
– FLOW snowboards: Hong Kong
These names are the main sellers in the world. But who are the greatest kings?
19 brands from the American continent are represented here.
14 brands from the European continent are represented.
From the Asian continent, only 2 brands are represented.
So clearly, the Americans are the biggest kings.
But within that, who are the biggest, who are the best quality, who is completely their own master.
Not all gold that glitters.
The two biggest kings are probably Burton and the K2/RIDE conglomerate.
Why?
Because both companies have their own factories, relocated to China since the 2007 crisis. In addition to snowboards, both companies have a lot of products, clothes, shoes, backpacks, avalanche gear, glasses, helmets, bindings, pants, protective equipment, etc. And the Keil Ski and Kristall Snowboards factories are huge and productive, with serious production technology and independent machines, they work with almost free labor.
But how does it look at other companies?
The GNU/Libtech/Roxi brands are made in one place, in the American Mervin manufactory. This is an old factory working with mature technology, it is not small, it was bought by the clothing company Roxi (Quiksilver) and created a whole big empire.
Roxi filed for bankruptcy this year, so the fate of the factory may still change.
However, there is one drawback: the Mervin factory produces snowboards at high cost, with American labor, and very expensively.
An interesting detour
Quiksilver tried to create a big snowboarding empire: in 2003, it bought the world's biggest ski company at the time, Rossignol.
At that time, Rossignol was also the largest French snowboard manufacturer in France, with good technology. Together with Rossignol, Quiksilver acquired Grand Chavin Manufactory, perhaps the best snowboard factory in Europe at the time.
Hammer snowboards, HOT snowboards, Original Sín, A snowboards and Dynastar snowboards were made here. These names also all came under American ownership, and then they were eliminated one by one. When the economic crisis came, the remaining Rossignol was sold to Roxi/Quiksilver at a third price. Since then, Rossignol has been a small snowboard company, employed in an unknown factory in China, smaller than any of the brands it acquired. Among the French brands that were set aside in this way, only A (Apocalypse) snowboards was able to stand up again, but not under its established name, but under the name APO. Roxi is a big player.
3 of the dominant American companies still have their own plants in the USA. Never Summer, Signal, and Smokin are independent and work with an American workforce. I've asked all of them for a price list before, they get to Europe at crazy prices.
Well, how are we doing with the others?
The large Swiss company Nidecker currently operates Europe's oldest factory near Geneva under the name Swiss Lab Factory. In the past, they have taken on a lot of contract work, the best known of which are JONES (USA), Yes (Canada), Slash (Switzerland). Slash (Gigi RÜF XGAMES world champion company) manufactures in Tunisia, in its own factory, so it solved the economic production.
The German company Völkl moved its own factory to China, thereby solving economic production. However, the snowboards of the European ski factories have declined on the world market, so Völkl and the Austrian head ski company can only sell in the entry level category. It is conceivable that they will withdraw from snowboard production within a few years because of this, because their ski sales are successful. Head also moved its own factory to China, so the company is economical.
The German brand F2 went bankrupt 3 times with the disappearance of ALPIN snowboards. It was taken out of its last state of disrepair by a German company called TRANS, and under the direction of TRANS, it is being made as a contract worker in a foreign Chinese factory. Actually, we buy a cheap Chinese TRANS snowboard called F2.
The French SALOMON company built its own factory in Bulgaria next to its own French factory, thus reducing production costs. It's not cheap either, but Salomon is a global company, present on every continent, and interested in everything from shoe production to clothing production, actually from hiking to fitness, tennis and skiing. In fact, it is no longer French property, but owned by the Finnish giant AMER Sport, which is interested in the most diverse areas of sports, but interestingly, it also owns the Atomic ski company. The Atomic snowboard has already been discontinued and the sales rate of Salomon's snowboards has also decreased in the world market. The Salomon ski and the Atomic, on the other hand, are going well.
The English plant of DOUK UK mainly sells to the English market, which is strong, but the production in England does not enable competitive exports.
The Japanese factory of GENTEMSTICK is of fantastic quality, but quite expensive and has one more problem: the sheets are narrow, they are sized for very small Japanese feet. But great respect for them: only the French Dupraz and the Japanese GENTEMSTICK undertake the reinterpretation and modern development of the true original Old Scool snowboard form among the major manufacturers.
By the way, DUPRAZ is a stable company, it has always produced long Freeride boards in the French mountains. The fanbase of its layer segment has long been established. However, he reduced the average price of his boards from €800 to €600 by moving the production to Poland.
There is a factory in DUBAI, which is now considered the best Carbon technology snowboard factory in the world. It originally manufactured wakeboards and opened its doors to snowboarding in 2013. Who would have thought that the best Carbon reinforced boards in the world are made in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is strengthening its industry so much that it has built the world's largest indoor ski slope 20 km from the factory, so ready-made boards can be tested locally. YES, JONES and ARBOR snowboards are made in this factory. (It is likely that the workforce is Chinese or Pakistani...)
These are very exclusive snowboards that have not been made in the USA before, but in Europe…. But where?
And where are the 15 omitted snowboard brands made?
We have already seen that what is American may be American, may be Chinese, may be Arab, what is French may be Austrian, may be Bulgarian, but may also be Polish, or what is Swiss may be made in Tunisia. And here comes a little tale...
Once upon a time there was an ELAN snowboard factory… in Austria. He was never really able to sell his own snowboards, so he lived as a freelancer. And always approx. He worked for 15 brands.
For: ARBOR, DC, Niche, ROME, Capita, Stepchild, Dinosaurus WIll Die, AMPLID, Nitro, APO, Lobster, Bataleon.
These are very good-sounding names in today's snowboarding world. Meanwhile, ELAN couldn't sell its own snowboards, which came off the same production lines.
And what happened was that he went bankrupt in 2013... And at least 20 brands are left without factories, and 12 of them are very good names...
Interestingly, no one wanted to go to China... to experiment with technologies in foreign factories.
ARBOR went to DUBAI, but apart from him, all the brands rushed from South Austria to North Austria to the GST factory, which is the Austrians' best carbon technology factory. The Austrians remained the Chinese of snowboard production.
But the story did not end there. After two years of hard work and a forced price, GST surprisingly gave notice to the snowboard companies. Rather, it went back to automotive products.
At that time, the German Nitro decided to take the production to Taiwan. Since then, they have been working with the Taiwanese Playmaker factory.
At that time, however, the Capita company decides to take over ELAN's production and opens a new plant almost in the same place where ELAN was, partly with ELAN's machines.
Nowadays, DC, NICHE, ROME, CAPITA, STEPCHILD, Dinosaurus WILL Die, AMPLID, LOBSTER and BATALEON snowboards are made here.
So now Capita is also a big player. However, the biggest players are the Austrians. Compared to the fact that their only brand, Head, is somewhat in the ballpark in snowboard sales in the world (and it is also the cheapest stuffing on German websites), they produce a third of the world's leading brands!
In comparison, ROSSIGNOL, which in 2003 was the owner of Europe's largest snowboard factory, manufactures in an unknown location in China.
I wrote this article with several intentions.
On the one hand, let's see, not everything here is as simple as we think.
And above all, to know more than just one snowboard brand.
Then also so that those who only knew ski brands can see that ski factories are not always the big factors in the production of snowboards.
K2 is the only one in this, which is also a very strong and experienced old manufacturer.
And last but not least, for those who praise or even criticize each other's snowboards on various forums, to think about the fact that the reviewed brands may be from the same factory.
Andrew,
SnowboardShop.hu
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Hungarian