Nike Snowboarding is Shutting Down — CONFIRMED (AUS/NZ)
I don’t see why everyone is so butthurt with Nike leaving the industry or hating on their boots now they’re leaving the industry (whereas you love the boots beforehand). They leave, they leave what does it matter? It’s not like they’re putting out some shitty product and ripping off customers. Snowboarding is probably the only industry I see people getting mad about this sort of thing, which boggles my mind because we buy stuff from big corporation for every other product outside of snowboarding.
But then again, I don’t get the whole core vs big corporate. A company makes good product I buy it, if not I don’t.
I agree skip. It’s just another brand and it’s better for the core snowboarding brands to get more sales with their lines = less competition. Burton is bigger than Nike in snowboarding so why don’t we grill them when they drop riders? ie Forum. Burton is like the Rip Curl of snowboarding, they make every thing under the sun even if it’s not a snowboard related product.
Nike SB is massive and the shift in to that is more important for them. Every kid is wearing Nike SB’s.
Touche. What exactly is people mad about? Can someone please enlighten me (serious question, not being sarcastic). If it’s because “they just want money”, no kidding, every company that makes products (snowboarding or not) wants to make money. Why would any company stay if they’re not making money? “They shouldn’t have enter the snowboard industry”; well if they don’t try how will they know if they’re gonna succeed or not?
And yes, I was just thinking about Burton dropping riders and dropping Forum and I don’t see people making a huge deal out of it. I don’t necessarily agree with it but I still like Burton. In fact, I’m gonna buy a Burton board soon. What they did does not have any impact whatsoever to me, same thing with Nike.
^ oh Burton gets grilled everytime they drop a rider.
In any case, I think the corp v core thing only gets important when you get older, coz I know i used to think exactly what you guys have written, it’s all about the bottom dollar, but in my age, I think there is a big big different when you give back to the community, as opposed to leaving a big damaged mark.
The moment it gets too hard, whoops sorry why even try. Or the moment you find someone better, whoops time to dump your current beau. That’s the mentality of big corps. Most people who don’t mind it haven’t had enough experience to have seen the effects of this kinda thing.
FYI, people do make choices based on who makes it and where. Otherwise, why would there be “australian made” tags on items if it’s only about the bottom dollar.
I don’t think your pov’s are wrong at all, I’m just sayin’.
Edit: Also I think it matters that snowboarding is still a very young sport in Australia, you’ll find the mindset being different. I dunno… I know there’s more to this I just cbf writing it all down. lol.
Touche. What exactly is people mad about? Can someone please enlighten me (serious question, not being sarcastic). If it’s because “they just want money”, no kidding, every company that makes products (snowboarding or not) wants to make money. Why would any company stay if they’re not making money? “They shouldn’t have enter the snowboard industry”; well if they don’t try how will they know if they’re gonna succeed or not?
And yes, I was just thinking about Burton dropping riders and dropping Forum and I don’t see people making a huge deal out of it. I don’t necessarily agree with it but I still like Burton. In fact, I’m gonna buy a Burton board soon. What they did does not have any impact whatsoever to me, same thing with Nike.
While the droppin of Forum by Burton was a bit of a crap deal for a few peeps, the situation isn’t the same as Nike!!!!!
Forum was a start up company that paid it’s dues, then it was purchased by Burton, then eventually shutdown!!!!!
They didn’t walk in with a heap of cash, take huge sales away from a sector in the market, then walk away when they no longer wanted to play!!!!!
Nike did!!!!!
It’s the equivalent of a big chain supermarket settin up in a small town, destroying every little convenience store virtually overnight, then when they didn’t think they were makin enough coin they closed it down!!!!!
It’s how Nike went about what they did!!!!! Not nice!!!!!
Touche. What exactly is people mad about? Can someone please enlighten me (serious question, not being sarcastic). If it’s because “they just want money”, no kidding, every company that makes products (snowboarding or not) wants to make money. Why would any company stay if they’re not making money? “They shouldn’t have enter the snowboard industry”; well if they don’t try how will they know if they’re gonna succeed or not?
And yes, I was just thinking about Burton dropping riders and dropping Forum and I don’t see people making a huge deal out of it. I don’t necessarily agree with it but I still like Burton. In fact, I’m gonna buy a Burton board soon. What they did does not have any impact whatsoever to me, same thing with Nike.
Because it’s a complete dick move! I am genuinely disappointed in how they’ve gone about business. They clearly don’t support the industry, so why in hell should we support them? Why support brands that aren’t in snowboarding for the right reasons? I’d much rather line the pockets of core brands, owned and run by snowboarders, who live and breathe for the same thing we do. These are the brands that give so much back to the industry and community, representing snowboarding in the best possible way. Would you rather give your money to Jeremy Jones or some wanker in a suit who’s never snowboarded a day in his life and only cares about money? Fuck that! And I’m not at all having a go at you. Just replying with my thoughts on the question.
^ Well said @Mizu Kuma & Jez!
I think you need a certain level of maturity and life experience to understand the bigger picture.
It can’t always be about the bottom dollar as that destroys industries.
I feel at times that the people I know (in person) who snowboard don’t understand this. Maybe it’s because they’re more of a casual boarder than core/lifestyle.
I dunno, maybe as I said before, it’s because snowboarding is still a youngsport down under which is why the takeup is quite high.
I dunno I’m rambling right now and I feel like an old man…
Yes we all need to live, but if you let $$$ dictate how you live then it’s not really living. I’ve done that so I would know. I do have alot to show for it, but it feels like alot of nothing…
Would you rather give your money to Jeremy Jones or some wanker in a suit who’s never snowboarded a day in his life and only cares about money?
If Jones makes bad product, I’d rather give my money to a wanker who makes good product. If both makes good product, of course I’d rather give my money to Jones (assuming I like his products).
But I do understand your point of view and why it’s a dick move. Although I don’t quite like the supermarket analogy. I don’t think Nike destroyed it’s smaller competitors. I guess I just haven’t been snowboarding long enough to understand this whole thing.
I don’t think Nike destroyed it’s smaller competitors. I guess I just haven’t been snowboarding long enough to understand this whole thing.
They would’ve. It’s about market share; It’s all “simple” business economics:
For Nike to come in and take a large market share means there others have to give their part of it up.
In most cases large brands with a strong marketing that has cemented themselves in the industry will lose only a slight market share. For the other smaller companies, especially those that are in the process of expanding, usually it means they lose alot more, due to the fact that they’ve had to spend more money to expand past their core group with brand loyalty, then all of a sudden the people that may have considered buying their gear, looks at Nike and goes.. oh wow.. Nike! well I think I’ll get theirs instead I LOOOOVE the swoosh.
Now, this may be 1%, 2%, or even 5% market share, but in terms of a small company who took a loan out to ensure that their products are distributed in say, Australia or Japan or Europe, it means that what they’ve accounted for in terms of income coming in is all up in the air, all bets are off, because Nike as a giant budget to market with and there is cross brand loyalty from the casual boarder who plays football, jog, etc etc and wear the swoosh. Also for all you know this can mean the 2% market share of the industry = 60% of company income, for a very small company.
Now it might not look like it now, but the problem happens down the track when they’ve got to pay their debtors and they’ve got alot less $$$ coming in. Obviously no one wants their company to go broke, so they have to react somehow, either by reducing their expansion dropping reps/staff and going back to their core riders, or they can do a hail mary and hope that they are able to meet the bare minimum return to keep floating until they can regroup their marketing or their creditors close their account until the debt is paid.
Hope this helps.
Would you rather give your money to Jeremy Jones or some wanker in a suit who’s never snowboarded a day in his life and only cares about money?
If Jones makes bad product, I’d rather give my money to a wanker who makes good product. If both makes good product, of course I’d rather give my money to Jones (assuming I like his products).
But I do understand your point of view and why it’s a dick move. Although I don’t quite like the supermarket analogy. I don’t think Nike destroyed it’s smaller competitors. I guess I just haven’t been snowboarding long enough to understand this whole thing.
But there are a lot of legit companies making great products. I also wouldn’t buy form a core brand if they make crappy product. I completely agree with you on that. Product quality says a lot about how much passion and dedication they put into their brand. There are a lot of awesome brands/products out there that also satisfy my need to support the right brands.
@grunge: Ah ok I get it. My impression is that the main competitors for Nike are Burton and Salomon, maybe 32 (I’m talking about boots here, because that’s where their main focus is) that’s why I said they’re not really doing any major harm to other companies. I’m actually more disappointed when Burton drops the Uninc riders and Forum vs Nike dropping out of snowboarding.
@rider26:
But there are a lot of legit companies making great products.
I completely agree with you on that. I think I need to rephrase my sentence. I meant that I would only buy products that I like. Sure, they may be other snowboarding/core companies that make great products but if a “wanker” (for the lack of better term) company makes the same good product that I like more (key word here is like), I would still buy that product vs the core company’s product. This is true for me not just in snowboarding, but basically on everything I buy. I’ll be honest, I care very little on who I “support”, probably the main reason I don’t get this whole debacle. If you want me to buy your products and support you, you better make something I like and will buy.
But yeah, I totally understand your point of view.
@grunge: Ah ok I get it. My impression is that the main competitors for Nike are Burton and Salomon, maybe 32 (I’m talking about boots here, because that’s where their main focus is) that’s why I said they’re not really doing any major harm to other companies. I’m actually more disappointed when Burton drops the Uninc riders and Forum vs Nike dropping out of snowboarding.
@rider26:
But there are a lot of legit companies making great products.
I completely agree with you on that. I think I need to rephrase my sentence. I meant that I would only buy products that I like. Sure, they may be other snowboarding/core companies that make great products but if a “wanker” (for the lack of better term) company makes the same good product that I like more (key word here is like), I would still buy that product vs the core company’s product. This is true for me not just in snowboarding, but basically on everything I buy. I’ll be honest, I care very little on who I “support”, probably the main reason I don’t get this whole debacle. If you want me to buy your products and support you, you better make something I like and will buy.
But yeah, I totally understand your point of view.
Problem is that a lot of us (me included) purchased product off this wanker company, because we liked it!!!!!
Also thinking (albeit naively) that they were going to hang around and look after the industry and it’s customers!!!!! (See Lanox’s posts about his customer service issues)
They’re like the supermarket that setup, took away smaller businesses livelihoods, displaced a lot of people in sales and manufacturing, and then did it once again, and all because they saw some numbers on a profit/loss statement that they didn’t like as much as their other entities!!!!!
They virtually said to me (and a whole heap of others), “Fuck You”!!!!!
That’s not a thing that should be encouraged anywhere, anytime!!!!! No matter what industry!!!!!
And there’s a hell of a lot more Boot Makers out there than that, skip!!!!!
The big names like Burton could weather the storm, but its the smaller guys that it really impacts!!!!!
yep TBH I see this as my best opportunity to get myself some kick ass boots while every shop is trying to get rid of them on sale. haha
And there’s a hell of a lot more Boot Makers out there than that, skip!!!!!
What other main boot companies? Deeluxe and Vans?
^ More…. I’ll list a few off the top of my head, maybe we should have a list, so people know what alternatives they can look at.
Don’t forget that usually only ones with enough money will get marketing and distribution down under, there are heaps more brands smaller and big.
Deeluxe
Vans (altho’ they’re not doing this season due to production issues.)
Celsius
K2
Salomon
Burton
Northwave
32
Yonex
Nitro
DC
Ride
Rome SDS
Flow
5150
Morrow
Lamar
M3
Sapient