9/5/2023 0 Comments Buy element skateboards“Everyone’s optimistic and hopeful that the market’s going to make a change between March/April 2024,” Woodall said. Ultimately, Woodall sees the industry and Carver being able to push through the challenges and get inventory under control by the first half of next year. So, this down trend is the flip side of the market conditions created by the pandemic and maybe it was a situation where the fuse was burning at both ends, but nobody saw it coming.” “It was a combination of a pandemic that was driving such high demand that it wasn’t sustainable. It was like nothing in our lifetimes that we’ve been through,” Woodall said. “This (downturn) was unique because it was pandemic driven. He’s been through several, so the how-to of climbing out of softening market conditions isn’t necessarily new for him and many others. That’s hit places such as Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.Ĭoupled with the broader softening in skate hardgoods, it’s just another down cycle the industry is now working through, Woodall said. “So, the European buying power is less than it was.” “Ultimately, the international business is suffering from inflation and, in some areas, you have diminished currency exchange rates,” Woodall said. Overseas, Carver’s business has been choppy for various reasons. “We’re gathering data so we can effectively strike somewhere where it makes sense.”įrom the Carver x Channel Islands Surfboards collaboration. “We’re starting to see traction between snowboarders and Carver,” he said. The move into snow is described as still in its infancy, but there’s increased activity in mountain resort towns for Carver, according to Woodall. “It’s a slow drip, but its gaining ground and we’re able to onboard new accounts monthly if not weekly to bring surfskate to areas that aren’t predominantly coastal,” Woodall said of the sales team’s progress. States such as Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and Ohio are all seeing traction, along with the broader Midwest. The company’s observed meet-up groups for various board sports pop up in the Great Lakes region, which is where the company’s positioned a new sales rep. There’s also potential in less traditional surfing groups, including river surfing and stand-up paddle boarding in non-coastal markets. And, Woodall said, the collaboration with Venice-based female-founded skate collective GRLSWIRL is further fueling that growth.Įlsewhere, as more wave pool projects currently in the development pipeline come online, they represent another major initiative Carver sees as a growth play for the brand. That segment continues to gain ground for Carver. Women’s is a group that had been steadily growing pre-pandemic, corresponding with what’s happening more broadly in pro-surfing for women. “As much as Carver is a surf trainer and skateboard, it’s also a lifestyle just to invite more people into the space from different areas and different demographics,” Woodall said. Seizing OpportunitiesĮven with the current headwinds, the company sees several avenues for growth. That includes interesting collaborations, such as the previously mentioned work with Maje.Ĭarver Ambassador Taylor Arroway. So, it’s just been an effort to right-size the market, working with our distributors to balance our inventory, which in turn has created a higher volume of marketing all around the world for Carver’s distributors.” “A lot of skate companies got stuck with a lot of inventory. “We just traded the pandemic for a war and global inflation and it all came to a grinding halt that caught everyone off guard,” said Carver Vice President of Sales Eben Woodall. Now, it’s ramped up more marketing efforts, in the way of collaborations and events, to help push product. It’s a different scenario from the one Carver found itself in in 2020 and much of 2021, when it couldn’t produce boards fast enough to keep up with pandemic-induced demand, coupled with a trajectory that began well before COVID. That momentum’s being complemented by a raft of events, including demo days, surf contests, the X-Games inauguration day, Ride Together Surfskate Jam tour (a recent one was held this month at Wave Rave in Torrance), and the GRLSWIRL Swirl Fest 2023 coming up Aug. That deal in particular made sense with women’s being one of the largest-growing demographics for Carver, in addition to kids and non-surfers. Take the collaboration with Parisian women’s ready-to-wear brand Maje initiated by a French distributor and used for social media giveaways. By Kari Hamanaka | Published Jul 17, 2023Ĭarver Skateboards, based in Gardena, California, has been clawing its way out of the market about-face that began early last year, firing up marketing that’s helped it reach well beyond the core as it rides out a hardgoods downturn.
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