At SIA, we stopped in for a chat with Brian Cook, Global Brand Director for ThirtyTwo. ThirtyTwo makes boots and outerwear and is owned by Sole Technology.
We talked to Brian about ThirtyTwo’s growth figures for last season, what’s new with outerwear and boots, and how orders are coming in for the upcoming season.
Last year, ThirtyTwo sales grew 25% from 2010.
So how are things?
Last season went really well.We just finished Boot Camp in Salt Lake City at Brighton and we had our 10-year anniversary of Boot Camp. At Boot Camp, we bring retailers from the U.S. and Canada out for a full, expense-paid trip. It’s our own miniature tradeshow. This year, we brought out 90 accounts.
What are you hearing from retailers? In my Super Shuttle from the airport, there were some retailers talking about how terrible the season was, that they were coming to SIA only to meet with credit managers. There was one from Georgia, one from the Northeast.
The ThirtyTwo crew at SIANot so much with us. The good thing is with ThirtyTwo, we’ve had great sell through. Our retailers are pretty solvent – they’ve made it through the recession and tough times already.
Coming out of Boot Camp before meeting with them here, they were talking about other brands that they’re dropping and that they’re going to maintain with us.
Do you think they will increase orders with ThirtyTwo or after this season, keep it steady?
I think some will grow, and I think some will maintain, and some might have taken on too much inventory from other brands that they have to sell through. And we’re okay with that. We want people trained on what they can sell, and we want realistic partners.
See Page 2 for details about new products this season
Tell me about this coming season.
We just got Scott Stevens on outerwear. That’s a big deal to us. He’s a really creative, really good snowboarder from Massachusetts. He has the East Coast heritage where a lot of the kids really want to be him. He is somebody that we feel could be a real marquee team player with ThirtyTwo.
Joe Sexton’s new boot, The MavenWe also signed Chris Bradshaw, a Southern California based rider, and he pretty much owns our backyard in Big Bear, and was the natural choice to build the outerwear program in Big Bear. He has a huge influence, again, style, personality, great snowboarder, and he’s the lifestyle.
What’s exciting this season? Is something expanding? What are you going for?
The two things are a big push in outerwear with the additions of Chris and Scott. And then boot-wise we have Joe Sexton with a brand new boot, The Maven, and then we have the new JP Walker Light.
JP wanted a really lightweight boot that was really functional. He’s been wearing them for the last month or two now, and he’s like, ‘I cannot believe how good these things drive right out of the box.’
The JP Walker LightEveryone that we got in these boots at the Boot Camp said they’re really responsive, they’re really comfortable, and they fit perfect right out of the box.
Joe’s boot has a different look that goes with his style.
As you can see style-wise, JP wears more baggy styles or bigger logos. Joe’s more toned down.
And kind of more street wear, right?
Joe Sexton’s snowboard pant, Kermit, comes with STI Repel TechnologySo you can see how Joe’s new boot flows really well with the boot and the pant. So this is something that we actually shaved down the liner so it fits more with the slimmer pant.
With outerwear, is the line growing or the number of SKUs growing?
We’ve actually pulled back. We’ve narrowed the focus. We’re focusing on what’s working, what’s selling and what our retailers want.
We’ve seen about 75 percent of our accounts, and so far the new line has been received really well received. They like our colors, they’re very on point, our prices are very compatible with everyone else. The outerwear line has everything you need and nothing you don’t. So we feel it’s going be another good year.
