Known for their longboards and cruiser boards, GoldCoast Skateboards credits its focus on design and custom components for its growth in a challenging market.
We spoke with Nate Coan, Co-Founder and CEO of the Salt Lake City-based GoldCoast Skateboards, to learn more about what differentiates the company’s product in the market and what the future holds for the brand.
We also checked with Cary Allington of ActionWatch to see how the brand is performing in core stores and to see how it compares in size to more established players.
Cary said GoldCoast is having one of the largest year-over-year sales increases so far this year in the “Long Completes” class – decks that are 34 inches or longer.
While the brand is growing, its market share and distribution penetration is still quite small compared to Sector 9, Globe and a few other brands, according to ActionWatch.
GoldCoast is managing to grow sales, however, at a time when longboards overall are struggling. Sales of long completes are down 16% so far this year compared to the same time period last year, Cary said.
Can you give us a bit of background on GoldCoast Skateboards?
Nate Coan: GoldCoast Skateboards was launched in 2009 when we recognized a big need for some diversity in the longboard and cruiser board market. The category was being underserviced by the existing brands, plus they all looked the same. So the thought was, we could be a counterpoint to the brands that were dominating the market.
Dustin Ortiz was the Senior Designer at Nixon and he had just taken a sabbatical to snowboard for the winter. While on his way to Idaho from California he stopped in Salt Lake to ride, and we started talking about the idea on the lift at Brighton. He was super into the challenge of shaking things up in that space, so he dedicated some of his sabbatical to designing the brand and the first collection.
Brock Harris was getting a private label skateboard business off the ground after an injury put an end to his pro snowboarding career. He had the connections to get the product made, and the product development knowledge to make sure that the factories were up to our standards.
Chris Brunstetter had helped me establish Coan Enterprises, a sales and marketing agency that is still representing great brands, and was looking to do more at the brand level in marketing and sales.
My experience in building Coan Enterprises and working with category-leading brands like Nixon and Nike gave me the confidence that we could contribute a lot to this space, and make a great business at the same time.
How many doors are you in and what type of accounts? Any international distribution?
Nate Coan: GoldCoast is in 1,600 doors globally, our U.S. and Canada business is the biggest part of that.
We are preparing for substantial growth in Europe by creating a GoldCoast Europe subsidiary that will handle all the assembly and shipping for the EU market. It’s our way of showing the shops and distributors in Europe that we are committed to that region and seeing the category grow.
We have similar plans for South America and Asia, as it’s crucial to support the regions where you are selling.
The skate market is challenging right now, especially for longboards. Why is GoldCoast doing well? How is your product different?
Nate Coan: The market is going through a consolidation period, and retail is changing dramatically. GoldCoast is doing well because we have built a strong brand based on great design, quality product, and innovative marketing that appeals to a wide range of customers.
GoldCoast has always been about good design and that is reflected in everything we make. It’s the first thing you see when looking at a product, and we strive to really surprise people when they are in the skate section of one of our retailers.
What are the features and retail price of your boards?
Nate Coan: We engineer our components from the ground up, so when you buy a GoldCoast board, you’re getting a totally custom-designed product that was built with the highest level of precision.
We cold press all of our decks, our trucks are all gravity cast, and our wheels use ultra high rebound urethane to deliver a ride that feels like yours, not like the lowest common denominator.
Retail prices range from $110 for cruisers up to $250 for our downhill freeride completes.
Any particular models that are best-sellers?
Nate Coan: The Infinitas Drop Through, The Classic Bamboo Pintail and the Salvo Cruiser are our best sellers in each category.
Like I said, people love good, clean design and strong branding whether they’re aware of it or not.
