Please join SDSI as we pick the incredible brain of Jeff Harbaugh and learn from his thoughts on where the Sport and Active Lifestyle Industry stands, where it is heading, and what companies should do to best reach their end user.
Jeff will touch on many topics including the impact of millennials, distribution strategies, being reactive to your customers, and a broader look at the market(s).
This event is prioritized and free as a benefit for the SDSI membership. If you cannot attend and would like to send a proxy from your company instead, please just let us know who that designee is. Let us know if you have any questions. RSVP to nick@sdsportinnovators.com.
About Jeff Harbaugh 
Jeff has been active in the action sports, outdoor and youth culture industries since 1991 as a manager, consultant, analyst and investor. He received his MBA in finance and international business from the Wharton School and spent some years in international banking, corporate development, consulting and turnaround management. In 1991, he walked into Nitro Snowboard’s U.S. distributor in a three piece suit. The suit lasted about a day and a half.
As Nitro’s President, Jeff helped to rationalize the company, raise some capital and ultimately sell it. In the process, he wrote an article for Transworld Snowboarding Business. That article evolved into the well-received Market Watch column that has run continuously since 1995.
As a consultant working with industry companies with issues of transition, an analyst, and an observer of industry trends Jeff has kept retailers and brands ahead of the curve so that they could make inevitable industry evolution work for them.
At the peak of the snowboarding industry in the mid-90s, he explained what the trends in the industry would be as it matured and consolidated.
In 2002, he warned the skateboard industry that decks from China were happening and would fundamentally change the industry.
As early as 2004, he was recommending that retailers focus on inventory turn and gross margin dollars rather than sales growth and gross margin percentage.
In 2008, he warned that the debt caused recession was going to impact the industry for a long time, and that the large sales increases the industry had become used to were going to be hard to achieve. He suggested that growth in profitability would require a focus on expense management, and inventory and distribution.
By 2010 he was highlighting the relationship between good systems and successful brand positioning and management. He sees inventory management and distribution as critical to brand building.
Around 2012 he started suggesting that an industry with limited product differentiation would be a hard place for public companies that require regular quarterly revenue growth to compete. Learn more here.
