Black Box Distribution Partners With Insight On Sales And Distribution in U.S.

josh hunter

• July 16 2009
• 12 comments

Insight U.S. President Jesse Faen with Black Box Founder Jamie Thomas.

After months of whispers and rumors of Insight making a strategic business alliance to strengthen its position in the U.S. market, yesterday the ink dried on a deal between the Australian-born apparel brand and Carlsbad, California-based Black Box Distribution. In a meeting late yesterday afternoon, Black Box Founder Jamie Thomas, CEO Frank Messman, and Insight’s President in the U.S. Jesse Faen sat down with TransWorld Business to discuss the details of the partnership.

“The connection was first made because I had been interested in Insight on a personal level for some time,” Messman explains. “When I first heard that Insight was potentially looking to come up with some sort of different model in the U.S. I suggested to Jamie [Thomas] that it could be a good diversification for Black Box. It’s a core brand with core values. It’s not primarily focused on skate, so he had to have an open mind a little.”

After several months of discussions it was decided that Black Box would take over sales and distribution of Insight apparel and accessories in the U.S. from its Carlsbad offices, while Insight would continue to develop product and marketing from its offices in Los Angeles.

“There are so many things that make the relationship complimentary that it far outweighs the fact that our other businesses are 100-percent skate,” says Jamie Thomas. “Insight has a skate aspect, but has other aspects as well. That added to the complimentary nature of the businesses though because there’s very little to no cannibalism of sales. So it’s totally complimentary.”

From Insight’s point of view the partnership is complimentary as well. President Jesse Faen says the brand will benefit from the advanced back-end infrastructure Black Box has to offer, as well as allow both parties to leverage  the other’s strengths across sales territories. “From Insight’s point of view, we came to the US four years ago and it’s been a crazy journey from where we started and where we’ve gotten to,” Faen says. “Obviously times are tight, and we’ve been on the look out for ways to do better. So getting interest from people like Jamie and Black Box, with its whole infrastructure is nothing but a compliment to what we’ve already succeeded in doing. We’re just trying to figure out how to grow this brand to its full potential. As soon as the dialogue opened up, from first meting Jamie and I kind of came from different backgrounds but have lived sort of parallel lives on different fronts—obviously him being skate and me being surf. From that moment it was clear that our visions were similar and it’s been a matter of figuring out how we can utilize the benefits we have from each side.”

Both parties say that they will be looking for ways to improve efficiencies as the transition takes place, but according to Messman there are no plans to make immediate changes to any personnel or sales force.

“At first it’s going to be primarily a distribution arrangement, meaning we’ll take Insight products that have been developed in Australia and distribute them as best we can in the U.S.,” Messman explains. “The goal is to utilize the best of both worlds. We have a strong existing rep force and we’re not going to change anything that’s working. Obviously Black Box feels the same. We have holes in territories where we don’t have reps, so we’ll try to fill those gaps, but this is just happening and we’re going to try and make sure to make things as strong as possible moving forward.The very key territories are well served already, but there are areas where Insight doesn’t have reps yet. That will all sort of sort itself out over the coming seasons. We’re not in any rush to make any changes. There are going to be opportunities to leverage things both ways. Insight sales employees will become Black box employees, but Black box employees for Insight.”

Thomas says that Insight’s unique market position and brand identity make it a perfect fit for Black Box, and that he’s excited about the new partnership. “My personal opinion is that Insight is a rad brand, and I think that’s what matters most,” Thomas says. “Approaching this from a pure skate point of view, it’s basically like asking ‘what’s the heart of this brand?’ And when I get down to the heart of the brand, it’s the raw elements and passion behind what it is more so than what category it supports most, whether it be surf, skate, or fashion. It’s so original and raw that I find it inspiring.”