Behind The Scenes: Transworld Business Visits Nidecker’s Swiss Factory
mike lewis
- May 16 2008
- 8,236 views
- 15 comments
Brand & Marketing Director Robert Etienne, Henry, and Henri Nidecker.
Located in Rolle, Switzerland, Nidecker’s factory sits on the north shore of Lake Geneva. Surrounded by vineyards and an incredible view of the lake and Alps, the setting seems more suited to a resort than a factory. Transworld Business recently had the opportunity to take a tour of the Rolle facility and spend the afternoon with two generations of Nideckers and the company’s brand & marketing director.
Henri Nidecker founded the company that bears his name in 1887 to build cartwheels, ladders, and wheelbarrows. In 1912 they began making skis, and the first snowboards rolled off the line in ‘84. Over the last quarter century, the company has shifted its focus primarily to snowboards and wood core kite boards. This fifth generation, family-owned enterprise is arguably the oldest privately owned company in the snowboard game, and they’re working to capitalize on this heritage to spread the word about their high-end, hand-crafted rides.
The Rolle factory, which employs approximately 25 people, is primarily used for design functions and limited runs (200 – 1,500) of high-end boards. New designs are built here and tested in the nearby Alps, such as Chamonix, located an hour away. This is the home for the production of “welded wood” cores, a process that bonds vertically laminated wood layers without any adhesives that won Nidecker the Euro SIMA snowboard innovation award a few months ago. The Rolle factory also specializes in small luxury collaborations with brands such as Chanel, Swarovski, Lacroix, MTV Europe, and Ford.
Who said snowboarding’s fashion status is slipping in Europe? That’s a Chanel board hot off one of Nidecker’s seven presses.
Larger runs for brands such as Salomon and the majority of the Nidecker branded boards are made in the company’s Tunisian factory, which is a short plane ride away and employs between 70 and 130 people depending on the season. Nidecker opted for the North African locale more than 10 years ago due to its proximity to the European market, French speaking populace, high quality standards, stable economy, and low labor costs. With the ill will and substantial cost increases in the far East, it is becoming a safe and economic alternative to Chinese production.
Henry Nidecker, the fifth person of this name leading the charge there since the company’s founding, but the first one not spelled Henri, is working to breathe fresh air into the company from a marketing standpoint. “My father is a carpenter and doesn’t like to think about marketing,” says 21-year-old Henry who quit a lucrative position as an Internet consultant for Microsoft to take up the reigns on Nidecker’s new freestyle line, NDK. “It has always been product before marketing - but we need to take our technology and sell that with strong marketing.”
Brand & Marketing Director Robert Etienne couldn’t agree more. As the company makes a renewed push to grow its share of the US pie, Etienne says they “need to stay focused on quality and building boards that make riding even more intense and exciting, but we are working to build a buzz around the brand through better marketing and product positioning.”
“Nidecker sells well and the bindings actually do well for us too,” says Backcountry.com Merchandising Division Manager for Snowboards Matt Enloe, whose company began carrying the brand in 2005. Enloe describes the typical Nidecker buyer as “someone who’s been snowboarding for a very long time and is in that higher disposal income range now and really understands high quality craftsmanship. He’s buying a Nidecker because he knows that it’s one of the best made snowboards out there and is willing to spend six to nine hundred dollars on a snowboard and know that he’s going to get his money’s worth. That customer knows what they’re looking for and goes right to it. The Mega Light and the Ultra Light are probably our best sellers. Nidecker’s tried to go into the freestyle end, but they’re not really known for that.”
The Rolle Castle, built in 1726 to protect trade routes, sits down the street from Nidecker and keeps the company and the local skate park safe.
Etienne means to change that while not losing sight of the company’s roots. A Chicago native and grandson of a US congressman, Etienne opened his first boardsports store in Geneva in 1980. Armed with a vision of bringing the California skate culture to the land of neutrality, Etienne went to ASR in ’85 and returned with more gear than he could afford. Fortunately, his dream caught on and product began moving like wildfire. Etienne parlayed his retail connections into a distribution role for US companies such as Special Blend, Dragon, and Morrow with DAC Sport, where he spent the last 14 years. More recently, Etienne helped ROME get established in Europe, before Nidecker approached him in the summer of ‘07 with a proposal to come on board and help reinvigorate the brand with a new generation of riders and management.
“Nidecker is really strong in the freeride category,” says Etienne, but the company has struggled in other areas such as freestyle, where its last incarnation, “Donuts,” didn’t fly. However, you don’t last this long in any industry without learning some tough lessons and building upon them. Nidecker is incorporating this education in its marketing strategy and focusing on spreading the word about the brand’s Swiss quality and NDK through solid international and US teams as well as Ogden, Utah-based Altos Distribution.
Etienne hanging out with the Forever Young designed NDK Advanced.
They’re also sprucing up their graphics on the NDK front. In addition to its artist collaborations with Pulp 68’s legendary JMZ, Etienne brought in a group of three, young artists, known as Forever Young, to help design next year’s line .The graphics are a huge departure from most of Nidecker’s traditional offerings, and the company’s really excited after the feedback they’ve received about the boards and the live art piece Forever Young did for Nidecker’s booth at this winter’s ispo.
Nidecker’s 2008 ispo booth is a good representation of the brand’s European strength.
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May 16th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Enjoyed your article; it’s a good representation of a company doing many things right and staying true to its calling. I’m a swiss native and have been riding in the alps since 1983 - Nidecker have been around since I can remember, always with quality products. They are definitely under-rated and it would be heart warming to see a no-nonsense organization reap what they deserve. Let’s hope their acquisition of Etienne will help turn the tide… “Hop Suisse”!!!
May 18th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Etienne is one of amazing person in our industry.
Not only in Switzerland but in Europe (and the world!)
Etienne+Nidecker for sure a good recipe!
Viva la suisse.
la miette
May 19th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Thank’s Michael and “la miette” for the positive comments, It’s a great new start for Nidecker, we have a good team in place and many positive things are happening in the Swiss Alps !
and thanks a lot Mike of Transworld for the visit, for helping us to share our vision and passion for snowboarding.
Henry Nidecker
May 19th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
yeaaaaa
May 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
http://www.snowrev.com FOR LIFE
May 20th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I have known Robert for many years and I am confident he will ROCK Nidecker.
I look forward to see what comes out of his passion and radical creative Ideas.
Press on!
Spir
for the group Fuse-Factory
May 20th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Great to see Rob involved in a such famous company as Nidecker !
all the best to your team …
mio*star
May 20th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I?ve know the “Bobby” Etienne for about 28 years now….back in the days of “when in all started…” In fact it was through Etienne’s first business that my Bros & I made the crucial contacts to purchased our first materials to shape & build our first snowboards…which back then, resemble more to a surfboard than it did to today’s idea of a snowboard….I have always thought throughout my travels and my passion for the sport, that there always been a lot of Soul in Snowboarding, particularly into freeridding, and therefore there is a lot to be said to have one of the better Soul I know to lead the way to what one may call…
“The Snowboard Renaissance”!
Keep on Surfing the elements….
Wengy
May 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I have had the privilege of working both with Rob and against him and I know he will be a most valued asset to the Nidecker team! Both experiences were a pleasure as he is hard and fair.
Nidecker is a great brand and now, with Rob on board, has another great reason to be successful globally so don’t forget(or blame) Canada!!
Authenticity is now!
Good luck.
Cheers
Micky
May 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
sick shit, but why did you drop the amercan team???? i was told we were gonna get it rolling hard this season then I got a call from donny saying no budget for a team. And u guys always make board graphics that look like other popular boards and you can chek the facts to back me up, Look at the advanced from two years ago… it looks just like the old shaun white with the rabbit. and that board with the pencil drawings on a white background…. .that looks just like bennees model from saloman that Doman did… i will be showing him that pic to see if he thinks the same….. and yall say nideckers dope??????????? god bless america.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Mr Etienne, quelle popularité
May 26th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Nidecker is definitely a great brand with a rare history.
I had the opportunity to get my hands on an Ultralight this winter and I was blown away by this board. I haven’t been riding Nidecker for a long time and the Ultralight was so much lighter, so much more responsive than all the boards I own. It had amazing edge to edge control (even being an XL) and massive confidence at high speeds. We even had 1/2 foot of powder and it cruised with incredible ease. In short congratulation, this board is so awesome !!
You can be sure that I?ll share the stoke here in Oregon. It reminded me how happy I was when I got my first Snowboard back in the day… a Nidecker Gun.
Rob and Henry, Keep up the good work and bring these boards to the US !!!!
Cheers
Bas
July 11th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I have been following the US and european action sports scene for almost 15 years and Nidecker products has always been great. They really deserve more international recognition and I am sure that Robert Etienne is the guy who will push them at a higher level.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I have always thought Nidecker to be a tech brand. Instead of a lot of marketing hype they have focused on the functionality of their boards and bindings. The people that I know that have ridden on or for Nidecker have had nothing but good things to say about them.
This is a solid company holding true to its roots in presenting the market with solid, well built - high quality products. I hope and wish that the grow their presence in the US and Canada as they are one of the few brands now that have their own premium production facility. Now that Option is no longer pressing it’s own boards for it’s brand or any other brands out of Vancouver, that leaves very few independent companies out there that have their own factory to use as part of their brand story. Companies like Nidecker, Unity, Never Summer really have a position advantage by having their own factories - they can control their production, quality and design - this is a great thing.
I look forward to hearing and hopefully seeing more companies like Nidecker do well.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Rob is one of the best entrepreneurs I have had the pleasure of meeting.
I first met him 25 years ago,and his enthusiasm is infectious.
Good luck with this project,and say hi to Louise and the kids!
Mark