The RT Series
Contact Info:
http://www.monumentsnowboards.com
202.630.SNOW
dave@monumentsnowboards.com
Questions answered by co-owner/founder Dave Tran:
What are the biggest trends shaping the hardgoods market for next year?
The biggest comeback is boards with regular camber.
What is the greatest change affecting your brand since last season?
With the popularity of reverse camber, double camber; we are bypassing triple camber and working on quadruple camber. The most revolutionary product we are working now is a quadruple camber splitboard with baseless rotatable step-in bindings with suspension donuts.
Our freestyle boards are what we are known for, and folks don’t know this but our freeride line is pretty strong. Our engineer has been making and designing boards since 1987 and we pride ourselves on how the boards ride. However, we aren’t adding products to the line we haven’t completely tested yet just because it’s a fad for the next year or so. At the end of the day, we make snowboards that ride well with phenomenal manufacturing and product quality.
How has the market evolved over the last year and how do you see things changing in the years ahead?
Unfortunately we have noticed a lot of suicide-pricing to compete in the market place the last few years. We don’t do the volume and we are feeling the pinch to compete on price. As a brand, we feel like we are competing correctly in the marketplace. Our boards are priced accordingly and our Memento Mori series’ performance and quality has been compared to boards that cost twice as much. Our factory is a boutique factory; they don’t mass produce boards. They pride themselves on quality, provide a majority of Japan’s top core brands, and we have been working with R+D to come up with new offerings. In addition to the crazy pricing, there’s irresponsible buying.
Irresponsible buying by certain companies or making a “special” product for a company to sell is killing everyone. There is nothing we can do about it other than putting out the product that we do. I believe in having online sales but building products Costco style to flood the market and selling products at cost two months after the season is done by certain retailers because of irresponsible buying; is affecting the marketplace. It’s detrimental to the core shops that are so important to the industry because consumers will expect the cheap stuff every single time.
Apparently companies are selling products to shops, and then turning around selling the same products for cheaper with a slight modification to other shops. Eventually there will be no shops to sell anything because everyone will be buying the cheaper stuff online if this keeps up. Then no one will be around to show consumers how to properly tune or mount their boards, or give proper service, but then again, maybe that will be done all online as well. This is a really scary thought.
How has sales forecasting changed for your company?
It hasn’t. We use a monkey and a spinning dartboard.
What lessons have you learned with bookings and production for this season and how will you apply those to next?
We’ve learned to move up our order deadlines. When the biggest company in the industry has their deadline two to three weeks before the SIA show, it doesn’t leave much money for the smaller core brands like us. It’s a little dirty and we get it. We have to get to shops earlier to show that we have a competitive product and pricing in the marketplace.
How are you working with retailers to help ensure strong margins, the right amount of product in the marketplace, and terms that set them up for success?
We cater to the region and market accordingly. It’s a partnership that makes sense; they want to push our product. We want them to push out our product. Having a buyer tell us he wants to purchase ten 165cm decks in the Virginia market where park riding is prevalent is an instance where we had to put our foot down and tell him no. They ended up putting an order that made a tad bit more sense than the 165cm request but the boards didn’t sell well because the market there was for 151cm and 153cm park decks. The manager told the buyers to not order from us this year because of their odd order last year by their last buyer and they sat on boards that didn’t fit their market.
The new buyers bypassed the manager and put in an order with us anyways because they loved what we had to offer in addition to working with them with the proper product orders.
How large are your lines going to be compared to years past? Have you seen customers confused by too many different stories?
We are bringing back the Loveless series and adding another line. It’s a sign of growth which is great for us. Our line isn’t confusing and customers love us for it.
With the shifting landscape of production abroad, are you reevaluating where you produce your hardgoods? If so, why?
We had a bad experience with the factory in the States here which is why we went abroad. Then we had a bad experience with the interim factory overseas, and luckily we partnered up with a boutique factory shortly after that with the experience and facilities to put out excellent product. The illusion of kids making boards overseas is a stereotype that gets perpetuated and our boards are handmade by adults (that get to take week long holidays whenever they arise). No one seems to be complaining about the big companies where boards are mostly machine made through a conveyor belt.
We make our own cores. We don’t buy premade planks and cut them out. I’ve walked through the factory and have seen the room where each strip is glued together to comprise the cores used and into the hot room where the cores cure. I’ve seen the sewing machine used to stitch materials together for pre-press. I was there when they were adding another CNC machine to the factory to help with production. Our boards are handmade by professionals who take pride in their work as much as we take pride in ours.
Our engineer has been making boards since 1987 in the States and lives near the factory year round. We are more than happy with the relationship we have with our factory that doesn’t treat our boards as a commodity.
What opportunities do you see for growing hardgoods sales? Please explain. (Are you increasing your focus on kids, women, core retailers, chains, rental sales, internet sales, entry-level products, splitboards, etc.?)
We are expanding our women’s specific line and adding more powder boards to the line.
What do you anticipate prices doing next season?
We are keeping our products competitive without dealing with the suicide pricing. Our goal is to solidify our brand with competitive pricing and quality product without trying to compete for the lowest common denominator, which is bottom of the barrel pricing.
Are you taking any steps to minimize your environmental impact? If so, what are some of these steps?
We have been using bamboo for years as part of the core and sidewalls. There are other processes like direct printing we are looking at to reduce additional materials. We use materials close to our source to reduce our footprint, and recycle whatever leftover materials we can at the factory.
What does your company hope to contribute to snowboarding? We hope to give back to snowboarding what it gave us. Snowboarding has provided a family, a way of life for a lot of us. For us to continue to do so in a way where people believe in our product/brand in addition to providing a means for them to enjoy the sport means a lot to us.
What are the biggest forces shaping the changes and developments you’ve made to your boards? Quadruple camber is really hard but we’ve nearly perfected it. We’re going to call it Bacon Camber.
To what degree are you emphasizing camber shape in your lineup? We’ve stuck with regular camber, added some reverse shapes, and added a Park Camber for this season. Next season our quadruple Bacon camber will revolutionize the industry.
Are you cooking up any new materials or construction techniques? We have been dabbling with a few new construction techniques but that is still under R+D.
What themes are you seeing for graphics? That is up to our artists. We are the anti-brand and the MNMNT Artist Network contains an impressive list of international artists. Our theme will be as it has been the last few years, and that is transform our snowboards into pieces of art that you can actually put on your wall.
