mike lewis

• Features

Quiksilver and VF Stocks Jump On Rumors of DC Deal

Citi group retierated a buy recommendation on Quiksilver (ZQK) saying “VFC may be close to acquiring skate brand DC Shoes from Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK), according to WWD reports on Friday.

mike lewis

• January 26 2009 | 1,886 views | 10 comments

• Features

YES Snowboards Launches At SIA

YES, the rumors are true. David Carrier-Porcheron, Romain de Marchi, and JP Solberg are starting a new snowboard brand. YES they will be available at SIA and YES they have landed on a name. YES.

mike lewis

• January 23 2009 | 7,849 views | 23 comments

• Features

ThirtyTwo Boot Camp

Every year ThirtyTwo invites a select crew of retail accounts to the mountains for the ultimate sales clinic, Boot Camp, which allows retailers to not only learn about the product, but test it out with the people who made it, provide feedback, and get away from it all for a four day working vacation.

mike lewis

• January 22 2009 | 592 views | 7 comments

• Features

686 & New Balance Partner On Boot/Outerwear Line

686 and New Balance are debuting the line at SIA. We sat down with both crews to get their take on making a successful category crossover collaboration.

mike lewis

• January 21 2009 | 1,177 views | 5 comments

• News

Global Ski Resorts Post Strong Holiday Numbers

Photo: Liam Gallagher

Despite all the gloomy economic news bombarding them daily, strong snow falls and epic deals have been bringing out skiers and riders around the world en masse and many resorts cleared the holiday hurdle with flying colors.

While Vail Resorts has announced that numbers are down, a number of other industry organizations such as CSCUSA are reporting strong numbers. SkiRebel, an Ontario based ski magazine, compiled the following stats on the global market:

Excellent business over the holiday period has been reported in Andorra, Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and even by some resorts in the world’s most gloomy economy – the US.
In France some resorts claimed business was up 30% on a still quite healthy Christmas/New Year 2008/9 whilst the largest operator in the world, the Compagnie des Alpes, said before Christmas that its advance bookings had already put it 2.5% up on sale on the previous year at that point.
In New Hampshire, USA, Jiminy Peak reported that skier visits since mid-December were nearly 71, up 4 percent from last year and a record start for the year whilst over in Vermont Okemo said skier visits during the New Year week were 7 percent ahead of this time last year. Three major resorts in Colorado all reported record-setting days for the holiday weeks, while small resorts in North Carolina and outside Los Angeles reported skier visits up 40 percent.

Of course it is not all good news with media reports in the US noting that some major

mike lewis

• January 13 2009 | 100 views