Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Big Time

The shop was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal today. We've hit the big time! Check it out at:

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Olympic Glory

Well the games are over. I hope you all got as caught up in the Olympics. I did. I didn't go into the event amped. By the end, I was mesmerized. It was fantastic! The skiing, sliding, hockey, and yes, the curling too. The USA had great results. All the right people seemed to have success. Sportsmanship and fair play were on showcase. In the alpine skiing events all the stars shone. Bode did great. Julia had fantastic success. Lindsey got the results she deserved as did her good friend Maria Riesch. Anja Paerson came back from a huge crash to get a medal too. In the end, however, the biggest winner overall may not have been an individual. The biggest winner may have been Head. Head's ski and boot dominance was indeed impressive! In Europe this will translate to big sales increases for the brand. That's what they pay the sponsorship dollars for. In the U.S. I was uncertain. Would American buying habits be influenced? They were during the games but would it last? Well, now that the Olympics have been over for a week we are indeed seeing continued Olympic fueled interest in the Head products. Hopefully that will carry over to next year too!
With that in mind we are holding a "Gold Medal Sale" through the end of March. Four products that we carry were given great Olympic exposure. Head Skis and boots, Leki poles, Uvex goggles, and POC helmets. Customers took more notice of these brands when they were shopping. "Isn't this the brand that Julia Mancuso wore in the Olympics?" That sort of thing. So we decided to run with it a bit and have a "Gold Medal Sale" on these product lines. We have them all on sale now and I am impressed with the results! Advertising does work. Thanks Head! Thanks Olympics! Thanks Bode, Lindsey, Julia, Anja, Maria, Didier, Elisabeth, and Zaeka!
Last week was the Reno "buying show" for the regional ski industry. Three days of discussions and decisions with our sales representatives. John and I headed up in the Honda Element. We got a lot done but were able to put off most binding decisions for a week or two as deadlines were not too firm for the second year in a row. When the distributors can demand the orders earlier they do. With a bad economy, the retailers as a group will not stand for taking any more risk than they must. That seems to be the case again this year. So I got to go out to dinner instead of working the first night. Basque food with our Head reps Dan and George. Good company and good fun. While in Reno it snowed in the mountains too. All in all a good week. Now I need to buckle down with the computer and crunch some numbers and make some final decisions!