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Questions for someone who works at a shop or is involved in the industry
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I was wondering if someone who's involved in the industry might be able to help me out a bit and answer a few questions I have. On Monday, I have an interview with a well-established sports product company that is beginning to develop a ski and snowboard outerwear line (I can definitely elaborate if we talk further). I've been trying really hard to prepare well for this interview because the job involves things I am really passionate about and I think it would be a great experience for me. However, as much as I follow everything that's going on in the ski world, I still feel that I have much to learn about how the ins and outs of the industry really work. I'd love to gain more insight on the relationship between companies and retailers, and if anyone might be willing to chat a bit with me about this I would really appreciate it.
If you think you might be able to help me out or have any suggestions, please post or pm me and hopefully we can talk more. Thanks everyone!
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A new startup outerwear company, that sounds like it won't fold in about 2 years.
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It's not a startup company. The company is a relatively young company that has grown very rapidly to become a successful player with a dominant presence in many mainstream sports industries: football, baseball, lacrosse, ice hockey, etc. They have just begun expanding their product line into new areas, and amongst these is the ski and snowboard market.
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Can't help you with it, but I wish you the best of luck!
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Haha, yes. I figured I probably gave it away there. I just didn't mention it at first because I didn't want to cause a stir about it.
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That's cool. Good luck with the interview.
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haha right when i read the whole up and coming in the sports industry thats what i thought. but what kind of job are you getting there. a rep job or an office job?
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I am interviewing for a Product Line Management Position which entails a wide range of work such as building the brand in emerging markets, communicating with different groups to develop the product, creating marketing materials and building product release strategies, and more. It's an exciting position because it's a nice blend of work that allows for interaction with many different areas of the company - R&D, designers, financial analysts, marketing departments, etc. Since it focuses on driving the newer parts of the company, there's a good bit of entrepeneurial sprit in it as well... so I think there's a lot for me to learn if Iget the job =)
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Take a look at Oakley. For one, they will probably be your main competitor. They also make high grade outerwear and sell at a high price. I would look into them if I was you, being that they are pretty successful.
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oakley is a great example. they do not focus on a particular group, and look at all aspects giving a wider range of buyers. The snowsport industry is a huge and on growing industry, but the fact that they also make summer wear and outer-were expands into different groups of buyers.
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for as far as the relationship between a company and the retail ski shop, the one i work in isn't really that involved. they come and show off their line, we order and then call whenever questions come up. its still a good relationship though, i know most of the reps that come to my shop by first name and usually can take what they say to heart. like what items will sell better and whatnot. but i'd say to get the job just have lots of ideas, even if they arent' the greatest you still have an upper hand of skiing and being able to find out what the consumer wants and needs by just hittin up the slopes and shops.
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^Thanks, that is definitely the case. I feel that overall I have a solid understanding of the competitive field in the industry, but the information I am hoping to find out more about is the general interaction between shops and companies... questions such as:
*How and when do shops go about deciding what products to carry for each season? Trade shows? Reps?
*How often do shops communicate with reps?
*What are product lifecycles like? Timeframes for placing orders?
*How do they decide to allocate their budget and stock inventory based on types of products? Brands? etc...
*What are deciding factors/tradeoffs that occur when a selecting certain brands over others?
*How often do new companies approach shops with their product and what contributes most to deciding to carry a new brand?
All pretty basic/general questions... The job I'm a candidate for doesn't specifically relate to being a rep and going to specific shops, but I feel that it would be really helpful just to have an understanding of this kind of industry knowledge. It could certainly help with product release strategy, developing seasonal assortment plans, and maximizing inventory productivity. Thanks again.
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Yeah, thanks a lot for the input. I definitely believe that having a personal interest in the sport and understanding the perspective of the conusmer are really valuable assets when it comes to helping develop and market the product. I lack the industry experience they are hoping for, but they have been kind enought to be willing to consider me. So, I want to really show that my academic experience along with my passion for skiing and understanding of the culture and the consumers would make me a good fit for the job.
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on deciding what products my shop will carry, definitly the biggest is the SIA annual trade show in vegas. its a week long, or like 4 or 5 days, and my shop takes like 5 or 6 people down to get every aspect such as accesories and hardgoods and softgoods. so thats definitely the biggest.
sometimes the reps will come over and give a private viewing of next years items. roxy had to do it this year because they fucked up our order and my boss wouldn't carry them if they did. but usually the reps will come down to talk
its mostly the hardgoods reps that i deal with at my shop, they are always coming by and saying hello or calling. most come and give clinics on all the new technology for the shop to be able to sell their product. they have to inform us so we can inform the customer.
but like i said we communicate a lot more with the hardgoods reps simply because they give incentives and we see them alot more. but still the softgood reps call often to see how things are going and we call them with our problems
as for product lifecycles i'm not so sure what you mean. we order almost all new products yearly because we are only open fall winter and some of spring.
the timeframes for orders are usually set at a certain date. place an order before this date get a certain percentage taken off or free shipping, things like that. then everything is done on credit so when the money comes in we start payin bills.
budgeting is usally the same percentage year by year that takes a while to wind down to sell as much product. so not much help there
on choosing brands we try to let the consumer decide. o sure if we really like a product we'll go out of our way to advertise it and get people to know about it. or a new product is out there that sounds interesting we'll bring it in the shop. again we probably found the cool new item at the SIA
lastly, companies, usually smaller ones approach the shop i work at all the time. usually passed to teh garbage. again the best way that my boss gets new product is to see a fancy booth at the trade show
hopefully i didn't just spit out stuff you've already known and sorry for the assumably insane amount of spelling errors
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^ wow, thanks PNSjibber so much for taking all that time to answer all of that. It definitely helped and wasn't all things I knew already. I have some knowledge of basic merchandising from my parents because they used to be in the garment industry, but I don't know much specific to ski retail.
If you don't mind me asking more specifically on the budgeting issue... What are the allocations on spending for orders in different product categories, like between hardgoods, softgoods, accessories, etc.(as rough percentages of the total budget)?
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That's a very good point. I am not sure if a fashionable casual line like Oakley's fits the UA brand image yet at this point, but they do place an emphasis on the need to develop lines for other seasons and other markets. For example, I believe cycling wear is currently under consideration.
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last year my shop carried around half a million dollars in product. i'm not too sure what other places spend though. the shop i work at is a little different because its in southeastern Indiana. we can carry so much product becuase of the huge amounts of people we get. on busy days we can have as many as 10,000 people on a hill with only 400 vertical and 5 chair lifts. also including a bunny hill area and snow tubing facitlities. so the shop i work at can be an exception. but as far as spending. i can't remember exact amounts. just the rough estimates i helped my manager with. with bigger and better selling products like hardgoods, we can purchase up to 20,000 dollars in goods for that one brand. softgoods considerably less but still in the thousands. if i would have to guess i'd say it would probably be close to 50/50 on hardgoods to softgoods. with a nominal percentage for accesories
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Well our season is just about to start no (Australia), so all the stock is pretty much in the store and ready to go out - our pre-season sale starts today.
As said above, tradeshows are probably the most common way for companies to get their product across, but outside of that - if there is a company who we already stock e.g. volkl/techinca then when a new line of product comes around the reps will come into the shop and meet with the boss and some of the staff to showcase the gear and explain the differences.
In terms of ordering; take an example of k2 - we just got the 08 skis delivered. They were ordered in november, recieved in May. payment terms are often in the format of 1/3 upon order, 1/3 in april and 1/3 in june etc.
Reps communicate with us very often to see how their products are selling, what we might need - good companies like rossignol or ride snowboards will give us t-shirts and lanyards etc to wear around the store (to promote their stuff)
Product lifecycles are generally under a year - its' difficult to sell old stock unless you uncercut the price to something close to cost/wholesale (making the shop no $), iventory management is just as important as anything else as you dont want to run out of stuff mid-season, but you sont want to have full shelves when the next season's gear arrives.
Brand/stock Allocations are generally based on the previous 1-3 years results (e.g. we will always carry rossi bandit skis, as they sell well, but maybe not the squad as there sin't enough snow in Australia for people to need it. It is really all based on trends.
Being a newish comapny in the field, i think pricing is vital . Give the retailers a decent markup so there is some potential for them to see $$$$$.
Good luck.
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Thanks a bunch Silence229 for all that good info, and thanks to everyone else who contributed. It's all helped a lot and is helping me build the understanding I was looking for.
If anyone has any more suggestions, opinions about new entries to the market/new product release strategies, or personal experiences from either end of the spectrum... please feel free to add your input.
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what is it gonna be. skin tight coats and ski pants?
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reps are crucial in establishing relationships with shops especially smallers ones. My shop is on a good personal level with all the reps of the companies we carry the most. Some reps that are very sour negative and dont wana try to establish a relationship are the ones that obviously dont work out and we dont end up carrying a lot of their product. An unpersonable rep is a terrible thing and small shops like mine absolutley despise that. For example this year we thinking bout Armada but at the demo for next years skis the rep was completely blowing everyone off listening to his headphones and not communicating with anyone. My boss hated that and because of that he decided not to deal Armada. Thats how I saw at my shop at least. Relationships are key.
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2)^ with soft goods communication is less. if there are problems with the distributor, or company they will contact. alot of shops will carry outer wear through there prime selling seasons november and december i believe, for snow sport at least, and contact the buissness after that period of time.
6) i am on the company side of this. you will aproach the shop prime to the selling season, most companies send in some boring catalog but i really think it is important to bring in the product up front and communicate and get to no your seller.
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It still seems very odd to me that UA is moving into skiing. From a personal standpoint, I associate it too much with sports such as football or basketball, and not at all with skiing.
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Underarmor makes some good shit. I wear their shirts as a base layer all the time. They are a big company now with a lot of financial backing and I am sure their product will be topnotch. I don't really have much interest in buying a UA coat, but maybe if I saw it in person I would consider. BTW they have sponsored skiers for awhile now I believe can you say J Bloom?
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Good thread, my .02........... I am not in the industry.
Under Armour Outerwear? Needs a new name for the line.........Otherwise, I think they should stick with the one thing and do it well.
This stuff is obvious, but maybe not, Getting the word out is expensive and time consuming, the marketing basics of any new product are all the same. Check the competition, offer better stylish quality at a lesser price and your in business.. "Building the brand in an emerging market" is where you can hit a homerun. Using Freestyle skiing as an example, here is a simple idea. Get the product onto the backs of the core market and you will get instant credibility and recognition. Like sick top of the line stylish jackets for the semi-finalists at a freestyle open. Doing that alone could easily make the product go "viral" in todays world.
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i am involved with a few shops and the biggest thing is building relationships between companies and their retailers...
not so much heres our shit buy it and sell it!
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Thanks again everyone, it's all been really helpful.
In response to some people's speculations so far on what they will do. I do not want to say too much on my end yet because it seems like they have been relatively quiet about the release other than the trailer ad on FreeskierTV. So, I am not sure if this is part of a particular strategy they have so I'll hold off on that for now.
Is there anyone that might be able to give me a perspective from the product development side?
*How far in advance before a line is released does the development process begin?
*As the product is modified, how long does it take to go through each iteration?
*Other than working with team athletes and whatnot, is additional consumer research utilized in this industry?
*Are there any particular conflicts or challenges that frequently arise between different departments - design teams/management/marketing/athletes/etc.?
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i'd help you if i still worked at a ski shop, but they fired me fore no good reason yesterday, this ski shop isnt Tommy and lefebrve in Ottawa...
yes it is.
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That's definitely some good info, thanks. I was just asking here mainly because I was thinking that maybe certain time frames and processes are more unique to the technical outerwear industry - like since it involves implementing new technologies, more rigorous product testing perhaps, more frequent innovation, and so on. That was just my intuition, but I could totally be wrong.
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o i work at a ski shop things to kepp in mide when make new outerwear:
1.) the style cool
2.) warm/comfy
3.) easy to make
4.) is it good in all kinds of weather
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I wanna help, but that doc I linked to said 12-15 months. I heard the suspender look is hot next year. Do you really want to go through testing to find out that it gets hung up on charilifts? Don't get caught up in meetings to discuss when the next meeting is to find out where you are meeting..
I think you are overanalyzing looking for some holy grail of an answer. If you are going for a job intereview, it is better to have an understanding of the entire industry process and how it applies to the specific product you are trying to move. Then later or better yet, tell them that you want to focus on how you can turn around that product quicker. Turn around time is key to profitibility.
You have already indentified/targeted athlete involvement, now you have to ask yourself how can you get that information integrated as quick as possible and get the product to market in under the 12-15 months.
Sorry if I sound terse. I get tired of corporate mumbo jumbo boggin processes down.
Git-r-done!
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^nono don't worry about it. What you've said has been helpful. I'm sorry that my questions were a bit bland or may not have seemed that thoughtful. I didn't want to ask some of the deeper questions I've been thinking about because I don't want to give away too much on possible issues they may be facing. The basic questions were just to help my overall understanding of the way things work because although I know plenty about current products, the target market, trends, athletes, etc... I still felt that I was not that familiar with how things technically work on the merchandising and distribution ends.
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In any case, I'm about to head to bed to wake up at 4am for my flight. So thanks everyone for all the help. I've been really impressed with how much people have chimed in and it's been way more than I could've hoped for. Thanks!
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damn underarmor, hope you make it your gonna be one rich women!
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just make shit that looks cool, and all the little gapers on here will buy it no matter what the quality of it is.
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