Failed Brands
- Thread starter Slowbro
- Start date
Pipe_Munky
Active member
topic:Slowbro said:
Eira was owned by RMP Athletic Locker based in Mississauga, Ontario. Same guys that owned RipZone, PowderRoom and distributed a large amount of running and athletic brands. They eventually went bankrupt and sold off their assets to a subsidiary of SportChek/FGL Group. RipZone and PowderRoom are now house brands at SportChek (replaced FireFly) and Eira is seemingly dead for the time being
K2 Outerwear was produced for several years back in the day and then went away. There was talk of it coming back but unfortunately it never materialized. Might be a few samples flying around out there but nothing that made it into the retail channel.
CoreUPT was owned by French stuntman Guerlain Chicherit. Tons of money spent on team athletes like Gus, Candide, TJ, etc... eventually it just wasn't making money and Guerlain found a love for rally cars and now competes on the pro circuit having won the Dakar Rally a few times.
That's all I got...
dwt802
Active member
14165234:fredyferl said:
Pretty sure Harrison was just ready to move onto the next step of life and was ready to move on from HG. He didn’t want to sell the brand or anything similar to that which is why they’re gone I believe. Was a great run and I would definitely consider HG skis to be a successful brand. As far as I know they never went bankrupt or had financial problems, just was ready to move forward.
SkiingNinja
Active member
I'm surprised we made it to page two before FREEZE. Not sure if the super park shoots count, but man I miss those.
SofaKingSick
Active member
14165332:SkiingNinja said:
AGREED and AGREED
GrandThings
Active member
14165365:animator said:
Not gunna lie, I want a pair of Nike Goggles real bad...although I believe they're just re-branded Dragons.
partyandBS
Active member
14165365:animator said:
Yeah 6.0 was the "extreme sports" line besides the SB line. Their bmx team was stacked as well they even came out with motocross boots but that was right before they pulled the trigger on the 6.0 line. They were real popular for snowboarding boots but i doubt they ever made a ski boot haha
Slowbro
Active member
Was just reminded of a couple more
iNi cooperative: Outerwear brand with a corny rasta influenced name that marketed themselves as environmentally friendly, sponsored Kieran McVeigh who was one of the most popular skiers on this site at the time. That two tone jacket was pretty fresh, too bad they only lasted a few years.
Ninthward: Not technically dead, but definitely not nearly as big of a presence in the scene anymore. Ski brand known for stiff, skinny park skis and a white boy gangster image. Henrik's long time sponsor before he went to Armada.
Disappeared around 2011/12. Made some weird announcements about coming back and making wakeskis (remember those?) which didn't happen, and then disappeared again. Now they're back, and have been making skis again for a few years now which seem pretty good.
Voleurz: Clothing company out of Vernon BC that had a pretty killer team and made full length ski flicks. Had riders like Ian Cosco, Joe Schuster, Max Margetts, and Max Hill. I bought a voleurz jean jacket from Max Hill at a pro sale, and the smell of cigarettes didn't come out for about 5 washes.
[video]603043[/video]
iNi cooperative: Outerwear brand with a corny rasta influenced name that marketed themselves as environmentally friendly, sponsored Kieran McVeigh who was one of the most popular skiers on this site at the time. That two tone jacket was pretty fresh, too bad they only lasted a few years.
Ninthward: Not technically dead, but definitely not nearly as big of a presence in the scene anymore. Ski brand known for stiff, skinny park skis and a white boy gangster image. Henrik's long time sponsor before he went to Armada.
Disappeared around 2011/12. Made some weird announcements about coming back and making wakeskis (remember those?) which didn't happen, and then disappeared again. Now they're back, and have been making skis again for a few years now which seem pretty good.
Voleurz: Clothing company out of Vernon BC that had a pretty killer team and made full length ski flicks. Had riders like Ian Cosco, Joe Schuster, Max Margetts, and Max Hill. I bought a voleurz jean jacket from Max Hill at a pro sale, and the smell of cigarettes didn't come out for about 5 washes.
[video]603043[/video]
fghtoffyrdmns
Active member
ninthward is legit the truth. might have to hit up dicky for a custom pair if unemployment keeps paying me like it has been haha.
14165602:Slowbro said:
crustyboot.420
Member
Amplid?
little1337
Active member
14165325:highpeak said:
I have a pair of the Ramp bambooski and theyre super light and flexible which I like
Saga.
Active member
14165225:CatdickBojangles said:
We were furloughed as of March 31st and not able to do any work on the brand unless we wanted to risk losing unemployment benefits.
The brand is still alive.
The team has been notified of what happened.
Will have a full explanation in the coming months once the furlough rust has been cleared off.
Don't forget, the definition of the word Saga is: a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents.
We're not going anywhere.
CatdickBojangles
Active member
14166159:Saga. said:
Good to hear that. I was getting nervous. Any word to share on next years gear?
ghoti_hook
Member
[tag=230235]@TBK_ski.co[/tag]
not a single ski since 2015
https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/803345/Help-us-make-a-crazy-set-of-skis?page=1
not a single ski since 2015
https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/803345/Help-us-make-a-crazy-set-of-skis?page=1
a_burger
Active member
14165602:Slowbro said:
iirc iNi had the same investors as Holden, and they shifted all there funding over to Holden. Bummer, a ton of their outerwear ended up in my area and its pretty good, I have a puffy jacket of theirs with zip of sleeves that reminds me of a discount orage Bdog
freeballer
Member
Voleurz was the best. The videos were so fun to watch. Super rad skiing, but didn't take themselves too seriously. Awesome soundtracks. RIP Voleurz.
Slowbro
Active member
14166172:a_burger said:
Interesting, I didn't know that they were connected to Holden. I really liked McVeigh's suit but I don't think there was anywhere to get the gear in Alberta lol.
If anyone knows the backgrounds of these other brands and why they're gone now, I'd like to know. I find this kind of history really fun to read. I'd particularly like to hear about Ninthward's initial downfall.
xonskier78
Member
APO skis? They were really sick with sammy c, kai mahler etc. on the team. Fortunately, I found a pair of sammy c's and they are so sick to ride...
14166316:Slowbro said:
Outerwear is a very tough game. A lot of brands will get gassed up by people telling them certain products are dope but then when it comes time for shops or consumers to actually make the purchase they get sticker shock.
In my opinion, INI failed because they made products that were too expensive for the market they were trying to sell to. The fit of their gear never looked quite right either. They were making products for the PNW style which is strong waterproofing and a reserved fit. But they had people on their team like Kieran, Dale, Spriggs that weren't wearing, or fitting, the gear in the way it was designed to fit.
The same can be said for Tomahawk.
It's like if brands like Trew, Strafe, etc. had teams of park/street riders and expected that to be enough to sell products. From my experience, park/street skiers aren't very willing to purchase $400 pants and $500 jackets. These brands set their financial plans based on the hype their close circles and internet chatter give them and then they only are able to sell the products when they discount them heavily. It is a recipe for disaster.
Quantity control is another big problem. Factories will try to push brands into making more than they know they can sell by giving them a price break. But if you can't sell what you thought you could at the higher prices you're forced to discount even more. It's a downward spiral and unless the brands have deep pockets backing them they can't survive.
hoodratz47
Active member
Special blend......
soup
Active member
14165496:partyandBS said:
The team failed because their skate shoes like the p-rod or the nyjah pro make more money in the very first day of sales, than an entire year of selling outerwear and goggles.
I miss freeze. We lost that one way too soon. When the documentary comes out about the history of skiing I can't wait to see where that one lines up in the history timeline.
Silver cartel too. The puffy coat they had oh my GOD!
SofaKingSick
Active member
14166496:hoodratz47 said:
i thought they were part of Forum? or maybe they were just kind of allied with them a lot or something. but yeah they made some good stuff, kinda surprised to hear they're gone
hoodratz47
Active member
Yeah. It was I think. Them and four square
14166679:SofaKingSick said:
PsychicMigration
Active member
Coreupt Candide Pow's were absolutely sick I believe he had them for only half of few words before changing over. Those topsheets have always been my favorites too.
GayWolf420
Active member
Causwell was the shit. Really cool brand that was either too overlooked at the time with all the trends of outwear going on or just didn't gain enough traction sadly......always wanted to ski like Jeff Kiesel when you wore their stuff lol
GayWolf420
Active member
14165325:highpeak said:
Had a few peers and friend who worked at their factory just outside PC that said they might have ran into some copyright infringement issues too, because people kept asking them to make custom skis with sports team logos or something that was protected by other legal stuff and its hard to fork over cash for licensing and stuff.
333
Price_Police
Member
Rurock
CatdickBojangles
Active member
OPEN skis. Sad to see ON3P basically carbon copy them and kill them off at the same time.
14166679:SofaKingSick said:
They were under the same distribution brand (I think it was 5 Star) as Forum. Kind of like how multiple skateboard brands (decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, etc) will all seem like they’re affiliated but are different brands. They all operate under the same distribution company.
You don’t see this too much in snow sports outside of the K2 sports umbrella. They have K2, Line, Ride snowboards and maybe a few others.
The idea is that one organization sets up and manages all the logistical and financial challenges and then you create brands underneath it and let the creative people do their thing.
MiIfHunter
Active member
Snutt was a dope brand. I liked the whole butt nutt thing
14167123:jerm said:
From what I recall, Forum/SB/Foursquare were a constant money suck the moment Burton took them on.
There was some news a few years ago about SB/Foursquare products popping up again cuz of trademark loophole. Burton said they would contest it, always did wonder what happened with that...
https://snowbrains.com/trademark-wars-forum-or-againstem/
Well I'll be damned, searching for the article above, turns out the guy who picked up the trademark is still at it:
https://forumblend.com/
Bloom.
Active member
Anyone remember Fate Outerwear? Mostly a mogul brand from what I can recall - their logo was a pair of dice. And they had big color blocks on the knees.
Freeskiing is super core and niche - I think a lot of the companies get ahead of themselves and think the market is bigger than it actually is and end up over producing goods that the demand isn't there for.
**This post was edited on Aug 25th 2020 at 2:32:14pm
Freeskiing is super core and niche - I think a lot of the companies get ahead of themselves and think the market is bigger than it actually is and end up over producing goods that the demand isn't there for.
**This post was edited on Aug 25th 2020 at 2:32:14pm