Hardgoods 24/25

[C.Fuzzy]

Whoa, just read the Nidecker wikipedia page. Had no idea they were packing that many brands.

Maybe rolling Now into Yes also makes sense from a B2B sales perspective too? The ol Burton playbook of telling shops "if you wanna carry Yes boards, you also gotta carry Yes bindings."

Just guessing from my limited understanding haha.

are there really that many shops that carry Yes. but not NOW? i don’t know if i’ve ever seen one without the other.

Just based on online stores, I feel like I run into this

[C.Fuzzy]

Yes, Now and Lobster will all be under the YES name for 24-25

So then is Lobster dropping the triple base tech?

Please puhleese say Yes isn't adding it.

Not sure about the TBT situation.

After giving it a think it seems like they're just consolidating brands and chose Yes as the one to make into more of a full-line flagship type brand.

Personally when looking at buying options I ignore any brand with Tbt off the bat, and I don't think I'm alone in that, so Lobster was always going to have a sort of ceiling on their brand. Bataleon and Lobster was in a way redundant.

Lobster is more street/park oriented, and Yes more BC oriented, so merging them and adding the Helgasons (et al) to the Yes team could/would round out the brand image.

Jones probably had sales success with buyers pairing the boards & bindings, and so doing that same thing with Yes probably made sense, but then having 3 brands making essentially the same product line is redundant, confusing for consumers and shops, and cannibalizes each others sales.

Focus on Yes with a refresh on the binding line, cull the Now brand (which may have brand contam from the early strap/ratchet issues).

I guess I would anticipate boots at some point (since nidecker already makes/has suppliers for those).

As far as the Now vs Yes / Jones brand name, I don't think I care what is printed on the binding. None of the brand names are very 'cool' to me anyhow. Just sort of meaningless.

[Spenser]

Orrrrrrr... get rid of Jones altogether and leave yes & NOW alone. Then consolidate lobster back into Bataleon. Or get rid of both.

[eleveneightnate]

Orrrrrrrr

Get rid of Jones altogether and leave yes & NOW alone. Then consolidate lobster back into Bataleon.

This is the way.

[Vanni]

Then consolidate lobster back into Bataleon. Or get rid of both.

get rid of both is the way

[g3greg]

Can someone explain the jones hate? I feel like I’m missing something..

[coleslawed]

self-absorbed owner, stolen shapes, overhyped marketing

[Vanni]

Can someone explain the jones hate? I feel like I’m missing something..

what? Jones is the best snowboard brand out there

(I just bought Jones Mercury bindings - just because I can't purchase Now Drives in my size )

[C.Fuzzy]

Can someone explain the jones hate? I feel like I’m missing something..

self-absorbed owner, stolen shapes, overhyped marketing

@coleslawed sums it up great. but just to add a bit imo most of it it stems out of Jone's sanctimonious eco conscious attitude, granola image, and preaching with the Protect Our Winters ish and testifying to congress and so forth... But then it seems really just using the image to market, sell his brand, and enrich himself with the same bad behaviors and using the same capitalistic machine that is guilty of all the atrocities he supposedly eschews. In a sense, just another 'do as I say, not as I do' hypocrite.

Also been accused of stealing shapes from others for his brand. Iirc one of Jones early pow boards and it was a Japanese guy small brand so it flew under the radar for the most part. (Was it the storm chaser? Muff Explooder? I can't recall now)

It's one of those things in the same vein of the similar never ending Patagonia debate, that how can a company say they're doing all this good while participating in the evil. To what degree does the marginally 'better' or 'more ethical' practices cancel out the fact that it's still part of the problem for the majority of it's practices, and no amount of 'going green' will ever really overcome that.

So what you have is brands marketing themselves as the good guy, when really they're just (maybe) sightly less evil. And proponents of those brands will say 'something is better than nothing' to justify their support and those against them will say they're still part of the problem, and then others will say it's all fake news and others will say humans are a plague on the earth and nature should wipe us all out... or something.

[michaelangelo]

I don’t remember which bomb hole group chat it was, but Maggie Leon is doing product for Rome, Bataleon, and Lobster* which tracks with all 3 sharing bindings now. Folding into more streamlined umbrellas makes sense.

*I think she said lobster, couldn’t find the exact quote.

The most recent one, Justin Clark from K2 has a little tech section that doesn’t really reveal anything new to people here, but was still a good listen. Makes me want an alchemist