Gaining Altitude : * Fashion: Beachwear makers suit up for winter with snowboarder lines. Unlike skiers, these downhill racers like baggy, mostly black clothes.
The folks who have bombarded our beaches with neoprene and neon in the last few years are moving to higher altitudes for the winter.
No, you won’t be seeing bikinis and surf trunks doubling as skiwear. But a number of Southern California-based swimwear makers are shifting their attention to snow resorts--and the relatively new sport of snowboarding--as a way to weather sagging off-season sales.
For these local manufacturers--many of which experienced a big drop in sales last year--the cyclical nature of beachwear is a nagging problem. How do you do a year’s worth of business when, in many parts of the country, the sun shines for six months or less? And what do you do if it rains or snows?
“It’s a constant dilemma,” says Jim Jenks, chairman of Ocean Pacific Sunwear, a $300 million-a-year business that does 60% of its sales in warm-weather swim trunks and shorts.
That’s why many beachwear manufacturers are jumping on snowboarding--an activity sometimes referred to as snow surfing because of its similarities to the water sport--in the hope it will provide fashion inspiration as well as economic recovery.
Sales of snowboarding clothing and equipment were $200 million-plus last year, and Ocean Pacific, Quiksilver, Gotcha and Body Glove have all introduced ski/snowboard collections to their product mixes.
Retailers of surf and snowboard products say snowboard gear is the fastest growing classification in their stores--despite the high prices.
A waterproof nylon pullover jacket, for instance, can cost as much as $220; nylon pants with reinforced seat and knees average $160; gloves sell for $36 to $100, depending on the amount of insulation and protective features. (Add the durable boots, $200, and a $400 snowboard, and you quickly realize this is not a sport for anyone counting pennies.)
Snowboarding has little in common with skiing--other than the snow. “Snowboarders are surfers and they sometimes have that ‘my wave’ mentality,” says Greg Ralph, marketing vice president for Snow Summit ski resort. “They don’t think twice about cutting the next guy off or using profanity. Skiing is a different way of life. We help each other. And snowboarders weren’t used to that.” He adds that educational seminars and pamphlets written “in snowboarders’ language” are changing that scenario.
Nowhere is the difference between the sports more apparent than in the clothing. While typical skiwear is often colorful, coordinated and tight-fitting, snowboard apparel is dark, baggy and, until recently, haphazard.
“When the sport started, (people) had this image that snowboarders wanted to be loud and wear a lot of neon. But it’s still pretty much the opposite,” says Darcy Lee, who heads up Gotcha’s snowboard line. “They want their own clothes and their own look. They don’t want to be neat and tidy. It’s a much freer sport and the clothes have to reflect that.”
Adds Christi Deverian, a buyer for the Newport Ski Company in Newport Beach: “Snowboarders don’t buy matchy-matchy outfits like skiers. Some of them come out of the dressing room with pants that look too big. But they like that look. It gives them more freedom of movement.”
Nonetheless, snowboarders have started to conform, albeit with their own sense of style. Black is still the No. 1 color of choice, but many of the beachwear companies are interjecting “Euro colors”--olive, mustard, rust, royal, purple and ocher--into the picture. Monochromatic prints and color-block accents also are starting to find a place in snowboard departments.
Although beachwear companies dominate the industry, plenty of companies--Burton, Sims, Wave Rave, Burning Snow--have been successful in exclusively making snowboard clothing and products. In addition, a number of skiwear makers--including North Face and Descente--have introduced snowboard lines.
But many store owners believe surf and swimwear labels are best suited to the business because, in most instances, surf and snowboard customers are one in the same.
“Surfwear companies have had better luck dealing with snowboarders because it’s a surf crossover business,” says Mark Richards, co-owner of Val’s Surf & Sport Shops, whose business is 60% snowboard apparel and accessories. “The ski clothing companies still feel the snowboarders wear neon. That’s how out of touch the ski industry is with snowboarders.”
Says Scott Daley, marketing director for Body Glove: “The basic principles are the same in both sports. That makes it easy to design for snowboarders.”
Of the beachwear companies, Ocean Pacific is probably making the biggest play for a share of the market. Last month, it sponsored billboards around L.A. and Orange counties “to get people psyched about snowboarding,” a company spokeswoman says.
Snowboarding apparel at OP accounts for “about $3 million,” while snow-related outerwear brings in another $19 million, says Don Olsen, executive vice president of the snowboard label.
Of course, companies that make snowboarding gear exclusively believe the beachwear lines have their limitations.
Because of the surfing-snowboarding crossover, beachwear companies have a built-in customer base, says Dennis Jenson, director of marketing for Burton, the East Coast-based company whose owner, Jake Burton Carpenter, is credited with developing the sport in the late 1970s. (In some countries snowboarding is called Burtonboarding.)
“But what you find is (the beachwear firms) are really going after the mainstream general public who happens to snowboard. We don’t care if Johnny buys our jackets to wear to school, whereas OP wants to be in Macy’s and Nordstrom.”
Jenson says Burton is interested in the hard-core snowboarder. “The reality is we are small and run by people who snowboard, although we happen to be the biggest snowboard company in the world.” Jenson puts Burton’s annual sales between $5 and $10 million.
Although snowboarders are loyal to labels, they tend to be more concerned with function than fashion. “The audience is not into glitz and glamour,” says Jenson.
“They’re into hard-core function. When you’re resting on snowboards, your knees and butt are in the snow, so there has to be two layers of waterproof, breathable Entrant material in those areas. (Beachwear companies often use neoprene, a traditional wet-suit material, in place of Entrant.) Also, snowboarding is more free-moving than skiing, so the clothes have to be loose and non-restrictive.”
“Freedom of movement is usually important,” adds Body Glove’s Daley. “Bulky sweat shirts and shells are more common with snowboarders, where in surfing and skiing it’s important that the suit fits tightly.”
At Ocean Pacific, however, fashion and function play an equal role. “We’ve tried to take the feeling of OP surf and offer a look that is functional in the snow but doesn’t look like a skiers’ (look),” says Olsen.
“The functional elements, like breathable nylon fabrics with Celtech waterproof coatings, neoprene-padded knees, cuffs and seat, and long-tailed shells are what attracts the customer. But the customer won’t buy it if it doesn’t also look good.”
Bruce Barbour, director of Quiksilver’s snowboard line, says beachwear companies have invested a lot of time and money into developing new snowboarding looks.
“The business has been mostly solids in the past,” he says. “But in the future we see a lot of plaids, flannel linings for comfort, more color-blocking, embroidered logos and chenille patches. We’re also introducing more rugged fabrics because snowboard apparel takes a lot of punishment.”
