Bike Culture Summit

5 05 2010

Kona in NYCOn Thursday May 6, the Bike Culture Summit will commence in New York City. The event is a benefit for Transportation Alternatives – an organization whose mission is to “reclaim New York City’s streets from the automobile and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives.” So, all proceeds from the event will support the group’s bicycle advocacy work.

The Bike Culture Summit will be held May 6 at NYU’s Wasserman Center Auditorium from 7-8:30 p.m. Cycling pundits, the ‘Bike Snob’, bicycling historian David Herlihy and Caroline Samponaro (Director of Bicycle Advocacy for Transportation), will offer their expert insight regarding controversies such as ‘How should cyclists relate to pedestrians, motorists and to delivery cyclist’ and ‘To what extent should cyclists sacrifice style and convenience for safety.’

Thanks to the folks at Kona Bikes for the heads up on this - they will be there in full support.


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Categories : Access, Cycling, News, Transportation

More First Quarter Good News

4 05 2010

As the first quarter results roll in, it looks like there is even more good news for the outdoor industry on both the vendor/manufacturer and the retail side of the business.

Amer Sports net sales reached €372.6 million ($516.4mm) in the first quarter ended March 31, 2010, up 5% from the same quarter a year ago…  Sales rose 11% in the Winter and Outdoor segment which includes Salomon, Suunto, Mavic, and Arc’Teryx…

Adidas AG reported its first-quarter net profit rose to €168 million ($234 million) from €5 million in the year-ago period.

Johnson Outdoors Inc.’s sales rose nearly 6% in the second fiscal quarter;  net income soarted 148% to $6.2 million…

VF Corp first-quarter revenues increased 1.4% to $1.75 billion from $1.73 billion a year ago. Earnings soared 62% to a record $163.5 million…

Jarden Corp’s Outdoor Solutions segment, which includes Coleman, K2, Marmot and several other brands, generated sales of $614.2 million in the first quarter, up 3.9% from $591.3 million. Operating earnings for the segment reached $39.9 million, up 50% from $26.6 million…

The Timberland company first-quarter 2010 net income climbed 61,6% to $25.7 million…

Volcom, Inc. sales for the first quarter were $77.4 million compared with $68.3 million in the first quarter of 2009…

GSI Commerce Inc., the e-commerce provider for Dick’s Sporting Goods, TSA, Eastern Mountian Sports and dozens of other retailers, reported that net revenues rose 38.7% to $272.6 million…

Shimano Inc.’s sales rose 11.4% to ¥50.2 billion ($553.7mm)…

Under Armour direct-to-consumer sales outpaced total sales nearly fivefold, pushing up margins and profits…


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Categories : News, Outdoor Recreation

Derby Days and Wedding Days

3 05 2010

I went to my wife’s aunt’s derby-themed wedding this weekend and a few folks asked for pictures. I only have a few, but I’ll add more as I get them from others. We had a great time – Mayne had too many cupcakes for a two-year-old and ran 1,000 miles. anyway, here are the pics:

Mayne and her great-grandmother

Mayne and her great-grandmother

Nina - the Bride

Here's Nina - the bride this weekend. The wedding was held on an old, renovated river boat right next to river-front park - Great location with gracious hosts.

After the cupcakes we had to run down the the river-front park in and climb on all of the statues - here's Mayne on top of a five-foot tall turtle


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Categories : News

iAd II

29 04 2010

This is a follow up on my previous iAd post – according to Mashable, Apple is keeping the iAd platform close to its vest, which is no big surprise. However, there is talk of minimum $1 million buy-ins for the launch. This kind of dough basically eliminates small, mid-size, and some of the larger publishers from participation. I’m not sure where this is going, but the up-and -coming web publishers who are really innovating are basically being left out in the cold.

While I do not like the idea of pricing out the small guys, there is a silver lining here. A move like this clearly shows the premium Apple is willing to charge for their platform, and anything that helps boost online ad rates is desperately needed.


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Categories : News, The Business of News

Things Are Looking Up Again?

26 04 2010

After reading Sports Executive Weekly and The B.O.S.S. Report this week, I was left with a long-forgotten feeling – optimism. Things are actually starting to look good for the outdoor and active lifestyle industry. After nearly a year of bad news coming from the publicly-traded companies, the first quarter of 2010 was pretty strong. Here’s a brief run-down:

  • Columbia Sportswear: sales up 10.5%; profits up 33.8%
    • Mountain Hardwear sales up 10.3%
  • Rocky Shoes & Boots: sales up 12.0% net loss cut in half
  • LaCrosse Footwear: sales up 32%; $1.7 million in profits vs. a loss last year
  • Deckers: Sales up 16.1%; profits up 46.8%
    • Teva sales up 21.3%
    • Ugg sales up 14.2%
    • Ahnu, Simple & Tsubo sales up 15.3% collectively
  • Wolverine World Wide (Merrell, Wolverine, Cushe, Patagonia Footwear, Chaco & others): sales up 11.6%; profits up 162.0%

There are still more folks scheduled to report over the next few weeks, but the first week of earnings season is looking pretty darn good for the outdoor industry. We’ll have more results next week.


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Categories : News, Outdoor Recreation

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