March, 2011 | Jeff Harbaugh

Zumiez’s Quarter and Full Year Results: It’s All About the Strategy and the Economy

Can a quality strategy consistently pursued over many years and offering a meaningful competitive advantage overcome the impact of cost increases, a weak economy and still cautious consumers? That pretty much sums up Zumiez’s 10K and conference call. The cost increases and weak economy are, of course, issues for all companies. If you’ve never done it, it’s […]

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Skechers- Some Insights from Their 10K Annual Report

Skechers

Look, I know Skechers isn’t particularly cool and we don’t pay that much attention it. But it’s another $2 billion company with a strong balance sheet that’s in most segments of the shoe business and, whether we like it or not, competes with more action sport aligned brands. This isn’t a full analysis. I just reviewed

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Volcom’s Numbers and Opportunities for Growth

Kering (Volcom)

What I’ve admired about Volcom is its consistent approach to the market over most of the life of the company. You get rewarded for that consistent approach with a strong market position and brand awareness among your target customer group. Reef did the same thing with a similar result over many years. But there comes a time,

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What a Specialty Retailer Might Learn From Genesco

Genesco (Journey's)

I’m not really that interested in doing a full analysis of Genesco. Mostly because I doubt you’re that interested in reading it. But Journeys, owned by Genesco is 813 stores and the Journeys group of stores is over 1,000 in the U.S. and Canada so we can hardly not pay attention to what they’re up to. For

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Billabong Reduces Guidance Due to Japanese Disaster.

Billabong

Billabong announced yesterday that its Net Profit after Taxes in constant currency would be lower this fiscal year than last year by 2% to 6% due to the problems in Japan. Previously, as announced on February 18, they had expected it to be flat. The announcement describes their position in Japan and the disaster’s impact on it. Happily,

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Some Comments on Quiksilver’s Quarterly Report

Quiksilver

Quik came out with its quarterly results last week and filed the 10Q with SEC all at the same time so I’ve got that and the conference call to work with. I know Volcom and Zumiez have also released their results for the quarter and year, but so far they haven’t filed their 10Ks for me

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Jarden Corporation; Remember Them?

Jarden (K2, Ride)

Whenever VF comes out with its earnings, we all gather around to see if we can find anything about how Vans and Reef are doing. But when Jarden, who owns a winter lineup of brands that includes Atlas, Full Tilt, K2, Ride, Line, Little Bear, Madshus, Marker, Morrow, Tubbs, Volkl and 5150, we don’t even notice. Wonder

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Billabong Purchase of West 49 and Implications for the Industry- Questions, Questions, Questions

Billabong

Billabong’s acquisition of West 49 was the biggest retail expansion by a brand so far. We’ll see more brands buying more retailers and opening more stores. This article is about why. What are the motivations and the industry impacts? And what are some of the conflicts and contradictions companies will face as they pursue this strategy? Some of this is

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Thoughts on a Longboard Trade Show

Surfing, Trade Shows

Concrete Wave sent out a press release February 21 announcing the first longboard tradeshow in New York City on March 11. I didn’t think about it much at first, but as some time passed, a few questions occurred to me. The first was, “Why does longboarding need its own trade show?” Maybe it doesn’t need it, but

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A Couple of Things to Think About from VF Industries

VF Corp. (Vans, Reef, North Face)

With a different company I’d probably do what I usually do; get down and dirty in the financial statements. Some of you like that. Some hit the delete key early in the article. A few tell me they fall asleep. VF released its results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2010 the week before last. I spent

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March 2011