feedback from Tino: I was hoping you guys could do an entry on something concerning that seems to be arising in the longboard skate market. Basically, a number of retailers are showing interest is selling additional lines to the already existent Sector 9's that they sell. Problem is, Sector 9 is threatening to pull their product from the stores if a competitor is added to the 'variety' that's being offered to customers.
Whats with bullying tactics? I've this same story from shop owners, the guys at Gravity, Riviera, GFH, etc. Wasn't skateboarding originally about expression, rebelling against the man and the establishment, etc? Seems like Sector is afraid of competition and thus turning into the Man.
I had a couple Sector completes over the years and even bought one for an ex, but from multiple accounts of the same story, i'll never buy from the corpo giant again. Let the underog's who do a fraction of your total business, Sector, have a chance. If your boards are truly better, you have nothing to worry about!!
First of all, I've never heard of this website. I don't know who this guy is.
BUT
What the hell is this?
First of all, I'm not into longboards. I've ridden one exactly once in my life. I'm also deeply offended and I hurt inside when I tell people I skate and they say "Oh, like riding longboards?" No, I mean like real skateboarding. You know, ramps, rails, stairs, ledges, bowls, etc. I have nothing against longboarding, although when combined with steep hills I think it's a lot more dangerous than any other type of skateboarding (ever tried to power slide on a longboard?), I just want people to understand that skateboarding and longboarding are as different as mountain biking and riding a beach cruiser down the street to the video store. More power to you if you enjoy longboarding, but if that's the only type of skateboarding you do don't go calling yourself a skater.
Jesus H. Christ, how sanctimonious and judgemental can someone be? "I'm offended and hurt inside when I tell people I skate and they say, "Oh, like riding longboards?"
If that hurts you, dude, then you need to join a monestary and live a life in cloisters.
More power to you if you enjoy longboarding, but if that's the only type of skateboarding you do don't go calling yourself a skater.
Hey, bud? Whoever you are, just go #### yourself. Now, does that hurt and offend you inside?
What a prick.
Hey, Norcal, thanks for bring this asshole to my attention. Now I can overtly ignore anymore of his #### in the future.
Location: buying used stuff off of SF, so i can look "gnar" with my pre-thrashed gear
Age: 21
Posts: 4,398
Re: sector 9
guy's got a good point there...s9 could buy out or start another brand, and make that their "bargain basement" brand, and keep sector as the top-of-the-line brand...IF they're THAT concerned with competition. they'd have their "primary" market covered(the dude-brahs, fratboys, surfer wannabes that want cheap, cheap, cheap), then the "hardcore" longboarders (people like who are on SF).
i dont beleive in the whole sector 9 bullys skate shops to only let them carry sec9 boards only. We have never head anything like that from our distributor, and havent ever heard another shop owner say anything like this eather.
I think its another one of those things where people just assume sec9 is like the devil, the man. and create more excuses and crap to justify there reasons of hating sec9.
Location: buying used stuff off of SF, so i can look "gnar" with my pre-thrashed gear
Age: 21
Posts: 4,398
Re: sector 9
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuff
i dont beleive in the whole sector 9 bullys skate shops to only let them carry sec9 boards only. We have never head anything like that from our distributor, and havent ever heard another shop owner say anything like this eather.
I think its another one of those things where people just assume sec9 is like the devil, the man. and create more excuses and crap to justify there reasons of hating sec9.
i think that there might be the key in this whole "s9 bully" thing. like i said in mr. cokes'n'smokes's thread, i think of 2 skateshops i'm really familiar with...the first one buys their stuff through a distributor...for longboards, they carry s9, gravity, arbor, san clemente, riveria, arbor, vision, and speed demons. the other shop buys DIRECT from s9...they carry ONLY s9, and one local brand. so, i'm thinking the padding of a distributor saves a lot of the shops from the "strongarming" (thanks, cokes!) of sector....that is IF AND ONLY IF there is any strongarming involved at all.
That is a huge load of crap...its folklore at its finest. Sector 9s 2 biggest selling shops in Colorado sell all kinds of board, buy direct from S9 and have great relationships with Sector 9's crew. Hell, the Wright Life sells S9, Gravity, NS, Rayne, landyachts, Skate one and Riviera, and they have never once been told to be exclusive. When I ran a shop here in Greeley we sold S9, Gravity and several other now defunkt brands and never once were told pull the others or loose our top selling brand.
I would guess this fool writing this is trying to spin the crap to build more hatred for S9, maybe he works for another brand or maybe he is just a hater
i think that there might be the key in this whole "s9 bully" thing. like i said in mr. cokes'n'smokes's thread, i think of 2 skateshops i'm really familiar with...the first one buys their stuff through a distributor...for longboards, they carry s9, gravity, arbor, san clemente, riveria, arbor, vision, and speed demons. the other shop buys DIRECT from s9...they carry ONLY s9, and one local brand. so, i'm thinking the padding of a distributor saves a lot of the shops from the "strongarming" (thanks, cokes!) of sector....that is IF AND ONLY IF there is any strongarming involved at all.
When it comes to the skate business I'm just another customer, but I do happen to know a ton about how the bicycle industry works, and what he's talking about S9 doing isn't an unusual business practice (if any of this is true at all).
If you're a bike shop and buy/sell more from a distributor or manufacturer, they sell to you for less. Some companies will give you a better wholesale price if you give them a certain percentage of shop space (Trek and Specialized do this, for instance). Makes sense--if you're willing to devote 80% of your floor space to a particular brand and make them look huge, why shouldn't they give you a better deal in return?
But in the bike industry there are stores who've lost their "good" wholesaler status by introducing other brands, or by failing to give Brand X enough floor space. In some cases you hear of bike companies yanking accounts because they aren't feeling enough love, but I don't know if that practice is widespread (they really can't hate you if you're selling product).
Someone like Mile High Mark can probably speak with more authority on this from a skating angle, but I know this is how it works in other specialty retail as well. I don't know that it's wrong or right, but it's already out there.
What I do know is I've never owned anything Sector 9. And I'm quite happy about that.
Last edited by retroflyer; 05-07-2008 at 07:47 AM.
I would guess this fool writing this is trying to spin the crap to build more hatred for S9, maybe he works for another brand or maybe he is just a hater
I don't know where the dude's going with this, nor do I even like some places he's gone so far, but he's practically bent over backward to soft-pedal the issue without spewing any hate toward Big Business. The only hate-spewing fool in the thread so far, is you, dude. What a bummer that is seems like par for the course with you.
Think about that before you go off on another internet jihad. Scroll up and read, even if you need to move your mouth when you see the words. Okay, okay that's a beer label reference just so you know we wuv youb.
__________________ Relax, Don't Worry, Ride Your Longboard.
sector 9
