Over the past few years I have pointed out the myopia within skateboarding. While I have been mocked for not following the status quo, I never waivered from my conviction: skateboarding needs VARIETY. Thankfully, people are starting to embrace this idea…albeit fairly slowly…this is just the beginning.

Repeatedly I told a number of people who work in this industry that things were changing. Some folks listened - most did not. The one’s who listened and decided to act accordingly have found themselves in a unique position…many are actually having problems FILLING orders! The size of their operation can be best described as LEAN & MEAN. They will make it through this storm because their is a demand for their product and they will carefully manage

Those who have ignored what was happening have found the opposite problem: their overheads do not match the size of the operation. Orders are much harder to get, the competition has slashed prices and marketing costs are forever crawling upward. It just isn’t the same old, same old.

Those who followed industry business guru Jeff Harbaugh know that he was preaching this stuff for YEARS. Unfortunately, only a few people actually took the time to implement the ideas he discussed.

I guess it’s a bit like reading a business book. You can read them, feel that you’ve gained some good insights and then move on with the task at hand. I figure about 80% or more of people who read business books don’t actually implement the ideas they contain. Actually, I figure it’s probably like 90%! It’s easy to read, but much harder to actually DO SOMETHING.

I had a phone call the other day from a guy that works in the skate biz. He’s somewhat on the periphery, but he’s there…doing his thing. Sadly, I could tell that he’s pretty shook up by the number of problems that he’s seeing out there. Shops are closing, some manufacturers are having a hell of a time keeping things moving forward and there’s just a general feeling that “a great sea change” is happening. “It’s like the early 90’s all over again” he said.

While I might agree that there is indeed a “sea change” happening out there in skateboarding, I am not sure everybody is willing to actually acknowlege it. Which, if you think about it, is one of the reasons that things are in fact changing…oh, the irony!