What a year for, not just the action sports industry, but fashion and retail in general.

Businesses looked to rein in inventory excess, dealt with weird weather, have seen a turn to more moderate consumer spending from the peak of the pandemic, rolled out turnarounds in some cases, and, of course, are watching the transition of one of the industry’s largest acquisitions in the Boardriders sale to Authentic Brands Group.

As brands and retailers prepare to close the books on 2023, SES surveyed a few industry executives to get their thoughts on the question: What related to the business kept you up at night in 2023.

What follows are their responses.

Jarka Duba, CEO, Wedge Brands, owners of Xcel

“The thing that kept me up at night for most of the year was, ‘When will Boardriders run out of product and stop discounting?’”

Jason McCaffrey, Global Business Unit Director, Surf Division, Patagonia

“This all comes under the caveat that hindsight is 20/20, but what keeps me awake? For me it is the next level market saturation. It’s like a zombie movie, (with) mass quantities of undead inventory roaming the streets looking for consumers to take them in. It sounds crazy, I know. ‘When will this be over and what comes after’ will usually pop into my head somewhere around 6:00 a.m. Then I make coffee.

“It’s weird, but nothing seems special anymore. People can get whatever they want, whenever they want, at a pretty decent discount. How long does it take, or what type of product innovation does it take, to warrant a full price sale for technical product? Will the market contract? We saw the highest levels of participation in the sport in decades, possibly ever, but that was when people had time and money. Now they have less of each so what’s the plan?

“I would say double down on building bad ass gear that lasts a long time, can be repaired, and is manufactured in the most benign way possible. But if everybody already has one or two of those products, when will they be back to buy more? Most of the products sold, even the less premium ones, last a long time if you don’t get to use them that much. I think it’s a great time for the secondary market to develop further; lots of great product will be resold.

“For brands, I think this means innovation will have to take the front seat and I bet a lot of companies with owned AR&D (advanced research and development) facilities are doing just that, but anyone relying on factory innovation that can be remarketed as brand innovation may have a tough go of it.”

Ryan Ellis, CEO, TravisMathew

“Nothing keeps me up at night as I am a very early riser, so for me it’s, ‘What am I thinking about at four in the morning?’

“Throughout the year, the ever-shifting landscape of consumer trends has been a relentless challenge. The first thing I do every morning is look at our direct-to-consumer business from the prior day. I assess whether we’ve exceeded forecasts, compare to the previous year, and analyze the daily, weekly, monthly, and year-to-date metrics for each store. It’s almost become an obsession to understand daily how has the customer changed?

“On a weekly basis, we look at national account selling, industry reports, rounds of golf played, etc. I have conversations with our key account partners to match our trends to theirs and to help generate positive shifts in their business.

“Navigating through endless data for forecasting has proved challenging, especially in the first half of the year. The initial thoughts each morning are to drive decision making, which is a massive change from the past few years where monthly and seasonal trends were enough.”

 

Mandy Fry, President/Partner, Z Supply

“At the heart of our brand’s mission lies a genuine commitment to all our retailers throughout America and Canada. If there’s one thing that kept me burning the midnight oil in 2023, it was undeniably our retailers.

“The team and I all spend so much of our time together thinking about how we can enhance the success of our retailers. Whether it’s fine-tuning our product assortment, introducing new categories, or strategically developing marketing campaigns, our collective efforts revolve around injecting creativity into every facet of the brand.

“During my late-night musings, the focus is on reinvention, ensuring that each new season unfolds as an opportunity to rejuvenate and innovate Z Supply.”

 

Eddie Miyoshi, General Manager, Former/Co-founder and Partner, Kasa Maison

“Hmm what didn’t keep me up at night in 2023! Haha.

“Let’s see. Let’s start with four months of unprecedented back-to-back spring rain and crappy weather in SoCal.

“But I guess in most part, the same thing always keeps me up every night for our brands. What can we do to ‘drive sell through’? Running a brand in these times, requires absolute and constant accountability. Your position and your success will be dictated by how much effort, creativity, and accountability you build in the market through product, messaging, and relationships.

“So, getting the right product in the doors and online is just about getting you to the field. The real battle starts from there. I’ve definitely been up at night either thinking of what we can do or thinking of what we didn’t do and could have done to drive more energy to market.

“Production, logistics, cash flow, day-to-day issues that come with running a company (all) come and go, and fires will always need to be put out. I kind of enjoy that part, to be honest. In the end, we treat those as solutions that need to be solved and part of the learning process. But driving sell through is a constant moving target and requires you to always be thinking outside the box.”

 

 

Matt Patti, General Manager, Arbor Snowboarding

“Since starting with Arbor Snowboarding in May of 2023 – our largest key objective and strategy shift has been to begin reengineering our business against more targeted consumer groups within snowboarding. It’s our belief that by narrowing the brand’s focus onto key consumers segments, we can create more growth-oriented sub-strategies like sharpened product roadmaps and line architectures that will lead to and inform more relevant product lifecycle planning and a better overall product mix that will ultimately create more meaningful product storytelling.

“While beginning to execute on some of these fundamental and architectural business changes, the challenge that weighs most on our minds is how to rebuild some of the house’s foundation, while not damaging the nearly thirty-year-old loved and respected structure that sits atop of it. And that’s required honest evaluation of past wins and loses – and for us to be honest with ourselves about what spaces are ownable and defendable for Arbor and what realistic new growth opportunities we believe that we may have consumer permission to explore.

“We’re in a place where we need to be looking towards a longer future arch of what we want this to look like in the future, while continuing to honor the legacy of the Arbor brand.

“It’s not an easy objective, but it’s one that we believe is critical for the forward direction of this brand. And while we certainly don’t have it all figured out at this point, we do believe that the new path that we’re on is the right one. But more than anything, that’s what has sat heaviest with our crew in 2023.”

Brooke Farris, CEO, Rip Curl

“The Maui wildfires – seeing the devastation on the news, trying to locate our crew for 72 hours, thinking of the personal and professional impact to the Maui surfing community.

“With people as our number one priority combined with our love and affinity for such a special place, this is what kept both me and our team awake at night.”