Sierra Snowboard FAIL?

If true, this is sucky for Brad G, because he just got a brand new 162cm Sierra Reverse Crew for his birthday.

The Angry Dude in Colorado speculates that Sierra Snowboard might be on the verge of (or possibly, already filed for) bankruptcy. Although no staff members have confirmed, there’s an active thread on their forum where a number of members have said that the retail store is closed (even though the company never made any announcement to this effect, so, customer service FAIL) but others indicate that customer service says the store is “closed for inventory” for approximately 10 days.

As Angry points out, that thread has been going off for 5 or 6 days now, and nobody from the company has chimed in to confirm or deny. In my limited experience at Sierra’s forums, there’s usually a staffer on the active threads pertaining to the company. Their silence here is curious, to say the least.

And after the Burton SNAFU earlier this year, which resulted in Burton pulling the plug on Sierra’s retail contract, well let’s just say it doesn’t take the full power of my Econ degree to connect the dots.

Maybe the rumors on the forum are true, and the retail outlet will re-open in a few weeks. Maybe they’ve decided to shutter the brick & mortar facility altogether, after losing a huge portfolio of products/brands (they also lost K2 companies in a similar retail agreement violation), in order to focus on higher-margin direct, internet sales only. Or maybe the loss of huge volume brands like Burton and K2 punched them right in the dick, and they are bankrupt or filing for bankruptcy.

Time will tell, but I think that option #1 is less probable than the others.

UPDATE: this has not been substantiated, but a commenter at r/Snowboarding indicates

I called [Sierra Snowboards] yesterday for a delayed order and talked to them about moving into the new warehouse. Everything was put on hold for the move – orders, storefront. They have a lot of stuff to move I imagine.

On a lighter note, and while we’re talking about dick-punches, enjoy one of the most comically awful white rap videos, evar: