I’ve pretty much said all I wanted to say about Sierra Snowboards back a few months ago (also this, this, this) but they’re in the news again with their bankruptcy proceedings. If you’re interested in all the gritty legal details of corporate bankruptcy proceedings, the Angry Snowboarder has been doing a bang-up job tracking the story from various sources. These are hopefully my final thoughts on the topic.
At the end of the day it seems though that this all got started not because of Sierra’s aggressive discounts (which probably played some part in the decision) but because Sierra was delinquent on their credit agreement with the B, so all the brouhaha about “brand image” and “luxury status” and Louis Vuitton was for naught although it is a technicality that probably works in Burton’s favor, legally speaking.
As to the parties involved: it’s ugly either way, there are no underdogs, no feel-good Cinderella endings here, just the ugly underside of big business. So as much as I don’t like “the system” of corporatism, it is what it is, and douchers like Sierra need to understand the old adage, Live by the sword, die by the sword. And don’t bite the hand that feeds you, among others. They effed up and Burton is taking advantage of legal privilege.
Speaking of Burton…
Does it suck that Burton is off-shoring their labor? Most definitely. Is it lame for an OEM to open stores and a website, directly competing with their licensed distributors but without the margin, and they still get to call all the shots? Without a doubt. Is their distribution model pretty messed up? Yes. Could changes to their vendor agreements and/or distribution model be used to protect the brand name, etc.? Definitely.
What about Sierra?
Did their fanboy forum probably ruin snowboarding for some people? Sure. Did they set unrealistic expectations in terms of pricing, for novice customers? Probably. Did they put anyone out of business? I don’t know and I’m not going to play around with economics here. In the shops near me there are a lot of shelves still stocked with 2010 Burton gear from TC down to Royal Oak. I don’t believe that it’s all sitting there because Sierra cornered the market.
Final thoughts
In the meantime Sierra remains open for business but I’d buy with caution. There are some decent deals on last year’s or two years ago’s pants, jackets, etc., or maybe you can find some bindings if you’re not super picky.
But their closeout closet is running empty, and their 2010-11 merchandise doesn’t look to awesome, either. They lost a lot of their suppliers and the last I checked they didn’t even have pictures posted for the new gear. If you’re looking for new gear, there are dozens of other places where you can get it, who aren’t in the middle of bankruptcy.
Look I’m not going to play favorites or give anyone a free pass simply because they’re involved in a sport that I like. Fact is that although I love me some egg McMuffins, I hate the megacorp business model and just about everything that goes along with it and whether you like it or not Burton is the megacorp in snowboarding. I don’t hate Burton just like I don’t hate McDonald’s.
I don’t hate the player, I hate the game. Yes, I said that.
