Huf is done

[potpie]

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Damn that's shitty. Talk about short term thinking from the investors end. They stop supporting skating and lose any credibility they had. RIP

[close]

Lesson time, newbie.  The credibility has already been established OUTSIDE of skateboarding.  They just used skateboarders to do it.  There's a hell of a lot more people that DON'T skate and rock HUF gear, than there is skaters that do.  Add up the amount of money paid to the riders, the filming production, per diem, plane tix, meals, and hotels, etc.  Now eliminate those expenses.  Your profit margin just went up. 

Stay in school, kid.

[close]

thats a myopic view, they're a fashion brand and their biggest appeal is what their image in popular culture is. losing skateboarding is just another step toward losing their brand identity. their clothing is already mostly indistinguishable from the other soon to be shuttered streetwear brands ie the hundreds/10 deep. they won't be saved by cutting a skate team, it's a short term move to appeal to investors. RIP

[close]

While I see what you're saying, I guess my point/question is this.  Do you think any of the people in "popular culture" see HUF as a skateboard shoe company?  No, as YOU said, "they're a fashion brand".  Go ask any non-skateboarder that wears HUF shit if he/she knows who Josh Matthews or Brad Cromer is.  Chances are they have no idea.  So Hufnagel, as a skateboarder, used his skateboarding background to legitimize his fashion brand.  Now that it's full established as a fashion brand and not a skate shoe company, why would they keep the skate program?  The mainstream knows nothing about HUF as a skateboarding brand, so why continue to dump money into the skate program when it really accounts for such a small margin of profit.

I see what you’re saying but I think that you’re correlating their skateboarding relationship with direct profits from that niche. The fact that skaters find the brand cool (do they? who knows) is a marketing opportunity that draws people from outside the community who are interested to buy their product. I also believe that by removing their relations to skateboarding they no longer have an incentive to cater to that market. (It’s an entirely different discussion but I have reason to believe that skateboarding’s influence on popular fashion cultures is bigger than any other sport. I’m just tired and don’t really want to explain that point.) By eliminating their ties to an appealing culture, they will no longer have an incentive to hire people with knowledge and first hand experience from within skateboarding. I will pose this question to you, if they start hiring outside of the brand, who will be there to keep the finger on the pulse.

Even big corpo surf brands like quiksilver and billabong still have deep ties to the current surf industry. I can say with a certainty that this is what keeps them alive. The constant chase towards minimizing expenses will dilute the brand.

[Little Debbie]

Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

[fergus]

Really lame of Huf to do this and let all his guys go shoe sponsorless. Everybody will be on the swoosh in 2020 and I don't blame them.

[Mr. Kamikazi]

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Also Austyn 2 is coming out in July doubt he’d film and they’d paid for all that ad campaign for a season run you all are fools

[close]

His shoe got canceled. I guess less than 10% of their overall sales was from footwear. Makes complete sense to just focus on apparel

[close]

Worst news all day. Will be stocking up on the rest of the Dylans. Wish they could at least  release the Gillette 2's...

I agree. I'm sad. Real fucking sad. I'm sort of clueless as to what skate shoe company I could possibly buy, as I've only skated Huf since Austyn and Dylan got on. They've always had a shoe I liked, even if it was just one. So I never looked back.

[CrumblingInfrastructure]

Rizzo 

[ManMelt]

Really lame of Huf to do this and let all his guys go shoe sponsorless. Everybody will be on the swoosh in 2020 and I don't blame them.

I think it’s already been decided that Keith Hufnagel, personally, is no longer the man in charge. It’s not his fault, they’re not his guys to let go.

[planman]

Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

Guarantee he'll get on Adidas with Sebo

[pauline_handsome]

Even big corpo surf brands like quiksilver and billabong still have deep ties to the current surf industry. I can say with a certainty that this is what keeps them alive. The constant chase towards minimizing expenses will dilute the brand.

You couldn't have chosen a worse example (no offence) when quik 'became' boardriders inc there was an immediate backlash within the community of surfing. It took them years to regain any semblance of credibility within surf biz. When Boardriders Inc absorbed Billabong when it was tanking, they cut back heavily and disregarded the local communities where the brand was built around.

The amalgamation, despite the financial records and revenue (despite operating at a loss for many years) barely have any pull within the surf biz. They are a global surf brand with limited ties to the industry.

The equity invested was tied towards sponsorships for events moving forward. This has not worked out well for them.

Ripcurl would have been a much better example if you were comparing surf companies.

[Mystical Leader]

Source? Everybody just asumes this is true?

The younger guys still have a chance to get on something legit but most of their riders will be on the b-teams of bigger sport brands if even that..

And blame it on the investors..

[pauline_handsome]

Source? Everybody just asumes this is true?

The younger guys still have a chance to get on something legit but most of their riders will be on the b-teams of bigger sport brands if even that..

And blame it on the investors..

You don't blame the investors. You blame the process and handling of the company that gets investors involved that see financial return over anything else.

Unfortunately this is business, its ridiculous to blame the investors who only want an ROI. The managing of the company before the screening is paramount.

[VHS ERA]

my Fuck It V60 is the only thing I’ve ever owned by Huf,  but it is one of my prized possessions.

[Mystical Leader]

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Source? Everybody just asumes this is true?

The younger guys still have a chance to get on something legit but most of their riders will be on the b-teams of bigger sport brands if even that..

And blame it on the investors..

[close]

You don't blame the investors. You blame the process and handling of the company that gets investors involved that see financial return over anything else.

Unfortunately this is business, its ridiculous to blame the investors who only want an ROI. The managing of the company before the screening is paramount.

Yeah I agree with you.. What I was saying if there was a decision made to cut the shoe line and the team it likely came from the (new) investors rather than Huf or some one other dealing with the hr side of business..

Maybe they will do the same as that weird lakai Korea thing..

[Swithflip]

Its what happens when you make horrible shoes like Dylan and Austin. The best shoe in the brand was Pepper.

[Pigeon]

It’s weird how some people identify themselves with HUF more than the people who actually skate for the company. Just buy State.

[Octobre Rouge.]

About time.

From the Hupper 1 to the Cromer, all of their models were awfull to skate in.

Huf apparel lifespan ? 5 years, mark my words.

who's willing to pay 30 bucks for a logo tee in 2018 ?

.

[johnes]

Adidas has an unlimited skate budget right now so I’m sure they are gonna try to get some of the better dudes.

[trillytrill]

does no one remember that huf started as a clothing boutique and an apparel brand? AO even rode for them in the very beginning but bailed pretty quick. It always felt to me like the shoes were just a way to get riders they couldn't get as just an apparel brand.

[oyolar]

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Really lame of Huf to do this and let all his guys go shoe sponsorless. Everybody will be on the swoosh in 2020 and I don't blame them.

[close]

I think it’s already been decided that Keith Hufnagel, personally, is no longer the man in charge. It’s not his fault, they’re not his guys to let go.

But it was his company to let go of and wash his hands of, knowing that he can’t lrevent something like this from happening.

[potpie]

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Even big corpo surf brands like quiksilver and billabong still have deep ties to the current surf industry. I can say with a certainty that this is what keeps them alive. The constant chase towards minimizing expenses will dilute the brand.

[close]

You couldn't have chosen a worse example (no offence) when quik 'became' boardriders inc there was an immediate backlash within the community of surfing. It took them years to regain any semblance of credibility within surf biz. When Boardriders Inc absorbed Billabong when it was tanking, they cut back heavily and disregarded the local communities where the brand was built around.

The amalgamation, despite the financial records and revenue (despite operating at a loss for many years) barely have any pull within the surf biz. They are a global surf brand with limited ties to the industry.

The equity invested was tied towards sponsorships for events moving forward. This has not worked out well for them.

Ripcurl would have been a much better example if you were comparing surf companies.

Oh fur sure, Ripcurl slipped my mind but was more of what I was trying to get at. Do you think that the reason HUF didn't receive immediate backlash a la Billabong/Quik is because it has become almost standard for huge extreme sports brands since then? I don't really expect people to reject Huf the same way but I do think cutting ties will be the catalyst to their downfall.

It's hard to walk into a surf and not find billabong and quiksilver everywhere, is it not? Full size runs in multiple colorways of their boardshorts are in any shop I've ever been into. Though I haven't been to a board shop anywhere but the east coast so that might be a factor.

[puff daddy]

i wouldve thought lakai wouldve been cut before huf
i could see cromer getting on cons or adidas no problem and austyn is a shoe in for cons if he can figure out a board sponsor by then sucks for all the other dudes if this is true idk where all those ams are going besides eternal nike flow

[puff daddy]

does no one remember that huf started as a clothing boutique and an apparel brand? AO even rode for them in the very beginning but bailed pretty quick. It always felt to me like the shoes were just a way to get riders they couldn't get as just an apparel brand.

i could easily see them going back to doing Nike collabs just off the strength of how well the recent diamond dunks did

huf JP did a converse collab not too long ago oddly enough

[brucewillis]

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Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

[close]

Guarantee he'll get on Adidas with Sebo

nah, i can see him on cons and skating jack purcell's and wearing cargo pants

[brucewillis]

Its what happens when you make horrible shoes like Dylan and Austin. The best shoe in the brand was Pepper.

I still own a pair of black perf suede peppers, still didn't skated them because i love'em

[huggs]

all things considered i'd expect them to maintain production of the dylan in some form or another, believe keith hufnagel said something about that before

[sharkin]

did huf's ex have a 50/50 share in the company around the time of the weed sox explosion?

I don't blame huf for turning out the way it did, they were a single store that grew into a worldwide brand - much respect to keith getting that scrilla -- but i think his girlfriend/business partner at the time had a lot to do with how it was shaped.

[h00man]

all things considered i'd expect them to maintain production of the dylan in some form or another, believe keith hufnagel said something about that before

Hope this is true, but if they're cutting shoe production then they'll most likely axe the Dylans. With this, I hope I'm wrong and they'll continue to put out Dylans in some way.

[oyolar]

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Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

[close]

Guarantee he'll get on Adidas with Sebo

[close]

nah, i can see him on cons and skating jack purcell's and wearing cargo pants

Cromer was stuck on Cons flow before joining Huf. Although so was Dela before he got on Hanitat shoes and now he’s fully on so maybe he’ll get added fully.

[puff daddy]

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Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

[close]

Guarantee he'll get on Adidas with Sebo

[close]

nah, i can see him on cons and skating jack purcell's and wearing cargo pants

[close]

Cromer was stuck on Cons flow before joining Huf. Although so was Dela before he got on Hanitat shoes and now he’s fully on so maybe he’ll get added fully.

that was also like 9 years ago tho

[Mr. Kamikazi]

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Cromer deserves big things. Hope he gets a good offer somewhere

[close]

Guarantee he'll get on Adidas with Sebo

[close]

nah, i can see him on cons and skating jack purcell's and wearing cargo pants

[close]

I was actually thinking about this before. Who knows. Maybe everyone will step away and get day jobs.

Cromer was stuck on Cons flow before joining Huf. Although so was Dela before he got on Hanitat shoes and now he’s fully on so maybe he’ll get added fully.

[close]

that was also like 9 years ago tho

[Mr. Kamikazi]

Feel bad for Austyn always getting shit axed since he left habitat

Maybe he'll just pull a Danny Garcia and bow out gracefully. Is it fucked that that's almost what I want anymore?