R.I.P Supra

[Shalom Iginla]

MUSKA Nordstrom Rack Pro model YO! Their issues certainly are not on the design side.

Damn that is one heinous looking moon boot.

[uncool old fart]

I used to work at an e-commerce company that, right up until a few months before I started, was run like the third-generation family business it was. Shortly before I came on board, it was purchased by a capital investment company that had also purchased Supra.

This investment company worked in sort of the same way that house flippers do - they bought a company with potential, pumped in a bunch of money, allowing them to expand, and then sold them on at a profit when the time was right. This was the investment company that eventually sold Supra to K-Swiss, if I remember correctly.

When I started at that job, there were less than 100 employees in the whole company, between R&D, marketing, photography, the product teams, customer service, sales, and the warehouse. By the time I left three years later, the company had, by my estimation, tripled in size, bought three other companies in the same industry, and expanded the building we worked in twice after buying the truck depot next door and tearing it down.

We'd have quarterly "town hall" meetings hosted over lunch in a large open area of the building, where the CEO and management team would talk to us about how the company was doing and show us pie charts and graphs while we stuffed our faces with free food. That's probably exactly how this layoff meeting happened.

I have zero doubts that Supra had 200 employees, and it was, unfortunately, probably too bloated to perform at a sustained high level. I feel bad not only for the employees, but for the pro riders as well. I hope those guys get picked up fast.

Somewhat related: everyone at my company got a free pair of Supras when the capital investment company bought them...a month or so before I started. Everyone in the office but me had fresh skate shoes.

[LordManHammer]

Years ago when Antwuan Dixon had a shoe for bit, I went to  City Trends discount yo boy swag shop they had a fuck load of purple Supra Dixon’s I bought the whole lot of 11& halves and 12’s had Supra’s for two years only thing was they were canvas and would shred after a few weeks so I had a shit load of rights that were trashed.

[SickSickSicks]

Another shoe brand, born of skateboarding, gone. It's a fucking bummer.

Im legit disappointed that the Greco loafer will never happen.

[mynameisnotjeff]

Ross is gonna pop of in a few weeks

Was about to make a comment about trying all the weird shoes and then I saw this.

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Lil Wyane central american families in mall foodcourts is bummed

[close]

[close]

Needless to say, my Central American is will hit up Ross for the Greco and Lizard shoes if they do go out.

[uncool old fart]

Needless to say, my Central American is will hit up Ross for the Greco and Lizard shoes if they do go out.

They're opening a Ross here (Akron, Ohio) and I'm stoked. When I was visiting Nevada/California often, I'd always hit up Ross and I was shocked by all of the discounted skate clothes/shoes they always seemed to have.

[fs overkrook]

How is dee going to pay his bills?

[mynameisnotjeff]

Expand Quote

Needless to say, my Central American is will hit up Ross for the Greco and Lizard shoes if they do go out.

[close]

They're opening a Ross here (Akron, Ohio) and I'm stoked. When I was visiting Nevada/California often, I'd always hit up Ross and I was shocked by all of the discounted skate clothes/shoes they always seemed to have.

I've been struggling to find anything recently and I blame skateboarding's popularity. But hope you have better luck!

[uncool old fart]

I used to like their shoes before the KSwiss thing. After that the quality really took a dive.

Piggybacking on what I said above - the company that I worked for had a quality drop-off for in-house product after the investment company bought us out. We went from domestically-produced, high-end, short-run parts to stuff made overseas for cheap, and sold cheap as well. The engineers hated it. So in regards to Supra, that issue may have started before the sale to K-Swiss.

[euro tm]

How is dee going to pay his bills?

i see a gofundme thread starting in our near future

[sid vicious]

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

[uncool old fart]

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

From Bertram Capital's website:

"Strong design capabilities but lack broad distribution and infrastructure to scale"

That was their assessment of Supra when they picked them up.

https://www.bertramcapital.com/portfolio/one-distribution

They probably scaled the company beyond the point where its success was sustainable for any length of time. I bet the rapid expansion under Bertram made the books look really good when K-Swiss bought them, and it continued looking good right up until the point when Zumiez kids stopped buying them at a rate that could support 200+ employees and the operating budget for a company that large.

[Lame_Nigga]

After Emerica, Supra is probably the brand I've had the most shoes. The SkyLow 2s are in my top 5 favorite skate shoes of all time. The Vaiders, Vaider Lows, TK Stacks, Chinos, all very solid shoes.

They really cashed in during the mid00s-early10s with rappers and singers rocking their shit, but when that bubble burst it was only a matter of time. When they had that team that was like 14 deep it was arguably the best team around.

Nobody currently on Supra will find a new full on sponsor.

[Get fired up]

After Emerica, Supra is probably the brand I've had the most shoes. The SkyLow 2s are in my top 5 favorite skate shoes of all time. The Vaiders, Vaider Lows, TK Stacks, Chinos, all very solid shoes.

They really cashed in during the mid00s-early10s with rappers and singers rocking their shit, but when that bubble burst it was only a matter of time. When they had that team that was like 14 deep it was arguably the best team around.

Nobody currently on Supra will find a new full on sponsor.

My predictions.

Spencer will get another shoe sponsor. I could see him on adidas.

Muska will still stay working with straye.
Penny will hopefully get legend status some where.
Greco will skate for Ellington’s  company.

Leandre will probably go to Nike, he is crazy good and still young.

Sasha will get stuck on a Canada program, even though he deserves more. 

Lizard, Dee, and Clint will go back to flow.

[Southernmost]

Saw a few pairs of Muska Sky Tops at Burlington the other day. I had the TK Stacks in 2010 they were a great shoe. Does anybody know what Toms shoe is gonna look like? Hope it’s not a Timberland boot.   

[wildbillhiccup]

[DISTANT RUMOURS]

Expand Quote

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

[close]

You should probably read a bit - let's say something about investment bankers, like Bain Capital for starters. Then go to your local Ross or Marshalls and look at all the Sean John, Rocawear, FUBU type shit and think about how it went from high end to highly discounted. Big companies buy small companies and try to maximize profits by cutting corners on everything. When the business starts to fail, they run up the credit as high as possible, put that money in their own pockets and then close it down. Toys R Us was a good example.

And exactly the same happens with bands in the music industry (in which I know my way in)

For example:

Step 1
One genre is popular > 5 bands are really putting in work and are getting pretty decent > recordlabel has an eye on all 5 bands > after a while two bands really start to excell, while the other 3 bands are getting there.

Step 2
The recordlabel signs all 5 bands > lets them record an album > puts all marketing on the two 'excelling bands'

Step 3
So the other 3 bands have a deal. But in the end they won't sell enough records. That's because they never got the right amount of promo. And that was intentionally done so all along.

Step 4
They get dropped or shelved for not selling enough

Why do labels do that?
That's to make money and cut down 'competition' from 'other labels'.

How?
Another recordlabel could have signed one of those other 3 bands and could have 'marketed' the sh*t out of them. That would mean competition for the two 'top bands'. But now that recordlabel 'owns' all 5 bands that 'competition' is eliminated.

That's how fucked up the world is, and happens each and every day...

[DISTANT RUMOURS]

lets not forget this gem.




But on a serious note, I bought some supra hiking boots recently when I went to Iceland, and they were EXTREMELY well built. Water, rocks,, lava, heat, cold... they held up really really good.

And a guilty pleasure is that first skytop shoe

Shalom!

[jakeumms]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

[close]

You should probably read a bit - let's say something about investment bankers, like Bain Capital for starters. Then go to your local Ross or Marshalls and look at all the Sean John, Rocawear, FUBU type shit and think about how it went from high end to highly discounted. Big companies buy small companies and try to maximize profits by cutting corners on everything. When the business starts to fail, they run up the credit as high as possible, put that money in their own pockets and then close it down. Toys R Us was a good example.

[close]

And exactly the same happens with bands in the music industry (in which I know my way in)

For example:

Step 1
One genre is popular > 5 bands are really putting in work and are getting pretty decent > recordlabel has an eye on all 5 bands > after a while two bands really start to excell, while the other 3 bands are getting there.

Step 2
The recordlabel signs all 5 bands > lets them record an album > puts all marketing on the two 'excelling bands'

Step 3
So the other 3 bands have a deal. But in the end they won't sell enough records. That's because they never got the right amount of promo. And that was intentionally done so all along.

Step 4
They get dropped or shelved for not selling enough

Why do labels do that?
That's to make money and cut down 'competition' from 'other labels'.

How?
Another recordlabel could have signed one of those other 3 bands and could have 'marketed' the sh*t out of them. That would mean competition for the two 'top bands'. But now that recordlabel 'owns' all 5 bands that 'competition' is eliminated.

That's how fucked up the world is, and happens each and every day...

Hit em with the classic
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

[DISTANT RUMOURS]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

[close]

You should probably read a bit - let's say something about investment bankers, like Bain Capital for starters. Then go to your local Ross or Marshalls and look at all the Sean John, Rocawear, FUBU type shit and think about how it went from high end to highly discounted. Big companies buy small companies and try to maximize profits by cutting corners on everything. When the business starts to fail, they run up the credit as high as possible, put that money in their own pockets and then close it down. Toys R Us was a good example.

[close]

And exactly the same happens with bands in the music industry (in which I know my way in)

For example:

Step 1
One genre is popular > 5 bands are really putting in work and are getting pretty decent > recordlabel has an eye on all 5 bands > after a while two bands really start to excell, while the other 3 bands are getting there.

Step 2
The recordlabel signs all 5 bands > lets them record an album > puts all marketing on the two 'excelling bands'

Step 3
So the other 3 bands have a deal. But in the end they won't sell enough records. That's because they never got the right amount of promo. And that was intentionally done so all along.

Step 4
They get dropped or shelved for not selling enough

Why do labels do that?
That's to make money and cut down 'competition' from 'other labels'.

How?
Another recordlabel could have signed one of those other 3 bands and could have 'marketed' the sh*t out of them. That would mean competition for the two 'top bands'. But now that recordlabel 'owns' all 5 bands that 'competition' is eliminated.

That's how fucked up the world is, and happens each and every day...

[close]

Hit em with the classic
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

Never seen that, but that's EXACTLY what it is. Thanks.

And it works like that with companies too

[euro tm]

why would KSWISS buy brands just to sink them.....didn't they look at the numbers of units & sales figures prior.

You're dumb, You're dumbies

in all of skateboarding, when has a big corporation bought out a company and didn’t cut the team and made it something it isn’t? every single time it’s happened shit lasts 5 years tops. it’s a vicious cycle.

[Dr-Feelgood]

Expand Quote

After Emerica, Supra is probably the brand I've had the most shoes. The SkyLow 2s are in my top 5 favorite skate shoes of all time. The Vaiders, Vaider Lows, TK Stacks, Chinos, all very solid shoes.

They really cashed in during the mid00s-early10s with rappers and singers rocking their shit, but when that bubble burst it was only a matter of time. When they had that team that was like 14 deep it was arguably the best team around.

Nobody currently on Supra will find a new full on sponsor.

[close]

My predictions.

Spencer will get another shoe sponsor. I could see him on adidas.

Muska will still stay working with straye.
Penny will hopefully get legend status some where.
Greco will skate for Ellington’s  company.

Leandre will probably go to Nike, he is crazy good and still young.

Sasha will get stuck on a Canada program, even though he deserves more. 

Lizard, Dee, and Clint will go back to flow.

Only one i agree with, i could see spenny on adidas... Anyway i only page 1 and 4.... is supra definitley finished? I almost dont believe it

[shingles]

Why are you talking bout cars on here?

[fftc]

But Greco and Penny deserve money forever 

Penny on Timberland or Redwing?

[Sila]

Damn, I actually like a few of their shoes, and always thought the team was diverse and represented a good spectrum of skateboarding. I hope it's not true.

[Matthew Hamilton]

Spence Hamilton for Adidas ///

[TreyPhillip]

Couldn't figure out how to embed a darn photo properly

[BALARGUE]

Nobody working at Supra will confim anything even if it's really happening
OP said 200 at Kswiss .. not 200 at supra

not saying it's true or false..
but the article is pretty clear that changes are coming.

[Bousiña]

Why are you talking bout cars on here?

Ayyyy dat supra lookin' dope af 👌😫💯🅱️

[homophobicslurs]

Supra had some good looking shoes but i would never buy them because of their team.