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Seeing as how someone was talking about Numbers - let's talk about how many board companies come out without an identity. No definable visual art-direction or whatever is there is fucking bland, no cohesion to their team, no "vibe" to their video/ad output.I honestly forget Numbers even exists all the time, and I don't know who rides for them besides Koston.
There's definitely other examples of this but the only other one I can think of is SOVRN. Plan B is almost like that but we all know they only exist to extract capital from the suburban moms of skater kids who shop at Zumiez. Primitive is sort of like that but their team is memorable and their art direction has gotten more memorable (I still don't like it, but I definitely remember it)
On one end I agree, on the other end you can sell a shitload of Vegeta decks without having to deal with the mental gymnastics of brand synergy.
I feel like Primitive has a decent enough strategy: release a bunch of collaborations that they know will sell in order to support the company and team as a whole, while also releasing graphics that are more in line with what skaters and the pros would actually buy / be stoked to skate.
I’d say that I’m actually about 50/50 on the graphics I like from Primitive, which is actually a decent ration in my opinion based on just how many graphics they put out.
My only issue with Primitive, is I feel they were the first brand with legitimate pros to really push direct to consumer sales through the internet (If I remember correctly, there initial drops were almost entirely online). I don't think that's a mistake business-wise, although I do find it a bit frustrating considering how much don't buy shop boards is pushed, so you can support the pros and industry, but at the same time, they are actively attempting to cut out the middle-men who help keep local scenes vibrant.
Although, find a lot of the "buy core" arguments from companies that are now failing pretty hypocritical when they made most of their money when they were big off large shoe orders to places like Zumiez.
Topic: Brand Mistakes (Read 12493 times)