Sole Tech Sells To The Nidecker Group

[moonordie]

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Rick and Howard

[close]

Thx for the heads up, it was way too early when I wrote that. Obviously I meant Mike and Carroll.

[Idk]

So what the helm was Don Brown doing over there?

Liking transphobic posts on social media?

[Big Baby Jesus]

This was the best possible outcome for a sale. Hopefully 32 doesn’t integrate Nidecker boot tech and they keep Chris Bradshaw on the team with his on C/W.

[Monolithic Flick]

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[j....soy.....]

Way better than what came of DC......

[Shtonk]

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[Crust]

RIP Soletech

Say it ain't so

Etnies were always my favorite shoes

[skatebruh]

I like my Rome Party Mod.

[Monolithic Flick]

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

Your personal anecdotes don’t add up to the fact that they still sell boards. That stated being a Euro I would have thought you have seen more.I learned on a Yes Basic myself.  Not on the brand anymore but Angry Snowboarder still gives lots of the Yes line high marks.  Pretty sure one of the dudes who regularly competes in Natural Selection (Dustin Craven maybe?) rides them.

Weekend warriors are the bread and butter of the industry by the way.  Because they have jobs and spend. Plus your criticism is now on style but again has nothing to do with the fact that the Nidecker brands make money.  Whether you view them as cool or not is irrelevant.

Edit: I do agree that the Yes/Lobster merge seems awkward but my contrarian anecdote to yours would be I never see Lobster boards on my local.

[Big Baby Jesus]

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[close]

Your personal anecdotes don’t add up to the fact that they still sell boards. That stated being a Euro I would have thought you have seen more.I learned on a Yes Basic myself.  Not on the brand anymore but Angry Snowboarder still gives lots of the Yes line high marks.  Pretty sure one of the dudes who regularly competes in Natural Selection (Dustin Craven maybe?) rides them.

Weekend warriors are the bread and butter of the industry by the way.  Because they have jobs and spend. Plus your criticism is now on style but again has nothing to do with the fact that the Nidecker brands make money.  Whether you view them as cool or not is irrelevant.

Edit: I do agree that the Yes/Lobster merge seems awkward but my contrarian anecdote to yours would be I never see Lobster boards on my local.

Here is what it looks like. Bataleon and Lobster should have merged, not yes and lobster.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a7srsZxgdW5Tj0-1huqa74NZVpuBSEnb/view

[Vds]

"skater owned" doesn't mean shit to me. Usually skaters are terrible at being responsible financially so brands are most likely to crap out.
Also a lot of skaters have this God complex just for being good at skateboarding which makes them obnoxious assholes.
I'd rather somebody who knows whatever brown to be a decent, straight up person with decent work ethics rather than a skater that only cares about skating and nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I love skateboarding to death but if I would skate for a brand is rather the person owning it can actually take care of it.
Maybe a good example is Crail, probably if it would have been only Rick and Carroll brand wouldn't last long.

What are you talking about? I think you missed the golden era.

Back when was "skater owner" were hundreds of promodels, and they got pay better than today. 

[buddy68]

They own Rome too. Make great bords and bindings. Nidecker has a heavy European presence. They just put Mark Mcmorris brother on, starting to see them in shops in the states.

May not be what skaters want but these guys know how to run businesses. FWIW, they own Rome, have a couple friends on their team. They are atill headquartered out of Vermont and have the same reps etc prior to aquisition. Theyre more generous flowing product to homies now. I know that

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[buddy68]

Bradshaw is royalty but to be paying someone invisible is so hard to justify. 32 boots are pretty shitty if i may add. Should just take Romes boot tech

This was the best possible outcome for a sale. Hopefully 32 doesn’t integrate Nidecker boot tech and they keep Chris Bradshaw on the team with his on C/W.

[buddy68]

Skaters care about optics than running a successful business a tale as old as time

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[close]

Your personal anecdotes don’t add up to the fact that they still sell boards. That stated being a Euro I would have thought you have seen more.I learned on a Yes Basic myself.  Not on the brand anymore but Angry Snowboarder still gives lots of the Yes line high marks.  Pretty sure one of the dudes who regularly competes in Natural Selection (Dustin Craven maybe?) rides them.

Weekend warriors are the bread and butter of the industry by the way.  Because they have jobs and spend. Plus your criticism is now on style but again has nothing to do with the fact that the Nidecker brands make money.  Whether you view them as cool or not is irrelevant.

Edit: I do agree that the Yes/Lobster merge seems awkward but my contrarian anecdote to yours would be I never see Lobster boards on my local.

[323-BALM]

Nidecker has something do with the SWS factory in Dubai, of all places…shady euro dudes partnered with local snowboarders I mean heavily moneyed desert guys to make a bunch of skis and snowboards there. They push their manufacturing processes and location as superior…
I don’t know enough to know, but I have this rad powsurfer “shaped by Chris Christainson” that was made in Dubai.
 
Hoping Don Brown moves to Dubai, I guess.

[DCLOVE]

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So what the helm was Don Brown doing over there?

[close]

Liking transphobic posts on social media?

He only does that after 5 tough guy shots in a row.

[WarmUpZone]

100% this is the beginning of the final chapter for éS and Emerica. As an OG Accel loyalist, this is a bummer but is not surprising. I'm betting the recent cuts at Emerica were just trying to trim the payroll to make the the whole Sole Tech package deal look better to the buyers.

Likely Nidecker just wanted Thirty Two and maybe Etnies as a mall brand and were forced to get eS and Emerica in the deal and will be susnsetting those immediately. Or maybe the IP of those will get sold off and we can get shitty zombie-versions of them like we have to Fallen, Axion, and so on.

Congrats to Pierre and Don on the payday.

[Monolithic Flick]

They own Rome too. Make great bords and bindings. Nidecker has a heavy European presence. They just put Mark Mcmorris brother on, starting to see them in shops in the states.

May not be what skaters want but these guys know how to run businesses. FWIW, they own Rome, have a couple friends on their team. They are atill headquartered out of Vermont and have the same reps etc prior to aquisition. Theyre more generous flowing product to homies now. I know that

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[close]

Yeah my current setup is a Freaker with Katanas but now I feel I’m derailing into too much snowboard talk. 

[Tonyhawk-prostate]

Several questions

Will this affect the Upcoming models like the hoban?

Also what will ever happen to sti lab?

[Mount St. Hermdog]

It’s cool that they skate, but that doesn’t really mean much. This kind of deal rarely works out for the better in the long run. Whatever though, prove me wrong.

On a related note, I guess dwindle and blind/almost/etc are dead already. Kind of a shame that blind has disappeared the way it has, with all the history behind it.

It's crazy how Jake Ilardi really for real rides for the private equity handlers that owns Blind so that it can technically be a saleable brand

[AsianVegan]

Hard to know what might happen - but I can’t see them all surviving.
Guessing there’s a good chance they’d dissolve at least one of Etnies, Emerica or Es, as 3 non-snow shoe companies would seem excessive, as I don’t believe they do anything yet outside their core business manufacturing hard goods.
32 seems was pretty popular in its own right but maybe they turn 32’s tech/factories to expand into a Jones boots line, as that brand seems to be a runaway success.
To me eS and Emerica are one-trick ponies. And my guess is to an outsider, the same slimline vulc shoes do better than historical models and nostalgia do when you look at translating into consistent sales. I think eS could be doneski.
Etnies has a bit of a wider appeal and already crosses over into Surf/Moto/Bro culture (but post Sheckler who knows)
And they’re all wearing Etnies in the product images too.
Nidecker does have a pretty strange snow portfolio, with lots of brands with no real identity and heaps of overlap (Slash, Yes, Battalion, Rome, Jones, Switchback, Now) - so maybe Soletech fits perfectly and they all stick around…

[greerpark]

Hard to know what might happen - but I can’t see them all surviving.
Guessing there’s a good chance they’d dissolve at least one of Etnies, Emerica or Es, as 3 non-snow shoe companies would seem excessive, as I don’t believe they do anything yet outside their core business manufacturing hard goods.
32 seems was pretty popular in its own right but maybe they turn 32’s tech/factories to expand into a Jones boots line, as that brand seems to be a runaway success.
To me eS and Emerica are one-trick ponies. And my guess is to an outsider, the same slimline vulc shoes do better than historical models and nostalgia do when you look at translating into consistent sales. I think eS could be doneski.
Etnies has a bit of a wider appeal and already crosses over into Surf/Moto/Bro culture (but post Sheckler who knows)
And they’re all wearing Etnies in the product images too.
Nidecker does have a pretty strange snow portfolio, with lots of brands with no real identity and heaps of overlap (Slash, Yes, Battalion, Rome, Jones, Switchback, Now) - so maybe Soletech fits perfectly and they all stick around…

Imo it has to be fairly obvious that eS is the weakest of the group. eS already went under around 2012 and was brought back years later. Emerica actually has a decent team and video output. eS is surviving purely off the 30+ crowd buying 20 year old models thinking back to the glory days... Just like DC on its last limbs.

Etnies obviously has the X-Games action sports crossover somehow

[Jud Nestorkins]

Maybe Tom Asta will finally get a sponsor that fits

what would fit him do you think? Maybe DC? Adidas, Nike?

[Jud Nestorkins]

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Is there any shoe brands fully owned by skaters now? I realize these guys can kinda kickflip…

Is lakai still owned by whatever corporation owns huf?

Pontus only kinda owns Last Resort as it was already another guys fashion footwear brand before he got involved?

[close]

Opus

Fishing Lines (?)

State have looked done since covid

That Japanese brand Possessed..don't know if the owners skate

There's also that brand made up of ex ipath crew that's supposed to happen this year maybe

Isn’t this ran by a skater(s)

https://proper-skateboarding.myshopify.com/

[Coffee]

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Maybe Tom Asta will finally get a sponsor that fits

[close]

what would fit him do you think? Maybe DC? Adidas, Nike?

Get the dude on NB#. I doubt Nike would take him. He has said between Fallen and eS he skated a few Nikes and didn’t like any of them.

[Shtonk]

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Honestly, not that bad of an outcome.

1. Family owned company (even ridiculously wealthy) have more leeway for higher operating standards because they aren't beholden to "money line go up" anyone-owns-it public co's and it's their "family legacy" so they don't want shitty behavior attached to their name.

2. Not Private Equity that just squeezes the juice to eke out a 30% return in 2 years.

3. They run YES snowboards which is actually a decently respected snowboard brand. Think Burton / Gravis except hoping they don't go the way of Gravis lol

4. The brothers can actually do a kickflip

[close]

Seeing as they are from snowsports, their legacy is actually not the best. Nidecker as a snowboard brand vanished 20 years ago. They have one of the bigger factories iirc but their brand work was a failure. YES is going the same route, although the founders are legends and the current team is stacked. But the whole identity, the style, it's just not good. They should be the Girl of snowboarding but they're more like Flip.

[close]

Confused by your Nidecker comment. They absolutely still make boards. This group also owns Jones snowboards which are very popular in the snowboard community. Yes has merged with Lobster so no clue what that is going to look like.
Like others I have no idea what this means for skate shoes but Nidecker is a pretty successful ownership group.

[close]

I have not seen a Nidecker board in the wild or an ad from them in at least 15 years. Merging YES and Lobster is such a misguided move and shows their lack of understanding of the current market. While both brands rank probably equally in terms of market share, they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum. Only YES boards I see are on 30+ weekend warriors who film bs 3s on the baby jump for the gram. And right next to that, on the ride-on Box, 13 year old wannabe-Fridges are doing Michael Jacksons for TikTok. Hyperbole alert obviously

[close]

Your personal anecdotes don’t add up to the fact that they still sell boards. That stated being a Euro I would have thought you have seen more.I learned on a Yes Basic myself.  Not on the brand anymore but Angry Snowboarder still gives lots of the Yes line high marks.  Pretty sure one of the dudes who regularly competes in Natural Selection (Dustin Craven maybe?) rides them.

Weekend warriors are the bread and butter of the industry by the way.  Because they have jobs and spend. Plus your criticism is now on style but again has nothing to do with the fact that the Nidecker brands make money.  Whether you view them as cool or not is irrelevant.

Edit: I do agree that the Yes/Lobster merge seems awkward but my contrarian anecdote to yours would be I never see Lobster boards on my local.

You think brand identity in boardsports is "just arguing on style"?
 And for seem reason you've got the inside scoop that all these brands are making money when I, for some reason, have the inside scoop that most of them are not. Gonna have to agree to disagree. Have fun on your katana freaker haha.

[rocklobster]

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Maybe Tom Asta will finally get a sponsor that fits

[close]

what would fit him do you think? Maybe DC? Adidas, Nike?

[close]

Get the dude on NB#. I doubt Nike would take him. He has said between Fallen and eS he skated a few Nikes and didn’t like any of them.

Please don't do this to my boy.

[WideFeet]

Really interested to see what happens in the future. I can see a lot of downsizing happening.

Maybe this is for the best? New life coming into the brands. Maybe more money pumped into the brands. Maybe they bring some people in that have some real experience.

I would love to see these brands returned to their former glory. I can’t see éS being the leading tech skate shoe again, but I have hope for Emerica

[Dopethrone]

The brands nidecker have are all pretty major players in the snowboard world so I'm interested to see what comes of it, I think it'll be a good thing honestly.
Nidecker have a very  hands off approach when they have acquired brands. So I think the image of them all wall all stay similar

[Mallie]

I dunno, don't follow snowboarding at all, but I've seen some ThirtyTwo apres ski chillers here in Europe - they all have STI midsoles and kinda look like Etnies Scouts.

So I guess there was a working relationship there already.