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DYNASTAR LAUNCHES SNOWBOARD BRAND
“Globally, the O’SIN brand name (the company’s predecessor in snowboards) suffered from lack of consumer and retailer awareness. Launching the DYNASTAR brand name, deliveres immediate recognition as a high quality brand through our heritage as a specialty brand known for building high-end alpine products in the Valley of Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc.” Pineau says further, “This is a great way for us to work with retailers who already carry DYNASTAR alpine products and have dedicated resources for selling snowboards. At the same time, we will expand our distribution to retailers who are interested in carrying high quality snowboard products.” To help launch the new brand, the company has beefed up its team roster. Most notable additions: 1998 USA Olympic Snowboard team rider, Ron Chiodi, and two-time World Boardercross champion, Xavier De LeRue. In addition to competing, the role of team riders has been redefined to include input on board design, graphic presentation, market trends and brand promotion. According to Pineau, “We have excellent input and feedback from the team and we encourage more input from our riders in every market. Listening to our top snowboarders (De LeRue, Laurent Besse, Chiodi) and skiers (Jeremy Nobis, Guerlain Chicherit, Dave Swanick, Arno Adam) we realized that the values and spirit they saw in their individual sports were identical: Freedom, Emotion, and above all the Mountain. The new brand allows its riders to share the same brand, the same passion. The new 03/04 range is all about riding the mountain, in Big Mountain Free Ride or Big Mountain Freestyle. DYNASTAR snowboards, boots and binding all include technical features demanded by top riders in the sport.” After eleven years of marketing Original Sin (aka O’SIN) snowboards, the company re-evaluated its position in the worldwide market and arrived at the strategic decision to re-brand its entire snowboard product collection. The O’SIN brand name is being discontinued. Snowboards, boots and bindings will all be re-branded as DYNASTAR. In 1991, as niche markets developed in the United States, the Original Sin snowboard brand was developed to capitalize on the opportunity, specifically at snowboard specialty shops. As the market continued to develop, evolve and mature, the number of specialty snowboard shops decreased. The decrease in specialty snowboard shops resulted in a similar decrease in sales of the O’Sin brand. As the market matured, a significant percentage of snowboard retailers found the Original Sin brand name challenging, which was also sited as a factor in decreased sales worldwide. Concurrently, retailers in Europe, the USA and Canada voiced strong support for changing the company’s snowboard brand name to DYNASTAR. |
