AG + RS + VE + ML

With Christmas over and done with, products showing up the2nd and 3rd week of December, and now it’s really no surprise that release dates on pre-ordered products are pushed back yet once again.  We are forced to fabricate and estimate on our own release dates without a single good excuse to give our customer. This is due to poor communication by our suppliers. We have battled with this issue since the beginning of time and no one has ever come out and said anything constructive until now. So this is a really nice article taken from Canadian roll blog about companies not living up to their release dates having later than normal release dates and why it hurts the industry. This is from the customers standpoint. So all you MFG’s and distributors need to take notes.

The Christmas rush of products has come and gone, and to be honest, other than DVD releases I was rather disappointed. It seems like every product I wanted was unavailable, not only in Canada, but in the United States as well. This usually is not a problem because products seem to get released in the rolling industry in trickles rather than bursts, and I know this is largely attributed to the relatively small number of rollers in the world, which adversely effects the amount of products that get released at certain times, this is a fact I have come to understand and accept. However, I stress the phrase “usually is not a problem,” the fact of the matter is many of the products I was looking forward to had either been announced or had official images on the internet a month or months ahead of time, with the assumption that these products would be released for the Christmas buying rush. Products were even featured on shop’s websites for pre-order, with many release dates being published for December or early January. I do not know who allows these images and information to be available on the internet and really cannot understand the benefit of releasing them. There are a few main downfalls that I see by doing this, both for the consumers and the businesses…..

By releasing pictures of products on the internet months before the release, then pushing the products release date even further makes both shops and businesses lose money. I know when I am waiting for a product to be released the chances of me buying a previous model of the same brand is reduced exponentially, and I know this to be true for many other rollers out there. Thus, I cannot see the financial gain of having images of a product on the internet, or acknowledging a new product is coming, then pushing back its release date. This makes shops sell far less of the previous models of a certain product because everyone is waiting for the “new and improved” version, and consequently, they have a large back stock unsold products that they will have to sell at reduced prices. Ergo, shops are making less money to put into the next order from that very same company that posted up the image or acknowledged a new products existence. This creates a lose, lose, situation. The longer a release date is pushed back the more products a business will not sell because no shop is going to invest in a product that will fail to net them a financial gain because consumers are waiting. On the other side of the spectrum, shops find it hard to sell the “old” product they already have, which makes them lose money and makes them disillusioned about placing large orders from the business in question. Lastly, when a product takes too long to release, I usually just move on to another brand. This is especially true during certain times of the year when I find myself with a little extra money, such as Christmas. I want to spend the money on rollerblading because it is my passion, but I feel if a business cannot make the concerted effort to meet their Christmas deadlines, a time of year when I believe they would make their most money, then I have no interest in buying from them.

If a business fails to meet their deadlines enough times they begin to lose legitimacy and frustrate their customers, which is never a good business plan. This statement is compounded if products are hyped months in advance and then pushed back. What good is a product if no one can get their hands on them? And what good is a release date if they are never met? Lets face it, rolling is plagued with poor planning and communication. A lot of consumers in this industry know when a company says a product will be released in December what they are really saying is February…maybe March…maybe later. The fact that this is so common and so understood makes rollerblading as an industry look unprofessional. Businesses, shops, and distribution seem to lack the communication to set firm dates, or agree not to release any information at all. Instead what we have are shops all posting different dates on when something is released; businesses saying that all the shops are wrong and no date they post is correct; distribution companies not knowing what is going on even though they are supposed to have a direct link to the creators of the product; and finally, consumer becoming frustrated because no one knows what is happening so they are not informed and cannot buy something that was supposed to be available last month. It seems like some companies in our industry rely on this anarchic model to properly promote their “new and improved” items and do nothing to change it. This is not only frustrating for the consumer, but also self-destructive for the businesses. People lose their sense of hype when an item is not in front of them and the longer it is not available the more consumers do not care. If this happens enough times consumers lose all interest in what a business says because they automatically believe it to be false. I doubt this is how any business wants to be perceived, especially in rolling, a market so small that everyone knows what is happening, which allows stereotypes (especially negative ones) to follow businesses for long periods of time and spread throughout the entire rolling community.

Lastly, I would like to clarify a few things. I am not attacking all businesses in rollerblading that create products. I feel certain companies handle themselves extremely well. Valo is a perfect example, from my knowledge, their release dates are solid, images or official announcements have never been made without the product being available shortly after, and they always keep their customers up to date with what is going on. Nimh is another example, as soon as the company was made public skates were in shops, no excuses, no delays. Also, when their limited edition white Shima V.2 was delayed because of postal errors they made sure to let their customers know what was going on, and even with the delay the skates were available to be bought shortly afterward. I could mention other companies, but these two stand out in my mind as the pinnacle of how things should be done. What should be taken into consideration is that these two companies are largely controlled by rollers. I know Nimh is fully skater owned, and I know Valo is largely, if not completely, ran by Jon Julio. Up until this point I have kept names out of this write up in order to maintain professionalism, but I had to make it clear that I feel that not all companies are handling their advertising and deadlines poorly, and that some companies are actually doing an amazing job. It just so happens the companies that are doing this the best have people who are passionate about rolling controlling them. Another point I would like to make is that these are just my opinions, and I realize that some people will disagree with me, and I encourage that. This is a topic I feel has not been touched upon enough, and is something that is constantly occurring, so the more feedback / debate I can get on this topic the better. Lastly, these are not the opinions of all members of CanadianRoll, these are just my opinions. Thus, do not take this write up to be a representation of CanadianRoll’s beliefs just my own.

If you made it through this wall of text I congratulate you.

-Nick D’Amico

I completely 100% agree. Some shops take the pre-order thing way over the top. I think no one should be pre-ordering anything except for MAYBE skates…It just sets everyone up for a big disappointment in the end.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Misc. News, 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.