Sector 9 Turning Into the Man?

feedback from Tino: I was hoping you guys could do an entry on something concerning that seems to be arising in the longboard skate market. Basically, a number of retailers are showing interest is selling additional lines to the already existent Sector 9′s that they sell. Problem is, Sector 9 is threatening to pull their product from the stores if a competitor is added to the ‘variety’ that’s being offered to customers.

Whats with bullying tactics? I’ve this same story from shop owners, the guys at Gravity, Riviera, GFH, etc. Wasn’t skateboarding originally about expression, rebelling against the man and the establishment, etc? Seems like Sector is afraid of competition and thus turning into the Man.

I had a couple Sector completes over the years and even bought one for an ex, but from multiple accounts of the same story, i’ll never buy from the corpo giant again. Let the underog’s who do a fraction of your total business, Sector, have a chance. If your boards are truly better, you have nothing to worry about!!

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Well, you’re in luck, here’s your entry Tino.

First of all, I’m not into longboards. I’ve ridden one exactly once in my life. I’m also deeply offended and I hurt inside when I tell people I skate and they say “Oh, like riding longboards?” No, I mean like real skateboarding. You know, ramps, rails, stairs, ledges, bowls, etc. I have nothing against longboarding, although when combined with steep hills I think it’s a lot more dangerous than any other type of skateboarding (ever tried to power slide on a longboard?), I just want people to understand that skateboarding and longboarding are as different as mountain biking and riding a beach cruiser down the street to the video store. More power to you if you enjoy longboarding, but if that’s the only type of skateboarding you do don’t go calling yourself a skater.

Now that I’m done with that soapbox, onto business.

Sector 9 can do whatever they want as far as dictating who they will sell to and who they won’t. It’s called capitalism, and when it’s allowed to work, it works better than any economic system that has been applied on a large scale in the history of the world. Sector 9 can and should do whatever they feel is best for their company. If they’re right, they’ll do well, if they’re wrong, they’ll go out of business, and that’s the way it should be.

That said, Tino also has the freedom to call them jerks, and that’s what you get if you run a business in a free society like ours. You do what you want, but people call you a jerk, people boycott your product, you get labeled as “The Man”, etc.

Thus the question becomes whether Sector 9 should restrict selling their product to those shops who will only sell longboard products from Sector 9 or if they should ignore that issue entirely. Far be it from me to tell Sector 9 what to do since I have virtually zero experience doing what they do, but heck, since when have I been one to keep my mouth shut when I should?

If I ran Sector 9, I would try to put myself out of business. That is, I would have two brands, Sector 9, which would be my “premium” brand, and something else that would be my “cheap” brand. I would entirely separate the marketing departments, even to the extent of putting them in different buildings, and I would give the cheap brand the job of putting the premium brand out of business any way they can, as though they were separate companies.

On the Sector 9 side of things, I would concentrate on making the product as good as possible. We’re talking quality, folks. And I would sell the product based on “Hey, this is the best longboard stuff around, and if you want the best, you’re going to pay through the nose for it and be proud of it.”

On the cheap brand side of things I would focus on getting the job done. “Hey, you there! You want a longboard? I’ve got a longboard for ya. Yeah, it’s not as nice as those Sector 9 boards, but you just want to ride down the street, right? Who cares if it’s Sector 9 or this cheap brand here.”

So what’s all this for? It’s because cheaper brands are going to chip away at Sector 9′s market whether Sector 9 likes it or not. There’s nothing they can do but slow it down slightly. Sector 9 can keep swimming upstream and improving the quality, but the other companies are going to be right behind them eating away at their market share. So what Sector 9 needs to do is create it’s own competitor and put itself out of business, because then they’ll not only be the current market leader, but the next market leader as well. Then they might just do it again and again a few times over.

As for being restrictive, sure, I’d be restrictive. I would only sell Sector 9 boards in nice shops that are well established or at least well funded. The key word is “nice”. I wouldn’t sell in any rinky-dink shops that are just getting started out of some hole in the wall. As for the cheap brand, I’d sell that anywhere I could to anyone who will listen.

But I wouldn’t tell shop owners I won’t sell to them if they sell other brands. I would try to make it in their best interest to sell Sector 9 boards over other brands, and I would do a lot of work on the advertising/marketing side to create demand for the Sector 9 brand. But rather than fight the competition I’d embrace it and then try and beat the competition to a pulp by making my product so much better nobody else will want the cheap stuff.