Endeavor’s Max Jenke Explains Acquisition Of Sandbox

How did the deal come about?
I’ve known Kevin personally for over 20 years – both of us riding at Mt. Seymour and being pro riders. We have a mutual respect for one another, both from our days of snowboarding and then into what we built in business. Kevin always wore Airhole and our crew always wore Sandbox. About four years ago, Kevin and Melle reached out to our CEO (my father in law) Bruce Wells to get advice on business strategy. We met over the next few years, checking in on their progress, comparing notes on successes and challenges, and collectively we kept an open communication. There was loose communication about us taking on the brand in some form, as we enjoyed the working relationship, however, nothing eventuated until recently when they approached us and it became obvious that the timing was perfect to bring Sandbox in for the Winter 19/20 sell-in to retail beginning January 2019.

What was the thinking behind it?
Endeavor Design operates Endeavor Snowboards and Airhole Facemasks from Vancouver, Canada. We design, manufacture, market, and sell these two brands globally and in over 2000 customers. We have invested in growing these businesses, through B2B and B2C, and adding a third global brand would provide the perfect economies of scale to our business. Sandbox is perfect for Endeavor Design in many ways – it is Canadian, it’s an accessory brand, we share many common customers / distributors – all of this creates more value between us and our customers.

Can you give us specific details of the deal?
Endeavor Design has acquired the intellectual property of Sandbox, which means the brand name, designs, trademarks and patents. Kevin will continue to be involved as both an ambassador but also help us with product development.

Please explain the new organisational structure.
At this point Sandbox slots into our current organizational structure but we will revisit March 31st at our annual meeting with our group to see what is required for the season to come. We currently operate with a tight squad – 7 in the Vancouver office handling design, sales, marketing, accounts, production, operations plus a US sales manager based in California. 3PL warehouses are located in Kamloops, Los Angeles, and Rotterdam and we’ll add the two Sandbox factories to our five other production vendors who produce our Airhole and Endeavor products.

Who will be in the Management team?
Our whole team will be working with Sandbox but certainly myself, CEO Bruce Wells, Sales and Brand Director Joel Giddings, US Sales Manager Aaron Vujicic and Digital Marketing Chris Bishop will be working more intensely on what is required for the brand on a design, sales, marketing, and production stand point. We all wear many hats being predominately a winter company.

How will your European distribution be affected? And global distribution?
Europe and global distribution won’t change – we are excited to work with the sales network that Sandbox has created, many of whom we already work with. Our intention is to build on what they have created.

What back office synergies will the two companies benefit from?
Sandbox will benefit from the systems and people Endeavor has invested in, as well as our focus and commitment to winter sports as a group and expanding our summer reach with both Airhole sun protection in the fishing and outdoor markets and Sandbox in wake and skate markets. We are passionate about making amazing product that we love to use and this will propel Sandbox to further its potential. We believe the brand has tremendous opportunity and we are very excited to see this come to fruition.