Arbor Snowboards 2024/25 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Snowboards FW24/25 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Arbor
Interviewee: Eddie Wall – Product Marketing Manager

OVERALL

How would you describe the current state of the snowboard market? What big developments, changes, challenges, and/or opportunities are you seeing and how is your brand navigating them?

Overall, we’re seeing the hangover of COVID-19 with excess inventory in the marketplace. We’ll see this trend continue throughout this season as retailers clear out inventory. With this, we’re working on marketplace management strategies that will create healthier inventory positions to support the industry as a whole.

While this might appear as a challenge it provides the opportunity to rightsize our line, reposition products in the marketplace, and build intentional products for our consumers. With this strategy, we’ll bring new products in our line that are unexpected from Arbor that will build a foundation for the future.

Following overall price increase, any positive developments with regards to manufacturing, sourcing, or logistics and the changes you’ve made? Are there any examples you can share of how your business pivoted effectively? What developments are you seeing with regard to product pricing?

From 2020-2022 we saw serious disruption in shipping and supply chains. Increased shipping and material costs as well as overcrowded ports not only caused issues with receiving products on time but also affected materials being shipped to factories. During these times we pivoted by shifting our timelines forward, in some cases months ahead of previous years, to adapt to the changing shipping climate. As we are nearing the end of 2023 shipping costs have decreased but are still not as low as pre-2020. We are constantly working with our material suppliers, shipping vendors, and factories to take every step possible to keep our products reasonably priced.

Is e-commerce sales still strong since most brands have been put a lot of effort in physical retail?

Overall, between 2020-23 we saw huge spikes in e-commerce due to people staying home and avoiding public places. While Arbor is a huge supporter of the brick-and-mortar shops that carry our products and will continue to support them in the future, we are also excited to have recently launched our e-commerce platform to reach more consumers and increase the accessibility to our product.

Past last winter and the lack of snow in Europe, what’s your overall sales and production/inventory strategy for 24/25?

For 24/25 we have reduced our overall SKU count and have repositioned our offering to be easier for retailers & consumers to digest. We will be focusing heavily on our athlete marketing strategies and the products that tie into these stories which should drive sales into our top-selling SKUs and reduce excess inventory.

SNOWBOARD SPECIFIC

What trends or developments are you seeing with regard to board construction, shapes, and general innovation? How is this shaping your 24/25 range?

Trends in board construction are showing companies’ motivation to make the most sustainable snowboards possible. “Today, we celebrate the fact that every board is manufactured with 100% Solar Energy; that 80% of our materials and processes are sustainable, while research continues to bring the remaining 20% in line; that we have once again expanded our use of sustainable woods in our Powerply offering. ” – Bob Carlson – Founder.

In growth, comes change, and for our 24/25 offering, we did just that. We completely revamped the Arbor line and how it is presented. We did this in three steps. First, we removed a large number of models in the line that were too similar to each other. Second, we developed ten new models to add to the line. Third, we meticulously organised each model into a series of Collections and restructured our line architecture to make it easier to understand for both consumers and buyers. This is a big step in the right direction and only the beginning of noticeable change at Arbor.

Anything new concerning sustainability and related products or construction you would like to highlight?

All of our Real Wood Powerply top sheets and wood cores are sustainably sourced. We use bio-plastic top sheets, recycled steel edges, recycled ABS sidewalls when applicable, and bio-resin. They are factory-waxed with Wend Natural Wax, and manufactured with 100% solar energy.

“We have always considered the planet in the production of our products. From the start, we committed to donating a portion of every sale to environmental conservation. Our efforts involve the protection and restoration of forests, and putting roots in the ground. We focus on the Koa forests of Hawaii as the best way to give back to the people and place at the roots of the surf, skate, and snow experience. Today, Arbor is the only brand in action sports restoring forests, rather than just planting trees.” – Bob Carlson – Founder

Are you using any new materials in your hardware for 24/25? If so, what and why? We’re interested in anything new in inserts / edges / cores / sidewalls / glue / resin/ wood types / base material / top sheet / etc. here.

The majority of Arbor snowboards have Real Wood Powerply topsheets. The models that do not implement the Powerply use a bio-plastic topsheet. All Arbor snowboards have recycled steel edges, recycled ABS sidewalls when applicable, bio-resin, and sustainably sourced Poplar and Paulownia wood cores. They are factory-tuned, factory-waxed with Wend Natural Wax, and manufactured with 100% solar energy.

Any new designs or pattern approaches in your 24/25 gear? Are any collabs on the line?

Our new approach to organizing our line into Collections allowed us to have design continuity.

The Founders Collection is the most noticeable with each model having the same top sheet and base graphic. The hand-dyed, dark grey Ash top sheets have an easily identifiable, bright orange tip and tail dip while the bases are a clean black with the iconic Arbor tree logo on the nose and ARBOR across the tail. With the heritage influence for Japanese high-performance turning and pow surfing—we’re introducing a new shape called the Padre.

The Omnis Collection offers a more diverse variety of graphics and a wider range of use of technologies and sustainable technologies. With the addition of athletes like Pat Moore, we’ve leveraged the knowledge behind his ATV riding skills to build an all-new Carbon Coda and Coda for the 24/25 product line. We worked tirelessly with Pat to design a high-performing snowboard that will bring an entirely new point of view to Arbor’s Omnis Collection. On top of the Code, for the women’s line, Veda’s tail graphic draws inspiration from waves in the ocean and Marie-France Roy’s home on Vancouver Island while the nose of the board shows the deep grain of the Cedar top sheet.

The Candle Collection is easily identifiable by two main design features, the wood inlay between the inserts on the top sheet and the Candle Flame Logo over the Arbor tree logo on the base. Pat Moore inspired the all-black Rain graphics while the Metal Machine is a Mike Liddle signature colorway. Eric Leon worked closely with our creative team to design the Relapse graphic and the well-known art duo Boss Dog created the design for the Draft. Lastly, the Cadence became a canvas for Canadian artist Hilary Jane.

Are you planning to focus on a special product range or type of customer? What’s your newest range?

With the introduction of the Founder’s, Omnis and Candle Collection—we’ll dive deep into storytelling around these products as they align with Arbor’s consumers. Within each collection, we’ll focus on the Padre from the Founders Collection, Pat Moore’s Carbon Coda, and Marie France-Roy’s Veda for our backcountry and all-mountain riders. As the Candle Collection evolves, the Metal Machine will support the initial launch of the Candle Rain to reach our Park and Street riders.

What is your top product marketing story for next season?

Men’s Snowboards

Coda & Carbon Coda

Padre

Rain

Metal Machine.

Women’s Snowboards

Veda & Veda Split

Swoon Rocker & Swoon Rocker Decon

Padre

High-performance, low-angle, touch-the-ground turns are the hallmark of traditional Japanese-style snowboarding, and the Padre draws heavy inspiration from the region of the world that has been snow-surfing for over fifty years. This board is a set-back, directional, Japanese-influenced gun shape with a powerful camber profile that goes fast and turns hard.

Carbon Coda

The Coda has long been a high-level, cross-terrain performer. But the all-new Coda – designed with Pat Moore – breaks the evolutionary sound barrier with its forward-facing approach to all-mountain expectations. Its traditional camber profile is supported by Grip Tech contact points to offer a unique combination of powder and control. It’s wider-platform tip and tail are designed to drive clean turns at high speeds through mixed conditions. It’s Mountain Twin design provides riders with the toolkit needed to get into and out of dicey spots. And this upgraded Carbon version incorporates the added response and snap that only carbon inlays vector netting can. This is the next-gen Coda – and Pat Moore is putting his name and stamp of approval on it.

Veda

The Veda – designed with Marie-France Roy – is the highest-performing snowboard in the Arbor women’s collection. Designed to be a directional, all-conditions tool for MFR, this board is built on Arbor’s System Camber tech platform, which features Grip Tech and 3D Fender Technology. The Veda has quick edge-to-edge turn initiation, noticeable nose float, and is responsive enough to hold a tight edge in the steepest steeps.