Longboards S/S 2023 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Alongside skateboarding’s Covid-influenced boom in popularity, longboarding has seen a particularly huge uptake in the past few years. To take a closer look at what brands will the bringing to the table next season, here’s the Longboard Retail Buyers Guide for SS23 with SOURCE skateboarding editor Dave Morgan.
Longboarding seems to have maintained a steady pace in growth and participation, with the varied different styles appealing to many. From dancing to downhill, longboarding is a perfect way to navigate a city or a slalom in normally a somewhat less-intense fashion than skateboarding. That being said, thedownhill scene is constantly scaring the living daylights out of any spectators as riders continue to push their boundaries.
With the pandemic becoming a thing of the past, the general consensus is that the market is going strong as Nuno Fonseca, CEO at Gotcha said: “The longboard market seems to be stable, however we cannot expect the covid times market to keep up, but it’s solid in my opinion.” There are however noticeable changes that brands are having to adapt to. Ivan Garcia Arozamen, Product Manager at Miller Division said that the current market has “been changing for two or three years and most of the riders who practiced longboardingsporadically have changed to surfskate because it is very similar and has even more spin without so much size.” A lot of longboard manufacturers have also expanded into the surfskate market, with brands offering surfskate trucks separately to modify their current longboards/ cruisers into a more surfskate-style ride. Arozamena also added that they “see fewer riders in freeride or downhill, which has greatly decreased its use.”
Liam Morgan – CEO of Prism Longboards noticed that a main outcome of the pandemic boom in boardsportpopularity was an abundance of stock. Morgan said, “as time went on and core brands like mine struggled to supply demand, distros/shops filled their shelves with lower quality gear to supply that demand. We saw a heavy post Covid dip in sales due to this surplus of gear needing to be sold through.” It does seem that the market is recovering/adapting post-pandemic, albeit slowly in certain cases.
Overstocking issues
The aforementioned surplus stock seems to be a major issue across the industry, with retailers & distributions being overstocked in every which way. For many, the struggle to get stock during the pandemic boom has now been flipped- leaving shops with more hardgoods than they know what to do with. An issue with the overstocking situation is brands having to hold off on new releases, as Andy King, CEO of Mindless explained: “We, like many, are in the situation of overstock holding back our new products. Unfortunately, some distributors / shops want our products but they’re either on a buying freeze or are jam packed with pre-sales products that have been forced into their hands. We still feel the demand is there and retailers will remember who forced the stock on them.” Marin McGinnis, Sales at Rayne Longboards agreed, saying “Longboard sales were definitely affected by an overstock of street skate stock globally in 2022. The overstock of street skate stock seems to be approaching a healthier level, which should in turn mean better open to buy budgets in 2023.”
Madrid 2023 S/S Longboards Preview
Themes for SS23
A general focus on symmetrical drop-through and pintail boards seems to be resonating through many brands for next season. Boards such as Miller’s ‘Summer 38’ & DB’s ‘Paradigm 41’ will have you covered for classic drop through shapes, whereas Prism’s ‘Pluto Pro’ seems to be the all-rounder freestyle/dancer of choice. Dancer boards are continuing to gather momentum, with many attributing the popularity to TikTokand other social media influencer videos. Pro models are something being pushed, and brands like Madrid are bringing out more high-performance boards aimed more at the experienced rider, as Shane Maloney,Director at Madrid Skateboards said: “Our new Performance Series longboards are being put fully to the test by our team of riders at race events all around the world.” It’s always reassuring to know the boards that customers buy are the same ones the pros are using. Spanish brand Hydroponic will still be pushing their huge collaboration with Adult Swim’s South Park, which sees several longboards in the capsule including Drop-Through and Dancing decks, alongside a skateboard capsule, these are perfect for the wall or the streets!
New Tech!
Like with most boardsports, they’re constantly trying to ‘reinvent the wheel’, or rather the board as the case may be for the longboard industry. Lighter, stronger, more flexible decks and composite boards seem to be making more of a presence these days. Rayne’s Marin McGinnes spoke of their creation “Tamale Technology that marries the classic and economical hard rock maple construction with the signature Rayne tattooed graphics. The High Pressure Laminate skins wrap the deck like a hot tamale and keep it stiff and protected from the elements.”
Prism Longboards will be introducing their own light, strong and affordable composite called m-core, which comes at a great time as wood prices are constantly increasing. Gotcha’s Nuno Fonseca spoke of their tech improvements: “We have redesigned the base of our trucks and keep on exploring Aromatic Polyamide FiberReinforced Polymer Composite for some of our decks, specially for the drop-through shape to make it stronger for downhill.” Aside from these new experiments into more composite decks, the longboard market doesn’t seem to be bringing much more new technology as far as trucks and things go for this season. With material costs still sky-rocketing, it’s probably a wise move to stick to what we know in regards to hardware and focus more on what we can alter/upgrade to change our ride.
Sustainability
Sustainability should now, as ever, be a main focal point for all brands. Especially considering the current state of the climate (amongst other things) and it’s reassuringly clear that brands are being conscious in any way they can to improve their methods. Be it in production or packing, brands are cutting down on plastics, sourcing more local materials and importing less, which is definitely a step in the right direction!
Jordi Quinto, Skate Specialist at Hydroponic commented: “We have improved our Packaging and Deliveries with more sustainable products and hope to keep doing the same in the following years.”
Other brands such as Gotcha and Mindless are following suit as Andy King proudly announced: “Improving sustainability is a constant project for us, we’re aiming to remove all plastic bags from production by the endof 2023.” DB & Rayne both recycle their building materials, which is an incredibly positive move, as we all know that the production of skate/longboards isn’t initially the most ‘eco-friendly’. However, with brands like these making their best efforts to improve, the future of a conscious industry sounds promising.
The coming season’s outlook is a positive one, and it sounds like longboarding is going to continue growing, or more likely diversifying out into a more hybrid surfskate-style approach, as this seems to be the most popular thing right now. With that being said, longboarding will continue to attract its own diehard fans, so we’ll wrap things up with things to keep look out for next season:
Brand Previews
