Telos Snowboards 2024/25 Preview
Retail Buyers Guide: Snowboards FW24/25 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Telos
Interviewee: Kolja G. Keetman – Sales Manager Europe
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?
The overall market has still too much stock of past seasons in stores which reflects in a lot of discounted “old”products online. This causes partly slow moving stock in local retail and of regular product. On top of that the all over economic situation is due to the Gaza war and the Ukrainian war also under pressure. The positive side is that start of the winter season was way better than last winter. We’re strengthening relationships to our local retail partners and our consumers and we get a lot of positive feedback on the actual strategy of keeping the full line carry over for 24/25. We started this season to shift all online channel direct sales to the closest retailer of the consumer and we are supporting local retailers even if they’re not yet existing pre-order clients.
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 regards to product pricing?
We’ve been able to keep pricing consistent from winter 22/23 and didn’t have any increases since then. Our sourcing and manufacturing was already good before those challenges and it really helped that a lot of our raw materials are sourced close by our GP87 factory. Also Dan Agundes’s long time experience in production is key.
Is e-commerce sales still strong since most brands have been put a lot of effort in physical retail?
Our own e-com is a really small part of the business and in Europe all sales are re-directed to the closest local retailer of each consumer. In general we’re pushing for local retail and e-com is a necessary but small part of the business.
Cascade_top
After last winter and the lack of snow in Europe, what’s your overall sales and production/inventory strategy for 24/25?
We decided to go for a very low stock in Europe this season and try to keep the request for our products higher than our stock. We want to built sustainable business and grow the brand in a healthy way. For 24/25 we’ll work the same way and keep our stock low. We truly believe that products have to be sold out sometimes and it doesn’t make sense to have always overstock.
SNOWBOARD SPECIFIC
What trends or developments are you seeing with regards to board construction, shapes, and general innovation? How is this shaping your 24/25 range?
The consumer starts to accept “special shapes” more and more. In terms of construction we’re striving to built the longest lasting boards with the best possible weight to durability ratio in the market. Telos is Dan’s personal project and reflects what he always wants to build. We don’t follow any trends we just built what feels right and we want to see happy faces riding our boards. 24/25 will be a 100% carry over. New boards and graphics will come as soon as we implement new technologies and shapes.
Anything new concerning sustainability and related product or construction you would like to highlight?
Telos is offering a 4 year warranty on all boards and we think that the most sustainable point on a snowboard is durability. When a Telos board is ridden by the 1st owner for 3 seasons and is sold 2nd hand, ridden another 2 seasons and sold again to a 3rd owner this is exactly what we want to see. We are sure that our boards last longer than other boards out there. And if you crash your Telos on a rock or in any kind of crash you will get a “crash replacement” within the 1st season 40% off, 2nd season 30% off and 3rd season 20% off – we take your broken board back to us and built a bench, a shelf or anything else with it.
Deros
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. As said above 100% carry over.
Any new design or pattern approaches in your 24/25 gear? Any collabs on the line?
As said above 100% carry over.
Are you planning to focus on a special product range or type of customers? What’s your newest range?
Since this season we are offering the Legend Massif which is a real wide version of our Legend. For the future we want to expand our Legend Line. The Legends are true twins with a really high all-mountain. aspect. I wouldn’t say that we really focus on one special product range because our line is already focused. We don’t want to have too many similar boards in our collection. Our consumers are people who want to enjoy snowboarding and want to have fun – nonetheless if they love carving, hitting rails and kickers or slashing pow lines.
What is your top product marketing story for next season?
On a product base we’ll push The Legend Massif, the DeRos and the women’s Cascade!
Legend Massif
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