Wednesday, October 18, 2006

European Invasion

So, Life-Link and Dynafit have ended their relationship after nearly ten years and Salewa is going to distribute direct in the U.S.

With the Dollar - Euro conversion rate settling down (1 US Dollar = 0.79763 Euro compared to 1 US Dollar = 0.83160 Euro last year - not much change) I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more of this in the near future. I know of at least two U.K brands who are looking at the U.S. market seriously. VauDe seems to be haveing some success (after a few stumbles) with their current distributor. Craft USA is rocking right now.

Lafuma and Mammut have already pulled it off with some success, and two very different business models. I guess the real question is, how many brands can the market really sustain?

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