This Week in The B.O.S.S. Report

The annual SIA show review took up most of our real estate this week - and it was a very good show. In spite of the lack of snow, retailers were relatively up-beat.

here are some excerpts:

Black Diamond made their official debut at SIA after several years of absence. The company feels that it has been evolving into more of a ski company for the last several years...

Head’s business increased nearly 14% in the U.S. market according to the company’s North American management team...

Movement Skis was creating quite a buzz on the show floor due to their premium backcountry and freeride skis... The company uses rather exotic woods in the cores of its skis, which it buys off of a tree farm that specializes in high-end sailing decks...

Salomon is preparing to move its headquarters to Utah sometime in June or July, with much of the current Oregon-based team deciding to remain behind...

Marker created two all-new bindings this year, catering to two similar markets. For the park & pipe skier, the Jester offers a 16 DIN setting and park-specific features like low rotational weight to make spins faster and easier. This same binding platform was incorporated into a backcountry AT set-up for the park & pipe skier who wants to take his or her skills into the big mountains...

On the snowboard side of the show there were more skis than ever. Black Skis was launched this year by Sapient snowboard’s parent company AMS. The brand is a low-price, high performance line of freeride skis and was described as “our response to ski companies making cheap snowboards.” The line starts at $70 wholesale...

Bonfire now claims to be the “solid” number two snowboard apparel brand behind Burton, and even out-sold Burton in pants this year...

Holden is going into its fifth year and was the second most progressive company on the floor when it comes to environmentally conscious design, with the first being Patagonia...

Here's a LINK to the rest