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Augment Suspending U.S. Distribution

Philpug

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AUGMENT
Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear Augment Ski customers!
As a consequence of the last two years (Covid) and the war in Europe,
we are faced with a wave of inflation and massive supply shortages of
all materials.
Also made investments which are urgently needed to increase our
production capacity will not be helpful this year,
as the delivery date for these machines has also been pushed back by
months.
These circumstances force us to reduce production volumes.
In addition, we must inform you that we currently have no
representation in the USA for our Augment Ski brand. Unfortunately,
due to the aforementioned circumstances, we have to suspend the
upcoming sales season and we will not be able to launch again in
America until 23-24.
It is fair and important to inform you early enough about these
developments.
Despite everything, we are positive about the future and would like
to thank you for the good interest in our skis so far.

AUGMENT

Screen Shot 2022-04-25 at 5.26.15 AM.png
 

James

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Is this the canary in a coal mine or one off?
 

Cheizz

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All brands are suffering from supply chain issues deriving from covid. Add to that inflation and general shortages of materials... My guess is these problems hit all manufacturers. Whether or not that impacts just one region or globally has yet to be seen, I guess.
 
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Philpug

Philpug

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My guess is these problems hit all manufacturers.
Being a smaller boutique manufacturer, I think they are feeling it worse, I think the bigger brands get the lions share of materials and the smaller houses are left to fight for what is left. I think there is a commitment with Van Deer and them product.
 
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Cheizz

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Shops around here have had very low numbers of deliveries from brands, if at all. Including bigger brands such as Atomic, Salomon, etc. Deliveries dropping to 0 may be just for the small players, but getting stuff to consumers is a real problem for all manufacturers.
 

Andy Mink

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Not next season but next next season. I hope they have enough traction in Europe to stay in business.
 
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Philpug

Philpug

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Not next season but next next season. I hope they have enough traction in Europe to stay in business.
I think with euro sales and what Van Deer is taking, they should be able to keep the lights on.
 

Paul Lutes

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Well poop; so much for my plan to get a pair of AM88s next season. Really hope they weather the storm - quality product.
 

DanoT

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4 or 5 years ago Ski Canada Magazine published a list of all ski models offered for sale in Canada with the list totaling over 1000 different pairs of skis.....I guess that number is down some these days.
 

Muleski

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I hope that in time they can figure this out, and make it work. I have no idea of how many pairs of skis they could commit to bringing to the USA. Even pre COVID, pre-Ukraine, that number often won’t “pencil in” other than for the most optimistic dreamers.

It was a real issue for Stockli 20 of so years ago. Speaking from experience. You need some scale….if you need to earn some money.
 

otto

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There is not a list that we can refer to that will be accurate as to what the future twists and turns are going to be as it is relative to the effects of COVID and the war in Ukraine. However that said those of you with a nose for international business will have some idea. There is a global workforce crisis that is here due to a combination of COVID, and general political factors that have many industries scrambling to find employees. This is affecting raw materials, shipping and transportation, as well as manufacturing.

Over the last 15 years a large portion of ski industry hardgoods production are shifting from countries that have expensive labor to countries that have cheap labor. For a European based production market for skis boots and bindings, the obvious choice was to shift factories to some of the former eastern bloc countries like Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Belarus, etc. If anything gets any worse for Ukraine and some of the surrounding countries, the ski industry will be in even more trouble. In addition to either assembly or production which takes place in the countries mentioned, The raw materials come from places like Russia. Aluminum is commonly sourced from Russia, and there is only a little of that used in ski boots, like as in every buckle that is not made of plastic. And I would like to see how much aluminum is used in the production of alpine skis. And there is other raw materials that come from Russia, Like unobtanium...

Take those 2 subjects and lay them over the existing big brand ski and boot companies and ask the question between Atomic and Blossom, who will have more horsepower to acquire raw materials and bank loans to make the transactions happen? Okay now between Head and Van Deer, who will be in better shape to acquire raw material and build models to orders that were placed by retailers by the end of January? Also if you have the ability to build product in your own factory and some of the brands only rent space and production blocks from those same factories, whose product will get produced first?

So it's one thing to say that Fischer had a factory burn down in Ukraine earlier this year. It's real easy to imagine how they will have a hard time making product appear. But what is not so obvious is that companies like Nordica, Tecnica, Rossignol, Salomon, Atomic, Head and any of the other established brands will struggle to deliver what the world has ordered on a timely basis or deliver at all. If that is what is going on with the big well funded brands, where will deliveries be from smaller brands that do not have deep pockets or are in line behind the biggest manufacturers for raw material availability. This is not a good time to be Van Deer, Blossom, Augment, Renoun, Stockli, Kastle, Peak, Bomber, Crosson, ID One, Moment, Onp3, J skis, Etc, Etc, Etc, you fill in the blanks...

Can you imagine what the the stories will be next fall when stuff you thought was coming to market, has not even been assembled yet. It will be just like the Chevy Suburbans that are almost fully assembled sitting in fields in Detrroit waiting for computer chips to finish the cars off. Or bike frames that are all built and painted, but cannot be delivered because there are no chains available? "Hello Moment, this is XYZ ski shop in Denver and we are waiting for our ski shipment that we placed an order for last February... Yes we have all the components cut and stamped and ready to assemble, however we cannot deliver your skis until our shipment of steel edges arrive from China. As soon as the edges arrive we can finish building your skis" "The edges should be here any month now"...
 

Paul Lutes

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Yeah, I lean towards pessimism on global market stability for the near term. Too much turmoil on too many levels, with too many bad actors. Seems like the market agility I assumed was there has been overwhelmed. Hopefully some really creative individuals figure out some new work-arounds/hacks - can some one volunteer to provide a US home for Augment ski manufacturing ops?
 

David Chaus

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It'll be interesting to see if there is a shift in marketing by these same companies to reflect the supply chain issues. Or if they continue to market skis and boots with the message that purchasing these products will improve the target consumers' skiing, and therefore their entire existence is improved beyond their wildest dreams.

If skis aren't in adequate supply, there's an opportunity for tuning tool companies to gain some more sales, as well as more visible market for no-longer-new skis.
 

otto

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Yeah, I lean towards pessimism on global market stability for the near term. Too much turmoil on too many levels, with too many bad actors. Seems like the market agility I assumed was there has been overwhelmed. Hopefully some really creative individuals figure out some new work-arounds/hacks - can some one volunteer to provide a US home for Augment ski manufacturing ops?

Same for me on the pessimism, so while I am throwing cold buckets of water on our chances of unlimited choices of any and all ski equipment that you might want to buy, I will say that having products built and delivered direct to the consumer from the US is the least likely business model to succeed. In case you have not noticed no one in this country has any interest in working for peanuts in an unskilled labor position like building, finishing, or shipping skis. As well as for the few thousand pair worldwide where do you think the American ski manufacturing alliance stands in terms of power to acquire raw materials and what does it take in dollars to get a load of aluminum shipped into the USA? Or wood for cores, or carbon fiber? I am sure all of you would be happy to buy those skis at a cost of $3,000 delivered to your door... LOL no one on this forum ever complains about paying retail price on a pair of skis. Of course there will be a bro bra deal on those skis for $2,950!!!
 

otto

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It'll be interesting to see if there is a shift in marketing by these same companies to reflect the supply chain issues. Or if they continue to market skis and boots with the message that purchasing these products will improve the target consumers' skiing, and therefore their entire existence is improved beyond their wildest dreams.

If skis aren't in adequate supply, there's an opportunity for tuning tool companies to gain some more sales, as well as more visible market for no-longer-new skis.

Yes
 

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