! Swoard 2005-2006 Season !

[harald]

Nils,
Many thanks for your comprehensive answer. Regarding the quality philosophy behind Swoard I totally agree. In the long run, I think quality pays off (but cost efficiency also is important). As a marketing professor, I am not happy with the perception that marketing is gimmicks. Also, the brands that survive and do well over time are all supported by real performance benefits and technical advantages. Thus I also totally agree that there should be a real performance difference between the 2D and 3D, not only the label and the price. So marketingwise, I totally agree to prioritize the 2D and have it on the market this winter with all support you can give.
One reason for my question was that I might buy a new Swoard this season since the backside edge is very thin after hitting a rock in Zinal this winter. I also have questions from other guys here in town what happens with Swoard and when they can buy. Therefore, I wondered whether I/we should buy the 2D or wait for the new 3D. I completely understand your position since Swoard is a freetime activity. I also want you to earn some money for all the effort you have put down. That is the best guarantee for Swoard to survive. My old 3D might last one more winter but will not allow more hits from rocks.
The conclusion is to buy a 2D. Maybe it is good enough for the market as it is now, but we can still look for a new 3D to come.

Best regards,

[Silber]

Nils,

considering that for you guys Swoard is NOT your way of making a living but more a way of following your passion, I would like you to consider the following:

1) many of us share your same goal and would like to be more involved with swoard
2) cost of development of new models is high if shared by 3 people, much lower if divided by a 100
3) if there is a "tribe", the tribalistas might be willing to give much more than just the price of a new board every few years.
4) on a personal level, i would be happy to contribute money to the cause if that means financing R&D to develop always better equipment.

Thus, maybe you should think of setting up a consortium, where the members can feel more involved without requiring to be included in all the decisions of the management. You could still make money out of it, but you would have more resources to develop better products and will have more loyal customers (If i were a shareholder of Swoard I doubt I would buy a Rossignol...)

Food for thought...

[nils]

Well first of all, I'm not saying marketing is a gimmick ! I'm saying marketing has turned big ski/snowboard company to loose their core knowledge: making good quality products, and let marketers decide of maybe too much things in the process. Marketing is a needed part of selling goods, and even if we are saying we are not doing any, our way to see/sell things is marketing!

Now about the 2D: it is not a cheap version of the 3D, and it is really the sister board of the 3D, not a cheap daughter of a famous actress...
It means all the qualities you have in your actual 3D will not be lost in the 2D, its a bit different feeling under the feet, but performance wise, jacques is right when he says he performs backsides more smoothly for example, i do feel the same on the 2D.

We will offer the 2D in H flexes for the 168 and 175H too, so your 3D will find a nice place above your chimney at your lodge since you will be able to replace it with a board designed for you. We decide to provide the H flex on those two models because they account for a good percentage of each sold,and also because we want people like you ( H flex riders) to be really happy and fine tuned to your board).

now silber, thnx for your answer!
1. yes we feel everyone sharing the same goals is part of the adventure
2. problem is not just money but time jacques, patrice and I can spend on the R&D.. adding more developpers will add to the already complex scheme
3. We seen the way everyone here, and in Zinal and in our emails feels part of the "tribe" and we know we can count on everyone's help. Already we have a lot of people helping by spreading the good news... What we need is more people convinced alpine riding is a fun way to snowboard: everytime one of the Swoard riders does EC in front of non alpine: he promotes the sport, and maybe even helps us sale a board and convert another rider! You guys help us a lot at the Zinal event too, making it such a great time! This encourages us to go on and organize it better too!

4. thnx a lot, If we had more time for Swoard ( aka permanent job) it would be an amazing thing to do: build a company owned by its core riders... It is a bit complicated to set up thu legallywise..but would surely be awsome. We ( harald followed us in the process) had business plan alike reports done by stoked marketing MBA students, and those reports showed that more cash was needed, mostly in case we wanted to really take off as a snowboard company, doubling sales each year etc...but we decided the only way to be a niche company and sell directly to customers good quality product was to stay small, and increase slowier, allowing us to manage and control everything without loosing the path we created.

This year's success will say how things will turn anyway! Wait and see!

Nils

[Silber]

Nils,

I am an MBA (Columbia University) as well, and even without running the numbers I foresee no extreme riches for the near future.
But I see a group of 1000 people willing to spend quite a bit of money to follow their passion. Although we are very happy to advertise SWOARD, I would prefer you making some money to compensate your time paid from a restricted group of people like myself, rather than having all the world extremecarving on a limited number of good carving spots. Just imagine going to carve at 8 am on a saturday morning in Verbier and find 500 people all trying to carve at the same hour (since snow conditions degenerate fast for what we like to do)...and at the same time (danger!!!): baaaad idea.

[István]

Francesco,

I smell that your are about to buy-in yourself into Swoard

Well, although I think what your wrote makes sense, on the other hand I myself do advertise alpine riding and especially EC and people tend to love it when they see the pics and vids, but frankly I have never converted anyone from skiing or softbooting.....

This makes me believe that seeing couple of hundreds of riders practicing alpine/EC is a utopia.

BTW, would you come to Sölden on the last weekend of October, including November the 1st (national holiday over here and I guess in many other countries). There you'd be able to see me practicing at least, or in case we repliacte the alcoholic daze we had in Corvara, you might see an other 10 of me

Kindest,

István

[Silber]

Ciao Istvàn!

it would be great to meet, but i believe Solden is out of question considering today's disaster...it seems that that location has serious bad luck..

Anyway, we'll find a place to have some fun together!

Ciao

PS
just came back from Brasil where I went Sandboarding down from a 20m high sand dune on the beach...and of course got injured to my left foot from the front strap of the binding. Also had my first kite lesson..

[István]

What happened in Sölden? I haven't seen any news on this.


Kindest,

István

[Silber]

Disaster. An helicopter dropped a concrete pillar right on a gondola cabin that fell to the ground. All the other cabins in the air started shaking dropping people. I believe 9 died and 10 seriously injured.

Baaaad stuff.

[István]

Gee, that's really bad Yesterday evening I also heard it on the news. What are the chances of getting killed by a concrete pillar falling onto you when you are travelling in a ski cabin.... and it happened.

Rgds,

István

[nils]

same happened in italy when that Intruder from the US airforce hit a cable and the cabin fell few years ago... chances are very small it happens, but it does sometimes...

N.

[István]

Nils, the difference there was that the pilot wanted to show off and flew under the cable on purpose, that obviously had the inherent risk to cut the cable.

Now it is a total coincidence, noone had any wrong intentions.... Unfortunately it took lives.

Too bad...

Best,

István

[nils]

Just UPDATED FIRST POST!
More info!

See page 1!

Nils

[Felix]

Well lets hope that the Swoard creates the same hype as the "Snowrider"

Huh, you haven't heard of Snowrider?
Snowrider was the first carving ski, develloped theroretically in the 1970's by a Lower Austrian national level ski coach, who understood the theory behind carving back then, and got kicked out of the ÖSV because of his "stupid calculation". He didn't find a company to produce his skis and in the late 80's went on to cut snowboards into halves to produce the first carvers. In 1992 they finally got a racer on carvers into the europecup who was so good that by 93 every company needed to step in. Now since three years Atomic M5 has nearly the same dimensions as the original Snowrider and has been the most praised allround ski for the last two seasons.

But I hope for you that you have more luck in Marketing as Snowrider is still widely unknown (maybe 500 pairs per season, out of which 20 are ridden in the Europecup with different topsheets) and that extremecarving gets the same boom as carving got for skiing

[nils]

never heard of the snowrider, will do some google
N.

[Dave]

Well lets hope that the Swoard creates the same hype as the "Snowrider"

For me, swoard is more than a hype!!! It's a board that has a grip like no other!!!
Thanks P, J and N

See ya, Dave