Jones Snowboards strategy: Keep it simple

Jeremy Jones formed and launched Jones Snowboards in partnership with Nidecker in 2009. Since the company’s launch, it has grown to about 400 retail doors worldwide.

I talked with Global Brand Director Chad Perrin to ask him some questions about what’s new at Jones, how they are working with key retailers and where he thinks snow manufacturers need to focus their efforts.

Where is Jones Snowboards headquartered? How many employees do you have? 

Jeremy Jones on top of Space Needle. Photo by Figenshau.

The company has locations in Truckee, California; Bellingham, Washington; and Geneva, Switzerland. Jones has two full time employees - Jeremy and myself.

How much have you grown since you started? 

In terms of doors, we have grown triple digits each year, and easily doubled our units every year.

How did the company fare last year at retail, given that it was one of the worst snow seasons in history?

Everybody struggled. For some reason we still had solid sell-through even when there was no snow and that was a blessing for us. We got really lucky. We are still doing well, but we know it might not always be the land of milk and honey.

Last year it was especially hard to see friends lose their businesses. The upside now is that retail is back on the positive and we seem to be moving right along.

When Shop-Eat-Surf last interviewed Jeremy, Jones Snowboards was introducing women’s boards, backpacks and a series of carbon boards. How have they all been received?

Jones Global Brand Director Chad Perrin

The women’s line was received very well, and a lot of accounts have been sold out of women’s boards. We are expanding more into our women’s offering by adding more sizes of boards and a new women’s model for 2013-2014, which we are very excited about. It’s called the Hovercraft and it is an extension of our men’s version, which is a directional all-purpose board meant to handle all terrain. It’s a surf inspired shape.

The hot items have been the new Carbon Flagship, which is a performance board made for the best freeriders on the mountain. The Solution, which is the split version of The Flagship, has also been hot. Our new packs are also doing well. They have a good material story because we are using the same nylon materials that the America’s Cup sailing team uses on their sails. They are the first split board packs out there as well, and the packs are all chalked-full of features from tool pockets to insulated hydration sleeves and more.

See Page 2 for Jones special program for key customers