What's next for Never Summer? With new industry attention on Never Summer and its surprising growth, the Canadays are facing some big question marks. How much brand recognition and brand loyalty have they engendered by establishing themselves as an innovative brand with a durable product? Is their growth rate sustainable now that other companies have adopted their innovations? Can they move beyond regional appeal to become a bigger player without sacrificing their strengths as a manufacturing company and small boutique brand?
Tim and Tracey are both family men now, and growing the business has new importance for them. Tracey has two sons — four-year-old Wyatt and two-year-old Troy — and his wife is expecting a little girl. Tim has a seven-year-old daughter, Olivia, and his ten-year-old son, Zachary, recently finished fourteen months of chemotherapy treatment to battle a brain tumor.
Tony Gallagher
Jose Doton works on boards for the 2011 line at Never Summer's north Denver factory.
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Any sibling rivalry between the brothers has long since been redirected toward their competitors. "We've got pretty different personalities, and we did have our teenage years where we were at each other's throats," Tim says. "But we've always had a passion for snowboarding, and it was always something we did together."
"Tim is the tinkerer," says Tracey. "Everything that is unique about a Never Summer snowboard is the direct result of my brother nerding out over every little detail, trying to improve on the snowboarding experience. He's obsessed."
Tim cuts in: "Tracey is the talker."
The brothers have used their differences to good advantage in the family business, with Tim overseeing engineering, design and production of the boards themselves and Tracey taking charge of sales, marketing and business strategy.
For a couple of punk snowboarders in an industry built on extremism, the Canadays have actually played it pretty conservatively, quietly diversifying their business over the last five years and trying to keep their growth rate steady. They've consciously undersupplied the market with their product to keep demand up and help guarantee high sell-through rates and value for the retailers they work with. And, to take pressure off their snowboard business, they've also taken on some new contract partners as an original equipment manufacturer for other brands that now outsource production to Never Summer Industries and act as purchasing companies.
Ben Anderson is founder and production manager of Icelantic, another Denver-based brand with big plans for SIA this year. The five-year-old ski company has nearly doubled in size every year since it entered the market with an innovative product — fat powder sticks, so fat people call them "boards," not "skis" — and Anderson quickly went from making a few boards for friends in his garage to selling 2,800 pairs from his 2009-2010 line. Those numbers aren't huge on their own, but the growth rate is unparalleled. This year his goal is to move 3,500 pairs.
"The biggest thing in this industry is earning the trust of the dealers and the end consumer," says Anderson, "especially on the ski side, where the industry has been driven by the major brands for so long. In order to break in, you really have to have something different to offer. For us to be able to say 'We've got a great design, we've got a durable product handmade here in Colorado, and because of that we're going to be able to offer you an extended warranty that beats anything else out there' — it's just huge. The consumers are starting to realize that they can get a lot more from some of these smaller brands, that they can back a company like Icelantic and be a part of something exciting that's happening."
Like the Canaday brothers, Anderson started out making his boards by hand, by himself. Being able to stamp his skis "Hand Made in Colorado, USA" is important to him both philosophically and from a marketing standpoint, so when demand for his product exploded beyond what he could handle on his own, he called Tim and Tracey to ask their advice. Never Summer has been manufacturing Icelantic skis at its Denver factory ever since.
"It's a perfect symbiotic relationship and a great balance, and there's nobody better to learn from around here when it comes to building and growing a solid and sustainable business," says Anderson. "They've been willing to accommodate our growth and grow with us, and from the manufacturing side, the durability they offer is just unprecedented. We've only had a handful of warranty returns ever. Like, really, I can count them on one hand. As a company, we're partly known for our graphics, the great Travis Parr art on our skis, but I tell people, 'It's just the cherry on top. These are bomb skis, and they're practically indestructible.' Believe me, I've tried. We put these things through hell around here."
SIA buyers looking into other brands with "Made in the U.S.A." and "Made in Colorado" labels will find that many trails now lead back to the Never Summer Industries factory.
"The real story when we're talking about Never Summer is that they're one of the few companies left in America still actually making things in America," says SIA's Davis, who estimates that less than 15 percent of the snowboards sold in the U.S. are made here. "It's sad, in its way, but it's just a reality: Low-cost manufacturing is something you almost have to have to compete. They've managed to find a good niche and can offer very high-quality manufacturing for companies looking to say they're made in America."
