The Helgason Bros Launch Lobster Snowboards
Here’s a heads up for next year. It appears snowboarding’s most talented siblings Eiki and Halldor Helgason are dropping their long time board sponsors Rome and DC to start their own snowboarding brand, Lobster Snowboards.
With the release of the Helgason Collection at Blue-Tomato in Europe and the signing to Swedish Endeavor rider Kareem El Rafie’s brand Frontline Clothing it looks like Iceland’s most notorious park slayers are looking to have more input on the products they represent. Lobster Snowboards will be launching next season and with the licencing of Bataleon’s Triple Base Technology for their boards it look like the product isn’t going to disappoint.
Posted by Rich Ewbank in Blog & News.
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on February 02, 2011 at 09:31 AM
Wow… looks like the YES boys have blown open the doors to rider-based snowboard companies. I honestly like this direction the industry is heading in but wonder how many new brands the sport can sustain.
on February 02, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Steve I couldn’t agree more with you. The Helgasons are going to produce a super tight brand and the fact that they’ve got Bataleon’s TBT tech is a massive selling point. However, we are reaching saturation point. How on earth are these brands going to make money (not Lobster I’m sure they’ll do very well) if their slim share of the pie keeps getting shaved slimmer and slimmer. I think it’s going to get to the point where the factories in Europe and the US are going to have to say, “Do you know what, we’ve got brands that work for us and sell enough boards to keep us busy and we’ll support them by turning away smaller business”. The other issue is that some brands are turning such small numbers that their boards are over priced because they don’t benefit from economies of scale and they’re not making enough money to put money into R&D, even if they did they wouldn’t know where to start. You need engineers and experienced “shapers” to design good snowboards not just people with a nice logo and some good board graphics in a note pad. Rant over, I appreciate that sometimes these “graphics only” brands are some of the most passionate people in the industry, and on a plus point this constant need by the big players to retain their share of the pie is driving product innovation as brands attempt to make their product stand out. The exception to these small brands are brands that support and sustain a local market and riding crew, investing in events and supporting talent.
on February 04, 2011 at 02:39 AM
Don’t forget though Rich that a lot of these companies are getting their boards made by already established snowboard manufacturers (DC, Gnu and Lib all coming from Mervin Manufacturing, Yes from Nidecker etc) then the money still goes into the core manufacturers. From the looks of it these guys will be re-labelling Bataleon boards and going from there.
So at the end of the day the money still goes back to the core manufacturers doesn’t it?
on February 04, 2011 at 09:31 AM
I’m sure the managers at Elan and GST rub their hands with glee everytime a small brand comes along asking for a run of 100 twin shape stock boards, it’s easy money for them. And for that matter I’m not aiming this converstaion at those manufacturers, business is business and there are tons of brands who use those manufacturers abd are pushing design Bataleon and Amplid for example. I’ve got absolutely no gripe with the brands you have mentioned either, YES and Jones are pretty innovative brands, DC with its cambered cores in rockered boards and Lib/Gnu with Banana and Magnetraction not to mention all of their space age materials are pushing the boundaries of design. I haven’t got beef with any brands in particular and I certainly wouldn’t call out a brand on this thread for not contributing to the evolution of snowboard design. I just don’t think it is enough in an oversaturated market to rely soley on being a brand and not investing in product R&D. And yeah for sure the Helgasons are using TBT this year and probably the foreseable future, but the brand is in its infancy, I’m sure in a couple of years they’ll have a unique product innovation up there sleves.