Sasha Cohen's line of Klingbeil Skates

[FigureSpins]

I thought we had a discussion about Sasha Cohen's skate line that's coming out soon.  I remember "outing" them as being Klingbeils - you could see The Chair in the photos.  Can't find it now, but thought we needed one to discuss the latest announcement that has more details.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120928&content_id=39149346&vkey=ice_news&tcid=fb_share

The Sasha Cohen line will include three new ice skating boots: one for beginners, one for slightly more advanced skaters and a rental boot.

The latter is going to be sold and distributed to rinks with public sessions. The beginner boot and blade will retail for $150, while the competitive model will run $300 a pair. All are branded by Cohen, who was heavily involved in the design.

I'd love to check out the beginner and competitive models for my kids and students.

Klingbeil's also going mainstream:

In addition to the three Sasha Cohen items, the company is also developing another line of boots that will be sold in sporting goods stores.

[MadMac]

This is great news. I'm also anxious to learn more about the non-skating boots they mentioned. I see a trip the NYC in my future! 

[Sk8tmum]

Okay, my two cents worth. I really hope that the new owner of the company has deep pockets, as the expansion plans seem rather aggressive. Figure skating is not a growing sport at present; the market is highly competitive; and skating stores seem to be cutting back on the number of lines instead of expanding them.  I can also seem them cheapening the brand name with some of these offerings, but, that's just me.

If you want to see the "boots" go to the Kling website. There is a link out to them .. they're being made by a sister company, from what I can figure out.

[Isk8NYC]

I would like to see them put a line of quality stock skates into a small chain (like REI) moreso than a big department or sporting goods chain store.  They should also address the initial sharpening needs so that a bad factory sharpening doesn't give the brand a bad name.

[supra]

Okay, my two cents worth. I really hope that the new owner of the company has deep pockets, as the expansion plans seem rather aggressive. Figure skating is not a growing sport at present; the market is highly competitive; and skating stores seem to be cutting back on the number of lines instead of expanding them.  I can also seem them cheapening the brand name with some of these offerings, but, that's just me.

If you want to see the "boots" go to the Kling website. There is a link out to them .. they're being made by a sister company, from what I can figure out.

Well, we don't know how it'll turn out, but I think the owner is being ambitious. He's probably following the "Scared money don't make money" adage. Which is true....but it also doesn't lose money either. To be fair on his part, it's a "logical" business idea. Remember, he only has to sell the boots, not get people skating. How many people buy hockey skates every year? How many people skate often in them every year? Get what I'm saying? Put two big brand names on it, Sasha Cohen and Klingbeil, get people to be like "Wow I want Sasha Cohen skates!" and tada. As far as quality, the lower end Riedells are imported from China. I don't see how they could really do "worse" but, we're not gonna see Edea Concertos or something at the price point yet. But, to make figure skating boots cheaper, you gotta have more people skating, it's that simple. So they figure if they can bring the boots, the people will come. Or they just wanna make some money. Even with hockey skates, people can get skates that are usable hockey skates from department stores/sporting goods stores now. The Easton skates are a good example of this. Are they perfect, are there better skates? Yeah, there's better skates, but those skates work all right for casual use. You can get a totally skateable hockey skate for $60, it's hard to do the same for figure skating. Hockey is a bit unfair comparison, though, as many people overboot in hockey to make up for bad sizing/bad skating. For most people that aren't pros on the ice 4 hours a day or something, cheap skates work fine for hockey. The only reason stiffer skates exist is simply because pro/collegiate hockey players don't wanna break in a new pair of skates every month or so.

Assuming the boots aren't horrendous, it might help figure skating out a little tiny bit, as far as just getting more people skating. It'd have been quite cool to just hop into a department store instead of catching my pro-shop during its like 3 hours a day it's open to buy my first pair of boots. Thankfully I obviously knew/was told enough to not buy any of the currently existing department store kinda boots, but if a skate can be made that'd be similar to a lowend Riedell or Jackson at a similar price point, but in department stores, it'd be quite good for figure skating I think.

[Sk8tmum]

Klingbeil is not a particuarly "known" name in figure skating; they are really a small niche producer with limited distribution.

There are already many "cheap" readily available figure skates out there ... so it is not as if they will be introducing a new product, they will simply be entering an established market with another line.  I know in Canada, it's simple to pop into WalMart, Canadian Tire, and get a basic so-called "figure skate" - I believe in the US Target has something similar? 

The issue is as as well that they will need to obtain production facilities. Their current line is not produced in a mass-production facility; they will need to engage the facilities, staff it both in production and sales, inventory will need to be created, and then they will need to find distribution channels.  A risky business venture at best, and particularly in today's market. 

[FigureSpins]

I know in Canada, it's simple to pop into WalMart, Canadian Tire, and get a basic so-called "figure skate" - I believe in the US Target has something similar? 

Yep - cheap skates go to Walmart, Target and sporting goods stores like D ick's or Modell's. 

The problem is that the skates they carry are really just pond skates.  Their price point is too low for quality skates, beginner or advanced.  You know the old saying: buy cheap, buy twice?  The skates sold in those stores today don't fit properly, have no support and the blades are recreational and flat with toepicks for decoration, not purpose.  Plus, there's no customer service - the solution for too-narrow skates is a bigger size.  Ditto for "not in stock."  Forget about sizing or sharpening; the stores will send the buyer to the pro shop to pay extra for a service they (probably) would have gotten for free if they had bought at the pro shop.

That's why I suggested REI.  It's a small "outdoors" sports store chainthat sells higher-end items for biking, running, fishing, hiking, climbing, etc.  They're already selling $75-90 pants, comparable to Chloe Noels.  You still have to deal with the fitting and sharpening issues, but it's a chain more likely have quality items and attract customers willing to pay for that quality.  Plus, they don't currently carry figure skates at all.  Could be a nice niche for a skate manufacturer.