NEW YORK — Burton Snowboards has ridden into the heart of SoHo here with a 4,600-square-foot flagship on the corner of Mercer and Spring Streets.
While the teeming streets in that neighborhood are far different from the ski slopes of Vermont, company executives feel that New York is a good fit for the brand.
“SoHo is a great location for us,” said Burton president Laurent Potdevin, in a phone interview from the company’s headquarters in Burlington, Vt. “The demographic we target revolves around fashion, and while we are a performance brand, we have a lot of fashion elements in what we offer.”
The store, which had a soft opening this week, carries the company’s array of products, including snowboards and boots, outerwear, sportswear and accessories, all of which are made in-house. The flagship also sells products from some of the company’s other brands, including Gravis, Analog and Anon Optics.
Women’s merchandise is at the front of the store, and includes layering products such as long underwear and long-sleeved technical shirts, as well as fleece jackets, knit handbags, beanie caps and snowboard jackets and pants. Many of the women’s offerings come in bold and bright colors, such as hot pink and teal.
“Women’s is an important and growing area for the company,” Potdevin said. “We are developing more women’s-specific merchandise, including boards and boots that are not just scaled-down versions of the men’s.”
Women’s now accounts for about 30 percent of overall sales, he said. The company has estimated annual sales of about $350 million.
Other features in the store include a footwear department that sells streetwear looks, as well as technical boots, and an accessories wall including backpacks, oversized bags for carrying snowboards and a selection of luggage and rolling bags.
The overall interior design reflects Burton’s rustic roots. The floors are made of slate from Vermont and the dressing rooms are paneled with the same wood material used to make the snowboards. Snow-mountain motifs decorate the windows, and glass vaults display gear and memorabilia from Burton’s sponsored team riders. The displays and interior vaults were designed by Vermont artist Scott Lenhart, who has contributed to many Burton board graphics.
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The flagship also has a “cold room” that has temperatures of minus 20 degrees, where customers can try out products to test their durability.
In addition, one area is designed as a screening room with seats and a couch where visitors can sit and watch a large projection screen showing action and lifestyle snowboard videos.
Burton executives declined to give sales projections for the flagship, but one company insider estimated it could do up to $4 million in sales a year.
Founded in 1977, Burton is one of the largest and most successful companies in the winter-sports arena. It has largely catered to snowboarders in their teens and 20s who want fashionable and functional looks. In recent years, it has expanded with more sportswear and accessories, and through acquisitions, and has started selling more upscale products, such as a new collaborative line made with English designer Paul Smith that takes its design cues from tailored men’s wear.
The SoHo flagship is the company’s fourth retail location. It has stores in Burlington, and Innsbruck, Austria, and it also operates a Gravis store in Tokyo.
“We think this store is a way for people to understand our brands more, since many retailers don’t have room to showcase all our offerings,” Potdevin said.
He said Burton has the potential to open 10 more stores around the globe, but said the company doesn’t have any specific locations planned at this time.
SoHo has become home to all manner of retailers, including a number of outdoor and activewear firms. A Quiksilver store is located across the street from Burton and Patagonia is around the corner on Wooster Street.
At the same time, the ski and outdoor sector has been heating up lately. Quiksilver bought Rossignol earlier this year and is building up its offerings in this area with the opening of a new office in Park City, Utah, to house its winter-sports businesses. Fashion design firms such as Emilio Pucci and Nicolas Ghesquière have also entered the category this season, and companies including The North Face and Columbia Sportswear have increased their women’s offerings.