Silaberg Splitboarding 2024/25 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Splitboarding 2024/25 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: silaberg
Interviewee: Dr. Jörg Kaufmann, Founder/Managing Director

How would you describe the current state of the snowboard market? What big developments, changes, challenges, and/or opportunities are you seeing and how is your brand navigating them?
The snowboard market has become very competitive and especially in German-speaking countries, inflation and the decline in purchasing power are putting pressure on demand. silbaerg is therefore focusing more and more on the niche in the high-price segment and is focusing on B2C via its own webshop. We are currently looking for partners for North America and Japan to place the concept there as well. Another mainstay are customized snowboards, i.e. we can adapt the complete shape, flex and design to the individual customer’s wishes. However, this only works in the premium niche.

Following overall price increase, any positive developments with regards to manufacturing, sourcing, or logistics and the changes you’ve made? Are there any examples you can share of how your business pivoted effectively? What developments are you seeing with regards to product pricing?
Thanks to direct sales and the premium segment, we are currently able to cope very well with price increases. In addition, we are currently conducting a great deal of research in the area of semi-finished fiber products in order to reduce waste and recycle fiber waste. This significantly improves the carbon footprint of our snowboards and splitboards and helps to compensate for the price increases. In addition, we research with different universities and companies in Europe in the field of sustainability to get our processes greener.

Is e-commerce sales still strong since most brands have been put a lot of effort in physical retail?
E-commerce accounts for about 90% of our sales and is our full focus. We will expand this area even more and are currently working on concepts for integrating online stores from specialist retailers into our e-commerce concept.

After last winter and the lack of snow in Europe, what’s your overall sales and production/inventory strategy for 24/25?
We are entering the 2024/25 season with caution and would rather be sold out than have to clear the warehouse via discounts.

Does your brand have any new developments concerning sustainability and/or how you are positioning any environmental messaging?
Sustainability is one of our main topics and we have already won several awards for Winter 2024. The topics here are the reduction of carbon fiber waste in production and the use of natural fibers such as hemp. Because of the very good mechanical properties of carbon fibers, our focus is very much in this area. Unfortunately, the performance of a snowboard or splitboard made of carbon fibers cannot be achieved with glass or natural fibers. For this reason we have optimized the production of carbon fiber semi-finished products in such a way that we have hardly any fiber waste and recycle this waste for other silbaerg products. As a result, our carbon snow and splitboard with bio-based epoxy resins currently have a slightly lower C02 footprint than boards with natural fibers. As soon as we can increase the organic content in the resin to over 50%, the snowboards and splitboards with natural fibers will have a better C02 footprint. We will start with the first snowboards made of hemp fiber in the 2023/24 season, although the material costs are currently extremely high (even higher than for carbon fiber). But, we just want to learn a lot here quickly to have the best material mix in our snowboards in the future. The short supply chains for hemp fibers are absolutely perfect. The fibers we currently use grow 50 km away from our location. In 2024/25 we will further expand the range with natural fibers.

What are your top product marketing stories for next season?Sustainability in carbon fibers and recycling, bio-based resin systems and natural fibers.

Splitomat

SPLITBOARD SPECIFIC
What about new board construction, innovation, or shape trends? Any big advancements in functionality? Skinning, transitions, etc, as well as riding? Any specific effort on ranges for 24/25? If yes, where and why?
Our Splitomat was really a very big deal. The driving characteristics are extremely good in powder, on hard passages and even on slopes thanks to our patented A.L.D.-Technology. We will keep shape and technology, no reason to change a running system.

Are you using any new materials in your splitboard for 24/25? If so, what, and why? We’re interested in anything new in inserts / edges / cores / sidewalls / glue / resin/ wood types / base material, top sheet here.
There will be a splitboard with natural fibers and we will continue to use bio-based resin systems.

Any new design or pattern approaches in your 24/25 gear? Any collabs on the line?
We are open to collaborations with artists. Due to our short process chains and direct distribution, there is still room for action here for the 2024/25 season.

SPLITBOARD BINDINGS SPECIFIC

Have you made any new innovations in buckles, straps, highbacks, bases baseplates, heelcups, etc.?
No, we completely focus on the split- and snowboards.

SPLITBOARD BOOTS SPECIFIC

Will you be using any previously unseen materials (in outer shell, reinforcement, cushioning, support or grip) or construction methods?
No, we completely focus on the split- and snowboards.

splitomat carbon