Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019 - 16

THE PULSE
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Planetary Coolseeking
With a portfolio of brands based in locales ranging from Japan to
Chamonix, Marty Carrigan and Global Sales Guys have developed
a solid track record when it comes to knowing what foreign crowdpleasers will make a splash back home. by Doug Schnitzspahn

16 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Winter 2019

"WE ARE THE CONSUMER, SO WE HAVE TO FIND
PRODUCTS THAT EXCITE CONSUMERS-BECAUSE IF
WE SELL TO RETAIL, AND RETAIL DOES NOT SELL IT
TO THE CONSUMER NOBODY WINS!" -MARTY CARRIGAN
have the same basic needs across the planet.
Take Black Crows, the ski of choice for the
locals in Chamonix's proving grounds. The
skis have become a cult fave here in the U.S.
because of the Cham cool factor and because
they were built to perform for demanding consumers. Picture Organic turned heads here
for its sustainability ethic as well as its French

ability, while offering higher margins to our
specialty retail partners."
That dynamic keeps Carrigan always on
the lookout for the next hot brand. "We are the
consumer," he says, "so we have to find products that excite consumers-because if we sell
it to retail, and retail does not sell it to the consumer nobody wins!" O.R.

Andrew Kornylak

MOST FOREIGN OUTDOOR AND SKI/SNOWboards fizzle out in a hurry here in the U.S.
The problem is threefold: What's cool in an
overseas market can come off as kooky in
trend-centered North American markets.
Consumers in different countries often have
wildly different needs and tastes. And foreign
brands often get caught in the trap of losing
control through North American distributors who water down the brand so they often
cannot make the type of investment it takes
to make it here, even if they bring some crowd
appeal with them. Of course, big overseas
brands with deep pockets like Salomon,
adidas, Helly Hansen, and, more recently,
Fjallraven have come to feel like American
standards, but what about small brands? How
can they hope to make an impact here?
Enter Global Sales Guys, a Denver,
Colorado-based rep and brand strategy
agency founded by Marty Carrigan in 1998,
an ever-smiling gear junkie and former ski
racer who loves seeking out obscure, cool stuff
in far-off locales. He and his employees have
the magic touch when it comes to seeking out
brands that excite U.S. consumers.
Global Sales Guy's overseas client list reads
like a bucket-list ski tour. It includes Black
Crows Skis and Outerwear from Chamonix,
France; Picture Organic Clothing from
Annecy, France; Deeluxe Snowboard Boots
from Innsbruck , Austria; le bent socks and
base layers from Sydney, Australia; Oyuki
Gloves and winter essentials from Niseko ,
Japan; and TSL Snowshoes and Poles from
La Clusaz, France.
The secret to this success? It all begins with
the retailers. Carrigan and his team work close
with foreign shops to see what brands really
have promise with outdoor consumers who

fashion sense. A more recent client, Oyuki
hails from ex-pats in the deep-snow promised
land of Hokkaido. All of them crushed retail
at home before making the jump here. That's
vital for Carrigan's business.
"We have the privilege to travel the world
and meet with specialty retailers," says
Carrigan. "These iconic specialty retailers
feed us the newest trends and brands they see
emerging in their geographic markets. Our
mission is to introduce these brands back to
specialty retailers in North America."
Carrigan's partners trust his instincts. "They
definitely have their fingers on the pulse when
it comes to identifying the best retailers for
our brand and growing it in the right direction," says Matt Hampton, the founder of both
the Oyuki brand and Rhythm Japan retail
store and guide business in Niseko and other
Japanese ski towns.
Carrigan has also rethought the way the
distribution model works when his rep agency
brings a foreign brand to key specialty retailers in U.S. markets. "We have a very unique
model: We replace the traditional distributor
and we redistribute the distributor margin,"
says Carrigan. "We serve all three stakeholders
with our modern, result-driven sales model:
The consumer demands a global price and
more value, the specialty retailer requires
more margin, and the brands are faced with
rising manufacturing costs. By redistributing the traditional distributor margin, we are
able to be contributing team members to the
brands we represent for revenue and profit-

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019

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