Arnaud Claude, the former international sales manager of Tubbs, has set up a company in Williston, Vermont to manufacture and sell snowshoes. The move follows the relocation last year of Tubbs’ former local manufacturing operations to the big Chinese production facilities of the brand’s new owner, K2, along with the those of a sister brand, Atlas.
The new operation is called TSL Snowshoes. Its products will bear the brand label of TSL, the French snowshoe specialist which claims to be the European and world leader in the market, estimated at more than 850,000 pairs. TSL has a minority stake in the American joint venture, which is controlled by Claude.
Claude, who was born in France, has hired some of Tubbs’ former employees, including the person who was previously responsible for after-sale service, in order to optimize the operation. Unlike TSL, which specializes in plastic snowshoes, the U.S. factory will manufacture 20 different models of snowshoes in aluminium, competing directly with Tubbs’ models, for the Fall/Winter 2006/07 season. It will also assemble plastic models using components made by TSL in France.
On the distribution side, TSL Snowshoes will sell its own products and those of the French company in the USA and Canada. The French company will sell the products of the U.S. company everywhere else. Separately, TSL has struck an OEM deal with Salewa, for which it will manufacture a line of snowshoes under its name for the next Fall/Winter season, as it has done in the past for Dynastar.
TSL has sold very little in North America so far. Its global deliveries are set to reach about 220,000 pairs for the current Fall/Winter season, or nearly 20 percent up from the previous one, thanks in part to the Nordic fitness boom. That compares with estimated sales of about 100,000 pairs for Tubbs and a similar quantity for Atlas. TSL, which recently diversified into Nordic fitness and other summer activities, estimates the snowshoe market at about 400,000 pairs annually in Europe, with a similar amount in North America. The market in Japan is probably around 50,000 pairs.
