According to an interesting article by Melanie Chambers in the Ontario * Business Edge, some retail outlets in Canada * have been studying the culture related to action sports in order to better market to the demographic.

The article details the marketing trend as it takes place at retailer West 49, where kids are encouraged to "loiter", watch videos, and connect with the store staff. The article also profiles the lulumon chain of Canadian stores and their approach to remaining accepted by their customers.

From the article:

"To make sure that people understood skateboard culture, everyone from accounting to distribution at Burlington-based West 49 Inc. went to see the skateboarding movie Lords of Dogtown *. ... "we took them to the movie so they would get it," says Cindy Mielke, marketing director.

"The culture has always been there, but we helped grow skateboarding in Canada and bring relevance to it," Mielke says. Mielke says the company has no fears that skateboarding is going to be passé any time soon and, to ensure that, the company has promoted the sport. "We introduced it to areas where skateboarding hasn't been popular and helped municipalities set up skateboard parks."

Melanie's article is entitled "Clothing chains tailor stores to customers: Staff get to know lifestyles of buyers" and was found at http://www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/newsID/11405.cfm.

Search this site for more about Understanding Skateboard Market, One Movie Time *