Just analyzed Landyachtz Longboards company - great read if your run lifestyle/passion business

Holleee kaw, Just busted out a growth study about Landyachz longboarding company started by two friends in their warehouse. I've read, researched and reverse-engineered the elements of their ascent from DIY project to a globally recognized brand. And at the same time, I'm a fan of it (Probably the only 30-year-old guy who still rides the board to work :)).

You can read the whole article on my website but if you just go through the chapters here it's more than enough.

Anyhoo, Landyachtz is celebrating their 20th anniversary and is still handled like a lifestyle business with the focus on passion first. However, they have some crazy stats:

• Present in 30+ countries

• Make 2000 longboards/week (all made in Canada)

• Sell their boards in 500+ stores

• Able to dominate the niche market Penny Boards have the lead for years

• They become the top 3 manufacturers even with a small team (60 employees)

🍁** Culture and Community**

For a niche industry like skateboarding and longboarding, the community is everything. These are the people who are passionate about what they do. If they would find a 10-minute sliver of time they'd just go out and bomb a hill or cruise the city.

Mike and Tom (co-founders), leveraged the community by showing their DIY-made boards on campus first, then they connected with other passionate people on forums, chat websites and lastly gain bigger attention once they started winning race events with their home-made boards.

This combination of recognition and love of community brought in global distributor attention.

🍁** The Product Focus and Innovation **

If you don't have a great product you can say goodbye to your business. And in a niche like skateboarding, if you don't perform you will be exposed and branded as a poor manufacturer.

Landyacthz solved the product game in two ways:

1. They made one-of-a-kind boards that looked amazing and handled well at the same time. The focus was on product design and quality.

2. Performance-boards like downhill had to be the best of its kind. If Landyachtz boards would win races, it means they would get recognition of top athletes and the distributions are going to come in by themselves.

With the two-pronged approach, Landyachtz attracted both audiences - the extremist performance riders and the relaxed weekend cruisers.

🍁** Solving the Unique Longboard-Specific Business Model **

There's one major problem pertains to longboard business model. The boards are expensive and they don't break. With normal skateboards, an average rider would buy a board for $80, ride it for 3-6 month and buy a new one when inevitably it would break over the rail or after a harsh landing.

Skateboard business model earns about $240 per year per customer.

But not with longboards. Longboards are made with 7 or 9 ply maple woody which takes a lot of beating. Some boards last more than 6 years. This is great for the consumer but bad if you're the business owner.

Landyachtz solved this problem with variety. By making models of the same product in different variety, they bank on their fans to buy more boards. They already build social credit and relationship with the quality, brand and uniqueness.

🍁** Find your Marketing Channel **

Back in the day skateboarders had to win events, send videotapes to magazines and hope someone would notice them and offer sponsorships. But today, there's no VHS tapes or MTV specials.

YouTube and Instagram allow you to broadcast and build brand day-by-day-by-day. There's two-way communication between the brand and the potential fan or client.

Landyachtz invested in high-quality produced videos which are recycled throughout other social-media channels. It was the perfect way to show off the company culture, lifestyle and their mission.

🍁** Future-Proof Yourself **

If you invest in the business by being at the forefront of product innovation, you're set for the future. In one way, you've already set the trends so the community is watching you how to make the next step.

You're at the driver-seat instead of reacting to the other players.

But this also allows you to be innovative in complementary niches. Landaychtz started a sister company Landyachtz bikes where they transfer similar passion and mentality to bicycles.

Some of the longboard fans will get the bikes too. But they also have the chance to build a similar strategy from the start. They already have the blueprint.