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Our survey on surf and skate gear maker Volcom is winding down. All the retailers we contacted, which consisted primarily of Pacific Sunwear retail outlets, but some independent surf and skate retailers, rated Volcom highly. The questions we asked were the following:1. What is the best brand of clothing for surf and/or skaters?

2. How is Volcom gear selling this month?

3. What is the store name and location.

Volcom was rated the top brand by the retailer employees in 47% of our calls. Hurley and Quicksilver were ranked as the top brands by 16% of the respondents. Billabong was the top brand according to 11% of our respondents while Reef was mentioned as the best brand down in Miami. Zumiez (ZUMZ) did not score any reccomendations and we heard that there are some problems with the Zumiez distributor (see below) Hurley was mentioned by many repondents as a strong number 2 brand when they rated Volcom number one.

Most of the retailers said that Volcom gear was selling fairly well particularly among young men and teenage boys. Not a big surprise there. Some of the more interesting comments included the following:

“Yes,(Volcom) consistently is the one of the best if not the best, but it is a close race between Volcom and Hurley. Hurley has come out with some new styles in the past season or two that has allowed it to consistently gain ground on Volcom.”

“Hurley is probably the best currently as far as skate AND surf gear. They have consistently the best board shorts and their hoodies/ long sleeve new releases are hot. Hurley is the way to go especially as far as surf gear is concerned. Volcom is a bit more alternative. Hurley also has the best designs in the past few seasons. ”

“The store (an independent surf shop) is not selling any Zumiez gear now due to a problem with the distributor”

Looks good for Volcom particularly with their strong customer - Pacific Sunwear. Hurley appears to be gaining ground and doing very well over all. Zumiez seems to be having some problems from the results of our survey. We will wrap up our survey on Volcom and the surf and skate retail environment later this week. Send us suggestions for more retail checks you would like to see on the site at casey@thechannelcheckers.com

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