InsideOutdoor Summer 2015

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Inside Outdoor | Summer 2015 38
by Ernest
Shiwanov
Rack Relief
Yakima has been busy lately.
It has a fairly new CEO, a newly
restructured product line, a new
Web site, new corporate head-
quarters and a renewed commit-
ment to its “core competencies,”
as put forth by the aforemen-
tioned CEO, Ryan Martin. To
that end, Martin has rallied
the troops to focus on Yakima’s
touch points, the traditional
backbone of the Yakima con-
sumer experience. Regardless
if it is through social media or
brick-and-mortar channels, the
message remains the same: be-
ing there for the consumer every
step of the way and have fun
doing it. It appears they have
managed to succeed.
To that end, Yakima is
not showing at the 2015
Summer Market Outdoor
Retailer show. Instead,
Yakima showed the newly
developed lines to retailers
and the media in beautiful
downtown Portland, Ore.,
this spring. The execs at
a figured an up-close
and personal look at the
new, extensively simplified
systems, warrants more time
than a meet-n-greet at the OR
show. So they rented a retired
metal working plant replete with
a roof high, 2,000+ ton press
in a rough-cut timber structure
storical site, wafting with
oil and creosote.
The presentation’s impact
was as impressive as the new
product. It was clear from the
start, Yakima was making good
on its core competencies prom-
ise. The entire line has been
reduced, simplified, relatively
obsolescent-proof
and made inter-
changeable, making
it way easier for
the retailer to stock
and sell. The tower
systems have been
reduced to four, with
new interchangeable
accessories, making
selections easy and
returns minimal. This
change will help miti-
gate confusion by the consumer
at the point of sale. No longer
will the consumer have to page
or scroll through a telephone
directory-sized guide to find
what they need.
Additionally, Yakima has
added a steel, aerodynamic bar
to the mix, for higher strength,
added value and low noise. To
maintain the quietest slipstream
despite changing curvatures in
car rooflines, the pitch of the
aero bars can be adjusted by the
new towers. This comes as no
surprise after Yakima’s purchase
of Whispbar, a New Zealand rack
company whose several patents
include ones for aerodynamic
crossbars and a Smartfill ac-
cessory interface. Whispbar’s
noise test chamber also was
demonstrated at the metal work-
ing plant, in all its high tech and
decibel glory.
Although the lion’s share of
Yakima’s interest surrounds
the rooftop rack solutions,
most all of Yakima’s products
ion.
Cargo boxes, the bane of re-
tailer’s floor and stock space,
saw some SKU reductions.
The introduction of the four-
SKU Showcase cargo box is
six SKUs less than its legacy
product, the SkyBox Pro:
no doubt much to the relief of
most retailers. For the remain-
der of Yakima’s products, most
saw changes in the form of small
upgrades in keeping with the
core competencies spirit.
In all, Yakima has made ma-
jor strides in areas retailers will
surely embrace – fewer SKUs,
s mplified s ll-in and easier in-
store or mobile set-up. Internally,
Yakima’s enhanced Web site pre-
sentation, rapid product develop-
ment and doubling down on the
consumer touch point experience
will undoubtedly grow its slice of
global brandhood.
Yakima downsizes and simplifies the POS process
New steel crossbar with adjustable pitch to
reduce noise as seen with new tower and clamp
design (Image: .
The new Showcase cargo box with
new automotive badge styling cues
(Image: ).