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icingboy

How Graf works in Europe with pro dealers

By icingboy, in Ice Hockey Equipment

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icingboy    0

icingboy
Posted

SOme info from Europe, after reading the anger in the other Graf tread i like to give som info on how the company is working in Europe, Graf `s biggest market.

Every year, Mr Karl Graf has as stand at the Ispo trade show, the biggest meeting place in the world for the sport industry, se ispo.com for info, this is were all important business in the world is done for all types of sport industry, also hockey business, all manufacturers have big stands there, the biggest this year was Easton and CCM

Mr Graf is sending out invitation to his dealers in good time for the show with price info, product news and all other needed info like your volum last season and so on, this to help the buyer to be able to put in poe orders at the show. Distribution is carefully picked in all cities and contries by the company itself, you must be a pro shop, they never sell to sporting chain stores and so on, only pro stores that know skates!

Graf do not sponsor any teams our players, therefor the volum is not so high as other companies giving away free deals like crazy, they do not sponsor any pro players but gladly makes PM skates at same price for all players that asks for it, the even have a factory day where you can drop inn, see the production and take measurments of your feet, this is good customer service and is used by more and more players in Europe, no wonder Graf is sold out every year, the make 24 000 pairs of skates for every season!

If the dealer puts in a to small order this can be a problem since it is hard to get more shipments from the factory during the season, this is hard since the shop must pay some of the order before prducts comes to the stores, Graf sells out there whole production capasity during the Ispo fair every year, not bad for a simple small skate company located in Switzerland, a familly driven busines for over 90 years with the same owners all that time!

>Graf has very good product delivery, if the say 2 of June it will be there on time, this is never a problem!

i am very happy to sell Graf skates to my customers who know what the like and are ready to pay for it,maybe this is a European thing, we tend to like quality in Europe and this is the reason that Graf is doing so well, even if the bigger brands use all there money on buying reefs,teams and players, Graf is even stronger, because players wants to use it, no more than that!

So i hope this can be of some information to all you graf muggers on this forum, maybe Graf will do better in Usa And Canada in the time to come,your customers also should be given a chance to not only try brands that pays the best pro players the most.

Easton skates is also growing very fast now in whole Europe,this is also a company with almost no team our league deals, strange that Europe is so different from other parts of the world!

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JJStripes    1

JJStripes
Posted

Thanks for the info. I for one think very highly of the quality of Graf skates. Unfortunately, when I fork over $$ for skates I need to be sure they are going to work out. I can't spend $600 on a chance that Grafs might be better than my Bauer 7000's. I just bought a new pair of S9's because they are the closest thing I can find to my 7000's. They are low risk, which is what I need at this critical time in my career.

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Jordan    13

Jordan
Posted

Too bad it doesn't work that way in Canada.

For example, I can think of one Graf dealer in Toronto that is a bicycle shop....and they don't know anything about fitting skates. The company has to get its' deal with the Canadian company straightened out. too many stories about lacklustre dealer and customer support.

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Rustpot    1

Rustpot
Posted

JR tried very hard to pound this fact into our heads last time there was a big Graf debate.

Graf Canada is only LICENSING the Graf name. Graf Sweden is run by Karl Graf, they make top of the line, handmade skates.

Graf Canada makes skates in a very different manner under a very different premise, paying Graf Sweden a fee to use the name of the company and skates, use the lasts, etc.

The only thing connecting the two is the license agreement Graf Canada signed that governs their actions somewhat.

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rmnyi    0

rmnyi
Posted

Too bad it doesn't work that way in Canada.

For example, I can think of one Graf dealer in Toronto that is a bicycle shop....and they don't know anything about fitting skates. The company has to get its' deal with the Canadian company straightened out. too many stories about lacklustre dealer and customer support.

Jordan, I live in NY, approx 1 hour north of NYC. Your description of the dealer in Toronto is typical of most stores down here. Getting a good fitting is almost impossible. I eventually found a dealer who only sells Graf and got a very good fitting...go figure.

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JR Boucicaut    3801

JR Boucicaut
Posted

JR tried very hard to pound this fact into our heads last time there was a big Graf debate.

Graf Canada is only LICENSING the Graf name. Graf Sweden is run by Karl Graf, they make top of the line, handmade skates.

Graf Canada makes skates in a very different manner under a very different premise, paying Graf Sweden a fee to use the name of the company and skates, use the lasts, etc.

The only thing connecting the two is the license agreement Graf Canada signed that governs their actions somewhat.

Switzerland.

What I never understood is why they NEVER had a catalogue for dealers.

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cj190    0

cj190
Posted

Just so you know, there is an ebay seller offering swiss made graf skates, all the new ones. I think the user name is viper_hockey or something like that. If people care, I can find the exact link.

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epstud74    24

epstud74
Posted

How are Graf skates made diffrently in Canada? I assume they would use the same materials, tooling and methods per the licensing agreement. I wouldnt mind a custom Swiss "schlitteschue" though.

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Patrick67    1

Patrick67
Posted

epstud74: You are correct it's in german... there's a very simply explanation for that...

The swiss don't have their own written language, so they use german.

Their spoken language (called "Swiss german") is almost like german but with some vocabulary differences. Sort of like the difference between swedish and norwegian.

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epstud74    24

epstud74
Posted

A large number of Swiss speak a standard high German but there are spoken dialects as well. Italian, French and Romansh are all languages spoken in Switzerland. Heck the Low German common in parts of Germany bear more resemblance to English than the standard "high" German or Hochdeutsch. Then you have Ostfriesland which has another Low German dialect.

epstud74: You are correct it's in german... there's a very simply explanation for that...

The swiss don't have their own written language, so they use german.

Their spoken language (called "Swiss german") is almost like german but with some vocabulary differences. Sort of like the difference between swedish and norwegian.

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SR27    0

SR27
Posted

The new catalogue is laying around at my lhs for free. If i get around there this week I might pick it up and scan it. They do offer customs at virtually no add-on. You might have to wait a while and py for shipping when ordering mid-season as the initial poster explained. What I really like about their catalogue (and also their smaller leaflets) is that they explain the cut and what kind of foot each skate is supposed to be made for. I also respect the way they rather stay with facts and technical aspects rather than make their catalogue "bling". Without having seen it I guess the girls in the Warrior catalogue are hotter, are they? :blink:

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