Four Down Dist. stories part 1. - The beginning & Polar Skate Co. (2011-)

After few years of sales and marketing I had done for Nike Skateboarding & Nike Sportswear, our local marketing budgets in Finland at Nike were cut heavily both for SB & NSW around 2010-2011, streamlining the work I did more towards sales.

I had wished to do more marketing projects at Nike, but the direction where my position was going was the exact opposite, so I felt it was time for some extra challenges.

I needed something where I could get my hands dirty and to challenge myself daily. The quarterly sales run at Nike wasn’t challenging enough for me at that point, and to be completely honest I never dreamed of a corporate career at Nike, where I would’ve had to move to another countries to go through the process of corporate experience.

I wanted to stay somewhat “independent” so freelancer agency service was perfect for me as I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted on top of the work I did for Nike.

So to find a perfect balance of sales agency work for a corporate customer, and to face these new exciting challenges by running my own business at the same time, was a perfect combination for me.

I put half of my savings to start Four Down Distribution in 2011, I wanted it to start small and grow organically instead of seeking for investors / shareholders.

It all started with Polar Skate Co., contacting the owner, Pontus Alv, before he had anything produced yet at that point. This was in spring 2011.

Polar’s first magazine ad, Fall 2011

I had heard rumors in spring 2011 that Pontus would be starting his own skate company, and I felt Pontus’ vision with the skate movies he had done in the past could become a major success in boards and apparel. The movies “Strongest of The Strange” (2005) & “In Search of The Miraculous” (2010) were audio-visual masterpieces and I expected nothing less from Polar as a brand, bringing the same strong visual style this time to physical products.

Four Down Distribution’s first order for Polar was around 40 boards and 20 t-shirts blind ordered, hoping that some skate shops in Finland would be into carrying the brand. A handful of skate shops in Finland were 100% down from the beginning, and even though the quantities were small and the margins were low (like they still are mostly), financially barely making it even for the first few collections, I felt this is something I would want to do in the future in a bigger scale.

First Polar board order to Finland, 2011 August

Pontus & Polar team rider Hjalte Halberg came to visit Helsinki in September 2011, just few weeks after the first products had shipped from Four Down Dist. to first Polar retailers in Finland.

Pontus’ visit really shaped Four Down’s partnership with Polar for years to come once we got to hang out together, to talk about the future of skate business and things in general. Looking back at it, big decisions were done in a heartbeat, and many things were driven purely from passion and intuitive approach to do something for the culture. “Not Driven by Greed” like it’s simply put on Polar’s first magazine ad (posted above).

Of all things related to Four Down Dist., I’m most proud that to this date we still have the same ethos.

Pontus Alv in Kalasatama “Polar DIY” - Helsinki, September 2011

Pontus’ custom board graphic he skated at his Helsinki trip

Polar team rider Hjalte Halberg - Kalasatama DIY, Helsinki

In early days Polar had strong opinions about rollerblading and scooters. Artwork by Jacob Övgren

I remember reading an article years after Polar started, where Pontus Alv was explaining the method of slowly building Polar Skate Co.

Basically it went something like this: Starting with a small amount of money for first collection you put out, putting all that money you have mainly to products and spend the rest to build a skate team and do a little bit of marketing. Then with every collection you produce you end up with a small amount more than you started with, then always fully re-invest it again for the next collection. Repeat it 10 times and you slowly can do something bigger. Repeat it 20 times and you’re onto something there. The process will be slow and it needs an extreme amount of patience and trust for your doing, but it’ll work out if the vision is clear.

Reading this, it was funny to realize Four Down Distribution’s business model was exactly the same, and I had gone through a similar route on a different scale here in Finland.

Polar board sales were good when it all started, then for next season maybe there was a shop or two more that would be interested selling Polar boards. Then those shops ordered maybe 30 boards instead of 20 like they did last time. Then hopefully up to 40, then to 50. Maybe a small restock here and there.

Some Spring 2016 board graphics. Artworks by Pontus Alv & AMTK

Board sales grew organically to a point where some shops were telling me Polar is the best selling board brand from international brands. It’s impossible to get exact data, but I’d guess Polar is still at least in top 3 board brands sold in Finland. If you count out the direct orders shops do to some suppliers for better margin, and look at the numbers purely from regular pricepoint international boards, I’d say Polar is easily the top international brand in board sales still after all these years.

However the biggest change with Polar business happened with apparel.

The apparel collections grew slowly bigger, with more categories added along the way from 2011 to 2017. First it started with t-shirts and hoodies, then there was caps, beanies and socks added, then a chino pant, a jacket, etc.

The first big hit product was the Default Hoodie. Skate brand hoodies had loud prints in front and back for years, and Default Hoodie changed the trend with it’s minimal front embroidery. The focus was in the quality and the fit of the hoodie. It’s still a classic product and still found in Polar’s line up.

The actual game changer arrived in Fall 2017, The Big Boy, but the game certainly didn’t change yet in 2017.

Big Boy from Fall 2017 catalog

Polar already had a jean called 90s Jean in the line up, which was doing ok. Most of the times it’s hard for a skate brand to sell pants if there’s only one or two different models in the collection. You have to have a good variety of pants to be considered as a proper brand in pant section.

Then Big Boy came, and it was frowned upon. It was laughed at. I mean the jeans were HUGE. I hadn’t seen a pair of jeans as baggy as the Big Boy in over a decade.

Only couple shops in Finland ordered it at first for Fall 2017. The total quantity for the whole country was under 15 pairs of Big Boys.

Here’s a better example of Big Boy’s poor start. For 2018 the quantity for the whole country was under 10 pairs for the whole year. Basically no-one in Finland was wearing Big Boys in 2018.

I remember many skaters in Finland saying how Polar is crazy to think any skateboarders would wear it. Something that was inspired by mid 1990s, we were already living late 2010s here!

But as with all trends, they come and go.

Skateboarders started to switch their footwear from slimmed down vulcanized shoes to more padded cupsole shoes again, and their pants started to widen slowly.

In fall 2018, if you followed even a bit of skateboarding pages on Instagram, you could quickly see that a lot of skateboarders in Europe and in US were starting to skate really baggy jeans again, usually paired with Nike SB Dunks or similar more beefed up basketball inspired cupsole shoes.

So for Summer 2019 pre books, that were sold to shops in late 2018, Finland’s numbers were up to whopping 30 pairs. Then it was 40, 50.. to hundreds a season.

The naysayers are silent these days about the Big Boys. People don’t laugh at you anymore if you wear a pair of Big Boys. Probably your mom still laughs at them, as they’re indeed a pair of ridiculously baggy pants that you’re wearing. However, in many shops they’re easily the best selling pant from any brand, any style.

Of course there’s a negative vibed meme here and there about the price tag, as they’re around 120€ retail for a pair. The jeans are still made in Europe, the quality is amazing, and if you compare the price tag to quality and compare it to almost any jeans brand out there, Polar wins in value.

This is just one prime example of having a vision, sticking to the vision no matter what people around you are saying, and making it work. Of course there can be many factors along the way both positive and negative that you can’t do anything about, so you have to have some good luck in general in the process as well. But no one can disagree on the fact that Polar nailed it with the Big Boys.

Maybe the Big Boy entered the marketplace a year or two too early before the mid 1990s trend wave hit big time to both the skate- and the fashion industry, but in the end it became a jean that many other brands are now trying to copy and get their share of the trend wave.

Polar is referenced even in high-end fashion as a brand who started the baggy jean wave again after almost couple decades of silence.

Lanvin’s heavily Osiris D3 2001 inspired “skate shoe” from their FW2020 range. A good example how even the most cringey details of millennial fashion are coming back again even to high-end fashion. Get yours for 690€.

Fast forward to 2022, I think it’s amazing what Polar Skate Co. has achieved in past 10 years.

Also it’s amazing to see European brands can be considered as top brands in the industry globally. And that a skateboard brand’s apparel collection can be taken seriously outside skateboarding too.

That said, I’m happy I can say I’ve worked for years with two of our generation’s best skate brands coming out of Europe - Polar Skate Co. and Palace Skateboards. Both are still under Four Down Distribution brand list here in Finland.

With Four Down Dist., we distribute 12 brands from all over the world, Polar Skate Co. orders are quite bigger than 40 boards & 20 t-shirts a season.

We are adding some amazing brands to our line up soon, and there’ll be some new positive changes coming for our operations in 2022. I’m positive that if we survived this far, we can keep the operations going for many years to come.

Thanks to Pontus Alv for the trust all these years, thanks to shop who have supported Polar and Four Down past almost 11 years.

“Not driven by greed.”

Thanks for tuning in,

-Oki