Bauer to Purchase Mission

[NUhusky39]

Rumors are running rampant that Bauer is going to purchase Mission/Itech. Wonder what this means for the future of inline hockey in the future.

Check out Modsquad Hockey or the Goalie Store Message board for more info.

[TSUMoody89]

If i remember correctly, the gentleman who purchased the Bauer name and brand from Nike said they would be moving out of inline hockey forever.

This seems to go against that statement.

[kovalchuk2002]

It has been done. Mission is done with Ice equipment, but the roller side of Mission WILL stay. No Bauer in roller hockey (besides the sub par skates they have already)

[zipyaj]

Operative word in this unsubstantiated post is "rumored."

Reliance on some user's report on some other forum across the Net, sans any industry news or notice by a public company, only adds fuel to the rumor. There is no other data/news on this in the mainstream business media.

Why waste time on rumors?

Background: Read the IHC Inline Forum thread "Nike Sells Bauer, Never Again for Inline!"

[ChiMagic19]

If any of you guys are members of MSH (ModSquadHockey) there is about 3 pages on this topic. They have good relationships with the manufacturers and from what I gather, sounds like this is going to happen.

My take is that they will retain the roller/visor industry and axe everything else.

[Hoffer]

Bauer buying mission if it goes through is a good move for Bauer. As they would be strong in roller and visors, tw categories of equipment where they have been lacking. Other companies that are in question are TPS to be bought buy someone as well.

[NUhusky39]

Operative word in this unsubstantiated post is "rumored."

Reliance on some user's report on some other forum across the Net, sans any industry news or notice by a public company, only adds fuel to the rumor. There is no other data/news on this in the mainstream business media.

Why waste time on rumors?

Background: Read the IHC Inline Forum thread "Nike Sells Bauer, Never Again for Inline!"

Its not a rumor it's a done deal. You'll see the announcement from them soon.

[HiddenMickey]

Its not a rumor it's a done deal. You'll see the announcement from them soon.

It is a done deal. Not sure what it means for either side of Mission. Roller or Ice but they have been bought by Bauer.

[kovalchuk2002]

Just going to reiterate this, MISSION INLINE IS STAYING MISSION INLINE.

No Bauer for roller.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

Here's the story on the announcement:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080924/3747536en_public.html?.v=1

Interestingly enough... it doesn't say one word about inline hockey.

[Hoffer]

Chris is right. The production of mission inline 2009 will go as planned. You can see the Catalog here http://www.missionhockey.com/ROLLER/downloads/2009Catalog.pdf

[BourneRoller]

Sounds scary to me. Mission could lose it's voice and become underfunded or slashed in times like this. I think it would really depend on how much leash they were given and who is in charge but his gives me a bad vibe.

[quick_dry]

wow, this one could be interesting.

In Australia we have 1 company who holds the exclusive rights to distribute Bauer (and whatever else there was when it was Canstar) gear nationwide, and another 1 who has exclusive rights for Easton + Mission-ITECH. I wonder how this will impact on the Easton+Mission guys.

edit: on the bright side, does this mean Mission can get rid of their awful boots and rebrand Vapors so they have a decent boot that doesn't double as a Chinese torture device?

[showtime89]

Operative word in this unsubstantiated post is "rumored."

Reliance on some user's report on some other forum across the Net, sans any industry news or notice by a public company, only adds fuel to the rumor. There is no other data/news on this in the mainstream business media.

Why waste time on rumors?

Background: Read the IHC Inline Forum thread "Nike Sells Bauer, Never Again for Inline!"

Like the NHL Trade Deadline, the rumors are much more fun than the actual outcome.

[GoRangrHky]

Not that I have a clue, but I would imagine that Bauer would get a lot out of Itech's goalie line, besides just the visors.

[BourneRoller]

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/505555

[Vengeance]

It will be interesting to see in future product lineups how they correlate brand name with quality and value. Having 3 big brands to sling around won't be easy - I would imagine there will be a push to establish one name as more prominent, much the way Rbk has.

As the manufacturing process conslidates, atleast one name is going to suffer and there's no getting around it. In my opinion, I think Bauer has suffered tremendously as a brand and deserves to be a smaller logo stitched or painted onto Itech and Mission equipment. Think about it, is there really a product category where Bauer stands out as a leader? Itech controls some market in goalie equipment (helmets, sticks) and Mission arguably competes with, if not controls, a lot of inline products.

Either way, Bauer now has a slight advantage with an inline-specific company in-hand. I say move forward with the Itech brand in ice and Mission for roller, focusing on specific needs for each sport. It's just not feasible featuring low-end to high-end products for each of the 3 different brands at this point.

Very interesting move all the same.

[BourneRoller]

On www.modsquadhockey.com there is an interview with a Bauer rep. Basically, Ice= Bauer (as of spring 09) Mission=Inline and the others are still in the works.

[Alex Kozik]

I just hope they don't forget to make goalie inline skates.

They went from Bauer 1000 which was decent to Bauer XG Lites which is crap. Now even XG Lites are very low stock at most stores. I am at least happy that Tour has provided us with two choices, expensive heavy crap, and cheap and crappy models.

I guess I'll have to keep putting good ice hockey boot in my inline goalie skates.

[sdcopp]

I've posted a lot on ModSquad about this, but to reiterate this is actually a very good thing other than the obvious loss of talented people working for MIH. There will be some product loss and re-branding, particularly the goalie, facial and helmets. Inline is staying the same though, same guys is California doing the Mission thing as they have been.

There has been a lot of gloom and doom discussion over this, but this is not the Nike-Bauer company = picking up a competitor for simple acquisition's sake, this is the new Bauer run by an investment group interested in hockey and now operating the market leaders across the board. Bauer already has the #1 ice skate, #2-3 stick (depending on month I'm sure) and is now acquiring the #1 inline skate, #1 helmet, #1 facial, #2 goalie gear.

Whether you love them or hate them, Bauer has pushed the technology envelope for a long time now, and Mission has done much the same. With two very creative R&D groups that can collaborate on new tech it does nothing but improve the quality and vision the designers can have by having deeper funds and cross-collaboration.

The fearful part of watching this is that it really might signal things to come for companies smaller in this industry with the economic state being what it is. While most might not agree, I'd love to see Tour get picked up by one of the industry giants (Easton maybe, they were interested in Mission for a while) to get similar benefits. Mission and Tour are the two companies the really show up when it comes to the inline game and really try to grow it, and I'd love to see both succeed and continue doing so. Tour unfortunately doesn't have quite the breadth of product Mission-Itech has.

Copper