Collective International, LLC secured the exclusive, world-wide rights to Sims Snowboards from Tom and Hilary Sims. The agreement names Collective as the exclusive licensing agent through 2026 and also provides Collective the option to purchase the trademarks in the near future. Included in the agreement are the trademarks for World Snowboarding Championships, Sugarboards, and Carve. Also part of the agreement are all uses of the Sims trademarks, for boots, bindings, boards, or otherwise. Prior to Collective, the Sims brand was licensed by ITOCHU International and before that by the Gen-X group which was a division of Huffy.
SEW/BOSS talked with Bruce Pettet, CEO of Collective, in an exclusive interview in which he said it is “very likely” that Collective will purchase the trademarks if or when it is given the opportunity.
Not just stopping there, Pettet said, “I want Tom as a partner. Tom Sims is arguably one of the pioneers of the snowboard industry and has been in the action sports industries his whole life. So we want him as a partner in Collective as well. Tom will be very involved in the business in terms of where the brands going and what were doing; working with licensees and so forth.”
Pettet sees “a ton of synergies” between Sims and the other brands currently licensed or owned by Collective, which include Airwalk, Vision Street Wear, Lamar, and LTD. “If you look at our portfolio as a whole, everything we do speaks to youth lifestyle. So anytime that we can add meaningful brands to the portfolio, that are focused on what we do everyday, theres a ton of synergies,” he said.