Lake Tahoe, CA (July 31, 2002) -- Businesses often offer their sales people incentives to meet sales goals. Nikita Clothing's distributor, Deep Distribution, has raised the bar a level and one buyer is reaping the benefits.

With Nikita Clothing recently launching its first big sales shipment into the United States, Deep Distribution created an incentive program for its eight sales representatives to get buyers to "go deep." As a result of this creative program, the contest winners - the leading sales representative and corresponding women's soft goods buyer - won a trip to Nikita's headquarters in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Deep Distribution has eight representatives covering the U.S., reaching more than 100 retailers/buyers nationwide. The sales rep that sold the most Nikita Clothing is Stephanie Cannell of Northern California, and her buyer that went the deepest is industry veteran Go Skate. A company with more than 30 years under its belt, Go Skate made Stephanie Cannell's task of winning the contest easy by buying four times more the average of the other U.S. retailers. And, shop owner Dale Smith and his wife Laura Tyler Samuels can hardly wait to buy more!

"Every time we get Nikita Clothing in our store, we sell out of the product within 30 days," says Smith. "Nikita is way ahead of anyone else with respect to women's design of clothing. The designer, Heida Birgisdottir, uses colors today that other companies won't think about using until next year."

"Our reps fought tooth and nail to succeed at this competition, and more importantly, collect their winnings," says Jen McVey Riley of Deep Distribution, Nikita's U.S. representative. "But in the end, our winner, Stephanie Cannell selflessly gave her ticket to the Go Skate husband-wife team so they could enjoy the trip together. That's slick! She's a great rep."

Adds Go Skate's Samuels, "Having the opportunity to go to a country we've never been to is amazing for us and we are grateful for the opportunity. We already know the clothing is incredible - so are the people behind the brand."

Smith and Samuels will be flown to Reykjavik, Iceland where they will meet Heida Birgisdottir, President of Nikita, and given a tour of the headquarters as well as do some local sightseeing of area waterfalls and hot springs. They head off to Iceland in October.

Nikita's sales contest ran the entire fall holiday sales cycle in conjunction with the "back to school" shipment. The next contest begins in August 2002.

For more information on Nikita, visit their web page at www.nikitaclothing.com. For more information on Go Skate, please visit their web page at www.go-skate.com.

— Posted by Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Gear Editor