Olympic medalist Gretchen Bleiler will be signing autographs at the Oakley store at the at the Irvine Spectrum September 13, 2008 from 2-3 PM as part of the mall’s Style Week Orange County festivities. Bleiler will be reportedly gearing “up to launch her first ever, highly anticipated Signature Apparel Series” outerwear line which hits stores in October.
[Link: Style Week OC via Fibre2Fashion]
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Foam Magazine, Neff Headwear, and The Skateboard Magazine are helping Active President Shane Wallace welcome the world into Active Ride Shop’s newest retail location. It’s Thursday night September 4, 2008 and the place is packed.
Located at 319 7th Avenue in the heart of San Diego’s Gaslamp District the high ceilinged, 7,000 square foot, brick building sits literally on Petco Park’s left field line directly next the gate that 15,000 people walk through each time there is an event. And Shane Wallace is pretty happy about it. “We have the best retail location at the best ballpark in the nation,” Wallace says.
A DJ is spinning to the side of the woodgrain-and-mirrors eyewear display and skateboarder Terry Kennedy and his crew are making some noise. It’s hard to see much of the detail of the store thanks to the sea of people filling ever bit of floor space. One thing that is visible is the bark-covered trunk of an evergreen tree reaching for the roof. “That’s where the snowboards will go,” Shane says. “We had to wait until after this party to get that set up.”
The interior, which was designed by JPS Designs, The Goodwins, and Shane Wallace, is expansive yet retains a boutique feel. Doors open both onto the street and into the ballpark grounds, so in theory people could walk out of an event and through the store on their way home.
With 27 stores in the heart of what Wall Street is calling the worst “housing state” in the nation, Wallace knows that it hasn’t been all parties and DJ’s in action sports retail lately. “I won’t lie to you,” he says. “It’s been really tough year. But it’s going to turn around.”
He smiles proudly as he gazes across the packed store on opening night. “We have a few more adjustments to make, but this is our future,” he says. “This is Active.”
[Update 09.06.08: Just got word that sales in the store’s first two days of operation have been “stronger than expected.”]
Follow the jump for all the photos (click to see them full size).
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The other day when we said that Virtue was ASR’s new trade show for jacked up shit, we didn’t mean street brawler and EliteXC fighter Kimbo Slice. The guy is so tough that we ran away after snapping this photo.
But we wonder if he’s making as much money as that guy on the right. We’re guessing no.
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Vipe Desai and Project Blue got a nice write up by Laylan Connelly in the OC Register. We were planning on meeting up with Vipe to get all the behind the scenes info, but someone beat us to it.
Each of the companies (Billabong, DAKINE, Electric, Nixon, O’Neill, Reef) have set aside specific products, and with each item sold $2 of the purchase goes to San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation. This year, Project Blue is on track to make $100,000 from the sales to go to the non-profit. . . . The goal of Project Blue isn’t to get the companies to change their entire product line to environmentally-friendly substance, but to slowly get the companies thinking about how they can help the environment. Project Blue’s tagline is: “It’s not a charity. It’s a plan of action.”
Not bad at all.
[Link: OC Register]
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While we were busy sitting through ASR seminars yesterday Quiksilver held their quarterly conference call. Luckily Reuters was there get all the details: “the company posted a quarterly profit that beat estimates, and stood by its fiscal-year earnings view, sending shares up 13 percent.”
Quiksilver said on Thursday that profit margins were fattened by a higher percentage of sales in Europe and at company-owned retail stores. Results were also helped by a tax benefit. . . . “We had a pretty decent quarter, given how tough the retail environment is around the world,” said Chief Executive Robert McKnight in a conference call with analysts.
Higher percentage sales at company-owned retail stores. . . wonder if that’s how Hollister does it?
[Link: Reuters]
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It was a standing room only event at the Thursday September 4, 3 pm fashion show in Hall E at this year’s ASR show. For the first time, Seventeen Magazine took the reigns and title-sponsorship spot and the name they came up with, It’s Electric!
The packed house took in 54 different looks (ready-to-wear to bikinis) from companies across the show floor.
Follow the jump for some of our favorites (click the photos to see them full size).
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If listening to Quiksilver’s Bob McKnight read a statement and then answer anylists’ questions is something you find entertaining (like we do), then tune your Internet deck to www.quiksilverinc.com at 1:30 PST today September 4, 2008 and be enlightened and entertained all at the same time with Bob, Joe Scirocco, Marty Samuels, and Bruce Thomas.
[Link: MarketWatch]
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Andrew Palmer is the new general manger at Ocean Minded (makers of some of the most durable stylish flips on the planet).
Mr. Palmer joins Ocean Minded with more than 20 years of experience in the action sports market. Notably, Mr. Palmer was co-founder of Animal, the leading action sports brand in the United Kingdom. As the CEO of Animal USA, Mr. Palmer was responsible for building the U.S. infrastructure while also overseeing global sales. Following his tenure with Animal, Mr. Palmer served as the Global Sales Director for Dragon Optical, Inc.
Company founder Gary Ward is “very excited to welcome Andrew to the team.”
Andrew’s global brand experience and proven entrepreneurial background will allow us to continue with our rapid growth plan. As GM, Andrew will take responsibility for the day to day running of the business and I will work closely with him to bring the Ocean Minded ideals to domestic and international markets,” Ward said.
You’ll get no snide comments from us on the Ocean Minded front. Not one.
[click to continue…]
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Here’s one more from the the “don’t try to tell us pro skaters aren’t working for their money” file: Bob Burnquist, Lincoln Ueda, Nilton Neves, and Andre Genovesi were forced to sign autographs for two hours at Macy’s department store in Pleasanton, California on August 30, 2008.
Wonder how many times they heard this: “Mom, who are those guys supposed to be?” To be fair, there were actually skateboards in two of the photos. To us it seems kind of sad that Hurley would even feature this kind of promo on their website. We know they’re Nike, but come on, this is a waste of a perfectly good skateboard team, isn’t it?
[Link: Hurley.com]
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Guess sometimes people rob banks just to keep living their stylish lives. Like this guy in Temple Terrace, Florida who robbed a Wachovia bank today by implying that he had a gun.
The robber is described as a white male, late 20’s to early 30’s, 5′ 10″ – 6; tall with a short goatee wearing blue jeans, a baseball hat with the letters RVCA on the front, a long-sleeved white shirt with blue and pink stripes carrying an olive-green shoulder bag.
Nice hat. Actually, he looks kind of familiar? Anyone know him?
[Link: Tampa Bays 10]
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