by The Editors on October 21, 2010
Celtek has created a special line of gloves in collaboration with top shops called the SLSH Collection (Shop Local Shop Here). The gloves currently come in eight flavors: Milosport (Salt Lake City, UT), The Youth Shelter Supply (Waite Park, MN), Easy Rider (Alberta, Canada), Shred Shop (Chicago, IL), Tactics (Eugene, OR), World Boards (Bozeman, MT), EVO (Seattle, WA), and Damage (Duluth,MN). And all of them look pretty good.
Celtek founders Erik and Bjorn Leines describe the motivation behind this collection, “The feeling of going in to a real snowboard shop for the first time is a mixture of wonder, intimidation, and stoke. It’s usually the moment when you become snowboarder and stop being “someone who snowboards”. We wanted to let these shops have total control on the artwork on the gloves to showcase their personality, and give the ability to fly the flag of people that bust ass every day to make sure that snowboarding stays awesome.”
Smart way to give shops hand while letting shreds fly the fingers with local pride. Follow the jump for the details.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on October 20, 2010
Sean Aruda, 44, the CEO of the action sports website Go211.com, died Tuesday, October 19, 2010, according to a story on the Patriot Ledger.
Sean M. Aruda, a basketball coach at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, died Tuesday of a sudden illness. . . He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and four daughters, including his youngest child who is a sophomore at Notre Dame Academy.
On September 9, 2010, Aruda, 44, sold Go211.com to Metacafe where he became chief revenue officer. According to sources Aruda had a meeting scheduled with former Go211.com investors on Tuesday and he never arrived.
According to his obituary, published October 21, 2010 in the Patriot Ledger, Aruda died “unexpectedly in his home” in Hanover, Massachusetts. Our thoughts are with Aruda’s family and friends.
[Link: Patriot Leger]
by The Editors on October 20, 2010
Newport Beach, California’s world famous Frog House Surf Shop will stay in its current location even regardless of city zoning issues thanks to the efforts of the local surf community, according to a story in the Daily Pilot.
At the Oct. 12 City Council meeting, Councilman Steve Rosansky said the city is working with the Frog House to rezone its property. Dozens of supporters had called Rosansky and other city officials on the Frog House’s behalf, and more than 10,000 supporters joined the shop’s Facebook page. . . Rosansky said that “T.K.” Brimer, the owner of the shop and the property, needs to apply for a zoning change and an amendment to the general plan. . . “Once he does that, and assuming it’s approved, he will be able to continue operating in that location,” Rosansky said at the meeting. In the meantime, Brimer and other property owners have filed requests with the city to delay enforcement of the zoning rules.
T.K., we know city paperwork is a bitch, but the community has done their part, now it’s time to do yours.
[Link: Daily Pilot]
by The Editors on October 19, 2010
From the looks of recent VeeCo stock sales by Volcom CEO Richard Woolcott he’s getting a little spending money out before those capital gains taxes rocket back up in January 2011.
In the month of October Wooly’s stock sales were up to 85,000 shares from the his usual 20,000 shares, according to a report on Guru Focus. Woolcott sold 60,000 on October 7, 2010 for approximately $20 a share and the other 25,000 on October 10, 2010 at $21.49. That brings the October cash out to a total of $1,737,250.
But Wooly was not alone. Volcom’s EVP and CFO Doug Collier got the best deal of all. He sold 30,000 shares on October 13, 2010 at $22.
by The Editors on October 19, 2010
The sold-out and wet Tony Hawk Foundation fundraiser, Tony Hawk: SHRED Presents Stand Up For Skateparks, held at billionaire Ron Burkle’s Green Acres Estate in Beverly Hills, California on Sunday raised $750,000 for quality free skatepark building.
The highlight of the day (aside from a live performance by Jane’s Addiction) was when philanthropist Charles Annenberg announced a special gift of $275,000 fro Explore.com and the Annenberg Foundation to finish the Watts Skatepark Project. Oh, and there were apparently some “celebrity” included on the 1,000 person guest list.
Celebrities including Tony Hawk, Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Johnny Knoxville, Chuck Liddell, Leeza Gibbons, Arsenio Hall, Ben Harper, Patrick Dempsey, BMX legend Mat Hoffman and legendary skaters Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain, and Mike Vallely enjoyed the interactive booths while waiting for the stage and vert ramp to be dried by crews.
It’s not a party until Arsenio Hall shows up. Guests said it pretty much rained all day, but that didn’t stop Tony and friends from putting on a demo on the vert ramp or from doing great work for skateboarding.
For the official details, follow the jump.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on October 19, 2010
Volcom announced today that they’ve purchased the distributor responsible for their brand in Spain beginning in July 2011.
“This move enables us to service our accounts directly and further build the Volcom brand in this important and influential territory,” said Richard Woolcott, Volcom’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Historically we have been successful in growing market share in territories where we have assumed direct control, and this initiative directly supports our expansion plans in Europe.”
This means Volcom is running it’s own show in France, the UK, Switzerland, and Spain. It’s always better to do things yourself. Bumping things over is going to cost the company approximately $150,000 this quarter.
by The Editors on October 14, 2010
The marketing mastermind behind the now defunct Mtnops.com website, snowboard, and clothing company, Snowboard Mag, and Tailgate Alaska, Mark Sullivan, has finally made it back to Vermont where he will take on his newest project as Marketing Manager of Rome Snowboards (see photos from his trip east here).
Mark has been responsible for some amazing innovations in snowboard media and events over the past 20 years and now he’s going to put those skills behind some product.
What may be most important is that Mark comes to Rome with a true passion for snowboarding and an excitement for where snowboarding’s headed. With a combination of experience, creativity, and a great work ethic, Mark is a great fit for the SDS family. . . If you’d like to come visit Mark, feel free to swing by the Rome office, where Mark’s taken up temporary residency in the Rome parking lot living out of the “Pow Explorer 2” during his transitional period from living in Idaho to becoming a Vermont resident.
We seriously can’t think of a better fit. Congrats, and good luck.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on October 13, 2010
While the rest of us were simply praying the 33 men trapped in a Chilean Copper mine would survive, Oakley appears to have lucked into a marketing bonanza.
According to a statement from Oakley, a Chilean journalist apparently recommended the company’s eyewear to a Chilean private health insurer. The insurer called Oakley and Oakley responded by donating 35 pairs of Radar With Black Iridium lenses, according to a story on CNBC.com.
Now, thanks to all the images of happy rescued miners rocking Oakley, the company has gotten world-wide branding on an enormous scale. The sponsorship evaluation firm of Front Row Analytics figures the value of Oakley’s “protective eyewear” donation is worth about $41 million.
Eric Smallwood, vice president of project management for the company, told CNBC that the company took into account the live coverage, the recaps and a rough estimate of the audience watching around the world. . . Front Row broke the exposure down by country. Oakley will get the most exposure in China ($11.7 million), $6.4 million in the United States, $898,000 in the United Kingdom and $703,000 in Chile. . . “It’s a goodwill gesture that will turn into mass amounts of exposure for Oakley in a positive manner,” Smallwood said.
How’s that for disaster marketing?
[Link: CNBC.com]
by The Editors on October 13, 2010
Game development company Robomodo, the group responsible for Tony Hawk’s Ride and new Tony Hawk’s Shred game (and controller), has reportedly cut between 30 and 60 employees, according to a story on Kotaku.com.
Sources tell Kotaku that the layoffs were affected in some way by news that Tony Hawk publisher Activision had taken the franchise away from the developer. One source told us that a wrap party planned for Tony Hawk: Shred with the star attending was pushed back to November without notice prior to today’s layoffs.
And the Tony Hawk video game franchise rolls on.
[Link: Kotaku.com]
by The Editors on October 8, 2010
Mark Appleyard is now representing Element Skateboards and Transworld Skateboarding’s Kevin Duffel has the complete interview on how it all went down, including why he left Flip.
I was over it [laughs],” Appleyard said. “I feel like I grew out of it and the team changed so much over the years that I was just like, “this shit ain’t for me anymore,” and I just needed to feel more stoked on the company I ride for, so I had to change it up. . . Yeah it was hard to leave, but it’s a business move. Ya know? If someone’s gonna be your friend, it shouldn’t depend on what company you ride for. I just had to make a power move to benefit myself. I’m really stoked on the choice I made. It was difficult but it had to be done.
Chalk up another win for the Billabong Corporation. Click the link for the entire interview.
[Link: Transworld Skateboarding]
