Every year Volcom chooses a theme and sticks to it for the entire trade show season. They’ve done hippies, hillbillies, and this year they raved it up with Volcom Techno Beach.
This clip is only one minute long. By the time the 2010 Fall Action Sports Retailer Show closes on Sunday, August 15, 2010 Volcom employees will have relived this minute 1,380 times. And then they will get to do it all again at Surf Expo next month, and at SIA in Janaury 2011. How’s that for dedication to the brand?
Mossimo has done it. Jean Paul Gaultier, too. Even Shaun White has done a deal with Target. Now Paul Rodriguez is taking money from the discount retailer, too. And to make it more real, he’s tied this deal to his childhood.
“I grew up right across the street from a Target and have many memories of skating over to the store as a kid,” said Paul. “I’ve always loved their brand and am excited about the relationship and potential of what we can do together.”
But more than anything, we’re guessing Paul loves that massive paycheck that only a multi-national discount retailing sponsor can provide. Wonder what products his name will go on first. . . we’re guessing they’ll do the entire Shaun White line with new P-Rod graphics.
We’ve always admired the work of San Clemente, California based shaper Cole Simlar, but have never spoken with him. Kind of bummed on that after watching this video. Some of his work will be on display at the Billabong Art of Shaping: Orange County Edition August 13-14, 2010 at the ASR Trade Show.
The Rhone Group, the international leveraged buyout firm that saved Quiksilver from financial peril to the tune of $150 million in June of 2009, and then traded $75 million of that debt for 16.7 million shares in the company last month, has now “acted on all its options” and traded the rest of the debt in for 14 million more shares (at $4.50 a share) in Quiksilver common stock, according to papers filed with the SEC. As might not be surprising Quik CEO Bob McKnight is pleased with the deal.
“We’re delighted to complete this debt for equity exchange as another important step toward further de-leveraging our balance sheet. The transaction provides us with additional operating and financial flexibility. We especially want to thank Rhône for the tremendous vote of confidence in making this investment and for their ongoing belief in our company. Since extending the original term loans to us a year ago, Rhône has become a major presence in our board room and they have added significant value to our business.”
As The Rhone Group now owns close to 33 percent of the company we’re guessing they’re going to become a major presence in more than the board room rolling forward. For the entire release follow the jump. [click to continue…]
After opening their own retail stores, selling most all of their products online, and playing pretty rough with some of their highest volume retailers in recent years, it appears that Burton Snowboards (who just relaunched their website) is making an effort to give back to local shops, according to a Jake Burton letter sent to retailers and posted on The-Tackled Box.
Here’s a little of what Jake says:
While I completely back where we are at and what we have done, I also feel strongly that we need to support local shops more than ever. You are the backbone of our sport, and everyone in this industry will benefit from your growth and success. Yo will see more from us in this spirit, starting with this catalog and some of the distribution decisions we have already made. . . we know who got us here and we know how much you do for the sport. Thanks for you support and know that will will do more for you in the future.
Those are very nice thoughts. We hope local shops get some benefit from all the wonderful things Burton has planned for them because they need all the help they can get. (Click the image to read it full size)
There is a lot of skate action going down this week that isn’t The Street League. What better time for Rob Dyrdek to kick down all the details on The Street League? And yeah, he’s pretty convincing.
This really is more of a personal reminder to ourselves than to anyone else (we’re getting pretty forgetful these days), but tomorrow the Agenda Trade Show kicks off its two-day run at Huntington Beach, California’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. As if you don’t have enough going on this week. . .
A horde of action sports marketing zombies are gathered in Huntington Beach, California today (August 3, 2010) for group Y’s second annual Action Sports Conference where they will share ideas on how to strip more meat off the bones of action sports.
If you’re hungry for action flesh and want to learn how to transform youthful passion into corporate cash then by all means, follow along with Transworld Business as they “Cover It Live”. Follow the jump for the tweeting details. [click to continue…]
Film producer Jimmy Hawkins, 51, and musician Gregg Cassity, 56, (both of Southern California) have a new event that is going to blow everyone away, according to a story in the Daily News. The men are owners of the National Association of Powered Skateboard Racing and they’re saying it’s the next big thing.
“Powered Skateboard Racing will be sweeping the globe,” Hawkins said in one of a series of bombastic e-mails promoting the sport. The two men and their roster of about 20 racers hope to turn this weekend lark for daredevil skateboarders into a professional sport by finding bigger venues and acquiring sponsors, equipment manufacturers and media attention. . . The result is the scene that unfolded Sunday at the Encino Velodrome when a bunch of dudes jumped on motorized skateboards and raced around the high-banked concrete oval in what is either the next hot sport or the latest example of California nuttiness.
We can already hear the organizer potential sponsor pitch: it’s Gen-Y’s own version of NASCAR. Loud billboards going round and round. Sounds like a great addition to ESPN’s X Games.
Kris Markovich has taken his Given Skateboards brand to a new distributor according to a release issued by Switchboard Inc.
“Through this new partnership, Kris has more time to focus on his passion for art and design,” says Mark Sweetser, VP of Sales at Switchboard, Inc. “The Switchboard Inc. family, is excited to bring Given Skateboards into its long term distribution plan.”
