In past years our policy has always been to roam the SIA Snow Show and see what catches our eyes or ears. While this create epic moments of serendipitous discovery it also means that we often miss some really cool shit.
This year we won’t have that problem because the SIA has created aniPhone app (and Blackberry and Android apps for those sad lonely, beaten down workers forced to use shoddy tools). It’s called SIA 2011 and was created by Core Apps.
Use the SIA Snow Show App to navigate the Show with interactive floor plans, exhibitor lists, twitter feeds, events schedules, listings for Denver bars and restaurants and create your own Show schedule.
The digital map is reason enough to download the app, but add to that a searchable exhibitor list (with booth numbers and full contact info), an events schedule (which has not been updated yet), Twitter feed, Denver Guide, and contact info for all the speakers at SIA and it is a mandatory piece of software for anyone attending the show. One of the coolest bits is that exhibitors in the list can be starred and or checked off the list and later viewed in an “exhibitors visited list.” Keeping track of who to see and who we’ve seen has never been easier.
After years of being at SIA adrift and unguided, the SIA Snow Show app comes like a light in the darkness. Click this link for the iPhone version. You other smartphone heathens are on your own.
Laguna Beach, California’s Thalia Surf Shop scored a perfect viral 10 with their “20% Off all Black items” Martin Luther King, Jr. Day sale featuring the civil rights leader in a wetsuit carrying a surfboard, according to stories on media outlets around the world.
“This cheap attempt on the part of a business to make money off of Dr. King continues the pattern of disrespect and ignorance of and that far too many businesses and business owners have for the monumental work of Dr. King.” . . Hutchinson demanded the surf shop stop the MLK sale and provide a public apology.
Thalia owner Nick Cocores says he meant no harm by the email, according to KABC.com.
“In no way did we intend to hurt or offend anyone,” Cocores said. “For those that took offense or disrespect, we truly are sorry. We took down the ad for our sale to hopefully calm the waters and in the future will be more careful in our selection of promotions.”
Click here to read Cocores’ apologygot so much traffic that they had to remove their entire blog from the website as well. [Our link was wrong. Thanks to a kind commenter for pointing out our assumptive error.]
Leave it to a bunch of peace loving hippies from Laguna Beach to misread the national holiday completely. Follow the jump for the evening news video.
For the past eight years, Agenda Show founders Aaron Levant and Seth Haber have pushed ahead with a cool, small trade show that promoted authentic street brands.
In the face of competition from much larger organizations like Magic, ASR, and Surf Expo they’d been able to carve out a small, successful corner of the fashion trade show business. The show was growing even though each year it was becoming more and more of a head-to-head race with ASR.
Then, at the beginning of November 2010, Nielsen Expositions announced it was shutting down the ASR Show entirely. Suddenly, Agenda’s most direct competition was gone. At that time we tried to speak with Levant about how the announcement would change the trade show game, but he wasn’t interested in discussing it then.
Yesterday (January 6, 2011), we caught Levant in the lobby of the packed Agenda Show in Anaheim’s Marriott Convention Center. This year’s show is made up of several sections: Agenda, The Berrics Agenda skateboard show, and the all-new Agenda Snow. All told, the show fills 80,000 square feet of floorspace and features 300 brands. Levant and Haber’s little show has become quite large.
We realize that an early morning drive-through strip club may be foreign to most, however, it’s where the Skate Park of Tampa crew do some of their best philanthropic work—you know, for the kids.
We may have mentioned this before, but Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Kevin Staab, and maybe Mike McGill will be skating at Surf Expo during Quiksilver’s All 80’s All Day Vert Challenge being held Friday January 7, 2011 directly following the show at 6 PM.
Tony and the boys will be joined by 10 other 80’s skate legends in competing for $1980 in cash.
We know they’re getting ready, because Tony Hawk just tweeted this photo today from McGill’s Skateshop in Encinitas, California. It would be good to see it live. But we have a couple questions: What did people wear in the 80s? How is Orlando in January?
Not be left out of the Billabong retail gobbling game Rip Curl has announced that it has just picked up 15 Perth-based retail stores according to a post on Ragtrader.com.au.
The Torquay-headquartered surf company revealed it has bought nine ‘Wave‘ surf stores, two ‘City Surf’ stores and four ‘Cite’ streetwear stores. . . Rip Curl Asia Pacific CEO Steven Kay said he hopes to build on Wave’s 25-year history, overseen thus far by Wave founders Chris and Vicki Prastidis. . . “Perth is the gateway to one of the great surfing and youth markets in Australia and Rip Curl want to put more effort into the region,” Kay said.
Independent action sports retailers are getting few and far between.
Maverick’s big wave pioneer Jeff Clark opened his new Maverick’s Surf Shop at 25 Johnson Pier, Pillar Point Harbor, Princeton-by-the-Sea, according to a story in The Mercury News.
The new shop will put Clark, a father of three, front and center as the public face of surfing in Half Moon Bay. Clark’s previous shop was harder to find, on a narrow street in the warehouse district of Princeton. Now when tourists come to the harbor looking for directions to Mavericks Beach, they’ll be able to ask the man himself.
The lawsuits against No Fear appear to be piling up as the Carlsbad, California based company has reportedly failed to pay their rent in many of their mall locations, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.
Among the malls that have taken No Fear to court are the Irvine Spectrum and Block at Orange, both of which filed lawsuits in Orange County Superior Court; and shopping centers in Arcadia, West Covina and Valencia, which filed suits in Los Angeles County Superior Court. . . Irvine Co., which owns the Spectrum, obtained a judgment against No Fear in October after the retailer failed to defend a lawsuit that said it was $49,000 behind in rent. The judgment opened the door for an eviction, but an Irvine Co. spokeswoman said the No Fear store at the Spectrum is still open. The clothing company settled each of the Los Angeles County lawsuits out of court.
As many retailers are probably saying this time of year, “If we can just make it through Christmas everything will be alright.”
Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Corky Carroll and Hobie Alter are oddly involved in a food-service competition for space in the recently expanded John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, according to a story in the OC Register.
In separate proposals, two companies bidding for the airport food service contract are proposing restaurants named after the surfing celebrities. HMS Host International wants to build Hobie Hut, a surf-themed beach bar and grill. Delaware North Companies is proposing Corky Carroll’s Surf Bar. . . While Carroll is famous for his personal adventures and surfing titles, Alter is known as an industry innovator. He is considered a surfboard manufacturing pioneer – one of the first to mass produce foam and fiberglass boards.
Sorry, Hobie and Corky we like seeing you make some money, but if anyone deserves a spot at John Wayne it’s Wahoo’s.
In past years our policy has always been to roam the SIA Snow Show and see what catches our eyes or ears. While this create epic moments of serendipitous discovery it also means that we often miss some really cool shit.
