What we really like is that the business was founded by, and continues to be led by a entrepreneurial and dynamic duo, Andy Laats and Chad DiNenna. Andy founded the business shortly after picking up his MBA at Stanford from the ground up, partnered by Chad. They determined that the action sports sector didn’t have a watch brand clearly identified with folks clearly passionate about surfing, skating and snowboarding.
It would appear that TCP has their priorities straight, right?
In December of 2011 Chinese electronics manufacturer Signeo, the manufacturer of Soul by Ludacris headphones filed suit against new action headphone company SOL Republic claiming trademark infringement.
According to SOL Republic, Signeo has gone even farther and tried to obtain an injunction against the company saying that SOL Republic named their company specifically to confuse people.
In response SOL Republic says they did nothing of the sort:
We founded SOL REPUBLIC because we love music and how it positively effects our lives. . . We committed ourselves to make great sound more affordable for everyone. . . We like Ludacris. We like his music and we are truly friends. We have nothing against him. . . We don’t like the practices of Signeo, which licensed Ludacris’s name, nor of its President Bob Bonefant. . . We don’t like their attempt to intimidate our company and the really great people in it. . . We don’t like their army of lawyers from multiple law firms who are trying to get a judge to shut us down.
Headphones are apparently big business. For the rest of the SOL Republic statement, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Snowboarder Eric Jackson has a new accessories sponsor now that he’s signed up with Los Angeles electronics covering company Hex.
“Practically everybody who sees my iPhone asks me where I got the case, not to mention the nano® watchbands and bags which completely blow them away,” said Eric. “It feels so good to be a part of a brand that supports me and makes such fresh products…the sky’s the limit!”
Now that he mentions it, those cases are pretty cool. . . follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
Mervin Manufacturing co-founder Mike Olson has been weird sciencing the snowboard world for nearly three decades. Some would argue (us included) that Olson (along with partner Peter Saari and Steven Cobb) responsible for more design advancements in snowboard and ski technology than any other living person. Beginning with the carving snowboard, parabolic sidecut, and cap construction, and continuing on with reverse camber, and augmented snowboard edge shapes, Olson has been going against conventional wisdom for his entire career. For the past two years Olson has been working exclusively on a new project involving what he calls “waterboards” or what the rest of us call surfboards.
Jeff Henderson, Mike Olson, Pete Saari and the new Lib Tech waterboards.
We’ve been hearing about these new surfboards for a while but we’d never seen any, most likely because he’s purposefully been keeping them out of the line-ups of Southern California breaks. Then during the Agenda Show in Long Beach we got into a late-night elevator at the Hyatt and ran into a crew from Mervin Manufacturing. They had four of the new surfboards and were taking them up to their room. We were so blown away by the boards and so interested in feeling, squeezing, and holding them that we forgot to even take a picture. We didn’t know it at the time, but in typical Mervin Manufacturing strategy Mike decided to present the surfboards to the world at the Snowsports Industries of America Show in Denver, Colorado last week where very few of the attendees would even know enough about surfing to be impressed.
We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, it’s game-changing. As much as we can say from only holding them, the boards live up to the hype. They are light, well-shaped, and (after seeing four knocked to the floor) unbelievable durable. We had some questions, and luckily Mike Olson was there to answer them in excruciating detail.
Halfway through our interview PR maven Lora Bodmer cut in to make sure Olson wasn’t giving away any trade secrets, but other than that we got 28 minutes of the straight scoop.
Video nerd alert! Ever wondered how the title sequence of Travis Rice’s The Art of Flight was done? Studio Daily talks with Bozeman, Montana’s Helio Collective on exactly how they did it.
“Working on Art of Flight was an amazing opportunity to combine motion graphics with beautiful live action,” says Chris Murphy, Helio’s founder and creative director. “We were part of everything, including conception, shooting, and editing for the intro title sequence and it really helped us capture the mood and tone of the film.”
They also used Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Andersson Technologies SynthEyes. Nope, doesn’t mean a thing to us, either. But it almost makes us want to see the movie once and for all.
Not that snowboarders need another reason to be distracted, but RED and Frends have teamed up on a Helmet with sound.
RED’s team favorite gets juiced up with the Frends music experience. Audio inspired and designed with the Air Band 180 Fit System, removable ear pads and internal padding for a lower profile fit—Make Frends with the Hi-Fi.
As the video suggests, Danny Davis thinks it’s a pretty nice set up. . . even for driving trucks.
Ross Garrett (right) the former Director of Operations and Development for The Surfer’s Journal has been named Vice President of Surf Products for Surfline.com. Also joining the Surfline.com team in Huntington Beach, California is new Global Forecast Development Manager Mark Willis.
“Ross and Mark are each incredibly talented and well respected within the unique surfing and ocean-based meteorology markets we serve with Surfline and Buoyweather. We are excited to have them both hit the ground running to help continue to drive the growth of our products,” said CEO Jonno Wells.
Garrett and Willis will officially join Surfline on February 1, 2012. For more background on both, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
As Tony Hawk has taught us all, there is no way to be a action sporting super hero without having a video game or at least a good part in a video game. This new clip from Electronic Arts SSX would suggest that Travis Rice has been paying attention. The new SSX drops February 28, 2011.
Thought the big boys of electronics were going to just sit back and let Skullcandy run away with the entire personal audio market? Nope. SOL Republic a new headphone brand with family ties to Monster Cable is kicking their new product line off at the Agenda Show.
“Just like action sports, SOL REPUBLIC is deeply rooted in the music lifestyle. Sports are emotional and music is emotional. When music sounds better, you feel better and perform better. We’re committed to making better-‐sounding headphones affordable to everyone.” Said Kevin Lee, Co-‐Founder and CEO of SOL REPUBLIC.
What’s different about these new headphones? We’re going to check them out today, and let you know. Follow the jump for all the official details.
Seriously, no reason to keep docking around with all those Canon DSLR toys when with a little over $11,000 you can get a 4K Red Scarlet X. Better get one now. It’s what all the trustafari will be shooting with this season, and better yet, it will work with all your lenses. Click here for part two.
Deal Journal Australia interviewed Trilantic Capital Partners‘ partner Charlie Moore regarding the fund’s new investment in the Nixon brand and asked him why they would partner up with management and Billabong. Among other things Moore said this:
