Globe’s Gary Valentine and Rodney Mullen hanging out down by the tracks looking for a fight.
More street photos after the jump.
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Skateboarding
After a long day of ASR show seminars there’s nothing better than going out back and doing some drinking with the skateboarders. Especially when Salmon Agah is handing out SkateBooks and GSD, Lance Mountain, Mike Vallely, Chet Childress, Corey Duffel and others were there to sign ’em.
More photos after the jump.
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We came in ready to have a little laugh at Fuel TV‘s expense about having a media panel with no media people on it, but Fuel’s John Stouffer surprised us.
Sure, Fuel TV’s General Manager CJ Olivares was on the panel (as he is every year), but also upfront were several other action sports media people: TransWorld Business Publisher Rob Campbell, The Surfer Group Publisher Rick Irons, and Vans marketing guy Doug Palladini.
The stated point of the discussion was how the Internet is changing action sports media. With the exception of Palladini, however, all the panelists were from old media companies who happen to have websites. No one from any of the emerging online action sports media businesses like loopd, Seshn, Sportnet, Go211, or Bnqt were even represented on the panel. Add to the fact that Vans spends millions of dollars with the other three panelists and it ended up like little more than a one-sided scuffle about advertising.
One of most pointed comments came from the audience when Ransu Salovaara the CEO of online ad network Sportsyndicator.com said:
The readers have already abondonded the magazines. The people are already online but the industry is supporting the magazines. The marketing directors are about two years behind the rest of the world. . . . The magazines are not supported by readers anymore, they are supported by the industry.
As might be imagined the entire panel disagreed.
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From the size of the audience it would seem that specialty retailers have sales data on lock. Only about 14 people attended ActionWatch’s Cary Allington’s seminar at 1:30 PM today. And that is strange because he is offering a completely free way to know exactly what is checking in specialty retail shops across the country. More importantly, his data can be used to compare what retailers are doing in their own stores to the aggregate.
The catch? Retailers simply supply a monthly sales report that gets aggregated, given back to the member retailers free of charge, and then sold to suppliers. Currently, Allington has approximately 180 specialty retailers signed up but he’s hoping to get to 300.
There are great reasons for retailers to share data. One of our favorites is using the data to negotiate with suppliers to get better deals. If a retailer knows that brand “X” skate shoe is selling at margins that are below average, it would be nice to share that information with the supplier as leverage.
This really is about empowering retailers. “Retailers think they have much less power than they actually have,” Allington said.
And after all, data is power. Might as well have some of it on your side. But then again, these are specialty retailers. . . good luck, huh?
[Link: Action Watch Reports]
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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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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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Photographer and skater Lia Halloran has a show of 10 photographs being featured at the DCKT Contemporary gallery in New York City. According to Time Out New York she was “featured in Thrasher Magazine at age 16, and went on to get an M.F.A. from Uale University’s department of paint and printmaking.”
The ten photographs on view were taken at night in various Los Angeles locations ranging from spaces appropriated by skateboarders, such as the Los Angeles River, to skate parks and backyard ramps. . . . The works blur the boundaries of photography and become self-portraits and drawings as well as records of performances. Light is used to form the drawing line while HALLORAN skateboards at night through different venues. The resulting images are each a trajectory of the artist’s movements over time. The photographs pair urban environments with lines of light which behave as physical objects or break apart into flurries of abstraction.
Yep, that’s a pretty fancy way of saying “strap a light to your head and roll around while your camera sits on a tripod with the shutter open,” but it still looks pretty nice to us. The show closes on September 13, 2008 so you only have ten more days to check it out.
[Link: DCKT Contemporary via Time Out NY]
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We’ve always heard that the number one money-maker for aging pop stars is always the “Christmas Album.” Guess the same goes for aging Jackasses. On December 2, 2008 Bam Margera along with Warner Home Video will be releasing Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% is Santa? as a direct to video product. Here’s how they describe it:
Superstar skateboarder and prankster Bam Margera grabs Christmas by the bells and pushes it over the edge! Bam and his band of hardcore hooligans take a riotous, rowdy road trip to the Arctic Circle to bring home Santa Claus as a Christmas surprise for Bam’s wife Missy. With stops on the way to visit their favorite head-banging metal bands, and with a pair of Finnish bad boys as their unruly guides, Bam and the guys wreak gut-busting chaos wherever they go. This hilarious, gross-’em-out feature includes insane antics, a rockin’ soundtrack, and the wickedest yuletide skate-jam EVER.
Hmm, wonder why this wasn’t released in theaters?
[Link: BusinessWire]
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Leave it to a small, local San Diego skate magazine Automatic to come up with something the corporate magazines could never figure out: a skate contest that draws retailers together to see who has the best shop team. It’s Saturday, August 6, 2008 at the ASR Show.
[Link: Battle Of The Shops]
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For those in foreign countries, it’s a nice way to do business: set up the distribution of your favorite brand, get it rolling, and then sell it back to the brand. For the brand it’s a relatively cheap way to expand into foreign markets (with much less risk). That’s what Volcom just did with their Japanese distributor.
This acquisition is a testament to the strength of our brand in Japan after working with our distributor for more than 15 years,” says Richard Woolcott, chairman and CEO of Volcom. “We are excited to culminate a longstanding relationship with an opportunity to work more closely with our accounts in this important territory, while retaining our Japan-based distribution team.”
When it works out nicely, it’s amazing.
[Link: OC Metro]
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