by The Editors on July 7, 2008
Shaun White’s “for Target” Collection drops on July 27, 2008. Shoppers will have 90 days to buy the clothes before they magically disappear. As might be expected from an action sports athlete who is being paid outrageous amounts of money Shaun is happy with his sponsor:
“Target is a great company that has been supporting me for almost six years. Having the opportunity to create an original line with them is a natural progression of our relationship and something that I was extremely stoked to do. The fact that I was able to work with my brother just made it even sweeter,” said Shaun.
Sweetness, right on Target.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on July 6, 2008
Letter from a skateboard-loving reader of the Malvern Gazette, in the UK:
CONGRATULATIONS to the stupid young skateboarder who rolled out into the road at the top of Newtown Road yesterday – he is still alive.
Had I been paying less attention he may not have been.
Clearly unhappy with using the car park to practice his idiocy, he felt it necessary to extend it onto the public highway. I can only hope that he has learnt something from the experience of nearly having his legs broken although I shall not be holding my breath.
SIMON ROWE, Belmont Road, Malvern.
From past experience, this guy probably works for city government in some capacity.
[Link: Marlvern Gazette]
by The Editors on July 4, 2008
The Maloof family has not gotten rich by giving away more money than they keep, and that’s probably why 3-day Professional Session VIP passes to “the world’s greatest skateboarding competition” The Maloof Money Cup cost $350 a pop.
If you want to sit and watch the contest (in a seat, in the grandstands) it’s going to cost you $65.45. The cheapest general admission tickets for the three day event are $32.30 (admission to the Orange County Fair is included).
Now, granted, this is a sporting event and sporting events are expensive to produce, especially when you’re giving away $500,000. But it’s funny how none of the stories in the skateboard media have mentioned how much the tickets were going to cost the kids.
[Link: Ticketmaster]
by The Editors on July 3, 2008
The 15th Annual Mystic Cup starts tomorrow in Prague.
For three days starting July 4, more than 10,000 spectators will converge in a haze of booze, marijuana smoke and music to watch these athletes compete in three events for a $50,000 purse — the largest in the event’s history. “This is bigger than other events in Europe,” says Lukáš Daněk, one of the 15 Czech skateboarders who will be competing in the event. “They don’t get the media coverage like there is [at Mystic Sk8].”
Click the link for the rest of the story as told by the Prague Post’s Adrian Chen.
[Link: Prague Post]
by The Editors on July 2, 2008
Two things we’ve always liked: Vans shoes and O.G. Freedom of Choice video skater Steve Olson. Don’t know why. It’s just the way it is. Somethings will never change.
Now, we’ve got two more reasons to like them both: the Vans Syndicate x Steve Olson low and high top. They look a little Chuck Taylory, but that snakeskin puts them right over the line.
[Link: Robust Flavor]
by The Editors on July 2, 2008
According to The Daily Dish, former pro skateboarder and actor Jason Lee is marrying his pregnant girlfriend Ceren Alkac.
Two months after announcing the model is expecting a baby girl later this year, Lee and Alkac were snapped waiting in line at a Norwalk, Calif., courthouse on Monday.
This kind of coverage should be listed as just one more downside to fame.
[Link: San Francisco Chronicle]
by The Editors on July 2, 2008
You’ve have to go back all the way to Tigerbeat photos of Leif Garrett on a skateboard to come up with someone with the ability to drive teen girls wild like Cryin’ Ryan Sheckler. And USA Today is all over the story.
He also has become a teen heartthrob who attracts hordes of squealing, screaming female fans to his competitions and public appearances. “I think of myself as a skateboarder first and a guy on TV second,” he said in an interview after the June 19-22 Dew Tour Panasonic Open in Baltimore, where the crowds of girls seeking his autograph were so huge, organizers had to post signs near other athletes’ tables reading “Not Ryan Sheckler.”
Confession: we watch Life of Ryan religiously. So we know what they’re talking about. Okay, not really.
[Link: USA Today]
by The Editors on July 2, 2008
Tracker Larry’s retro-craze marches with two more reissue decks from Lester Kasai, and our personal favorite, current Sole Technology web content maker Gary Scott Davis. As Skate and Annoy’s Kilwag says:
Me, I’m waiting for the Tracker Man watch reissues. (No, I’m not.) Available at Tracker Trucks. I hope those boards turn… Yes, I’m phoning it in today.
We like the GSD model because it holds up well to board throwing meltdowns. At least that’s what we’ve heard.
[Link: Skate and Annoy]
by The Editors on July 2, 2008
And the latest in Billabong’s run to soak up every solid brand in the US comes news that the company has purchased Sector 9 for and undisclosed sum.
Queensland-based Billabong expects the business to add about 2% to group sales, implying the business generates $25 million to $30 million in sales.
“Sector 9’s products, primarily its longboards, really differentiate it from other brands in the boardsports channel and have appeal to surfers, skateboarders and the broader youth market,” Billabong chief executive Derek O’Neill said.
Steve Lake, Dennis Telfer and co-owner Dave Klimkiewicz will continue on with what we’re guessing are nice looking buyouts for increasing sales down the road. Watchout, Burton.
[Link: The Age]
by The Editors on July 1, 2008
The new ad campaign for the Summer X Games features an evil overlord named Darkmane (a featured member at Vitalskate.com, way to go Brad) who wants to destroy the X Games and convince people not to watch them. His plan, ironically, is to kill all the creativity involved with the X Games athletes by creating rules and regulations and forcing all athletes to wear uniforms.
The X Games universe it about to get the proverbial beat down Darkmane style. I will crush originality at the X games with conformity and these new heavily starch heather gray athletic uniforms.
Aside from the fact that ESPN already did Darkmane’s job for him years ago and the reality that the athletes are wearing uniforms more corporately emblazoned than a NASCAR racecar, we don’t really get what The Martin Agency was going after with this campaign.
Maybe being based in the action sports mecca of Richmond, Virginia has a little something to do with their misguided sense of pseudo insider irony, but they seem to have forgotten that this event is one of the least creative, most corporately controlled sporting events this side of the WWE. And to point that out to kids in advertising messages seems, well, almost retarded.
Then again, if the whole point of the Darkmane ads is to discredit and make fun of any form of credible judging or authentic competition in the minds of the audience and just let the event producers choose winners based on which athletes have the highest Q score, then maybe, just maybe Darkmane is genius advertising.
Either way, the guy’s got us convinced: we’re not watching.
