by The Editors on January 7, 2009
We received reports yesterday that Reef dropped the axe on 42 employees as the savage retail economy continues to take its toll. Reef is one of 25 brands owned by VF Corp. Some of the company’s other brands include Vans, The North Face, 7 For All Mankind, Eastpack, Jansport, Wrangler, and Eagle Creek.
In a late December 2008 interview with TransWorld Business VF Corp’s President Americas Coalition Dave Gatto said:
We all know there can be a huge up-swing when the market recovers; it’s just a matter of adjusting the business responsibly to survive the lulls and hopefully emerge a stronger, more efficient brand.
Looks like Mr. Gatto just “adjusted” the Reef business to survive this lull. Hopefully, that was enough.
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
Joey Santley and Steve Cox have done what many thought could not be done: they have produced a surfboard made of mostly recycled materials. Joey spoke with Surfing Magazine about the entire Resurf.org process.
Well, the first board is 65% recycled foam. All I did was sweep up the foam dust from the shaping machine and bays of Mayhem’s factory and mixed it into our blending process. Of course, there has to be some virgin polyurethane in there to make everything adhere, but this is a huge start. We’re hoping to get the boards up to 70-80% recycled.
According to the story, Joey and Steve will be at ASR with their boards in booth #1036.
[Link: Surfing Magazine]
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
Malibu surfers are getting upset about the City’s plans to clean up what has been a “chronically polluted” surf break for years, according to a story in the LA Times. They say the plan does not take into account the treatment of sewage in the Civic Center.
Legacy Park “was touted as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a state-of-the-art environmental solution to the city’s water quality problems,” said Joe Melchione, an attorney who heads the Malibu Surfing Assn.’s environmental committee. “It’s time for the city of Malibu to grow up and clean up their own mess.”
Apparently, this whole issue is a stinking mess.
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
On December 10, 2008 Blacks Leisure announced they were giving the UK distribution rights to O’Neill back to O’Neill Europe and later mentioned they would find a buyer for their 57 Freespirit and O’Neill boardsports shops. Well, according to a story in the Blacks Leisure the company was unable to find a buyer for the stores.
“The reality is in the current market people aren’t prepared to do a sensible deal,” Neil Gillis, chief executive. . . . He said the fashion of wearing clothing inspired by skateboard and surf culture appeared to have passed. Instead of selling the division, Blacks is preparing to convert the stores to its main brands at a cost of £150,000 a store or £1.5m for the first tranche to be completed this year.
Blame it on skate and surf fashions. Nice.
[Link: Financial Times]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Hawaii’s Kai Barger won the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships edging Brazil’s Jadson Andre, 20. Follow the jump for the entire ASP press release.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Think iPhones aren’t changing the face of action sports media? Check this: Surfline is reporting that the the Surfline iPhone app developed by Oakley has been downloaded 200,000 times in only six weeks.
With only a few short weeks on iTunes, the global surf report iPhone application has been downloaded across the world with the top country’s being United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and France rounding out the top 5. . . . Surfline CEO Jonno Wells says, “This application has given surfers the ability to check surf reports for their favorite beaches on the go. We are very excited about the early numbers we are seeing with this application and look forward to continuing to provide information to surfers at their fingertips.
No one should underestimate the power of the iPhone.
[Link: Surfline.com]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Kauai’s one-armed shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton just finished second in the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships January 5, 2009 in Sydney, Australia, according to a story in the Honolulu Advertiser. Hamilton was happy to finish behind France’s Pauline Ado.
“I’m really happy with my performance at this event,” said Hamilton, 18. “To make the final is really good for me. I haven’t had a good result in a while, so hopefully this will give me some confidence for the rest of the year.”
Congrats. We continue to be blown away by Bethany and look forward to seeing her surf on the WQS this season.
[Link: Honolulu Advertiser]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
ASG goes all existential on us with their newly re-designed Surfer Mag site. Yes, we know it is today, we were just hoping to see some content. . . maybe it’s all below the fold. [Note: this has been fixed since the post went up, but it is still a complete waste of space on their homepage.]
[Link: Surfer Mag]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
In a story titled 5 Cash-Rich Companies Being Given Away Motley Fool writer Morgan Housel says Volcom may be one of the stocks that Warren Buffet refers to as “a one-foot bar I can step over.”
Is retail dead yet? As a whole, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some stores that stand out from the pack. Volcom might be one of them. While other apparel veterans like Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) and retailers like Macy’s (NYSE: M) are saddled with long-term debt, Volcom has kept its balance sheet spotless. . . . But with a bulletproof balance sheet and a well-known, powerful brand name, the main catalysts that typically shove recession-prone industries into the graveyard are nowhere to be seen with Volcom.
Apparently, being a millionaire is that easy.
[Link: The Motley Fool]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
It’s been a long time coming but it looks like ESPN has finally begun to treat action sports as a part of their sporting news mix and not just some kind of fringe “X” thing out on a site by itself. Starting today EXPN is gone and in its place is ESPN Action Sports at http://espn.go.com/action/.
The new, nicely uncluttered subsection of the ESPN.com site is reportedly much more Google friendly and will be bringing “shitloads of traffic, bro.” It was supposed to have its own promo on the homepage of ESPN.com but we couldn’t find any and the new section doesn’t currently have an RSS feed (it should be up by the end of the week according to inside sources). A link to the Action Sports page is, however, listed under the ALL SPORTS menu in the main navigation of the ESPN site (three spots from the bottom of the list behind Rugby and just ahead of “bassmaster.”) Apparently the nav is ranked by importance to the average ESPN.com visitor.
While we don’t exactly consider “rally” an action sport, the new index does give each of the sports their own sub-sub homepage which will technically allow visitors to deep link straight to the content they’re interested in. Still, this “segregated part of the whole sports world” idea does result in a page with a couple snowboard stories right next to a big promo for the Gridiron Playoff Challenge.
Guess some things will never change.
[Link: ESPN.com/action]
We received reports yesterday that Reef dropped the axe on 42 employees as the savage retail economy continues to take its toll. Reef is one of 25 brands owned by VF Corp. Some of the company’s other brands include Vans, The North Face, 7 For All Mankind, Eastpack, Jansport, Wrangler, and Eagle Creek.
