by The Editors on March 3, 2008
Old news for Sanuk, but a new story from the San Diego Business Journal:
In February, the New York-based trade publication Footwear Plus awarded the local company the Footwear Item of the Year award in the multibillion-dollar footwear industry.
Nearly three years ago, Sanuk introduced the Sidewalk Surfer, slip-on footwear that falls somewhere between a shoe and a sandal. Since then, sales have more than doubled.
The closed-toe shoes are made of malleable cloth that flattens to fit into a backpack or to take to the beach. A pair retails from $48 to $55.
Sanuk President John Vance says that the company’s founder, Jeff Kelley, drives the business and keeps ideas fresh.
[Link: San Diego Business Journal]
by The Editors on March 3, 2008
When Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com was looking for cool job of the week they went straight to Mike Parsons and his job of “Professional Big Wave Surfer.”
“It’s the best job in the world, for sure,” says the 43-year-old surfing legend. “Surfing big waves is the ultimate challenge for a waterman and surfer. When you’re doing it, you can’t think about anything else, you’re so involved in the elements.”
Parsons spends his days trying to find the biggest waves in the world, traveling to them, and attempting to ride them. Recently, he may have scored a place in the record books.
They didn’t even mention that he is also one of the best surf contest commentators in the business. Maybe that’s next week.
[Link: Portfolio.com]
by The Editors on March 3, 2008
According to a story in Australian’s The Age Kelly Slater has announced that he’s not going to surf the Rip Curl Bells event.
The former world No.1 has ruled out competing in the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach later this month, a move which would put his campaign to dethrone Aussie world champion Mick Fanning behind the eight ball.
But Slater’s frequent talk of missing events is wearing thin on rivals who dismiss his claims as nothing more than gamesmanship. . . . But his fiercest rival, fellow American and former triple world champ Andy Irons, said he’d take Slater’s words with a grain of salt.
“I’ll believe it when the first heat goes out … until then I’ll believe he’s in every event,” Irons said after his easy round three win over American Ben Bourgeois.
So will we.
[Link: The Age]
by The Editors on March 3, 2008
Volcom is up to six retail stores with the December opening of their Telegraph Ave. store in Berkeley, California “just a stone’s throw from the Cal Berkeley campus.” But they waited until last Friday night to have a grand opening party.
People filled the Volcom store on Telegraph Avenue Friday night to celebrate its grand opening with an all-ages party complete with free beer, free pizza and live music.
Although the boardsports-oriented clothing store officially opened its doors for business in December, they wanted the community to become more familiar with their products.
“We just want to introduce ourselves to the community and let everyone know we’re in town,” said Jeff Roberts, vice president of retail for Volcom.
And the Stone marches on.
[Link: The Daily Californian]
by The Editors on March 2, 2008
According to BusinessWire:
Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) today announced that the Company’s conference call to discuss fourth quarter fiscal 2007 financial results will be broadcast live over the Internet on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time and may be accessed at http://ir.zumiez.com. To listen to the webcast, please go to the website at least 15 minutes prior to the start time to register and download any necessary software.
[Link: BusinessWire]
by The Editors on March 2, 2008
2008 ASP World Champion Mick Fanning’s fiancee Karissa Dalton is one of the top 15 hotties in Banana Boat’s Search for Summer 2008, an Australian modeling contest. If her power moves on the catwalk are anything like her man’s on the water, then she should have no problem.
The girl who takes out the contest will win a bounty including $3000 cash and an all-expenses paid trip to Miami Beach Fashion Week in Florida. . . . She will also be given the opportunity to star in a new print and television advertising campaign for sun-protection brand Banana Boat, which is sponsoring the event.
“For summer, this is a really high-profile competition,” said Ms Dalton. “It is judged on your catwalk abilities and on your stage presence (and also) … your personality and interviewing skills.”
We can tell from the photo that she’s got a great personality and a hypnotic stage presence. No doubt.
[Link: Goldcoast.com.au]
by The Editors on March 1, 2008
Jordy Smith knows what happens to surfers who are sponsored by mainstream brands (Mr. Price for example). So while we were a little surprised back when he signed with O’Niell we had no idea how much he turned down from Nike, or what the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that he turned down.
Jordy Smith took a phone call from Tiger Woods. He received an email from Michael Jordan. He was sent the shoe that Ronaldo used to kick a goal in a World Cup final. Nike offered him $5.3 million a year … but he knocked them all back. . . . But then he signed with Californian company O’Neill, basically because it was a traditional surfing brand. It was still a seven-figure deal, making him one of the top five highest earners on the tour before he had even entered it. But he had to be content with about $3 million less a year. He’ll survive.
Impressive.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on February 28, 2008
The site has been stagnant for almost two weeks, however, today a new site showed up at TransWorld Business. After a quick cruise through the site we’d have to say it looks . . . well, just like a WordPress blog. Wonder what theme they’re using.
The old content looks to be gone-daddy-gone. Hopefully, they’ll hook it up later. It would be a shame if 16 years of action sports business content simply vanished from the web. Not to mention throwing an industry leading site down into a content race with anyone who wants to download WordPress and choose a theme.
Transworld Business appears to be a work in progress. Which is great. The site has needed some sprucing for years. We’ll keep you posted when we get a chance to check out the site in more detail (and after Transworld tech people get a chance to tune it up a little, because yeah, there are many problems with the site currently).
[Link: Transworld Business]
by The Editors on February 27, 2008
Tomorrow, February 28, 2008 is SIMA Boot Camp Day at Seven Degrees in Laguna Beach, California.
The goal of the Business Boot Camps is to allow SIMA members to benefit from intimate seminars on an ongoing basis that aim to provide valuable tips and tools to help their company improve a variety of daily business operations.
The all day session will feature three different tracks: Track A: Sales and Marketing, Track B: Operations, and Track C: Sourcing and Production. SIMA members pay $75 each and non-SIMA members pay $250 if they are invited. How’s that SIMA will invite you to their function, but then charge you $250. Sounds like a deal. Then again, we didn’t even get invited.
[Link: SIMA]
by The Editors on February 27, 2008
David Burroughs, the writer of a weekly surf column for the Ventura County Star has been picking up stories all over the place and running them as his own according to a story in Editor & Publisher.
In an unbylined story, the Star said evidence of the plagiarism emerged when the paper was contacted by the news director of Southern California Public Radio, who pointed out that a Jan. 22 column about a proposed highway that would go through a surfing spot included seven paragraphs apparently taken directly from an online version of its story on the highway expansion.
When editors at The Star looked into it they found even more.
Further investigation by The Star uncovered a Feb. 5 column by Burroughs regarding the theft of a web camera trained on a popular East Coast surfing spot. . . . Much of six paragraphs in that column came from a Jan. 27 story in the New York Times by Corey Kilgannon.
Burroughs apparently admitted that he had used the information but said that since he was using “mostly quotations from other sources that it was not plagiarism.” The paper said Burroughs had no journalism experience when he was hired. Guess that’s how newspapers do it these days.
[Link: Ventura County Star via Editor & Publisher]
