TheBurton Corp’s artsy, woodsy skateboard company Habitat is celebrating its 10th year in business by launching a line of skate footwear that is reportedly “designed by skateboarders for skateboarding.”
Consisting of six models, the line also infuses Habitat’s signature design principles — branded colorways, visual balance, and attention to detail. “After 10 years of building a solid presence in the hardgoods market, developing a footwear line was a new creative outlet for Habitat and a natural next step in the progression of the brand,” stated Joe Castrucci. “Footwear is a great platform for the evolution of Habitat. Pre-season sales have exceeded our goals and we are excited for the full product launch early next year,” added Chris Carter.
Guess there wouldn’t really be a worse time to launch a new shoe line. So at least they’ve got that going for them.
Lick it up, lick it up. . . Yes, Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter now has her own Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor and it’s call Blonde AmbitionMaple Blondie.
The first flavor created for an athlete, Maple Blondie is a rich and creamy maple ice cream with blonde brownie pieces and a smooth maple caramel swirl that will be arriving in Scoop Shops nationwide later this month. Channeling the company’s commitment to social mission, a portion of the proceeds will benefit Hannah’s Gold, Teter’s own charity that funds various projects in Africa.
Sounds pretty tasty. Not surprisingly Hannah is “amped.” “It’s great to have support from my home state, and a cool way to further support Hannah’s Gold and all the work we’re doing in Kirindon, Kenya,” she said.
Up anything is a good thing, right? While not even up 1 percent, it was good to see Zumiez up something for Q3. Here are some details from CNNMoney.com.
Total net sales for the third quarter (13 weeks) ended October 31, 2009 increased 0.8% to $113.2 million from $112.2 million reported in the third quarter (13 weeks) ended November 1, 2008. The Company posted net income for the quarter of $5.1 million or $0.17 per diluted share versus net income of $6.8 million or $0.23 per diluted share in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. Comparable store sales decreased 8.0% for the third fiscal quarter of 2009 compared to a 5.8% decrease in the third quarter of 2008.
CEO Rick Brooks is very proud of the Zumiez organization.
“I want to credit our entire team for our better than expected third quarter performance. By carefully managing our inventory, working closely with our branded and private label vendors to design programs that would deliver improved merchandise margins, and finding ways to inspire consumers who visited our stores, we were able to exceed our initial third quarter expectations and saw a meaningful improvement in our same store sales trends relative to the first half of fiscal 2009.
Things are looking up. Click the link for the complete financials.
We’re not even going to guess where this thing came from, but The Snowtunnel is described as follows:
The Snowtunnel is a patented design that allows snowboarders/skiers the opportunity to ski all year round. Unlike other artificial environments, The Snowtunnel uses real snow and can be run at a fraction of the cost of larger refridgerated park rides. The Snowtunnel concept can be standalone unit or incorporated into a larger facility.
Are we missing something or is this just a corrugated pipe that’s been iced down and spun? We would, however, like to see what it looks like when someone falls. . .
It’s not that we have low expectations from Neff, because that’s not it. We just always thought of them as a beanie and t-shirt company, yet, they continue to come up with stuff that seriously looks cool. Like these knitted headphones. We’re not going to wear them, but there is no doubt that they are cooler than shit.
GWAR lead singer Oderus Urungus (a.k.a. Dave Brockie) is apparently a hardcore shred who, like all of us, wanted a pro model. It appears that Sined Snowboards has given him one according to a post on the oderus.com website:
That’s right, own a piece of rock and roll history with the very special limited edition (only 300 made) SINED/Dave Brockie snowboard. For those of you that don’t know it, Dave Brockie is one of the founding members of the grammy-nominated rock group band GWAR, and the malevolent mind and mouth behind GWAR’s supremely evil front-thing and FOX News intergalactic correspondent, ODERUS URUNGUS! But Brockie is much more…a writer (check out his blog at rvanews.com), an illustrator (check out his work at oderus.com) and an avid snowboarder! So when old buddy, huge GWAR fan, and ex-pro rider Ron Bureta got his own company going, the long-held idea of a Brockie snowboard finally became a reality.
A press release sent out yesterday titled 86 Companies Will Make Their Debut At The Snow Show by SIA talks about how many new companies are involved in the Denver show and SIA President David Ingemie is ecstatic.
“New companies take risks and provide the retailers with fresh ideas and excitement – they shake it up and keep things interesting year after year,” said David Ingemie, president of SIA.
So who are the “new” companies that SIA is so excited about? Some of those listed as “new companies” include Skiand Skiing Magazine (aka Bonnier Mountain Group), Briko North America, Kastle, Kneissl, Swivler, and Vans. All of whom have attended the show numerous times before. Debut?
We emailed Anovia Daniels, Communications and Public Relations Manager for SIA, so we could better understand the press release and she explained: “Many of them are brand new and some are companies that have revamped themselves and come back to the Show. None of the exhibitors were at the Show last year.”
Right. So there aren’t actually “86 new companies” making their debut at the show and the headline is for all practical purposes an complete lie, which may explain the “others are circling back” subhead. Damn those marketing people. [click to continue…]
Alessandro Barreto, 36, an inexperienced surfer, from Richmond Hill, New York died last Thursday (Thursday, November 12, 2009) after being held under while attempting to surf at Rockaway Beach, according to a story on YourNabe.com.
“He was under water about four or five minutes,” said Rockaway resident Dave Monastersky. “He was under a long time.”. . “He was told not to go out,” Monastersky said. “You got to respect the ocean.” . . . The man’s body was dragged from the designated surfing beach to Beach 96th Street — several blocks away from when he first got caught in the tide.”
What kind of weird voodoo economics are going on at The Buckle? While most other mall stores’ sales are chomping down on gobs of sun-blanched feces, The Buckle is reporting that their Q3 profits rose 15 percent “on higher online sales and sales at stores open more than a year, according to BusinessWeek.
For the quarter ended Oct. 31, The Buckle earned $33.3 million, or 71 cents per share, compared with $29.1 million, or 62 cents per share, for the same quarter last year. . . Revenue rose 10 percent to $231.2 million from $210.6 million a year ago.
Having visited a few of Buckle stores we can honestly say we’re at a loss to understand what they are doing differently from PacSun and Zumiez, especially since they are in the same malls, with similar product, often directly across the room from each other. . . weird. Maybe Affliction and Aqua VI are pulling them through.
The Burton Corp’s artsy, woodsy skateboard company Habitat is celebrating its 10th year in business by launching a line of skate footwear that is reportedly “designed by skateboarders for skateboarding.”
