At 7:30 am on day two of the 2012 SIA Show (Friday, January 27), a ballroom-full of snow industry professionals gathered to hear a panel discussion on the ever-confounding women’s market. Titled Growing SnowSports Participation from a Woman’s Perspective and moderated by SIA’s Kellyann Davis, panelist included Burton President Donna Burton Carpenter as well Roxy’s Kyre Malkemes, Ski Utah’s Raelene Davis, Wachussett Mountain’s Carolyn Crowley Stimpson, Caldwell Sports’ Amy Caldwell, Freelance Writer Heather Schultz, and Outdoor Divas Kim Walker.
While much of what was discussed has been tossed around in similar panels and snowsports conference roundtables during the past twelve years, a few notable points did jump out. Most obviously, women have different shopping habits than men and with that comes a need for separate customer service training on the retail floor. “Women want to be included and educated about things that are specific to them personally,” says Malkemes. “They don’t necessarily want to know the technical benefits to each item, they just want to know how a product will make snowboarding more fun and more enjoyable for them.”
Tomorrow night, (Saturday, January 27, 2012) Praxis Footwear will celebrate its official launch party in San Francisco, California at Gallery 1307.
Karl Watson is the lead skate personality and foundation for marketing of the Praxis brand. The Praxis Launch Party is brought to you in conjunction with the following co-sponsors: Organika Skateboards, FTC, Tech Vector design, Foundry Supply and Creative Edge Public Relations. Live music for the event includes DJ DSharp and Atlas.
GoPro is proud to announce the addition of Shaun White to their team of action sports stars who like to film themselves while they do what they do.
Shaun White is joining GoPro’s progressive team of snowboard athletes that include Mike Basich, Tim Humphreys, Eric Willett,Jamie Anderson, Hannah Teter and Devun Walsh.
For the honor we’re guessing GoPro is paying Shaun an ungodly amount of money, and in return they’re going to get hours of promo and some amazing footage. Not a bad trade. [click to continue…]
Burton held it’s annual SIA Party last night, Thursday, January 26, 2012 inside the Jonas Bros Fur Co. loft in So-Co at 1037 Broadway street in Denver, Colorado. Sponsored by 3M-Thinsulate, SoCo Nightlife District, Hornitos Tequila, Effen Vodka, and Jim Beam, the party was a multi-roomed event with mini parties occuring on different levels of the building at all times.
Once past the velvet rope outside, guests climbed three flights of stairs to the front room. The area had a living room feel with small conversation areas and coffee tables piled with bottles of the above mentioned booze, it felt so convincingly intimate and small that at first glance it seemed like the whole party was going to be a mellow affair. But this was “The Burton Party” after all and a glance past the bar showed the room up front was just the beginning. Spilling out to the side was a long open space where the brand had set up an L-shaped catwalk for a fashion show, and past that was another room to mingle along with the stairs leading to the roof. The Morroccan-style “Rooftop Hooka Bar” had a couch set up in front of the camera lights so guests could pose for photos that looped back for viewing on a TV screen across the room.
The fashion show was a big draw with the latest wears from Burton making their way down the runway on minimally clad girls and boys. After the show was over, Cosmo Baker and Kissette took to the turntables and the party went on. Click here for photos from the party and click on through.
Night one of the 2012 Snow Industries of America show began at Denver’s Casselman’s for 686 Outerwear’sLights Out! boxing. The night featured The Dingo on the mic, Danny Kass as a referee and some of action sports’ biggest names duking it out in the ring.
Transworld Media Editorial Director Rob Campbell went toe-to-toe with Frends‘ Sean Lake (Lake prevailed). Sketchy D got in on the action. But the night’s biggest brawl came in a classic battle of “my CEO can beat up your CEO” when Electric Visual Co-President Bruce Beach and Vestal CEO Johnny Gehris stepped into the ring in what looked like a Costa Mesa grudge match royal. Neither fighter saved anything for later. The two fought like warriors trading damage until a Beach right cross to the nose forced Gehris to throw in the towel late in the last of three rounds.
In his story A Chronicle of Doing It: Nike and DestructionKyle Beachy (an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Chicago’s Roosevelt University) rolls through the history of Nike and skateboarding pointing out the obvious dichotomy between corporate cobbling and the core skateboarding market along the way.
Here’s a sample:
I submit that Grant Taylor is one of perhaps three skaters recognizable more by his shoe sponsor than board company. It is the same sponsor who weathered the PR nightmare of sweatshop injustice, elbowed themselves into golf and soccer, supports SOPA, and might, though they have no reason to, someday manufacture their own skateboards. Because why not. The same sponsor whose strategy will clear away the clutter of poorly- and skater-run, middling footwear companies, the inept and frail and upstart alike, acting as our free market’s grand systematic broom. Whatever Nike’s next step is, it will be, like Grant Taylor, bigger and faster. We will ignore the rubber gloves and hear the parrot’s squawk as our own. Bigger, faster, bigger, bigger, bigger.
The aforementioned quote is in fact the conclusion to the piece, but read the whole story anyway because Beachy pretty much covers every angle of the Nike vs. Core discussion and ends up where we all do: with the realization that the winning brands are the ones who do it better than everyone else. And while it sometimes sucks to admit that, it is so true that we’re almost embarrassed even mentioning it.
Aaron Easter, a 32-year-old snowboarder, was found “unresponsive” at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at Steamboat Ski Area, near the “intersection of Buckshot and Quickdraw,” according to a story on CBS Denver 4. He was riding alone at the time.
Those who found him immediately began CPR until Ski Patrol arrived on scene. Ski patrol then continued to administer CPR while Easter, 32, was brought down the mountain to a Routt County Ambulance. . . Easter was transported to the Yampa Valley Medical Center and later flown to Denver Health Medical Center. That’s where he died.
According to a story on First Tracks Easter was found “in a depression where snow had been undermined by ground water. The hazard had been marked by the resort’s ski patrol at the time.” Investigators are still looking into the accident. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Video nerd alert! Ever wondered how the title sequence of Travis Rice’s The Art of Flight was done? Studio Daily talks with Bozeman, Montana’s Helio Collective on exactly how they did it.
“Working on Art of Flight was an amazing opportunity to combine motion graphics with beautiful live action,” says Chris Murphy, Helio’s founder and creative director. “We were part of everything, including conception, shooting, and editing for the intro title sequence and it really helped us capture the mood and tone of the film.”
They also used Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Andersson Technologies SynthEyes. Nope, doesn’t mean a thing to us, either. But it almost makes us want to see the movie once and for all.
The Winter X Games hype is beginning to build and Spy Optic is apparently in on the program as the title eyewear sponsor of Winter X Games 2012.
“The SPY crew is amping on this sponsorship because it properly underscores our commitment to snow sports generally and at the same time allows us to back the tremendous talent we have on our snow team roster,” says Kevin Casillo, SPY marketing manager. “Our snowboarders, skiers and snowmobilers put a lot of preparation and training toward this contest so we’re stoked to help make the X Games rad for them and the fans in attendance.”
This sponsorship will obviously allow Spy to “activate” on site with all the Aspen locals who crowd the base lodge to catch all the action. The games begin tomorrow (on cable) with the snowboard street final. (Do people still have cable?) Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
The Vans Skateparkin Orlando, Florida celebrated one last Steve Van Doren grill and Tony Trujillo and Omar Hassan skate session on Friday, January 20, 2012, before the bull dozers roll in and remove the entire mall, according to a post on the Vans site.
After 10 magical years in our skatepark in Orlando we are sad to have to say goodbye. The mall that we occupied for the past decade is being leveled to the ground to build…another mall. . . All of the wooden ramps were broken down over the weekend with the wood and Skatelite being divvied up between The Skatepark of Tampa, a number of local area skateparks as well as being being driven up to our House of Vans in Brooklyn for a facelift and resurfacing.
We’re glad Vans stuck with it as long as they did and they found good homes for the ramps.
At 7:30 am on day two of the 2012 SIA Show (Friday, January 27), a ballroom-full of snow industry professionals gathered to hear a panel discussion on the ever-confounding women’s market. Titled Growing SnowSports Participation from a Woman’s Perspective and moderated by SIA’s Kellyann Davis, panelist included Burton President Donna Burton Carpenter as well Roxy’s Kyre Malkemes, Ski Utah’s Raelene Davis, Wachussett Mountain’s Carolyn Crowley Stimpson, Caldwell Sports’ Amy Caldwell, Freelance Writer Heather Schultz, and Outdoor Divas Kim Walker.
