by The Editors on November 13, 2018
Zombie brand extraordinaire, Airwalk, is hoping to ride the 90s wave of nostalgia right back to the top of the footwear game with the launch their latest “global ad campaign,” according to current owner Authentic Brands Group (Jamie Salter is the CEO, remember him?) The new campaign is titled Teen Spirit. Can you smell it? Here’s how they pitch it.
Returning to the brand’s roots, the 2018 campaign embraces the spirit of the Southern California teen that established Airwalk’s place in 90s culture. It gives consumers a candid look into the individuality, self-expression, and free-spirit that has shaped Airwalk’s identity for more than 30 years. . . .The campaign features The One, the Bloc, the Random, the Jim Lo, the Vic, and the Prototype. This assortment highlights Airwalk’s best sellers and a peek into what’s to come for the brand.
This just makes us miss footwear marketing/design genius Sinisa Egelja all the more. Hard to believe it has been nine years since his death on October 26, 2009. For the official word from Authentic Brand Group (which also owns Vision Street Wear), please follow the jump.
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by The Editors on April 21, 2009
Airwalk is sticking with print advertising according to a story in Brandweek. The company is launching their new “We Are Airwalk” campaign in the printed pages of several magazines that are still in business.
The campaign will break in print in the June issue of Vapors, a skateboarding/lifestyle magazine. The print component will comprise 26 pages across vertical titles like Skateboarder and Snowboarder, as well as other lifestyle and music titles, including Spin and Filter. As for social media, the brand will have a presence on MySpace and Twitter. . . “The campaign is really focusing on athletes and who they are,” said Bruce Pettet, CEO of Airwalk, Denver, Colo. “It’s more than winning an X Games medal, it’s more the everyday life of what athletes do.”
Aside from the fact that they’re launching in print, it is nice to see that they’re sticking with the action photo and a logo creative. That way Andy Macdonald will actually have photos in a skateboard magazine.
[Link: Brandweek]
by The Editors on December 1, 2008
By most cursory observations the Airwalk brand continues to live on, though closer inspection suggests that it is more undead than alive. The most recent evidence is that “designer and street style icon, jeffstaple [yeah, that’s his tag: no space], chief designer of Staple Design” has announced “a multi-year agreement” to create exclusive Airwalk seasonal collections for fall and spring exclusively available at Payless Shoe Source under the STPL) 4 Airwalk brand.”
Payless is democratizing the latest ideas in footwear by making them accessible and affordable to all. I am very excited to join in this philosophy and approach,” said jeffstaple. “When I was growing up and busting my butt trying to skateboard, Airwalk and the essence of the brand was such a huge influence. The design Sneakerhead in me today is really excited to create fresh new silhouettes that embody the skate park and the street.
When a guy who has done great work for Nike, Burton, and Sony Playstation begins reanimating brands for Payless Shoe Source it’s got to be a case of. . . well . . . paying the bills.
[Link: Denver Post]
by The Editors on February 24, 2023
The word from Sporting Goods Business is that the hilariously miss-named zombie brand reanimator Authentic Brands Group (controlled by Jamie Salter) is closing in on a purchase of Quiksilver, Billabong, DC Shoes, Roxy, and Element parent company Boardriders, Inc. For those keeping track, this would make Salter the undisputed king of action sports. No one else is even close.
Authentic Brands Group has proposed a new term loan that it plans to use to support a potential acquisition of Boardriders, Inc., according to a report from Moody’s. . . Boardriders, owed by Oaktree Capital Management, has long been rumored to be on the selling block.
ABG already owns Vision Street Wear, Airwalk, and a very large piece of Volcom. And to think, he started out with the lowly Kemper Snowboards. Talk about tenacity in the business world. Someone hand Mr. Salter a medal!
[Link: SGB Online]
by The Editors on October 4, 2019
It was only a matter of time before old media sports titan Sports Illustrated felt the bite of digital publishing, and that time was yesterday according to a story in The New York Post.
Zombie brand collector Jamie Salter’s Authentic Brands Group, which purchased the venerable Sports Illustrated brand in May 2019, ended up cutting 40 of the magazine’s 150 staff members on Thursday October 3, 2019 through their contract publisher Maven.
As news of the impending cuts circulated, about three-quarters of the staff signed a petition calling on SI’s new owner, Authentic Brands, to rescind its 10-year licensing deal with digital publisher The Maven, headed by Jim Heckman. . . “The Maven wants to replace top journalists in the industry with a network of Maven freelancers and bloggers, while reducing or eliminating departments that have ensured that the stories we publish and produce meet the highest standards,” read the petition, which was first reported by NPR.
Why is this interesting to us? Well, Mr. Salter was involved with Kemper Snowboards, co-founded Ride Snowboards and, in addition to Sports Illustrated, currently owns Airwalk, Vision Street Wear, and most of Volcom. And if things keep going in this direction he will eventually own everything. Yes, he’s seems to have a knack for reanimating profits from dead brands.
[Link: The New York Post]
by The Editors on May 29, 2019
It’s official, Jamie Slater and his Authentic Brands Group of zombie brands (which now include Volcom, Airwalk, Vision Street Wear, and 47 others) has purchased the softcore skin and sports magazine brand Sports Illustrated from Meredith Corp for $110 million dollars, according to a story on Variety.com.
Under terms of the deal, Authentic Brands acquires the rights to market, develop and license Sports Illustrated and its kids’ edition as well as its swimsuit and “Sportsperson of the Year” franchises, along with the magazine’s photo archive. Meredith will pay a licensing fee to operate the editorial operations of Sports Illustrated in print and in digital for a minimum of two years. Editor Chris Stone and Publisher Danny Lee will continue to lead Sports Illustrated at Meredith.
So, Meredith is selling the brand and then paying to run the print magazine into the ground while ABG gets to re-animate Sports Illustrated by slapping it on all kinds of products until no one remembers what SI was all about in the first place. Chalk that up as another win-win for ABG.
[Link: Variety]
by The Editors on April 2, 2019
It’s hard to believe, but it appears that eventually every dead fashion brand ends up in Jamie Salter’s hands. So it should be no surprise that he was able to add Volcom to his arsenal of 50 zombie brands which also includes Airwalk and Vision Street Wear.
“We are thrilled to have completed the purchase of Volcom,” said Jamie Salter, Chairman and CEO of ABG. “For nearly three decades the Volcom family has created one of the most iconic brands in the skate, surf and snow markets. During the last few years, the brand has been consistently gaining traction with broader audiences around the world while staying true to its core. We could not be happier to finally get to work with this team.”
Yes, this is an over-simplification of the deal which includes the creation of a new operating group run by Todd Hymel and the current Volcom management of which ABG is a minority partner, but hey at least Vee-Co is out from under the French and zombie brands live forever.
For the official word and no mention of how much ABG paid for Volcom (last time it sold for $607 million, this time we’re guessing much, much, much less) please follow the jump.
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by The Editors on April 9, 2018
Ever launch a brand that functionally went out of business years ago? Not to worry. Brand licensing wizards will resurrect your brand over and over and over again to keep those checks rolling in. The most recent example of brand reanimation is this — Airwalk for Aéropostale.
Airwalk for Aéropostale launches online and in stores on April 8th. The exclusive Men’s capsule will launch with an 8-piece apparel collection with key styles including color block and printed board shorts as well as graphic tees, just in time for Spring Break! The exclusive collection will range from $25 to $45.
Dive in kids. We’re not really sure what Aérosostale is, but it’s the 90s all over again and it’s on sale today.
by The Editors on September 3, 2015
Quiksilver is reportedly in a last ditch effort to find someone to buy them and bail them out the hole they’ve found themselves in for the past three years, according to a story on BloombergBusiness.
Quiksilver has been holding discussions with potential strategic bidders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process isn’t public. The goal is a management-led buyout, ideally outside of a bankruptcy, that would let the company retain its stores, two of the people said.
News of the discussions sent the stock rocketing up 7.9% to a whopping 45 cents at the close! The most interesting aspect to some of our readers may be that the lead company mentioned as Quik’s savior is Jamie Salter’s (remarkably successful) zombie brand holding company Authentic Brands Group. Yep, Quiksilver would likely fit in quite nicely with Airwalk, Vision Streetwear, and Sansabelt.
[Link: Bloomberg]
by The Editors on November 1, 2013
Want a quick refresher course on some stories every real snowboard should know? Then Onboard’s collection of “38 iconic moments” is a great place to start. Beginning with the Bunker Board 1939 and rolling right through Peetu Piiroinen winning his 4th TTR Title and you have a pretty straight (if not Onboard/Euro focused) list of events you should have at least heard of if not witnessed. Dive in and enjoy.
For more stories to discuss and debate follow the jump for The History of Snowboarding: A 30 Year Time Line [click to continue…]
