Club Mumble’s Bob Kronbauer has decided that there are a few people who have given so much to skateboarding that they deserved a pro model. The Skateboard Mag’s Grant Brittain is the first and it looks like there are a few more coming.
The pro models are for sale in limited editions of 99 available at Skateone.com. Click here to watch the video which explains it all.
[Link: Club Mumble]
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While the idea behind Toms Shoes is pretty cool (for every shoe they sell, they give one away) it seems like an odd thing for Element Skateboards to partner up with them because, we’ll you can’t skate in Tom’s shoes. Can you?
The Toms and Element Skateboards line launches today with a collection of five styles of shoes –three for women and two for men. Also, Element has designed a Toms branded skateboard to push around on while wearing what else? Toms shoes. . . .Element will follow the Toms “one for one” rule — for every skate deck or board bought, Element will give a board away to a child in need of some wheels. . . . The shoes are all $46. Skateboards retail for $150 for a complete long board and $50 for the smaller deck.
Guess you can longboard in pretty much anything.
[Link: LA Times via Blackbook]
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Ever question skateboarding’s ability to heal? First Skateistan and now the Uganda Skateboard Union. If this isn’t a viral video for some corporate interest, it should be. Thank you, Board Master.
[Link: Uganda Skateboard Union via Club Mumble]
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Few people in skateboarding have stickier collecting fingers than The Skateboarding Mag’s Dave Swift. Pat Duffy and Plan B TV caught him in perfect Swiftness in the video interview Catching Up With Dave Swift. Here are links to all four parts of this interview: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
[Link: Plan B via Skateworks]
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With all the rumor mongering going on about Quiksilver selling this or being bought by that, it is interesting to see that there is at least one analyst out there who is still rating Quiksilver a buy thanks to the company eliminating 200 jobs and a possible debt restructuring in February.
However, KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon J. Ferro said the news means “an outright sale of Quiksilver or one of its brands is much less likely now than it was when we initiated coverage in early December 2008, as it helps to indicate the Company has made significant progress in resolving near-term liquidity issues.”
We really don’t know who to believe at this point.
[Link: MSNBC]
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Last night when we said that Tuesday January 27, 2009 was “bring a box to work day” at Quiksilver we had no idea that so many boxes would be required.
Now that we’ve seen the press release on the Quiksilver site we better understand what was meant when we were told “the list is so long Bob doesn’t even want to look at the names.”
The company will eliminate 200 positions as part of the plan, including a reduction-in-force of approximately 150 employees which is expected to account for roughly one-third of the annual cost reductions. Quiksilver expects to record a charge of approximately $5 million in its first fiscal quarter as a result of these actions. . . Robert B. McKnight, Jr., commented, “All levels of our organization are affected by these actions as nearly 20 percent of the employees involved in the reduction hold manager-level titles or higher.
Now it sounds more like “bring a box to work week.” The worst part of all of this is that most of the people going to work tomorrow at Quiksilver have no idea if or when they will be called into HR, laid off, and given an exit interview.
Follow the jump for the entire press release and Bob McKnight’s memo to Quiksilver employees.
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We’re guilty. Like many others we spent most of Friday standing around in the isles of the ASR Show talking about how bad things are, how much worse they’re going to get, and whether buying or selling Quiksilver stock is a good idea. The opinions on the later were mixed, regardless of what personalized license plates may have been telling us.
Mixed in with all the gloom, however, were some words of encouragement. Ocean Minded CEO Gary Ward was walking the isles with his lovely daughter Shannon and when we hit him with the “how bad is it” question he set us straight directly.
“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “It’s ten times better than we thought it would be. This industry is a family and no one is stopping this family.”
We wondered if the “family members” who committed to the January ASR show might be benefiting a little from the fact that many of their larger competitors weren’t showing. “Are you kidding? Nauds is laughing right now,” he said of Billabong’s Paul Naude. “He’s had a great year and look at their booths; they are packed. For sure, the people who stuck it out are reaping the benefits.”
Follow the jump for the rest of the story.
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We first mentioned Project Skateistan in a June 30, 2008 post, and then again on January 7, 2009. Now, the Skateistan story of teaching peace through skateboarding in Pakistan continues in the New York Times as only they can tell it.
It looked like an ordinary neighborhood playground: six children tumbling off their skateboards to the tune of laughter. But only hours before, just 20 yards away, the body of a suicide car bomber was sprawled beside a glistening pool of blood.
For more information on Project Skateistan visit their website.
[Link: The New York Times via Skatedaily.net]
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Shepard Fairy has had a pretty good year. The Boston Globe recounts the year and tells the age-old story of a skateboarder who made stickers featuring pro wrestler Andre The Giant, went on to create a poster an Obama poster for hope, and has a new solo show at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opening February 6, 2009 which runs until August.
Versions of his Obama portrait have graced the covers of Time and Esquire magazines, and this month, the Smithsonian hung his hand-finished version in the National Portrait Gallery. It is the same place, Fairey notes with an in credulous tone, that has hung “the George Washington that’s not finished on the bottom.”
Yes, it is a wonderful story, isn’t it?
[Link: Boston.com]
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Live art went down at the New Image Art Gallery’s 15 Anniversary Opening party, according to the emerica blog:
I was hanging out at New Image Art Gallery when all of a sudden, Emerica pro Braydon Szafranski wheeled his Harley in through the front door and Neck Face started painting it.
Looks just like some Neckface art. . .
[Link: emerica]
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