by The Editors on January 8, 2009
Slapmagazine.com Editor-In-Cheif Mark Whiteley gets interviewed on Club Mumble. The big question: now that Slap is out of the paper printing business are they still going to do any old-media projects? Mark says they might:
We’re talking about a few ideas, from something like you mention to a best-of issue from all the stuff that goes on the site every six months to little ‘zine-type projects when we do trips with companies for them to distribute with product to all kinds of little ideas. I think we’ll do something in the next few months to get the ball rolling, it mainly depends on money right now as as everybody knows, money is a little tight these days. But yep, there shall be ink!
One other questions we might have asked: how’s that online advertising thing going?
[Link: Club Mumble]
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
Self-proclaimed “action sports pioneer” Paul Taublieb has enlisted the help of Rob Dyrdek to roll out a new “Instant Scoring eXperience” from MSInteractive, and claims that it’s going to revolutionize the action sports industry.
“For the many years I’ve been around such judged events, I’ve always been struck by the disconnect – the athlete is competing and the audience is waiting, waiting, waiting to know what to feel until those scores drop,” explained Taublieb. “No longer. With ISX it’s all happening in the present enhancing the entertainment experience of the core fan and at the same time make street skating and all action sports accessible to the mainstream sports fan.
The idea is that the judges simply twiddle a knob while an event is going down and those knob twiddles are compiled and displayed in real time, like the score meter on that Tony Hawk video game.
“ISX will take the appreciation of what skaters, and all action sports athletes do to a whole new level and you’ll see ISX not only in my new MTV series ‘Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory,’ but also in my Street League,” added Dyrdek.
Reminds us a little too much of the “instant feedback” in the sci-fi book Interface. Shouldn’t the people judging an event take a little time to process what they’re seeing? You know, think a little? Seems like thinking is a good thing when it comes to event scoring. Follow the jump for the whole release.
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by The Editors on January 7, 2009
Using an empty fountain in suburb of Macroroyan in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, Sharna Nolan, 31, is teaching peace with a skateboard. It is called Project Skateistan.
Ms Nolan said of the eager pupils, with as many girls as boys: “Skateboarding has given them a chance to be children and to smile.” . . . The sport has taken root so strongly in Kabul that the couple and their team of volunteers, who call their project Skateistan, plan to start a school with $70,000 raised so far and another $70,000 that has still to be found. . . . Land has been donated by Afghans in three provinces for indoor recreational centres with facilities for traditional Afghan sports as well as skateboarding.
Obviously the organization needs all the help they can get. Click here to learn more about helping to support the cause.
[Link: Skateistan via The Age]
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
On December 10, 2008 Blacks Leisure announced they were giving the UK distribution rights to O’Neill back to O’Neill Europe and later mentioned they would find a buyer for their 57 Freespirit and O’Neill boardsports shops. Well, according to a story in the Blacks Leisure the company was unable to find a buyer for the stores.
“The reality is in the current market people aren’t prepared to do a sensible deal,” Neil Gillis, chief executive. . . . He said the fashion of wearing clothing inspired by skateboard and surf culture appeared to have passed. Instead of selling the division, Blacks is preparing to convert the stores to its main brands at a cost of £150,000 a store or £1.5m for the first tranche to be completed this year.
Blame it on skate and surf fashions. Nice.
[Link: Financial Times]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Just a little reminder regarding January 21, 2009 and the Crossroads Retail Show and kind of wondering what this means for ASR and skateboarding if Crossroads becomes more successful.
[Link: Black Box Distribution]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Stephen Sprouse was a graffiti artist and designer who did some work with Louis Vuitton artistic director Marc Jacobs back in the day. Sprouse died in 2004 but that hasn’t stopped the fashion house from bringing out a new Stephen Sprouse collection this week. And nothing says street fashion more than a skateboard.
For the launch, the luxury goods company is also creating two limited edition pieces, which will only be available at the SoHo location: a Stephen Sprouse graffiti skateboard replete with a hard case monogram skateboard trunk, and a Stephen Sprouse “Roses” T-shirt. The company hopes to sell three graffiti skateboards with trunks for $8,250 each, and 70 T-shirts for $250 each. “I don’t expect them to last very long,” Lalonde said. “By Friday, there probably won’t be any more left.”
Then again, nothing shouts “I’m a slave to fashion” more than owning a $8,250 skateboard that comes in it’s own Louis suitcase. . . As a well-placed friend of ours said: “Sad to say, but after they sell all three boards (prob in 3 mins) they will be the second biggest skateboard company in the world next to Sector 9!”
[Link: Women’s Wear Daily]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
Note to action sports marketing people: if your web designers build an amazingly beautiful site, with boss photos and flossy graphics and then the first thing people see when they visit is a progress bar counting down while a big, honkin’ flash movie loads. . . you need to hire new web designers. It’s really that simple.
For even more fun follow the jump to see what Plan B Skateboard’s site looks like on an iPhone.
[Link: Plan B Skateboards]
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by The Editors on January 5, 2009
With a publication as smooth and clean as The Skateboard Mag you’d think that everything would be all digital and tech. Apparently not, according to a Kevin Wilkins post on Bob Kronbauer’s Clubmumble.com.
For each new issue of The Skateboard Mag our map goes up on this chalkboard. It’s in my basement, 36 floors beneath the surface, in Lincoln, Nebraska . . . First, with my knuckles, I erase inside all the old squares. Then I draw in new arrows and labels. I think I learned this on-the-wall method from Grant. After that we usually go back and forth a few times, adjusting what pages go where. There’s a similar set-up in our Solana Beach office, but they use grease pencils on glass and erase it with some kind of huffer’s delight.
Sometimes a little analog action can dull the sharp edges of the digital world and put a little soul back into this whole media dealio. Not that we would know anything about that.
[Link: Clubmumble]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
In a story titled 5 Cash-Rich Companies Being Given Away Motley Fool writer Morgan Housel says Volcom may be one of the stocks that Warren Buffet refers to as “a one-foot bar I can step over.”
Is retail dead yet? As a whole, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some stores that stand out from the pack. Volcom might be one of them. While other apparel veterans like Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) and retailers like Macy’s (NYSE: M) are saddled with long-term debt, Volcom has kept its balance sheet spotless. . . . But with a bulletproof balance sheet and a well-known, powerful brand name, the main catalysts that typically shove recession-prone industries into the graveyard are nowhere to be seen with Volcom.
Apparently, being a millionaire is that easy.
[Link: The Motley Fool]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
The entire energy drink market has blown up right under Gatorade’s oblivious nose and the only time they ever seemed to take notice was when Salman Agah attempted to launch and market Skaterade.
Now it appears that someone has kicked the sports drink company in the nuts because they’re diving in on action sports like bums on a bottle, according to a story in Sports Business Journal.
The brand signed a multiyear deal with [Chaz] Ortiz that sources valued in the low to mid-six figures annually. He will be the cornerstone of Gatorade’s action sports campaign and will be featured alongside its marquee athletes, including Derek Jeter, Dwyane Wade and Peyton Manning. . . . The brand also signed smaller deals with snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth, a 17-year-old from Darien, Conn., and BMX star Nigel Sylvester, an 18-year-old from Queens, N.Y. The athletes will be featured in Gatorade’s action sports campaigns, which are being planned. Terms of those deals were not available.
That fact that Gatorade never had any bull balls or caffeine in it always made it a favorite around here anyway. And for Chaz, the “mid-six figures” shouldn’t be so bad.
[Link: Sports Business Journal via Skatedaily.net]
Slapmagazine.com Editor-In-Cheif Mark Whiteley gets interviewed on Club Mumble. The big question: now that Slap is out of the paper printing business are they still going to do any old-media projects? Mark says they might:
