The LA Times profiles Tum Yeto’s Tod Swank to get the story of how he decided that making boards in the USA was more important than higher margins.
And Swank thinks Watson Laminates‘ track record gives it an advantage over competitors. . . “Not everyone can get their boards from one of the original laminated skateboard manufacturers in the world. It’s quality. It’s craftsmanship. It’s pride,” Swank said.
Click the link for a couple more reasons why you should buy American.
Midwest skate icon Tucker Gerrick (of Familia fame) has joined etnies as the new senior marketing manager for the footwear brand. And Don Brown couldn’t be happier.
“I’m stoked that Tucker is now at etnies – He has great insights from working with top professional skateboarders, and after working in retail he understands the specific needs of skate shops,” said Don Brown, senior VP of marketing for etnies. “Plus, the fact that Tucker considers freestylers legitimate skateboarders makes me like him even more…. we’ll have him doing spacewalks, railflips, and caspers in no time!”
On Saturday, March 12, 2011 Louie Vito kicked off the finals of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship halfpipe with as good a run as he can lay down. He put in three double corks and landed everything smoothly. His run scored an 84.45. It seemed a little low until Kohei Kudo, Iouri Podladtchikov, and Kazuhiro Kokubo took their runs, and then it became pretty obvious that this was no Dew Tour.
Kazu, the defending US Open champion, stole the show when he kicked off a monstrous run that included a frontside alley oop nosebone, frontside 900 melon grab, Michaelchuck nose grab, frontside double cork 1080 and a Cab 1080 melon grab. The rest of the day was spent seeing if anyone could come close.
“I’m so stoked and so happy,” said Kazuhiro Kokubo “I want to say thanks to my sponsors, family and friends, and I hope my win brings a little joy and happiness to Japan.”
No surprises in the women’s event. Kelly Clark won her fifth US Open Halfpipe title (her fourth consecutive) and was followed by Hannah Teter, with Gretchen Bleiler in third. We were very happy to see Bleiler finish a run without sitting. Good to see her back.
Follow the jump for the official word from Burton along with some results. [click to continue…]
Wait, no Jamie Anderson and Chas Guldemond on the top spots of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship Slopestyle podium? Nope. Finland’s Enni Rukajärvi edged Anderson by 1.70 points for the win and Eric Willett stomped his frontside 270 boardslide, a backside tailslide 450 out, a Cab underflip 900, tailslide 270 out to a frontside 900 tail grab, and a switch backside double cork 1080 mute grab run to take out Marc “Mr. 1440 Triple Cork” McMorris and Chas Guldemond
“It was awesome to win,” Willett said. “This is only my second time competing in the US Open, so to come here and win is great. Even with the tough weather, the level of riding was insane.”
Danny Kass checks in with all the details for Grenade Games 7 coming up March 25-27, 2011 at Southern California’s Bear Mountain. We’re guessing this could be pretty big being close to LA and all.
No, we did not get up at 6:30 this morning to listen in on VF Corporation’s The Next Five Years conference call (we were a little distracted by the tsunami), but we did read their most recent press release in which Chairman and CDO Eric Wiseman explained his plans for Vans and The North Face to carry the company into the future, yet, oddly, he made no mention of Reef.
Over the next five years VF plans to grown their business by $5 billon dollars. And $3 billion of that is projected to come from the Outdoor & Action Sports division (aka Vans and The North Face):
Building on well-established and highly profitable domestic, international and direct-to-consumer platforms, The North Face(R) and Vans(R) brands, which account for 75 percent of total coalition revenues, are targeting annual growth of 16 percent and 13 percent, respectively. By 2015, Outdoor & Action Sports should account for at least half of VF’s total revenues.
How are they going to do that? One of the ways is by serving more “consumers directly:”
Growing direct-to-consumer revenues to 22% of total revenues by adding branded retail stores and building stronger consumer relationships through brand websites and social media.
Ah, social media. The cure for all that ails. Follow the jump for the rest of VF’s plans for world domination. [click to continue…]
Frederic Lecouturier, 55, a surfer riding waves at the Southern end of San Francisco’s Golden Gate on Thursday March 10, 2011 looked toward the bridge and saw someone fall into the water from above, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I thought, ‘Well, he’s going to die,’ and then it was a miracle when he popped up alive,” said Lecouturier, of San Rafael. “I paddled out there, and he told me he jumped ‘for kicks.’ . . “That’s when I lost it and told him what he did was wrong, that life is precious, and he should not take risks like that. I mean, he’s a kid, he’s got his whole life ahead of him.” . . Lecouturier said the boy was about 5 feet tall, “built like a wrestler” and had a brown ponytail. “There was a stiff wind coming out of the south, and I think that broke his fall and helped save him,” he said.
The 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, was on a field trip walking across the bridge with 45 of his classmates from Windsor, California when he apparently decided to jump from the bridge. According to the article he escaped with minor injuries. According to the Chronicle “99 percent of the estimated 1,500-plus people who have jumped from the bridge since it opened in 1937” have died. If Lecouturier hadn’t been there, there might have been one more death.
Two Boyne, Michigan thieves rolled off with two snowboards from Boyne Highlands right under the watchful gaze of the security camera. If they look familiar, turn them in. (Watch them dance off at the very end of the clip.)
We’re not sure that anyone has captured the personal lives of surfers in photos the way that Steve Sherman has. Even his contest photos are loaded with an emotional intimacy that is difficult to put in worlds. Surfing Magazine has just posted a collection of Sherm’s most recent photos of Kelly Slater from the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in a gallery titled Kelly Slater in Black And White Again.
In this case blank and white really does capture the moment.
The LA Times profiles Tum Yeto’s Tod Swank to get the story of how he decided that making boards in the USA was more important than higher margins.
