Vans X Frank’s Chop Shop

Sneak Tweet of the Vans X @frankschopshop sneaker and cap collabo. Yes, that’s grip tape on the hat.

Vans X Holden Photos On RadCollector.com

Action sports lifestyle and product blog www.radcollector.com posted some nice photos of the new Vans X Holden collabo snowboard boot that we twitpic’d from the SIA Tradeshow in Denver, CO last month. Check out the exclusive images by Peter Williams for Radcollector, highlighting the subtle details of next season’s beautiful collaboration between the most stylish outerwear company in snowboarding and the timeless quality of Vans. Look for more info about the pack, which also features a Holden X Vans sneaker, on the Vans Snow blog soon.

Vans At SIA Snow Show

Bjorn Leines from Celtek Bluebirded Out.

Last weekend the SIA Snow Show rolled through Denver, CO to give everyone a look at the new product coming out in 2012. Buyers and brand owners got together to discuss everyone’s favorite topic: snowboarding. As always, Vans had a killer crew in town to make sure everyone had a good time and show off the sick stuff for next season. Every morning we kicked things off at the booth with fresh made waffles, snacks and coffee for all. On the first night, we hosted a welcome dinner with guests from Satellite/Installation, radcollector.com and Frank151. At the show, it was all about the new Vans collabos with Holden and Celtek, which we’ll feature in an upcoming interview with Holden’s Mikey Leblanc. In the meantime, check out this in-depth look into the new line from Transworld Business with Vans’ Director of Action Sports Footwear & Equipment Jared Bevens, if you wanna get serious about it.

Vans X Celtek Glove/Boot collabo.

Don’t Trust Anyone in Venice, CA

If you’ve ever watch Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory on MTV, chances are you’ve seen him wearing some t-shirts from Los Angeles-based Rogue Status. Originally founded by snowboarder/skaters/sneaker heads Jo Esbensen, Jasper Watts, and Rex Hollway, the brand got a huge boost when Dyrdek and Famous Stars and Straps founder and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker signed on as partners. Soon after, the Rogue Status crew opened a flagship store on Main Street in Venice, CA, proudly reppin’ AWOL status all day everyday.

After starting out small the brand, quickly gained notoriety with their infamous Gun Show Print, voted #9 by Complex Magazine’s Top 100 T-Shirts of the 2000s. Today the Easy Company boys have their hand in everything from snowboard clothing to a full-blown motor sports division, and have become fixtures in the Gumball 3000 rallies.

Frank151 + LikeMe Present The Launch

Agenda 2009 in Huntington Beach

The 2009 Agenda Tradeshow took place in Huntington Beach, CA on July 22 and 23 to coincide with the US Open of Surfing. Skaters, surfers, shredders and streetwear kids of all shapes and sizes descended on the Hyatt Resort and Spa to rep the latest fashions from progressive labels like Supra and Rogue Status to classic brands like Vans and DC. Tons of personalities (like DJ Muggs, shown above) from the hip-hop, action sports and street fashion worlds collided for a celebration of the lifestyle and a productive two days of fun in the sun.

As the first time it was billed as a stand-alone show, at a separate time and place from the ASR (Action Sports Retailer) tradeshow in San Diego, Agenda has furthered its purpose and created its own identity. The location was ideal: virtually smack dab in the center of SoCal and almost equal distance from San Diego and Los Angeles, the Hyatt played a perfect host to the fortunate few that were lucky enough to attend. Feeling more like a vacation resort and less like a conference center, the beachfront setting lifted everyone’s spirits and made for a good all around vibe.

A Warm Welcome Home

You know the scene in Pulp Fiction where Mia Wallace goes to the bathroom at the diner to do some blow, sits down and says, “Don’t you just love it when you come back from the bathroom and find your food waiting for you?” Well, that’s how I feel everytime I come back to the office from a road trip. It’s been about a month since I’ve been back to Boulder, as the X Games, Vegas, NYC leg turned into two weeks in Europe hitting up Switzerland, Amsterdam and finally Oslo, Norway for the Arctic Challenge (more on that trip to come soon after I sort through the 8000 photos we took). So needless to say, my time table is all screwed up and I’ve been seeing the Denver sunrise (above) for two mornings since I got back, and not because I was up partying all night. Anyway, I came home to find a stack of goodies waiting for me on my desk, and I thought I’d share some of the dope ones.

First of all, there was this case. It reminds me of Ronin… “What’s in the case?” It’s a hard shell, plain black case with only a small “G” on the outside. Very intriguing.

For All The Haters

I just got some Zoom Force 1′s last week. Say what you want about Nike, but these things are frrkkka, frrkkka, fresh! How can you be mad at a Err Force One snowboard boot? With the limited Stash spray paint cap graphics, supersoft Zoom insoles and sneaker-like comfort, these boots are going to be the hits this season. I can’t decide whether to rock ‘em to the club when it snows out, put them in a glass case as collectibles or throw ‘em up on eBay! (Just joking Bobby.) Go ahead and hate on this suckas…

DC Artist Projects™ Arkleon Portland Release Party

Photos courtesy of Natasha Figueroa for Ace Hotel

DC shoes recently threw a release party for the latest Artist Projects™ shoe, the Arkleon at the newly opened Ace Hotel in Portland, Ore. A collaboration between Portland based artist Michael Leon and Arkitip Magazine, the Arkleon is a limited edition mid top sneaker that is also featured in SNOWBOARD Issue 3.1.

Many local artists and sneaker heads turned out for the party, which included custom artwork by Michael Leon (left) and free Sessions beer for the thirsty crowd.

Ace Hotel’s Natasha Figueroa and DC’s Suzy Way.

Me and DC’s Cristina Kown.

Always tip your bartender, especially if the beer’s free.

Sneakers and vaporizers…what a perfect combination!

Art is cool.

P-Town locs.

DC’s Damon Way and Dave Allen, Bass player of Gang of Four.

Damon Way thought it was funny when I went up to him and asked him if there was anyone there from DC. Yeah…only one of the founders of the whole company! It was good to finally meet him and everyone else who works hard to get the Artist Projects™ shoes developed. Thanks to www.dcshoes.com and Ace Hotel for a great time, and look for the next DC shoe designed by legendary shoe customizer Methamphibian.

Solid Reunion/Rebirth SUPERPOST™

Neil Rankin, Ron Bureta and Kurt Wastell.

What started out as a wild thread on the web site last summer finally came to fruition last weekend with the Solid reunion in Denver and Fairplay, Colorado. Solid Mfg.Co. was one of the original rider owned and operated snowboard companies of the early 1990s, started by a 20-year old snowboarder named Neil Rankin and a close group of friends. With riders like Jeff and Kurt Wastell, Tarquin Robbins, Willie McMillion and a heavily skate influenced image, Solid established itself as one of the most sought after brands of the time. They quickly went from a fledgling start-up to a company with over a million dollars in sales in a matter of months.

With orders for thousands of boards from Japanese distributors and a strong local following the number of employees in the small mountain town went from 10 to over 100 in just a couple years. Even future pros like Mikey LeBlanc spent time pressing boards up in the factory. But with the rapid expansion and inexperience of the young crew, it soon got out of control. Between quality issues, mismanaged funds and investor setbacks, after only three short years, Solid was forced to go out of business. “The growth was so explosive,” Neil recalls. “We knew how to make boards in low numbers but when we went to doing two and three shifts per day, we lost control of the profit. Plus the production on our biggest year started four months late because we had a conflict with one of our partners, and we were forced to play catch up. Eventually it killed us.” Ever since the factory doors closed, Rankin and Wastell have always talked about bringing Solid back to life. That day has finally come.

Kurt, Matt Hale, Jeff Wastell and Rankin.

With so many rumors of what is really going on with Solid, it was time to set the record straight. Amidst deafening gunshots at a campsite in the backwoods of South Park County, I sat down with Neil, Kurt and their new manufacturing partner Ron Bureta to talk about their plans for re-launching the brand.

“Look Public Advisor, you’re a fat lumpy piece of shit,” was Kurt’s response to an Internet user who’s quick to stir up the rumor fire. “The boards are made in California, not China.”

After all this time, Kurt’s taken charge and is ready to get back on a Solid Snowboard. His dedication to the history of the brand is evident by a pair of arm tattoos featuring his early board graphics.

“It’s been in the works for years,” he explains.

“It seems like it’s a really good time for a company like Solid to come back,” adds Ron. “It’s something different. Everyone’s following everybody and Solid was always its own thing.”

Ron Bureta has a long history in the snowboard industry as well, and though not directly involved with Solid in its heyday, he comes from the same era of do-it-yourself snowboard brands. In the past, he rode for companies like Barfoot, Division 23, and Ignition, teammates at the time with a young Matt and Danny Kass.

Kurt Wastell has an equally long history as an accomplished pro rider and industry veteran. After bouncing from board to board since Solid’s demise, first to World Industries, then Sims, and most recently Sapient, Kurt has experienced his fair share of problems with corporate sponsorship.

“It’s all these fuckheads that get a hold of some money and just come in way too hot,” says Kurt. “But they don’t give a shit about anything. They put all this time into riders and then they just get rid of them.

“It’s just a name on a piece of paper,” Neil injects. “Eventually it’s always time to get rid of the expensive pros and bring in some new guys.”

With Kurt’s latest board sponsor Sapient, the disassociation between the riders and company management was the biggest problem.

“I never really talked to them, I don’t even know them,” he explains. “We never even had a team manager. That’s the one thing that I hated about Sapient, they never made an effort to be bros at all. Ever, never once.

Despite a steady stream of published shots, video parts with Absinthe Films movies and respect throughout the industry, Kurt has always had bad luck when it comes to sponsorship support. Aside from the Sapient fallout, he was the latest casualty of Spy Optics after team manager Chris Saydah’s departure.

“Not to dis Canadians [referring to new management at Spy], but I’m over ‘em,” he says. “I mean, look at skaters. Companies are so rad to skaters.”

“It’s more like a family, everybody knows each other, everyone respects each other,” adds Neil. “We’re gonna go back to doing it how we did it originally, which was more of a team that’s a family. Good friends that all respect each other.”

Dave Tuck put on a good slide show of classic team pics.

Jeff Wastell classic Hood method, circa ’94.

Mean Bruce.

Matt Hale.

Dave Tuck fs lien to tail.

Tarquin Robbins lien fs 360.

Ron agrees that the same formula doesn’t apply to the Solid way of thinking. “A lot of people come in with a lot of money and think they can just buy riders and be cool.”

That’s what so many companies have done; some have succeeded, others have failed. But moving forward the Solid program will be on a different path. With little investment capital and only a few samples for now, the Solid team will have to be built from the inside out.

“No one’s getting a huge salary,” says Kurt. “It’s gonna be strictly sales driven. Companies spend so much money on dumb stuff, whereas we can do a lot of the stuff ourselves.”

As far as riders go, besides Kurt of course, they have offered a contract to longtime Summit County local Chad Otterstrom, a good friend of the Solid family. Instead of a traditional salary position, the contract includes royalties of his board sales and percentage of the company’s net profits.

“That way everyone is pushing the company not just promoting themselves,” explains Ron. “We haven’t been pressuring him at all, we just talked to him. There ‘s a contract on the table…that’s it.”

Placer Valley.

Fairplay skatepark.

The old factory.

Whoever the team eventually includes, the Solid formula is not based on slick marketing schemes or big money advertising campaigns. This time around, the boys at Solid are starting out small and staying true to their roots as riders who run their own show. For the time being all three have separate full time jobs and a life outside of snowboarding, with Ron at the power company, Neil at a design firm and Kurt picking up some landscape irrigation work in the summer to supplement his snowboard income.

Jeff Wastell at the Fairplay skatepark, August 5th 2007.

Kurt frontside grind over the bench.

Jeff in the cradel.

“We’re really blue collar, “ says Neil. “We’d like to bring the dirt bag element back into snowboarding.”

“Yeah, I’m doin’ Marlex to make up for Spy,” adds Kurt.

With Ron holding down the majority of the workload up to this point, like coordinating snowboard production samples and preparing to show at the upcoming SIA Tradeshow, the three plan on giving Solid a proper go around one more time. Many people still involved in snowboarding, whether they’re shop owners, pro riders or simply fans of the boards, remember Solid for what it was and hopefully support the idea of another independent brand going up against the corporate big wigs.

“We’re just gonna test the water, see how it goes,” says Kurt. “I’ve been going into shops and had lots of people ask me when they can place an order. I’m direct, you know.”

Soild reunion man camp. CLICK HERE to see a video from the reunion.

Willie loves his meat.

Surf’s up, Colorado style.

Lotta firepower

Ebbinghaus.

Jeff T-Bar Cattrack gap at Breck.

Peterbolts.

The Alves’ Bros lowrider bike.

Jack Wastell, next gen ripper.