Lights Out recap
February 10, 2012
Okay, one last time. See you next year
Blogs / Michael Akira West
Rally Time
February 9, 2012
For those that know 686, you probably know that we like to do different things. Our foundation is producing technical apparel with roots in snow. More importantly we like to keep things fresh and constantly push the boundaries of what can and cannot be done. When we teamed up with Toyota to produce the world’s first snowboarding concept car, we took a small step into the word of Rally. We’re not going to be producing Rally Motorsports Apparel, but the message is that its okay to do things a little different. We’re inspired by people that are into their craft and if 686 can be a part of this in a unique manner, then who knows what’s next.
The Rally American Championships were held last week in Michigan where lot of slush, snow and ice brought conditions to the limit.
In the end, team Sparco Rally xD took 2nd place and on track to be champions in the overall series. 686 is the official apparel sponsor of the team.
Gold and Silver
February 8, 2012
Winter X-Games was last week in Aspen, Colorado and 686 were well represented in the Street events. Literally we took over with young gun Forest Bailey leading the charge. If you know Forest, you’ll agree he’s probably the chillest rider on earth. Not even 20 years old, Forest has dominated every gig he’s been a part of. 686 team general, Pat McCarthy told me that Forest didn’t even practice! He was chillin' in the tent while everyone was on the course. When his name was called, he came out, did his thing and killed it. GOLD goes to Forest. Check it here
We’re not finished yet. 686 faction rider, Ryan Paul from the Midwest came in strong, landing him a SILVER in X-Games Street. Congrats!
Believe it or not, former 686 shred Nick Visconti got Bronze and Canadian 686 faction rider, Phil Jacques came in 5th. Congrats to the 686 family.
Lights Out
February 7, 2012
The SIA trade show was in Las Vegas for 37 years. Since the move to Denver three years ago, it's been better, considering the city speaks the language of snow. The problem that many of us felt was lost in the move to the Rockies was less staying out late at the tables and more the raw energy that happened at night. So last year Kristin, who handles our global marketing efforts and I started talking about what we could do to create something special and bring back what seemed to have been missing. The conversation started when I told her about the crazy days in the 90’s when there were a few rock stars in snowboarding and Palmer was definitely on top as the bad-ass. In Skateboarding, there was this other character, Simon Woodstock. I don’t know how to exactly explain Simon, but people viewed him more like a clown that happened to be on a skateboard than anything else. Someone decided to bring them into a boxing ring at SIA Vegas and the build-up was crazy. In the end, Palmer backed out due to an “injury,” and Simon beat the shit out of the stand in, Mike Muir (Suicidal Tendencies). However the point was that it was cool for the entire industry to get behind something that was in good fun. Shit talking, rivalries, pro-ho’s, wide stances, no backs, punk rock defined snowboarding in the 90’s. Today it's much different and I wanted to bring back a little bit of the fun energy that fueled the shred world. So we decided to throw our own charity boxing event, with the support of the good fellas at Skullcandy, Electric and Grenade called “LIGHTS OUT” at SIA.
It started out as a hefty line up of all types of famous personalities. Skateboarder vs Snowboarder, Retailer vs Retailer, Executive vs Executive. Once word got out, it spread quickly. However the problem we found out that a lot of people wanted to be a part of it, but when you had to get into the ring, it was more of a challenge. It came down to wire and although it was a little rough around the edges, the turnout was f’n incredible. Danny Kass was the guest referee while the Dingo emcee the night away. You probably already seen some of this, but I’ll give you some backstage snippets. The place was packed to the rim.
The green room was literally a “green room” from sight and smell. Kristin getting them all wrapped up
Sketchy D was the Jersey Italian Stallion and ready to get it on
Team Arbor ready for an upset
The highlight of the night was the CEO Showdown between Johnny, the pretty boy, Gerhis (CEO of Vestal) and Bruce, the Birdman, Beach (CEO of Electric). I gotta give it up to the both of them for doing this. About a month ago when I called Bruce to be a part of it, he was like “HELL YEAH.” Bird was the first one to fully commit and has been super rad about it. We had 3 other contenders but they all backed out. Two days before the show, I hit up Johnny about doing it and he was like “Cool.” No training and no worries for Johnny--that’s how supportive he was. Check Johnny out with his Apollo creed get up. Shadow boxing I think not
Birdman was in the zone and ready to rumble.
I’m ready for this- -Ding!
Check it out how it all went down
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Oh I almost forgot to mention that Raekwon from Wu Tang finished the night. It was a good ole time and I think everyone came out of it with pretty stoked. We’re already planning how to make it bigger and better next year.
The Show
February 6, 2012
It’s the busiest time of the year for me in terms of traveling. We’re deep in the sales cycle for our 20th anniversary collection which will drop in September 2012. We actually started in November of 2011 and now at the tail end of the selling cycle. The SIA show in Denver, Colorado is grand daddy of 'em all for the North American market. Crazy days of meetings, showings, sleepless nights of everything in between has pushed back my mashes, so please excuse the lag time.
Trade shows are well just that, trade shows. People close to me know that I’m not the biggest fan of the condensed bro-bra, shake down and rather much more into one-on-one time. I’ll spare you the details and summarize some highlights.
Our head of Sales (Jono) and Marketing (Kristin) doing the pep rally with our reps before the start of the show. Gooooo team!
The entrance to our village of a booth. Yes, we’re livin the dream
In addition to the dozen selling stations and our grand merchandizing area, we brought our collaborative 686 concept car. Peeps were straight out freakin' out.
I think Kearl (Chairman, Skullcandy) and Rick (Founder, Skullcandy) were diggin' the ride
So was OG, Trent Bush (Nomis, Technine)
Outside the booth, we at 686 had our 20 year history boards outlining our inspirations from 1992-2012. Stay tuned for more on this
Towards the front, we presented our RECLAIM PROJECT (with the support of SIA and Malakye) and brought 3 aspiring designers from across the nation to produce a technical jacket from reclaimed materials in 72 hours. Scott (Holden), Pat (Volcom) and Jen (Coal) were cool enough to act as mentors and judge the entire thing.
Say hello to Paul from Brooklyn
Paul’s favorite brand is Acronym. Can you tell?
Jillian from Ohio is in the zone
Jonathan from Hollywood making it loud and proud
Too many characters around the show to mention. My head is about to burst. However, when legendary freestyle master and my idol growing up, TK stops by and says whats up, I realize that it's all good.
TW's natural rider of the year, Jake Blauvelt, his lady and 686 general, Pat McCarthy
About 6 months ago, I mentioned that we were doing a one-of-a-kind concept car with Toyota to my friend Tom (CEO of Spyder). He immediately said “Super Cool.” He also said that Spyder was doing a car with Audi. I’m like “Damn, that’s pretty ill.” So of course, I wanted to see what they did. It was much different than our concept, but in all, still pretty ill. Say Cheese, Tom
Follow the line
If you know SOS Outreach, you know Arn and all the incredible things he and his crew do to support the less fortunate youth in snow sports. However I’d rather not know what he does in his spare time
