Second Stop – S to the L | Mike West's

Blogs / Michael Akira West / Second Stop – S to the L

Second Stop – S to the L
December 3, 2009

Before I head out to Seoul, Korea, I killed some time checking out all the dope stores at the HK airport. Yes, Duty Free does help when it comes to booze.

So does some Gucci

I don’t think you’ll find Bearbricks at LAX, only in HKG

Forgot your digi? No worries, the electronic stores have anything and everything. Maybe they got the new S90? I love it when they have everything you could want.

Well maybe not…

Ok, now let's get the hell outta here.

Our 686 Korean family goes pretty deep with us. The only thing that sucks about Seoul is the traffic. Arrrrrrg.

I guess they got love for 686 all around the world!

When you drive out of the airport, you see this thing. Don’t ask, I have no idea.

Paul runs it in Korea. He’s our exclusive distributor and took me for a quick shop tour. Hey there P.

It’s a tight community in the winter realm and Paul’s the man behind some of the best brands in snow.

Did you know that about 75% of all snow sales for Korea are done on one street in Seoul? It’s the only place in the world I’ve seen this go down, but it seems to all work out. TJ’s shop, Showcase is one of the best.

There are so many other stockists out there that represent 686. Paul tells me that we’re one of the top 2 brands in Korea. One of his biggest accounts, Ronin, stepped up in a huge way.

Hey, what do you know, they were promoting 686 day that just happened last week.

Outerwear dominated the open format. FYI, they are really into bright colors.

I guess they don’t have too many Americans visit their store, let alone myself saying what's up. The manager was stoked.

In the past we’ve had some “issues” like counterfeiting and grey marketing. This year we added some secret coded hangtags (RFID as well) that show the 686 authenticity.

Korean’s like visuals. What was cool about Ronin was that they were the only ones to showcase our products on flat screens (and only ours...big ups Paul) Ronin riders were modeling the 686 gear in their own way.