Mike West's

Lights Out recap

Michael Akira West — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:17 +0000

Okay, one last time. See you next year

686 Lights out at Casselman's from Focus 4 Design on Vimeo.

Rally Time

Michael Akira West — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:00:09 +0000

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

Michael Akira West — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:00:49 +0000

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

Michael Akira West — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:37 +0000

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

Michael Akira West — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:56:41 +0000

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

Do X Don’t

Michael Akira West — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:49 +0000

Don’t

Finally

Michael Akira West — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:55 +0000

Winter’s finally here, get yours before I get mine

From light insulator to package neck pillow-The Mannual Warp
Packable Puffy

History already made- TheMannual Legacy Jacket

A 7-in-1 juggernaut- The Smarty Complete
Jacket

Good design starts

Michael Akira West — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:31:54 +0000

Here

Reclaim Project-Taiwan Drop

Michael Akira West — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:02 +0000

Since our development office is in Taiwan, its great we can get them involved in the Reclaim Giving process. A few hours outside Taipei city, we were immediately in the mix with tons of kids ready to have a good ole time.

Line up here

Get stoked here

You know that

Headed to the temple next to the school and prayed for the kids and their well being

Thank you for caring

Giving starts by letting go

Letting

Reclaim Project-Tokyo Drop

Michael Akira West — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Trash->Reclaim->Sell->Buy->Donate

If you buy one of our Reclaimed jackets, we promise to Donate one jacket to someone in need.
I’m in Tokyo for several donation drops, however since my time’s cut short, I’m available to be a part of only one of them. We stopped by Chigasaki Farms to show some love for the kids. Line the goods up

Prep the Reclaimed jacket

Have the Director of Chigasaki Farms give the thumbs up

Give