Equipo Roca

Burton Chill Program 2008 - Salt Lake City

RideUtah.com rides along with the Burton Chill Program, a 6 week program to teach inner city and at-risk-youth how to snowboard at Brighton.

Targeting the Multicultural Youth Market Online

Marketing budgets are increasingly moving towards the online multicultural demographics. They have too in a challenging economic environment. One company already doing so is Microsoft.

Online, it's easier to measure which campaigns work with different ethnic groups, says Microsoft's director of multicultural marketing Jose Piñero. The Redmond (Wash.) software maker introduces diversity elements in its marketing one product group at a time. In 2005 only its Xbox, MSN, and retail teams had started multicultural components. Now it has 20 groups that do. The company expects that number to grow in 2009. "As more product groups begin to do multicultural marketing, online is a popular medium because it's so easy to track" what types of consumers they reach, Piñero says. - Via Businessweek

Action Sports Trend to Watch

Dave Molinari and Eric Diaz of Stomp Design were recently interviewed by Transworld Business and provided a great response of where they see things evolving in the action sports industry. It really speaks to what the future is going to hold in terms of market growth.

Diversity = Stability

It’s an ecological theory that the more diverse an ecosystem is, the more stable it is. The assumption is that the greater number and variety of plants and animals there are in a given food chain or habitiat, the more the ecosystem is able to successfully deal with change.

We at STOMP apply this to our personal lives and business. STOMP Design Inc. is a rider owned and operated company made up of diverse people who have diverse interests, influences, and hobbies that influence our products, the markets we penetrate, and the company as a whole. The more diverse our interests, hobbies, and business skills: the more happy and balanced we are as people.

Mister Cartoon Interview

Here's a great interview with Mister Cartoon...the guy has a lot of interesting projects in the works. Sneakers, movies, skateboards, etc. He's all overt the place, hustling and working hard.

Ruby Hill Rail Yard 2009 Press Release

For Immediate Release                                            
Wednesday, December 17, 2008  

CONTACT:    Jill McGranahan  720-913-0633 or 303-880-1827 (cell)
                     Jennifer deBerge (WP) 970-531-0248 (cell)

Ruby Hill Rail Yard Returns
Denver Parks and Recreation and Winter Park Resort team up again
to bring winter sports to the City

DENVER – Returning for its third year, Ruby Hill Rail Yard brings the excitement and energy of skiing and snowboarding to Denver with a one-of-its-kind ski and ride urban rail yard.

Scheduled to open on January 17, 2009, Ruby Hill Rail Yard will feature six rails of varying configurations and levels of advancement. Weather permitting, the rail yard will be open through the end of February 2009. To prepare the park for the rail yard, snowmaking equipment will pump out more than an acre of snow.

Opening day will feature demonstrations by Winter Park athletes, live music and guest appearances by KTCL 93.3, giveaways and free snowboard lessons for local youth interested in trying a new sport or fine tuning their already learned techniques.

New this year, Denver Parks and Recreation is teaming up with Christy Sports to provide Free ski and snowboard rental every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 3:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. and every Saturday from noon – 8 p.m. Geared toward ages 8 – 16, youth who want to use equipment must have a parent present to complete a release and waiver. Forms will be kept on file at Ruby Hill throughout the entire railyard season, so only need to be completed once for each participant.

Returning for the second year is Jibbin’ for the Kids in partnership with Snowsport Outreach Society (SOS).  Every Tuesday and Wednesday from January 27 through the end of February, SOS and Denver Parks and Recreation’s outdoor recreation team will provide lessons to local teens.  Lighting and generators will be at the park every evening until 9 p.m., facilitating evening access for youth and parents who want to come with the children after work. 

Ruby Hill Park is located off of South Platte River Drive and West Florida Avenue. The Rail Yard will be open every day from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Ruby Hill Rail Yard is made possible by the generous support of Winter Park Resort, Burton Snowboards, Christy Sports, Johnson Controls, S.O.S., 93.3 KTCL and Wahoo’s Fish Tacos.

For more information, call Denver 311 or visit the Web site www.denvergov.org/rubyhillrailyard.

Technology Trends Impacting the Youth Market in 2009

Curious to understand the emerging technology for next year? Check out the Top Seven Social Media, Online Marketing and Internet Trends for 2009.

All of these are going to be influential relationship builders with the multicultural youth market.

Looking at Surfing in Numbers

This week the New York Times, 'A Faltering Economy is Felt Even on the Beach', reported on the state of the surf industry. The current economic climate is definitely having an impact on an industry that does $8 billion a year.

Marie Case, the managing director of Board-Trac, a board-sports market research company, said her company forecast 3.3 billion purchases by surfers in 2008. That is down from a high of 4.1 billion in 2003. But Case says an economic downturn is only part of the reason for declining purchases by surfers.

“This is an aging market,” Case said, owing to diminished birth rates 12 to 16 years ago.

There were 2.4 million surfers in the United States in 2007, according to Case, up from two million in 2004. But more than 50 percent are older than 25. In 2007, the average surfer was 29, which has hurt surf retail.

“The 25-plus market, they don’t buy as many T-shirts or pairs of sandals,” Case said. Via - The Faltering

Again, can't help but notice the need to reach younger consumers. Like snowboarding, surfing is going to need a better job of marketing itself to the changing demographics found in the youth market.

Must repeat this stastic...one in four teenagers in U.S. is Hispanic. By 2020, the Hispanic teen population will have grown 62% compared to 10% for everyone else.

Still wondering where the future young surfers are going to come from?

Youth Market 2009 and Beyond

As the economic situation continues to evolve, increasingly companies will need to reach new customers in order to achieve long-term growth. The Latino youth market, Millennials in particular, are going to play a huge role in making that happen...

Hispanic consumers will play a key role in the success of this holiday shopping season and throughout the recession. As the largest minority group in the United States, Hispanics represent steadily growing purchasing power and are historically unaffected by economic downturns causing retail businesses to seek a more strategic marketing position to target this significant consumer segment. - Via 1888 Press Release

Mountain High 2008-09 Season

There's a reason why Mountain High Resort is recognized as the leader in reaching out to the emerging multicultural youth market...Being an hour and half outside L.A. is only a part of it.

Denver to bid on the 2018 Olympics

Is it really out of the question to imagine a Hispanic kid, who honed his or her skills at Ruby Hill Rail Yard, to be representing Denver at the 2018 Olympics? Only time will tell...the city may very well be in the running for the Games.

"You want the Olympics to contribute to the city, but where it really contributes is to the human capital and as a nation builder. It has to be an event for everybody. You need to built unity around that vision and really make it shine out." - John Furlong Chief Executive of Vancouver 2010 

Vans X Estevan Oriol

Estevan Oriol

Os Gemos na Cuba

The twin Brazilian street artists made their way to Havana. SuperTouch posted some nice pics of their work.

Technology leap forward...

Talk about being ahead of the curve...seen this coming for a long time. Marketing implications exist in the now.

Hispanics are one of the fastest growing and most active segments of the online population. They are using technology to enable social connectivity and enhance their cultural identity. In a recent study that I authored, I found that Hispanics, regardless of language preference and age, are more likely to be active on social networking sites than non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanic market growth and technology adoption are converging, making digital communications the next frontier in Hispanic marketing. Via Dr. Felipe Korzenny

Kiltro House - Talca, Chile

Can't you see riding off the roof?

The architects at Supersudaka have taken a unique approach to architecture with their contemporary design for Kiltro House in Talca, Chile. They’re motto is “We don’t want to change the world with architecture, we want to change architecture.” Via - Trendir

Snowboarding in Numbers

Look what I found today...

Looks like the drop in snowboarding participants has been going on since 2004. Now what happens when the customer age demographic shifts in composition, specifically ethnically?

Oh yeah, one in four teenagers is Latino in the United States right now...Makes too much sense to address the sports growth issues with youth population trends, right?

2007/08 SIA Snowboard Sales Summary - Via Transworld Business

Nuevos Ricos - The New Wealth

"Working class today....tomorrow Nuevos Ricos!"

Vice - The Mexican Issue

Vice Magazine - The Mexican Issue