george crosland photo blog

Vans recently moved it HQ from Santa Fe Springs in Southern LA County to Cerritos in Northern Orange County California. Last night they threw a little open house at the new digs. No one could have expected the response, the party was huge. Free beer and wine, free food, free music and the ramp was open to all. With all that I guess you would expect a huge turn out right? Still, it was pretty insane

The facilities - big place

Located across the street from Mitsubishis and Yamaha’s world headquarters

Many skaters were in attendance, Brian Patch (shown), Geoff Rowley, Omar Hassan and so on

Company Wellnes Program, workout in the weight room…

…or workout on the ramp, like Josh Borden here

arty logos on the wall

Let see, we got Rowley Shambles, maybe some J-Lays in here

The 60’s and 70’s display case

Old money

“Dude, thats my skull” - Sean Penn. Perhaps the most famous pair of Vans ever as seen in one of the top coming age films ever - Fast Times Ridgemont High. Seriously Fast times is up there with American Grafitti, American Pie, Rebel without a cause. If you have not seen Fast Times - watch it!

Getting towards the end of the party

The ramp in a van - as seen in TV commercials

From an outsiders point of view ASR looks like a big party. The heart of it all comes down to a centralized location where manufacturers and distributors can get together with all their current and potential buyers to show them what is new, write orders, wine and dine them and so on – business. Along with the business are the video premier’s, party’s skate sessions and what not. For one week straight San Diego and an area within 50 miles is all about trading money for goods.

I talked to folks at Plan B, Powell, Black Label and Vans. They said they were all very busy at the show, which is good. Some companies, like Black Box (mystery, Fallen, Zero) choose not to show at ASR. However Black Box threw a little mini trade show at its facilities in Vista, 30 miles north. Alien Workshops opted not to spend $50,000 on the booth space and entertained it’s vendors at their hotel. That’s right $50,000 just to rent the space for 3 days. Trade shows are a huge expense. Either way, it is all driven by ASR

The biggest complaint was people whining about working on the weekend. You know what? You get to sell something in an industry you love. Working on the weekend is no big deal. Chill and enjoy it!

Volcom always has a theme at its booth, this year it is heavy metal. They also have a lot non-business activities out in the hallways. Here is a guitar video game, next to the poster for Valiant Thor. The business takes place in the huge booth and you need an appointment!

Headwear Company, Neff had a booth

Toss a disc into the bag and get a prize – Volcom

Burton booth

Here are Steve Van Doren, from Vans, and Micki Vuckocich from the Tony Hawk Foundation. If you a park in your town it could be because of the efforts of Micki. Micki also was the very first paid subscriber to Transworld

Chris Haslam

Dylan Reider and Christian Hosoi get shoes from Vans

The captain of the Black Label brand – John Lucero

Element’s booth

Zrosh rides for Dekline and rips harder than you!

“Don’t let any one see me” Dingo, promoting Grenade with guerilla tactics

Chris Cole won the Game of Skate – see the story on the skate website

Mike Maldanado

Juliette Lewis

Rome had a video premier in Tijuana Mexico. I headed down to see it. I had big expectations but it was just thrown in a bar while people did tequila shooters. The video was going to be on little TV’s in the bar and I heard the sound was broken. As of 11 pm no one had even shown up, so I bailed and missed it, I guess.

Driving back to the US from Mexico can be a bitch

You need bearings?