Hot time in the city

Ahh, spring. Sunny skies, warm temps, birds chirping, flowers blooming. Except of course in Colorado, where it seemingly snowed the entire month of April and well into May.

Thus, a trip to New York City for our semi-annual media showroom, with the promise of warmer weather, good food and a little urban culture, was a welcome opportunity for the Backbone team.

Twice a year, we host a showroom in NYC. It’s a chance to meet with some of the country’s leading media and share the latest and greatest products and stories from our clients.

This spring, we were in a new, larger event space, with 13 brands participating. During the seven hours of our showroom, we saw 70 writers, editors, freelancers, bloggers, producers and publishers representing titles from the New York Times to SELF, Esquire, Conde Nast Traveler, Oprah and many, many more.

In addition to connecting with the New York media scene, we enjoyed beautiful weather, a great meal at the Spice Market and a healthy dose of city culture before we headed back to the mountains (where thankfully, spring seems to finally have sprung).

Check out some pics from the event below.

Backbone’s Mike Shea with Jeanine Pesce from This is Range and Matt Peterson from Big Shot bikes

Molly from Eddie Bauer with Mary Anne Potts from National Geographic Adventure

Corey from Sperry Top-Sider with Susan Matthews from Popular Science

Molly from SmartWool with Dan Tower of Gifts.com and Mavis

The Newton Running Dream Team: Newton co-founder Danny Abshire, Elinor from Backbone and Kara Henry from Newton

 

New Belgium Brewing Unveils Conceptual Asheville Site Plan

From: Bryan Simpson- New Belgium Brewery.

http://kirstincronn-mills.com/?p=740 FORT COLLINS, CO, July 26, 2012 – New Belgium Brewing executives unveiled conceptual drawings for their new brewing facility to a packed house in Asheville yesterday. The drawings included a “liquid center” tasting room, a 200-barrel brewhouse, malt building, packaging hall and cellar space. A warehouse facility will be built offsite, equipped with the help of Industrial Auction Hub services. Executives wanted Asheville residents to see the plan first and have an opportunity to offer feedback.

“There will be impact but we will work hard to make it right,” said New Belgium CEO Kim Jordan. “We could have built on a lot of sites but we wanted to be on a livable, walkable site. This site will be a challenge, but we are up for that challenge.”

The new facility will have to be elevated above the 100-year flood zone along the French Broad River. Buildings and material from the old Asheville stockyard will be recycled during deconstruction this fall with heavy demolition being done November thru December and ground-breaking in January.

The brewery is working with the city and state Departments of Transportation to make infrastructure improvements including the widening of roads, smoothing of curves and the addition of traffic signals. An off-site warehouse facility at a yet-to-be-determined location will minimize trucking traffic in the area.

The brewery will have a 700,000-barrel capacity, producing both bottled and kegged beer for distribution along the east coast. The project is slated for completion in 2015.

buy provigil online reddit About New Belgium Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, began operations in a tiny Fort Collins basement in 1991. Today, the third largest craft brewer in the U.S., New Belgium produces nine year-round beers; Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sunshine Wheat, Ranger IPA, Belgo IPA, Shift Pale Lager, Blue Paddle Pilsner, 1554 Black Ale, Abbey and Trippel, as well as a host of seasonal releases. In addition to producing world-class beers, New Belgium takes pride in being a responsible corporate role model with progressive programs such as employee ownership, open book management and a commitment to environmental stewardship. For more information, visit www.newbelgium.com.

Cloudveil Multi Media Campaign Makes and Breaks Promises in NY Times

Everyone is talking about it.

How does one make an awesome bowl of multi-media soup? That is the question and  yes, we are talking about feeding consumers, publishers, bloggers, dealers and even sales reps.

Skip work for a Powder Day? Send flowers...

Skip work for a Powder Day? Send flowers...

The ingredients you get to use? How about advertising, marketing, PR, and social media. Maybe, throw in a dash of mountain town attitude and some humor.

That is what Cloudveil has done with help from Boulder based, TDA their creative agency. Is it good? Well the NY Times thinks so.

Strangely, I have yet to receive a single mug like this in over 12 years

Strangely, I have yet to receive a single mug like this in over 12 years

The concept is that Cloudveil consumers “abuse etiquette in pursuit of recreation,” as explained by Jonathan Schoenberg from TDA.

What’s next? Look for additional upcoming viral plays that focus on mountain culture.

Advertising Dead? Think Again…

Lots of talk these days about print advertising being dead and how much people hate banner ads online.

Here at Backbone, we see this common wisdom as having some truth but more so mixed with a healthy dose of opportunity.

What do I mean by that? Well, print advertising IS changing, but there is still great value in leveraging campaigns across multiple media platforms. Rather than drone on about theory here  – let’s use some examples.

First example is Black Diamond helping every surfer who is numb to banner ads and skyscrapers with their new creatives. Confronted with how to draw attention to their efforts online BD simply looked at who they are and what they do best – which is climb and ski. (Okay, they design and build some cool stuff too).

[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”http://theverteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/728x90_renan_climbing.swf” width=”500″ height=”150″ targetclass=”flashmovie”]

[/kml_flashembed]

If you find yourself hitting the refresh button to watch this guy whip or wanting to draw landscapes of a crag like Renan O. then yes, BD wins.

Cloudveil is running a new print campaign for F09. Cleverly designed by tda in Boulder, the print ads tie into online promos and leverage social media to not  just sell product but the mountain culture Cloudveil is all about.

flowers_snapshot

Add partnerships with 1-800-flowers, Zazzle and Kool Dog Cafe and what was dead is now very much alive and kicking.

mug_snapshot

Man, those guys at tda are smart – though they can be a bit edgy.

Run Don’t Walk or Walk Don’t Run?

It is finally summer in the Rockies.

DSC_0004

Time to finally put away my indispensable Run Don’t Walk fleece. Got me thinking – what is it about certain pieces of clothing that make them so good? Why are some products stickier in terms of their appeal than others?

The Cloudveil Run Don’t Walk is a simple piece really. Great fit. Deep drop zipper for venting. Polartec Powerstretch 100 and named for a classic Teton climb – the Run Don’t Walk couloir on Mount Owen.

Also, kinda cool to be a play on words of the classic Ventures surf tune.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ11y7pYl-8]

Climbing as Art

Some of you may know or have heard of Randy Rackliff. Others may not.

Chained

Chained

Randy is a skilled alpine climber. He builds cult Cold Cold World backpacks and also spends time cutting rad woodblock prints. The prints are all limited editions. They’ve accompanied musings by Mark Twight and were featured in Jon Krakauer‘s limited edition of Into Thin Air.

Hillary Step

Hillary Step

Randy’s wife, Ruthann Brown sent along a few of Randy’s new mythological themed comps recently. With the OR Season fast approaching I found the Sisyphus image somehow appropriate…

Sisyphus PR?

Sisyphus

if you are interested in learning more or purchasing have at it!

Cloudveil’s Get Your T On Comp – Cold Hard Cash Prizes for Green T-Shirt Designs

Living in a van down by the river? Going on a road trip soon and need some extra cash? Cloudveil is searching the globe for six creative men’s and women’s T-Shirt designs. Designs must involve the themes: Environmental Causes & Place…..causes being green….place being WYOMING!

-Design can be submitted by any medium (digital, ink, cardboard…you get it. Our graphic designers will take care of the details)
-Only three color ways permitted
-Designs must be submitted to nbrosnan@cloudveil.com by Sunday, May 24, 2008 at MIDNIGHT!
-Six winning designs will be chosen next Wednesday, May 27th. $300.00 will be awarded per design chosen. You can win all six!

Please email images info, designs and questions to nbrosnan@cloudveil.com

Ironmongery

This past January, I was at the OR Show walking media through Black Diamond’s new line for Winter ’09. One of the highlights was the new BD stainless-steel crampons – the Cyborg, Sabretooth and Serac. The advantages of stainless over chro-moly are numerous – significant weight savings, durability, no rust, less snow balling and bad-ass look. Through exhaustive research BD was able to offset the quandary of higher expense versus performance gain and in the end has a product that will be priced right while raising the competitive standard.

BD Sabretooth Pro

BD Sabretooth Pro

The Cyborg and Sabretooth particularly drew ohhs and ahhs from core ice climbers, design mag editors and business writers alike. With spring mountaineering season upon us, I was looking forward on getting out on a pair of protos until I got an email from my friend Jon about a new crampon he stumbled upon in Parker, CO. Turns out the guys who were testing his new diesel for emissions have been doing some R&D work themselves. rumor has it they may sell these designs to one of BD’s competitors… Check it out!

Burly

Burly

ABS technology

ABS technology

Secure

Secure