Edge Snowboards has teamed up with one of the most well-known brand names in the world. No, it’s not Nike–it’s Levi’s.

"Levi’s wanted to so something, but they’d never done anything with snowboards," says Blair Giesen, co-owner of Edge. "They wanted to get connected with a company that was a small ’core company to kind of get respect for themselves and establish legitimacy in the surf, skate, and snow industry."

What they decided to do allowed Edge Snowboards to essentially multiply its current exposure by the hundreds. This fall and again this coming holiday season, Levi’s is offering a board giveaway in over 300 department stores across the country. Edge specially designed snowboards for this campaign which feature Levi’s SilverTab logo along with Edge’s own graphic on a silver topsheet. In addition, a 22-inch-by- 22-inch poster featuring two Edge riders–Madelina Silva, two-time USASA Nationals Champion, and Pete Tillac–the snowboards, and both the SilverTab and Edge logos. There’s also a snowboard on display in the young men’s department of each store to accompany the promotion.

"Levi’s set up 1,000 displays in Robinsons May, Kaufmann’s, Meier and Frank, Hecht’s, Filene’s, Foley’s, and Famous Bar locations throughout the country," Giesen says. "One display in three departments: young women’s, young men’s, and children’s.

"The marketing trade-off is huge," Giesen adds. "I’ve walked into some of the Southern California locations and I can’t believe the names I’m next to–Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and then there’s Edge and Levi’s. You can’t pay for advertising like that. And Levi’s has a real in- your-face-marketing campaign that’s great when they’re using our logo. And they’ve said that the whole campaign has really paid off for them. They’ve hit the market they wanted to hit."

Anyone interested can register to win an Edge board, no purchase required. "It really helps having the boards right there in the store," Giesen adds. "And they came out looking really good."

Along with the department store locations, Levi’s purchased 600 movie-screen ads to run in between films. That’s 22-million impressions reaching over seven-million consumers.

And to top it off, Levi’s ran a full-page ad in the L.A. Times in three Sunday editions, all featuring the poster art.

Silva has visited several of the store locations for autograph signing, which Giesen says has had tremendous response. "I think it really helps the snowboard industry when you have the products and the riders in these department stores, making it more mainstream and getting people involved so they start to have a better understanding of snowboarding," he says.

Edge manufactured 400 boards for the promotion. There will be one for each of the 300 store locations and then whenever Silva goes out to one of the stores, a local radio station promotes her visit with a board giveaway.

Edge is also working on a similar campaign with their longboard skateboards. Levi’s will be incorporating this into an ad campaign for their RedTab jeans and tie it into the summer ESPN X-Games.