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In
the News TM5 Grabs Top Team Riders The team managers of Billabong, Drake/Northwave, Dragon, Sessions, and Volcom have left their respective companies to form a new snowboard brand called TM5. The former managers have also persuaded top riders such as Terje Haakonsen, Jamie Lynn, Daniel Franck, Kevin Jones, Nicola Thost, Peter Line, and B.J. Lienes to join the new company. So what does this new snowboarding powerhouse have planned, and how will it affect the industry? New Brand Targets Costco Customers Old Mold, a new snowboard brand built around acquiring the molds of some of the best-selling snowboard models of all time, has its eyes firmly on the mass-market discount consumer. Rumors are that Ride Brushies and Burton Balances and Rippeys are top of the list. "If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em," says Alex Barcelona, Old Mold’s new CEO. TransWorld SKIboarding Exceeds Expectations Just a year after its launch, TransWorld SKIboarding magazine has confounded the winter-sports industry and exceeded the wildest hopes of its Times-Mirror owners–surpassing the circulation and ad-sales revenue of SNOWboarding magazine. "It’s a testimony to the strength of the skiboarding market, and the fact that you never know where a good idea will come from," says TransWorld President Brian Sellstrom. Chinese Downhill New Olympic Event "I think I pretty much have a lock on it," says HazMat’s Donald Cassel about the IOC’s announcement in April that a snowboarding Chinese Downhill will be part of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. |