New Company Enters Snowboard Market
Alphanumeric hopes to compete.
Edited by Robyn Hakes

Russell Winfield and Sal Masekela

Sal Masekela, Carlsbad local and infamous snowboard industry personality, dropped by the TransWorld office to talk with SNOWboarding Business about his latest marketing endeavor. He's teamed up with Alyasha Moore, who recently was a designer for Dub outerwear and has now launched a new apparel company, Alphanumeric. Along with Russell Winfield, Kareem Kampbell, and a few other recognizable names, these guys are taking the plunge and entering the active- lifestyle apparel market. We chatted with Masekela, Winfield, and Moore (on speaker phone) to get the scoop.

How does your new company relate to snowboarding?

Winfield: We make outerwear that's environmentally defiant, meaning it keeps you dry and warm, and you look good while you're dry and warm, which is very important.

Who's in charge, who runs the company?

Alyasha Moore. He's been a designer at Dub for the last two years. We can put him on speaker and you can talk to him too.

(We called him up)

Hello?

Sal: Aly?

Roommate: He's sleeping, who's this?

Sal: This is Sal.

Roommate: Where you at?

Sal: We're doing an interview right now for SNOWboarding Business.

Roommate: Oh cool.

Sal: We need to wake him up for a second and so he can spit out some words.

Roommate: Okay, let me get him.

Sal: He works like all designers, a night owl. He works until five o'clock in the morning. He get's inspired like in the middle of the night and stuff like that.

Aly: Yo.

Sal: Yo. (Laughter from Sal.) I'm sorry kid, we're doing an interview right for SNOWboarding Business. So we've got you on speaker with the recorder. This is Robyn.

Aly: Peace Robyn.

SNOWboarding Business: Hi! How are you this morning, or afternoon rather?

Aly: I'm all right, trying to get over jet lag. I've kind of hit the ground running the past couple days and I think it's just catching up with me.

Where'd you come in from?

Aly: Hong Kong.

Sal: He was working on the first line over there. For streetwear.

So were you getting everything finalized?

Aly: Just making finalization on our spring prototypes.

When do you expect to see those?

Aly: Three weeks. And then we'll be showing at ASR (in September) for spring '99 and hopefully in stores by February.

Sal: Hey, give you're perspective on the company and what makes us a little bit different.

Aly: Wow, well basically just a lot of it has to do with where we're all from.

SB: Why'd you start it?

Aly: Just because I though it was something that had to be done. I saw a lot of gaps in the industry. A lot of holes. A lot of room for improvement I think. A lot of aspects that people were overlooking regarding using the medium as a tool to say something, using clothing to express certain ideas or just make people a little bit more aware without being preachy or anything. And also, just make a really good product.

Who's your customer?

Aly: Skateboarders and snowboarders.

Girls and guys?

Aly: Girls and guys.

Sal: We've got Kareen Kampbell riding for us on our skate program. We'll be building up a small team around him as a front man as well as a program around Russell. Russell will be riding for us but he's also going to really utilize his gregarious personage as well as his business savvy. Most people just use their riders for simply just that, as riders. But there's so much you can gain from your relationship athlete-wise as far as promotions are concerned. And that's what we're doing with Russ. So he's going to be out there as a foot soldier as well as a board soldier.

Is he going to be doing the recruiting as well?

Sal: That's the rad thing about us. Even though everyone does different things in the company, as far as who's going to be involved rider wise, we view the whole thing so much as a family that everybody has a little bit of a say. Obviously, I'll be making the ultimate decisions team wise. We're not going to put anyone on it who the rest of the team saya isn't stepping up. So we can really keep it tight knit. And have people really say "You know what, those guys are all in to each other. They're not just a bunch of guys that wear a logo on their head or on their back. They're really feeling something." That's kind of how we're going to run it with the team.

And market wise we're not just going to be in skate and snow shops and action-sports shops. Definitely boutiques are going to be a large part of our business because as long as the marketing is clear and true and we show people what we're about not just skippin' into the board sport lifestyle then we can be in some Masterpieces and stuff like that.

Russ: As long as we don't fake the funk I think where you sell isn't as important as who you sell it to.

Sal: The real good thing is we've all got such a solid background in the industry. So far we've got nothing but support from other manufacturers. And it's hard these days to start a new company. Most times people are super skeptical and we haven't run into that, really. Except from the haters. People who don't want to see other people come up. But everyone's just been like "What do you need?" from all the other companies that we've worked with.

This company's going to be a success. Not just a success but a joy. I want people to be happy when they see our stuff. Like, "Wow those guys are great."

Thanks guys and good luck with your new company!

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