Photo: Sanuk
Sanuk founder, Jeff KelleySanuk is the Thai word for fun. It's also the name of a progressive footwear company based in Southern California. Since 1997, Sanuk has provided creatively inspired yet well-designed shoes and sandals for anyone who lives the adventurous life.

You don't see many companies that mix funk with function. So meet Sanuk and its founder Jeff Kelley, who started making sandals out of inner tubes and carpet. Jeff was psyched to be a part of this week's Street Beat. Go ahead, get your fix with Sanuk's kicks.

- Danny Spyra

Photo: Sanuk
The Sanuk Vagabond, for the traveler in all of us

BNQT - THE SIDEWALK SURFERS HAVE SEEN TREMENDOUS SUCCESS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN A FEW VARIATIONS IN THE FALL 2010 LINE?

Jeff - We have 4 profiles on the Sidewalk Surfer. The original wide model Vagabond, The squared toe Chiba, the narrow dressier profile on the Boardrooms and pickpockets and our Light Weight Vulcanized styles.

Photo: Sanuk
The Poncho, straight out of Joseph and the
Technicolor Dreamcoat

BNQT - THE ROOT SANDAL SERIES PLAYS WITH SOME FUN AND FUNKY PRINTS. HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE VIBRANT DESIGNS?

Jeff - We wanted to set Sanuk apart from the basic black sandals with jacquard straps and leather that was dominating the market. It's Funny. When Sanuk started we introduced green carpet, Leopard, and Guatemalan prints and they were considered outrageous. Now it's hard for us to do anything that people consider crazy.

Photo: Sanuk
The environmentally friendly Rasta sandal

BNQT - WHAT DOES THE RASTA IN SANUK'S RASTA PROJECT STAND FOR AND WHAT KIND OF MATERIALS DO YOU UTILIZE IN THIS SERIES?

Jeff - RASTA means Recycled And Sustainable Trade Alliance and is also the nickname for one of our surf team members Dave Rastovich. Dave was awarded environmentalist of the year from the surf industry in 2009 and was involved in the movie The Cove. In Dave's collection we use Hemp, PET (recycled bottles) Natural. Latex, Organic cottons and recycled tires. This collection is one of the most environmentally friendly you will find.

Photo: Sanuk
The Yoga Mat

BNQT - IS THE WOMEN'S YOGA MAT THE EQUIVALENT OF THE BEER COZY FOR MEN? WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO THESE SERIES HAVE?

Jeff - Yes the men's Beer Cozy sandal does have a yoga mat foot bed. The beauty of this material is it reacts like a Temperpedic foam. It squishes into the shape of your foot and doesn't bounce back real fast like normal sandal materials. That creates a custom fit feeling like nothing else on the market.

Photo: Sanuk
The Boardroom, perfect for office meetings

BNQT - I LOVE THE CLEAN, STYLISH LOOK OF THE BOARDROOM SIDEWALK SURFERS. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THEM?

Jeff - We really listen to our customers and the Sanuk Facebook page is a great tool for this. We heard repeatedly from our customers that they didn't want to take their Sidewalk Surfers off and we needed to make something they could wear to work so we created the Boardroom series.

Photo: Sanuk
The Scurvy, laces in or out

BNQT - FINALLY, THE SCURVY SERIES SPANS ALL 3 GROUPS (MENS, KIDS AND WOMENS). WHAT IS THE SANUK TWIST ON THE TRADITIONAL BOAT SHOE?

Jeff - We removed the stiff Stichdown board used in normal shoe manufacturing so our Vulcanized shoes including the Scurvy's would allow the foot to bend and flex. This is an important feature of all our shoes. By allowing the foot to move naturally you strengthen the muscles in the feet that support the arch and also helps to improve balance.

Street Beat Archive:

Bob Carlson with Arbor Collective

PJ Connell with Reef

Whitney Morris with O'Neill Girls

Erik Paulsen with TAVIK

Joe Babcock with Gravis

Mike Quilliam with Atwater

Chris Friel with SABRE

Ryan Hagy with Metal Mulisha

Dustin & Dylan Odbert with ambsn

Chad LaBass with Freestyle

Joey Jorgensen with Analog

Kelly Magrath with DC

Frank Delgadillo with COMUNE

Derek Boucher with Vestal

Steve Van Doren with Vans

John Harbin with West Wetsuits

Ryan Rush with ECO'Neill

Nicole Hanriot with TAVIK Swimwear

Matt Gleason with Liquid Force

Eric Mehlberg with Kustom

Mike Murphy with Fyasko

Ian Foulke with ISIS

Jonathan Paskowitz with Lightning Bolt

Matt Harkins with SPY OPTIC

Chris Brunstetter with Goldcoast Longboards

Damon George with ERGO

Charlie Setzler with Rusty

In association with Street League Skateboarding, the Rob Dyrdek Foundation is donating a world-class skate course from the DC Pro Tour fueled by Monster Energy along with $50,000 in construction and design costs for a new skate plaza to the Andres & Maria Cardenas Recreation Center in Panorama City, Los Angeles.

The grant coincides with the inaugural tour's only California stop on Saturday, September 11 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, which shall be followed by the finale in Las Vegas, Nev. (Thomas & Mack Center) on Sept. 25. Tickets and information are available at www.streetleague.com.

Street League Skateboarding offers a record-breaking $1.2 million purse and a revolutionary real-time scoring system that allows viewers to follow the action from the first trick to the very last. The exclusive roster of 24 elite professional athletes is unprecedented in the world of skateboarding and features skateboarders ranging from familiar contest stars like Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez Jr. and Chris Cole to core street skateboarders like P.J. Ladd, Mike Mo Capaldi, Brandon Biebel, and Dylan Reider. Each event airs on ESPN2 every Wednesday at 8pm ET/5pm PT, beginning September 15th and concluding September 29th.

The partnership between the Rob Dyrdek Foundation (RDF), Street League Skateboarding and the City of Los Angeles will yield the seventh "Safe Spot, Skate Spot," a program developed by the RDF to support legal and safe skate spots for communities interested in developing legal, skateable plazas for their youth and families. Based on the skate plaza concept, the Safe Spot, Skate Spot program provides an alternative option for communities with limited budgets or space restrictions to develop real street-skating locations.

"I'm excited that the collaboration between Street League Skateboarding and my foundation will result in another Safe Spot, Skate Spot in the City of Los Angeles," said Rob Dyrdek, the Foundation's Founder and President. Dyrdek added, "We recognize that cities want to help their skateboarders but often lack the necessary funds or space and this concept provides the perfect solution for both. I want to thank Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilmember Tony Cardenas, and the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks for all of their help in making this possible."

"Due to the generosity and vision of Rob Dyrdek, Street League Skateboarding, and his Foundation, the children and families of Panorama City will be able to enjoy a practice the sport they love in their own neighborhood," said Los Angeles City Councilmember Tony Cardenas.

Preliminary rounds for the DC Pro Tour fueled by Monster Energy, which are closed to the public, are scheduled for Friday, September 10 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The grand finale is slated for Saturday, September 11 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Doors open to the public at 12:00 p.m. Accredited media may cover the event on either day with advance reservation (note: some restrictions will apply). Tickets and additional information are available at www.streetleague.com.

BIGFOOT Launches New Exhibit at Hurley's )( SpaceHurley welcomes artist BIGFOOT to its )( Space gallery for his latest exhibit: "Ominous Compositions from the Magic Mountains." On the opening night, September 11th, BIGFOOT will team up with Hurley's resident artist, Jason Maloney, to create a must-see art installation.

See an interview with BIGFOOT right here.

Bay Area-based, nature-loving artist BIGFOOT has been a major influence in the skateboard industry for more than a decade. Despite his reclusive nature, Bigfoot has a very active presence in both the sports and art world, designing skateboard graphics and footwear. He has exhibited in galleries in the US and Japan, and in 2004 unveiled his first vinyl figure through Strangeco. His eponymous character and love of heavy metal - especially the masked rock group KISS - play a major role in his studio work, as well as his highly recognized street art.

)( Space art gallery is located at Hurley's headquarters:
1945 Placentia Avenue,
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
The gallery is open Monday Friday, 10am 5pm www.hurley.com/hspace

Music and food will be offered at this FREE exhibit. On the music end, DJ JOSHR will open for KISS tribute band Dressed to Kill. Food will be provided by the infamous Kogi Taco Truck and the heavy-metal-themed food truck Grill 'Em All, currently in the final four of The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network. The skate park will also be open during the exhibit, providing plenty of incentive for a crowd to come down to the )( Space Gallery.

WHAT: BIGFOOT: Ominous Compositions from the Magic Mountains
WHEN: Saturday, September 11, 2010, 6:00pm - 10:00pm
WHERE: Hurley's )(SPACE Gallery, 1945 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92627

Photo: Arbor
Arbor President, Bob CarlsonSince day 1, Arbor Collective has been in the action sports business to do right by the planet and have some fun along the way. Established in 1995, Arbor is an OG of the "greening" of the industry. Not only are their skateboards, snowboards and apparel performance-driven, but they're friendlier for the environment. With Arbor, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Bob Carlson, President of Arbor, recently had me over at their company headquarters in Venice Beach. Hearing their company story was truly inspiring. Enjoy!

- Danny Spyra

Photo: Arbor
The Recycled sweatshirt incorporates bamboo material

BNQT - YOU UTILIZE A LOT OF BAMBOO IN YOUR BOARDS AND APPAREL. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING THIS MATERIAL?

Bob - Well, that's a great question. We use it in our skates, snowboards and our apparel. Bamboo is a really unique combination of sustainable, renewable and organic and those three things don't always come together.

But the cool thing for us is the performance benefits of bamboo on a wide range of fronts. There is no material we know of that allows you to produce more environmentally friendly products but also allows you improve upon products at the same time. Bamboo is a solid wood replacement and has more compression strength than steel based on weight. So, in snowboards and skates it provides a tremendous amount of strength and return and pop and energy and allows us to reduce weight at the same time.
Photo: Arbor
The Arbor Hybrid GT skate features artwork by Jeff
Soto
As a material for apparel, the bamboo cellulose fiber is incredibly soft, more breathable than cotton, wicks moisture and has better UV protection. So it ends up being an amazing fabric to make clothing out of. The goal at Arbor is to build environmentally friendly products in a contemporary light that's relevant for today's generation. With bamboo we can add the performance benefits and story that's not hippy.

BNQT - HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN USING BAMBOO?

Bob - On any large scale we are the first to introduce it in snowboards - probably about 9 years ago. We introduced it into skates about 5 years ago and apparel 3 years ago.

Photo: Arbor
Bombing on an Arbor skate

BNQT - ARBOR MANUFACTURES SOME GREAT SKATEBOARDS. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT SOME OF THEM?

Bob - Longboard skates are now one of the fastest growing segments in skateboards. We've been lucky enough to have four record-setting sales months in a row. We do a wide range of skates. Some specifically for freeriding, downhill freeriding, drop-thrus shaped to get the lowest profile to the ground. We do some hybrids that are good for both hills and skating around town. We do some fun mini skates and we do pool skates as well.

We think our message and how we're using materials and art and bringing it all together can be relevant in a range of categories in skates. The goal for us is to use materials that provide the best amount of durability and performance. So a lot of times we blend materials, for example we blend 7-ply Canadian hard rock maple with bamboo to get the lightweight performance with sustainable bamboo. Our goal when designing a skate is ergonomics, functionality and performance. Built in with every skate we do is collaboration with an artist. That's probably the root of our success on the skate side.

Photo: Arbor
The Arbor Hybrid Bamboo board incorporates artwork
by Arbor Collective member, Dave Kinsey

BNQT - THE PROPER COMPANY NAME IS ARBOR COLLECTIVE. WHO DOES THIS GROUP CONSIST OF?

Bob - That's a great question, I've never had that. The Arbor Collective is how we describe ourselves. The skate brand is Arbor Skateboards, the snowboard brand is Arbor Snowboards and the apparel brand is Arbor Apparel. But the group, the people and the people we associate with is the collective. It's the artists we work with, it's the suppliers we work with, it's the partners we have at different levels in the business that are all coming together to do something that is different, more relevant and more environmentally friendly for the board sports industry. It includes the people that work for us at our headquarters in Venice Beach and all the people we turn to to make the product what it is. These days, it more and more includes our social networking and customers. Our customers are more linked to the company than ever before. The community that is involved with Arbor is very much the heart and soul of Arbor Collective.

Photo: Arbor
Arbor donates at least 5% of net profits to Rock N
Renew

BNQT - ARBOR ANNUALLY DONATES AT LEAST 5% OF THE NET PROFITS TO GROUPS THAT SAVE AND RESTORE THE ENVIRONMENT. WHO IS THE GROUP FOR 2010 AND WHAT DO THEY DO?

Bob - The group is called Rock 'n Renew and they're an education and restoration group that uses today's most popular musicians to turn kids on to things that are going on with the environment. I like this group because they have a relevant approach to the environment. We can support them and their educational efforts - a lot of which take at concerts and music oriented events.

In our case, we're also able to work with them to specifically create a restoration project in Hawaii. The results that our funds are going to are very tangible for us. We can go to Hawaii and see the beginnings of a restoration project that we have been responsible for. I certainly look forward to seeing the finished product.

Photo: Arbor
The Wasteland Dominator surfboard by Firewire

BNQT - IN ADDITION TO PRODUCING SKATEBOARDS AND SNOWBOARDS, ARBOR RECENTLY COLLABORATED WITH FIREWIRE TO MAKE SURFBOARDS. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE KOA DOMINATOR AND WASTELAND DOMINATOR BOARDS?

Bob - We've been doing skates for now going on 11 years and snowboards for 15 years. A large chunk of our customers and us surf as well. So we naturally got the question, "When are you going to produce surfboards?"

Arbor stands for natural, environmentally friendly materials that improve performance and style and Firewire's DNA is very closely linked to ours. We started with bringing their boards into our showrooms, built a relationship with them and it was only natural to do a collaboration. For us, the collaboration is on two fronts:

- The Koa Dominator uses one of our original woods, sustainably sourced Hawaiian Koa wood, which is a great material. We've used it for years on snowboards and skates so it was a natural place to start. So we brought that classic Arbor look to their Dominator, which is their best selling line of boards.

- For the Wasteland, we took our flagship look and feel, which is our inlaid tops, and this year there are 70 different, individual pieces of wood that have been laser-cut and inlaid together where the actual veneer creates the graphic. It created an incredibly powerful graphic where the graphic is actually wood. It is pretty special.

Photo: Arbor
The Jib System

BNQT - TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE ARBOR AWARD-WINNING SNOWBOARD ROCKER - "THE SYSTEM". WHY IS IT THE BEST ROCKER DESIGN YET OFFERED?

Bob - That's a great question. We approach rocker with real skeptical heart. It was something we had started by trying different designs that were out there and were unhappy with the way a lot of them performed. Some performed well but not in all scenarios, conditions and terrains. We wanted to try to find a better balance.

We wanted to try to build a true rocker board with all the benefits of a rocker model but give it enough edge-hold where it could be ridden all-mountain, in the pipes, in the steeps, in speed and you could count on an edge and turn when needed.
Photo: Arbor
The Park System, which incorporates artwork by
Sylvia Ji
So we first developed a parabolic rocker where the curve of the rocker softened as you got to the ends. So as you got up to speed you engaged your outside contact points. Then we unblended our traditional progressive side-cut. We ve always used a tri-radial progressive side-cut that was blended, so you have 3 radiuses next to each other, and you cut off the points that naturally happen when you blend 3 radiuses together. By doing that we brought the points back and we put them directly under foot. By having four contact points, with two of them directly under foot, we're able to re-engage the edge of the board so you can have the edge contact that you needed, the control you needed and the pivot points, but you still have all the benefits of a rocker board. It's loose, fun, jibby, buttery, easy in mixed conditions and an incredibly fun, overall board. We've found that it is the most-ridable, most-usable and most functional rocker system that we believe is out there. The system is a fusion of interdependent technologies that support successful rocker performance.

Street Beat Archive:

PJ Connell with Reef

Whitney Morris with O'Neill Girls

Erik Paulsen with TAVIK

Joe Babcock with Gravis

Mike Quilliam with Atwater

Chris Friel with SABRE

Ryan Hagy with Metal Mulisha

Dustin & Dylan Odbert with ambsn

Chad LaBass with Freestyle

Joey Jorgensen with Analog

Kelly Magrath with DC

Frank Delgadillo with COMUNE

Derek Boucher with Vestal

Steve Van Doren with Vans

John Harbin with West Wetsuits

Ryan Rush with ECO'Neill

Nicole Hanriot with TAVIK Swimwear

Matt Gleason with Liquid Force

Eric Mehlberg with Kustom

Mike Murphy with Fyasko

Ian Foulke with ISIS

Jonathan Paskowitz with Lightning Bolt

Matt Harkins with SPY OPTIC

Chris Brunstetter with Goldcoast Longboards

Damon George with ERGO

Charlie Setzler with Rusty