Skate Montana, The authority on Montana Skateparks.

Some photos and sketchy Camera phone footage rolling in of a little rectangular number somewhere West of Plentywood, Montana. Check it.

Adidas shoe pays homage to Polson
By VINCE DEVLIN
Missoulian

POLSON, Mont. (AP) -- Anyone with about 60 bucks can now walk a mile and more in Polson's shoes. And ride a skateboard in them, too.

Adidas has named a shoe after the town. The Polson ST, a combination of tennis and basketball shoe designs that makes it well-suited for skateboarders too, debuted in March. How did the world's second-leading sportswear manufacturer come to name one of its shoes after a small town in western Montana? "The way it came about is, as we develop a new product, we solicit suggestions of names from people who work here," says George Cutright, who works as a marketing communications specialist for Adidas in Portland, Ore. Cutright had suggested several names before, and been shot down. "I don't remember what they were," he says, "but they obviously weren't good enough." But when the 1998 Polson High School graduate nominated the name of the town where he lived from the ages of 13 to 18, Adidas liked what it saw. "It looked good on the shoe," Cutright says. "You don't want a name that's real long, anyway, and 'Polson' fit with the esthetics of the shoe." Hence, the Polson ST, inspired by Adidas classics such as the Campus, the Ultrastar and the Forest Hills, with the added twist of a basketball sole. It probably didn't hurt that Adidas could market the shoe as being named after "a small northwest Montana town with a big skate park."

When Cutright was a teenager here, he and his friends had to build ramps on an abandoned foundation and concrete slab on an otherwise empty lot in town to enjoy skateboarding. "We built ramps, put them out there and called it our skate park," Cutright says. "They let it go until they sold it, and then they put up notices that we'd have to move the ramps by a certain date or they'd do it for us." When he comes back to Polson these days and Cutright hopes to make the trip again this summer, for his 10-year high school reunion he brings along his skateboard. "It's so cool to see they've got a world-class skate park now," Cutright says of the town's Seventh Avenue Skate Park. "It's a real step up from our old homemade one."

After graduating from high school, Cutright attended the University of Colorado, where he majored in business management. He worked in the skateboarding industry before joining Adidas a year and a half ago. "It's a great company to work for, and Portland is a great city to live in," Cutright says. "It's worked out really good."

It's still early, Cutright says, but the numbers look good for the recently launched Polson ST. "It was only released a month and a half ago," he says, "but the initial read is that it's doing very well. The sell-through numbers are looking good." The Polson ST will remain in Adidas' product line through 2009, with new color combinations being added each season. The first ones, now available in stores and online, are either black with white stripes, or a white-orange-green combo.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com

The Skate Montana Refresh (AKA SKATEMT2.0) is coming along nicely, Still some bugs here and there but check out some of what's new.

SKATEPARKS
We scrapped the whole park directory and separate skate map thing in favor of one smooth map/skate park directory Smorgasbord. Now you can view all the locations, Zoom in super close and click between parks, or click on the park title and view the details. Oh yeah and it is all driven by a fancy new database.

PARK DETAILS
New larger slideshow gallery. Fancier pop-up printable driving directions. Coming Soon: we get all AJAXy on you and have some embedded video galleries.

PHOTOS
Same photo gallery but larger and with the option to go full screen!

ADS...WTF?
Hey, I build this site and pay for the hosting out of pure love for skateboarding, blah, blah. If you find them annoying or would like to see your way cooler and more relevant ad ahead of that Google ad for Hannah Montana Birthday Parties, hit me up, cash or trades welcome.

SHOP
Yeah, we've still got some stickers laying around but hopefully we have more to offer here in the future.

As always, if you see something missing or would like to contribute anything Let us know or leave feedback in the comments.

So in the background I've been working on freshening up the park and map sections a bit so they become one smooth skatepark machine. I guess you could say it is a "beta" now, so check it out. More features coming soon. Check the new full screen slide shows by clicking on the lower right icon in the slideshow on each park page.

Check the New Skate Park Section Here

We're going through a small overhaul here. That means a wider site so we can actually fit full size videos now. Big glossy pictures. Way Radder integration of maps and skateparks. The works.

Michael Franti and Spearhead will be playing the Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds march 28th. If you don't know who they are you can read here. Before the show there will be a skatelove event with 100% of the proceeds going to support the Gallatin Valley Skatepark Association. with a 10 stair rail contest, demo, screening of Juxtaposer, and showing of I Know I am Not Alone a documentary by Michael Franti, where he travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar. Click the poster to download a PDF.

Update: All these links actually work now.

It's been a while and things are starting to thaw out so I trolled youtube for the most relevent Montana footage from the last couple months. If we missed anything let us know in the comments.


RMM Media Missoula Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIC9dQp0jJo

Shift for Better: Teaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyuUyPaEyg8

RMM Media Year in Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skvyy6sl9-c

Babysteps 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rdCD0LJUeo

Sierra vs. The Flatbar
Behind the albertsons a couple blocks from my house
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-lAB7pdBVGU

King of 93 '07: extras
Flathead Valley Kids hitting all the parks on Highway 93.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42C4rwcWZ8o

Bacon Skateboards: Country as F*** Extras
Some Dudes from Bacon skating Montana and Idaho.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB5aBlZFFzg

Rex Martin
Bozeman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4v2m36dT7Y

Street Wolf Weekend
Some of the sketchiest Montana footage on the interweb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuWQv7waS8M

STREET WOLF WEEKEND 2
More of the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvbEIggPPYU

OverIt Promo: Fitch
Yeah Glendive!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pKdTFwZ2hQc

EOW Video Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_2K0M-joRM

What Was I Thinking? Final Teaser
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WlWW-mygkao

I know it is not really skate related but, whatever...

For some reason The Big Mountain...I mean umm..Whitefish Mountain Resort has decided to stop cutting their superpipe in recent weeks, and it super kinked and sketch. Just as the sun is starting to shine and the gettin' is good. So for my personal sanity, and that of all those who kind of like riding transition but are buried under a couple feet of snow, Send them and email at info@skiwhitefish.com and politely ask that they can continue to maintain it? Otherwise let's break out the shovels and get the Whitefish Park uncovered.

Gracias

RMM skate media has a new site at www.rmmskatemedia.info that is currently a work in progress with a daily video blog, interviews and various other projects involving skateboarding in the Treasure State. Stay tuned..


Check out the year in Review Montage.

October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008