Enter the Super Frenchie

Life adventurer extraordinaire Matthias Giraud, AKA Super Frenchie, is joining the Cushe team this year. We have two things to say about this:

1. Awesome. We love this guy and his attitude toward life. In so many ways, he IS Cushe.
2. We wish we could claim that we came up with the name Super Frenchie.

We're looking forward to seeing what Matthias has in store for us this year - in the meantime, check out the video below to see what he got up to in 2011.

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ISA and Slater Brother's Recap

We just had an amazing October featuring two great pro surf events the Cushe team was proud to be a part of. Let’s recap, shall we?

The ISA World Masters in El Salvador bounced back from a bout of terrible weather to deliver the goods. Team USA, who made their debut in the ISA World Masters, did it up in style and took the gold! We’d call that a pretty successful start. Not only did they win the team trophy, but the USA had some stellar individual performances by Tom Curren, Jim Hogan, Allen Sarlo and Alissa Cairns as well.

Puerto Rico and Cushe team member Gustavo Betancourt had a solid showing too, taking the copper and 4th place! All in all, a great tournament with top kick competition. Hats off to all the riders and champions from the 2011 ISA World Master Surfing Championship.

Bonus – Cushe got to leave its mark on one of the most legendary surf spots in the world, Punta Roca! Check out the amazing graffiti mural in the picture below.

After the ISA's, we dropped in on Cocoa Beach, Florida, to set up shop at the Slater Brother’s Invitational. This event doesn’t just provide some great entertainment; the proceeds benefit the World Skin Cancer Foundation, so it was awesome to be in the company of our friends at Volcom, Oakley, Quiksilver and Go Pro supporting the cause.

Mitch “All the way from the UK” Corbett and Nolan Tyler were both representing for Cushe, and both had great showings. Mitch went on to the quarters in the longboard, while Nolan matched him and made it to the quarters in the shortboard. We’re definitely looking forward to the 2012 Slater Brother’s Invitational!

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Cushe Hits the Road to Waves

October may not seem like a big surf month if you don’t live near a coast, but trust us, it is. Cushe is a proud sponsor of two events on the waves this month – the ISA World Masters and the Slater Brother’s Invitational.

The ISA World Masters Surfing Championship is scheduled to start October 18th at Punta Roca El Salvador. The start of the event was postponed from the 16th due to the monster storms that hit El Salvador with several days of torrential rain. The ISA and the teams involved are committed to helping out the town of La Libertad, as Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, declared a State of Emergency.

This is a seriously stacked event with talent streaming in from all over the globe. In fact, a record 124 competitors signed up before registration closed. Our own sales rep, Gustavo Bentancourt (pictured below), will be representing Team Puerto Rico! We’ll be supporting Gus, Team USA, and hoping for better weather not just for the comp, but for El Salvador as well. You can check the live stream and catch all the action as soon as the event kicks off here.

Now onto the famed Slater Brother’s Invitational. This is our second year sponsoring this great event, which takes place October 28th – 30th in sunny Cocoa Beach, Florida. The Slater Brother’s don’t just put together a kick-ass competition; they raise awareness and money for the World Skin Cancer Foundation. That’s all kinds of cool we at Cushe are proud to be a part of. We’re bringing in our very own Team Cushe rockstar Mitch Corbett for the event, so if you are anywhere near Cocoa at the end of this month, don’t miss this.

Can’t make it to Cocoa? Don’t sweat it – you can tune in to a live webcast and see Kelly, Skippy, Sean, and all the competitors once the event starts. We’ll be hanging out taking some photos for your ocular pleasure as well, so stop by and see us!

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National Flip Flop Day

Did you know that June 17th (that’s tomorrow) is National Flip Flop Day? Well now you do. NFFD is legit too… and not just because we love flip flops. It celebrates the coming of the Summer Solstice (which is June 21st this year) and raises awareness for Camp Sunshine, a year-round facility where kids with life-threatening illnesses can go have a little fun. Very cool.

Stand by, we’re about to drop some history on ya. 

The flip flop design takes its cues from the Japanese zori, which was popularized in the Western world when soldiers returned home from the Pacific post WWII. The modern flip flop was born in the 1950’s in New Zealand, or in the 1940’s in Hong Kong; depending on whose side of the story you are on. 

At Cushe, we’re not into taking sides on this. We just know flip flops are great warm weather kicks and ours have the fresh style you’d expect from any of our designs. So wear your flip flops proudly on June 17th and party with us on Twitter for a chance to win one of 5 pairs of Cushe flip flops that are up for grabs!  As always, share your flip flop love with us on Facebook. 

We said flip flop like 2 billion times in that last bit... and we're not sorry for it.

Laters!

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Mitch Graces the Pages of Transworld Surf!

That’s right, Cushe surfer Mitch Corbett will be in the June issue of Transworld! We’re stoked to see Mitch featured in full gloss on the pages of one of the best surf mags in the world! Look for Mitch to continue surfing big waves in the rest of what has already been an awesome 2011.

In other news to file under badass, Mitch has been invited to Tasmania to surf with legend Michael Brennan at his local spot, Shipstern Bluff (<--LOVE how pirate that place sounds). This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that is basically like Dave Grohl inviting you to come over and jam… which we’re totally open to. So Dave, anytime you are ready to rock, call us. We’ll be waiting by the phone, holding our breath.

By the way, the June issue of Transworld features a lot of travel info for your surf trip planning pleasure; which we always recommend. Check out the cover: 

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Sasquatch! Music Festival

This Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be hitting the 10th anniversary of the Bigfoot-iest music festival of them all, the Sasquatch! Music Festival.  On May 27-30, some of the coolest music acts in the world will be putting on an amazing show at the Gorge Amphitheater near the Columbia River in Washington.  A beautiful venue for sure. 

If you are lucky enough to go, you’ll catch live performances we guarantee you’ll never forget.  The Foo Fighters, Death Cab, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, Chromeo, Matt & Kim… whew… and that’s just a SMALL part of the lineup.  Look a little deeper into the schedule and find the one of the best live bands you’ll ever see in the Old 97’s, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., and Reggie Watts, who oozes soul. 

The lineup isn’t just all rock, roll, indie and folk though.  Our very own Bonobo will be throwing down a DJ set not to be missed.  Major Lazer which features Diplo, Ratatat, Bassnectar and Skrillex (who is absolutely blowing up right now) will also be there ensuring you get your daily dose of low end frequency. 

With four stages of this action, you are going to wish you had three clones.  Check out the full lineup – we can’t possibly cover it all!  Dare we say this is one of the best festival cards we’ve ever seen?  We dare. 

In between the awesome, stop by our space.  Maybe you can win some free shoes and grab some swag.  We’re cool like that and so are you.

Have you been to an unforgettable festival, or are you planning to hit this years Sasquatch!? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.  We just like hearing from ya.

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Inspiration for the Logo

Our designer Martin Dean is a pretty cool guy for obvious reasons.  Wanna know what inspired him to create our logo?

Read the full post about Martin and our logo over at twentysomethingdesign

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Downtown Throwdown Recap

February 19th was a cold and windy day in Traverse City, Michigan; but it didn’t stop us from rocking out with all of the amazing skiers, snowboarders, the Epic Happens Crew and Danny Kass and the Dingo at TC’s first ever Downtown Throwdown Railjam! Despite the cold, the athletes were pulling some hotness by drop ping in from either the 25’ or 32’ platforms.

We were on site showing off some of next year’s Cushe designs, passing out some stickers and hats and cheering o n our fellow brave winter weather challengers. Check out the video to take in some of the awesome runs put down at the event. Don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep posted on our upcoming adventures.

Did we see you there?

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C.L.I.M.A.T.E. Thinking

At Cushe, we've been developing produc t now for over 5 years.  With the footware manufacturing process, the shipping and delivery of product and flying all over the world to get our shoes in front of the right people; we've racked up our fair share of carbon guilt.

This has always weighed heavy on our shoulders and although all these aspects are critical in building up a new company, we felt it was about time we came up with a range of products that allowed us to tread a much lighter environmental path. The detrimental effect that footwear companies have on the environment is a serious subject but with this refreshed way of thinking, we thought we could have a bit of fun with it too. At the start of this process, we thought it would be a fairly simple task to find a blueprint for creating environmentally friendly footwear, but were amazed to find that no matter how hard we looked, it simply wasn’t there. The process that followed was as educational as it was challenging.

Conscious of our background and our way of doing things, the idea was to flip the lid on the way we manufacture and package our shoes from start to finish. We wanted to prove that as a footwear company, we could still make fresh, exciting product that was simple, environmentally conscious and at an affordable price.

The resulting range we came up with Contains Low Impact Materials And Thinking Environmentally (C.L.I.M.A.T.E), which represents a very small line that is isolated from the rest of our range, but hugely significant in terms of the difference it will make to the way we develop and manufacture Cushe product for the future.

Want to find out more about C.L.I.M.A.T.E.?

• Packaging
• What goes in to our C.L.I.M.A.T.E. shoes?
• 5 Steps - From Shucoon to Shoes!
• Cushe Founder Martin Dean discusses Cushe C.L.I.M.A.T.E.

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