Nick Myerhoff's Blog

GirlRider Ocean beach photo shoot 9-07

Yesterday was a great day. It started on Wed last week when my publicist (did you guys know I hired a publicist?) well she said I needed a "look book" bc magazine edditors were intersted in GirlRider but needed some photos.

So wham, I sent an email and called Pavati and the SC models, low and behold a real life photo shoot took shape. Knowing what I know from previous hack jobs shoots I've done to get by, I made some big improvements. Starting with a stylist, Pavati, makup Angel, some fantastic models Michelle, April, Hannah Melissa and Alex. I was smart enough to rent some great camera gear and lighting equip.

Well you can see the results here on my blog, but also on the flickr account. We had 3 amateur photographers which was great. The weather cooperated, it was sunny which made it hard cuz the direct lighting cast a lot of hard shadows, but the refelctor was a godsend, and Alex's mom did a great job smashing everone with the golden natural stuff.

So a huge thanks to everyone who showed up and made this happen, it was by far the most professional photo shoot GirlRider has done to date. And who knows, some of these images may end up on high profile mags like 7X7 or Apparel news. Please post your comments especially of your own photos.

Some of the highlights:

• Old geazer oogling the models as they changed
• Homeless peeps trying to buy the samples off us thinking it was a yard sale
• Tourists watching as if we were shooting a Copola production or something
• Jan drooling over the models (all of which were very beautifull) and nearly getting TKO'D by April

Surf Expo Orlando 9-07

GirlRider was a winner of LAUNCH, a new product section of Surf Expo one of the biggest trade shows in the surf industry. A few months ago I submitted GirlRider in a contest for new upcomming designers and last week I found out I won! So I got a free booth, marketing, write ups and logo placement in the show.

The show itself was huge, much bigger than ASR which I had done the week prior. I opened a few new accounts, met about 5 women who are riders that want me to sponsor them. There was a very large wake, kite and boating presence as well as some gift stuff too. The LAUNCH section was cool, we had 10 winners out of about 100 applicatants. Most were good quality and we had a lot of fun together as the new brands.

They were doing some crazy stuff at the show, out back with wake boarding tricks in a huge pool with rails and ramps. Needless to say I was completely spent after doing 2 back to back shows. But I did not open as many accounts as I needed so I jumped into the THREAD show in SF the following weekend, 9-23. That show as just OK in terms of business, I thought it would have been business to business but it was more of a trunk show. Once I figured that out  it made more sense.

I'm not sure whats next, maybe the SFAM show in October, but I need to get down to LA for more exposure or to Project in Vegas. We'll see, but I am working with 3 reps, got a new one if Florida and one in Northern CA. Also I'll be working on sponsoring some riders here in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned for more...

Some of the hot new brands and cool people I met:

• Skull Candy - they rock! hot product, great people
• Cardboard Robot - incredible artwork (blows away Upper Playground) fantastic printing techniques
• Wake surfing - surf behind a boat with no ropes, forever....
• Pro Kayaker - this girl rocks! Check out the drop off, I will find a way to sponsor her.

Fremont Art Show

My friends at Save Our Shores came out again to help me at the Summer of Love show in Monterey. The show was not very good but I jammed everything into my truck and headed to Fremont licked y split for the Fremont Festival of the Arts. Good call Nick....

Well I know nothing about Fremont and barely drive through there. But this was the absolute best art/craft show I have ever experienced. The people were awesome, and there were lots of them, 375,000 to be exact! Unlike here in SF they were not all liqueured up and belligerent by 2:30 each day. There was a great cross section and incredible diversity of age, race, size and shape. I was impressed with how friendly, genuine and down to earth Fremontonians are. I shot a couple vids, made custom hats and sold the highest priced hat yet at $120. Still pushing the ceiling on custom lids. Nice thing about the show, its juried, and they select quality vendors with unique craft.

But thanks to everyone who showed up, smiled and supported GirlRider. Find a picture of yourself and leave a comment, you might win something from me. Ask for GirlRider at your local apparel retailer, and look for me at the next show.

Here is what my wife and I were saying to each other all day at the show:

"nobody is drunk and falling down"
"did you see how polite that guy was?"
"look they even have regular freaks here too"
"maybe we should move here?"

Blue Space Gallery Skate This Art Show

This was a great show and GirlRider (and me) got to do something benefiting SF homeless. There was some fantastic and diverse art, all created on skateboard decks. I ended up buying a few pieces and actually mine both sold. Here is a pic of the decks I painted, I really liked the scribble deck. My buddy "Lucky" was there, its always nice to see him. There were the usual SF freaks that make everything super interesting. The gallery is so small that I was knocking stuff over just turning around. But I guess they raised money for their cause which is what its all about anyway. The reason I agreed to do the show was because its a benefit for Hospitality House.

Save Our Shores

A few weeks ago I did a special shirt for Save Our Shores, a non-profit based in Santa Cruz. Well needless to say what usually happens when I try to do something good, it turns into trouble. But that is just the price you pay for trying to be good, its not alway easy.

So I promised to do this design and logo for free to build awareness around my brand and to help out a great cause. The design I created was totally over complex and took my like 6 hrs of production time on the computer. My arms and back were aching and I was grumpy as hell after completing it.

But it was all worthwhile when I got to deliver the shirts on July 4th to my good friend Michelle who works at Save Our Shores and is my primary GirlRider model. So those guys loved the shirts and sent me this nice letter thanking me.

Then it was all worthwhile...So again GirlRider is working towards being a better company and helping the environment even in this small way. Check out the shirt, if you want one email me and I'll donate a portion of the profit to them.

 

GirlRider at Haight St fair and North Beach Fair

Oh man, I just took another nap cuz I was run ragged. We just did back to back shows, these were the first ever direct to consumer shows for GirlRider. It was a huge success!

All told we sold about 200-300 hats between the two shows. Man I spent a couple weeks solid painting these hats by hand, one by one, and they sold fast. Some went for $80, some went for as little as $5 but they all had "the love inside" that makes GirlRider special.

Some of the highlights of the shows were:

• Melissa and Deanna gettin ready to run, they got matching hats with Avon Breast Cancer logos.
• VIDEO OF MC "Fashion pants" who threw down dome wicked rap song for us, on the spot!
• Cigarette totin dude from New Orleans who wouldn't take the tag off the hat
• The cutest brother "baby jay" and his sister who bought matching hats for each other, sans parents.
• Spray painting a young guys cast.
• SF Scooter girl Michelle tellin her story
• High powered chef from Jardiniere in SF, only the most incredible food in the world!
• A dude who stepped into my booth and down right begged me to spray paint his shoes on the spot.
• A sweet Korean couple speaking almost no English browsing through my stuff

Just check the photo album x2, all the smiling happy faces and diversity of interesting people. San Francisco is the Most awesome place in the world. Look at all of YOU! Fantastic energetic and filled with life energy that feeds me. The only way I am able to keep trudging along with all this work, trying to build a brand, make a name and do it the right way. Well it comes back with all the support and encouragement provided by my customers and friends.

SO THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT A GIRLRIDER HAT. Leave me a comment if you see your photo, tell me which hat you bought and why you love it.

Here are some quotes about my hats:

"that is dope"
"no way, that rocks"
"those lids are hella sick"
"i got so many compliments on that tweed hat i got, it was crazy!"
"no man, dont take the tag off, I got to leave it on"

Donating money supporting local causes

Its that time of year, read about how GirlRider is giving back to our community as we grow.

Well its difficult for me, but I am putting my money where my mouth is, consistently. The causes I choose to support are local, for now (you can specify geographically when donating to national co's). Today I am making donations to Planned Parenthood and Friends of the Urban Forest.

The reason I choose Planned Parenthood is not because of my political beliefs, I respect everyones choice and in now way want to come across as pushing my position on others. Its because I have seen first hand Planned Parenthood help women and girls who otherwise had nowhere to turn. So I believe they serve an invaluable role in guiding less fortunate or uninformed women, as well as anyone who wants to learn about childbirth and pregnancy.

One of the other local organization that I absolutely love is Friends of the Urban Forest. These guys go out and plant trees in SF. Its an awesome thing and I have gone with them a few times to plant trees in various neighborhoods. People come out and give you crappy fruit salad while your digging, you get dirty, cops let you double park...lots of fun. But its a fantastic organization and I am happy to be part of it donating my time and money to improve SF.

My wife made a donation to the Sierra Club so we now have three charities that we are giving to so far this year. Our profits are small at GirlRider so giving at all is not the best business decision, but I made a commitment to myself that I was going to find a way to give back along the way, while building my company. I'm sticking to it! Hoping that spreading the love along the way will just become ingrained.

We encourage all of you reading this to do the same, either click a link above or choose your own way but give something, you'll make the world a better place.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are giving back, inspire someone!
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.encourage
-Margaret Mead

GirlRider in Portland

Spent a sweet weekend in Portland a bit ago. Saw a great friend of ours Michelle, wow another Michelle, I guess GirlRider likes Michelle. And man did she look hot in my GirlRider Rogue Inside Out Tee!

Portland is a fantastic town, lots of fashion, bikes and beer. Also figured out why its the "grunge capital" everything is down home, a little rough around the edges, just like we like it. We did it all but mostly hung around and tried to spread the GirlRider vibe. Made it to a really cool all womens athletic store called Signal Sports. The owners were this amazing couple Alan and Sig who just have this mellow down to earth vibe about them. Needless to say, this is exactly the kind of place we want to sell GirlRider into.  So much of our success is dependent on having the right kind of retailer representing the brand, and Signal Sports is our kind of store.

I was knocked out when I saw this pic of my smokin hot wife wearing this new GirlRider bucket hat. I just got them embroidered, it was a pain in the ass. I had to manually lock these hats into a super tight fitting loop and figure out how to use the Tagima machine, POC.

Anyway, back to Portland, met this cool cat named Alex Bravo, he owns a wicked salon called WACK and put some of my stuff up to show during a CNET interview. Don't know how much exposure I got but I tried and he was a strange and interesting fellow to say the least. But we liked Alex Bravo and hope to do something with his kickin salon at the hot spot in Portland called the Jupiter Hotel. The service sucked but the Bloodies were excellent. Either way, the place is cool, after parties and shows, they open the rooms up at discounted prices, they all have condoms in the ash trays...L8tr kids.

 

Girlrider in Germany

Just got back from a fantastic trip to Germany where we visited my wife's family who is incredibly generous and crazy fun. Our travels began in Bavaria at Alice's cousin Sabina's retreat in Penzberg where Mathilda got to meet Martin and Heike her German cousins and I introduced Girlrider to Sport Conrad an awesome family owned sport shop in Bavaria. The shop is immaculate, super high end with indor pools and waterfall. They will hopefully be the first Girlrider retailer in the EU, very exciting.

We visited an alpine lake and rode the train to the top of the Zugspitze the tallest mtn in Germany. We nav'd freshly paved roads winding in and out lush farm lands and splendid micro towns sporting painted fresco's like a fairy tale. Each town more quaint and inviting than the next. The warm germanic people drinking (good) beer, smoking and eating brotchen in the sun swept hillsides. Its hard to imagine so many people so spread out among these little villages, with that hearty yet painterly Bavarian architecture. Not a spot of trash, not a single homeless person.

Then to Munich with Kathy and Joe, our State dept friends where we saw freakin locals surfing in the middle of the city on some water canal. Check out the photos! Had to poke my head into the Nazi death camp at Dachau. Germany has done an incredible job of making this an unforgetable monument when our instincts are to wipe it from the face of the earth. Munich is a Very hip city, we were only there for a day though.

After we headed north to Bremen and saw this 8th century city, one of the most gorgeous western European cities I have ever seen. Standing in awe craning our necks as we gazed upon cathedrals and the Rathaus where low and behold, there is a brewery and seller below where we had a private wine tasting (beer better than wine). I guess all the city hall buildings in Europe have breweries/wineries down below, hmmm maybe we should have this in all gov buildings. The time warp occurs when watching ultra modern wifi'd power suits strut these weathered cobbled streets where you can almost hear Charlemagne's troops gathering for a fox hunt or whatever they did waaaaaay back then.

Later we drove down to the Netherlands (no borders in the EU) to visit a super cool artist friend of mine Jason Eden, check out the photos of his incredible artwork made entirely from Playboy centerfold cutouts. He is featured in a gallery in Amsterdam which we did not get to visit. I have known Jason since nursery school. He moved out of the states to pursue his passion and now lives in a remote farm village in Holland where he focuses on his fine art. The studio is in a 300 year old barn, lots of mosquitoes...

At some time in there, we jutted out to Wuppertal to visit cousin Tiger and family. Its an industrial city in western Germany famous for this super strange and unique hanging train called a Schwebebahn . Its a hanging train (another feat of German engineering) that was build like 100 years ago or something. Somewhat rickety but cool factor is high.

Lastly we spent time in Botrop staying with Dixie and Menlein my wife's aunt and uncle. Mathilda got to play with more (six total) of her cousins, Drago, Ulia, Felix and Florian. I gave them all Girlrider custom trucker hats. They were happy. We ate tons of brotchen, kesa and of course Pills. Camping at Ottenstein with Pint and Tina's caravan is an entire blog in itself. Suffice it to say we ventured out with the scouts to a singing competition which has been going on for like 20 years. By scouts I mean beer drinking, chain smoking interlocked Germans, swaying back and forth, and boy can they drink. The display of baritone camaraderie endeared me to Dauchland.

Have to mention Girlrider in Germany. We showed our line to cousins and friends who wore Girlrider clothes and hats, loved the materials and new designs. Heike did some modeling and we found this way cool horse rider in a remote ranch near Bremen who loved my Girlrider painted trucker hat. I ended up trading it for like an hour of horse riding for Mathilda. I wonder if Mathilda loves horses as much as I love German beer...

San Francisco Apparel Market

I did the San Francisco Apparel Market show earlier this week. It was a great trade show for Girlrider . My friend Michelle came to help from Elevation Pilates one of my best retailers. The show at first glance was slow and seemed to be off target in terms of my customer. However by the end we had written a bunch of orders, in fact more than we did at the larger ASR shows. We also met some super cool people. I have to plug my new friend Kimo of Effies Heart. She is a super authentic classy chick with an incredible amount of talent and drive. She has managed to launch her entire line in just 1 year pioneering some major shows in NY and Vegas while doing all the cut and sew herself. But my most special thanks goes to Michelle, yet another Michelle at Girlrider, who helped me out and will be my new NorCal rep. GREAT JOB Michelle, you rock. One of the nicest people I met was Nancie from Lulu Blue in Marin who will be carrying Girlrider hand painted Trucker hats and clothing. They have a way cute store, take a look. Oh, I also took the time to create some bitchin' new paintings right in my booth on the floor. Check the neon artwork out. The skateboard is for a non-profit art show coming up in SF. More to come.