Issue 4, vol. 2 - April 2006

The Empire Shakedown snowboard event held March 24-25, at Mt. Saint-Sauveur was a big deal in the Canadian snowboard community... and a big deal in Quebec youth culture. Now in its fifth year, Empire Shakedown made the leap from a grassroots local contest to a major international sports property. With an event environment that felt more like the X Games then your local snowboard park contest and attendance by 28,000 enthusiastic Quebecois teen fans, Empire Shakedown solidified its place as the best snowboard event in Canada, hands down.

What made it so great? First off you had a solid investment this year from a number of committed partners including McDonald's, Solo Mobile, Coors Light, Vans and Matix. The new vendor village featured booths from cool youth brands like New Era (whose 5950 hat is the hottest right now), Ubisoft (featuring video games like King Kong, Far Cry and And 1 Streetball), and Spy (who had a tour bus party on-hill). Among the 35 Canadian and international pro appearances were Jeremy Jones (US), Mickey Leblanc (US), Eero Niemela (Finland), Brad Martin (Canada) and Mike Rencz (Canada). And with the big air and rail set-up so close to the village, bleachers and open beer garden, it simply made for an amazing spectator event. Add thousands and thousands of teenagers, pump out the music and get that beautiful spring sun, and you've got all the right ingredients for one of the best youth events in Canada.

But what really made Empire Shakedown so huge this year was the wow factor of a couple of elements. First off, McDonald's built a restaurant under the snowboard rail! This kind of event activation innovation is truly impressive and we raise our hats to the event producers, Brendan O'Dowd and Patryck Bernier, for making it happen. The Coors Light After Party featured a streetwear fashion show from Matix between music from Starting from Scratch. But the big surprise was that a 13-year-old local amateur, Sebastien Toutant, beat the top international pros and took home the $10,000 win. Amazing!

Oh, and the all night Red Bull house party let us finish off the weekend with a bang.

Look for the Empire Shakedown telecast on TSN and RDS this spring.

Snow fashion takes inspiration from street fashion and vice versa. This year, plenty of blazers were seen dressing up the hill meanwhile more brands cross over into the snow apparel arena. Take note of the expansion of DC from core skate to snow, Triple Five Soul's move into snowgear and Ripzone's growth from surfco to producing technical outerwear. Expect to see more clothing manufacturers explore opportunities with these now very blurred fashion categories.

Youthography recently helped Alliance Atlantis launch their new teen programming block, BBCK. Click here