You know when you meet good people, the feeling they bring to your intersoul…

Well meet these good people:
Debbie, Dave, Alicia, Maggie, MC, Ken, Craig, Chris, Nik, Domingo, Damani, Sever, Jersey Joe, Kofie One, Sarah, Jill, Lisa, Justine, Liko, Rachelle, Kevin, Travis, MFM, Richard, Petey, Joseph, Paula, Rhi, Vanessa, Tiffany, Hope, Angela, Jessie and everyone I forgot to mention involved in “the YARD”, no disrespect, but lets be real for a second and remember where this event took place. The city of SIN and all that stays there.

From: Eli
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 8:12 AM
To: Bruce
Subject: Thank you from Report

Good morning,

I came back home last night from your shop and my wife asked me how did it go. I was tired, sat for few minutes and said to her, “You know, I’ve been doing it for 35 years now, and I think that this is one of the most enjoyable design and build processes that I ever had, if not the best one”

Bruce, thank you so much for the whole experience from start to finish. You guys created one of the best working environments that I was ever involved with. I know you for many years and I knew that at some point I would like to work with you directly. When asked to work on this project, I knew that this was the one. You guys are the best choice I could have made as a design and production company to work with.
The design was so right that it did not leave the client with a choice but to go with us. From that point the final design, production drawings project management were amazing. Luke, Bryce, Jake and Emily, thank you so much.

On the production side I was really surprised by the attention to details and the professional work the shop guys did. I’ve worked with large companies in the past, I’ve never seen a quality work such as yours. I was very impressed with every person in the shop. They are all hard working and excellent in what they do. Tim, please make sure to thank each one of the people involved for me, as I do not have an email for them.

I have no doubt that I will be working with you as often as I can.

Thanks again,

Eli.

Look, I’ve spent around a decade on a tradeshow floor, both pre-show and post tear-down-wait-hours for your damn crate aftermath and I know as well as the average exhibitor, you ain’t gonna see the President nor the Owner of your tradeshow display company until the last night of setup, Windexing™ plexiglass, wiping down conference room tables, removing the empty beer cans and calling it a days work when they’ve only been there for 3 hours after their first-class airline trip into the show. So, I’m calling bullshit to that materialized theory.

So lets put a timetable to the Executives in the above photography.

EXHIBIT 1 & 2: Bruce and Todd putting the last hour finishing touches to the Smith booth at SIA, wee into the Vegas night TWO days before the show opens.

EXHIBIT 3: Bruce conducting business on a Union owned, highly forbidden, legsaver known as the GES PIMP WAGON.

EXHIBIT 4: Jake Burton Carpenter in the gray tee shirt on the right enjoying his all grown up Trevor Andrew (Burton team rider) band’s performance. In addition, this was most likely Jake Burton’s first trip through the ski section of the tradeshow, since the brand began showing, in order to visit the YARD section of SIA.

EXHIBIT 5: Bruce strutting his overly heavy tool bag out of Mandalay Bay Convention Center to “The Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups.

(more…)

Las Vegas / January 19-25 - Well it came and went but not without its share of hard work, hangovers, black 26’s and above all a success for SIA (SnowSports Industries America) and its 30+ emerging snowboard brands who exhibited in “the YARD”.

A progressive exhibit space developed to address the growing demand for floor space at the SIA.07 SnowSports Trade Show and accommodate new exhibitors to the show, “the YARD” was housed in Hall A of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Working collectively with SIA, the YARD is designed with an urban street atmosphere in mind that is determined to clearly define the diverse trends that are displayed. Overall, ‘the YARD” was created by Dept. Of Energy, who concepted the cargo container idea, which then was built and manufactured in its Utility Inc. wherehouse in South Seattle.

Frank151 provided the urban street vibe, artists, musicians and lifestyle authenticity emerging this unfortunate location at the end of an extremely slow ski brand area, as a breath of fresh air. With artists Sever, Jersey Joe and Kofie One passionately coloring the mid-day canvases for Boarding for Breast Cancer’s Silent Auction to the likes of Lyrics Born, Trouble Andrew, DJ Jamie Lynn and DJ Mark Frank Montoya providing the pre-funk beats at days end…

…sending exhibitors and retailers into the Sin City neon sculpted night with the energy they needed to relax for another long day on concrete floors.

(more…)

Utility Inc has been recognized by the National Association of Store Fixture Manufacturers, or NASFM, with a 2007 Store Fixture Award. The award for the custom fixture designed to showcase Ducati’s debut line of road bikes provides an unobstructed view of the bike while highlighting its classic Italian design. Incorporating Ducati’s signature Trellis frame gives a nod to the company’s legacy for innovative design while providing an added sense of motion. Utility will be recognized at NASFM’s official awards ceremony on March 7th in Las Vegas when they will find out if the fixture has also been awarded Fixture of the Year.
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Look for these at a bike retailer late this spring.

Hello… if you’ve just found us, well we’ve just begun here as well. Utility meet new friend - new friend meet Utility.
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Not only are we live with this new feature to the Utility site, we’re alive and finally dug out from the winter blast that besieged us here in Seattle for the past week, and for that matter month I guess. Not your normal Seattle gray-dreary-keep-the-californians-away type of weather.