Haro Bicycle Corporation, a California company best known for its leadership position in the worldwide BMX and freestyle market, is looking for a distribution partner in Germany. Haro offers a full range of BMX and Mountain bikes and related parts and accessories.

In addition to providing European based marketing support for its distributors, Haro promotes its products globally through the sponsorship of World-Class athletes and extensive advertising. For more information visit our website at www.harobikes.com or speak to us at Eurobike - Stand A6-204

Doug Martin formed Blue Room Sports, a marketing and communications company serving the cycling and sports industries. Blue Room Sports formalizes the independent work Martin has been doing for the last two and a half years.

"For some time now I've worked with a number of companies in a variety of marketing, communication and overall branding capacities including athlete and team identification and securing, team and venue sponsorship, co-branding partnerships, print ads, catalogs, PR, web initiatives and much more," Martin said.

He has held executive marketing and sports marketing management positions within the cycling industry for more than 15 years.

1664 BMX is looking for a self-motivated outgoing sales representative. Working in a high energy team environment, you will be responsible for initiating new sales and managing existing customer relationships. The position will include various additional tasks and small projects. If you are detail oriented, focused and able to work effectively independently send your cover letter and resume to mfg@1664bmx.com. All applicants must be willing to re-locate to Edmonton, Alberta.

Mark Owen is pretty much running the Hoffman Bikes show these days. He started from the ground up and now travels to Taiwan a couple of times a year for Product Development purposes, travels to the contests to meet the riders, is on the phone for International Sales and he does the accounting. FATBMX checked in with Chuck D.

When did you start working for Hoffman Bikes?
I started working for Hoffman Bikes back in 1992.

(St. Petersburg, FL – August 10, 2005). Jim Alley, president and CEO of Profile Racing, Inc., announced today that Sam and Steve Stobart and Profile Racing Europe have been selected as exclusive distributor for Profile Racing BMX/MTB components in Europe. The territory will include the United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Latvia. Germany distribution of Profile Racing bicycle components will continue through Country Bikes in Munich.

BLOOMINGTON, MN - August 11, 2005 - Quality Bicycle Products is announcing an agreement to distribute FBM beginning in February 2006. QBP plans to carry a large selection of the 2006 FBM product line including frames, hard goods, clothing, and videos. All of the FBM products being carried by QBP will appear in the 2006 QBP Dealer Catalog.

"We are very excited to distribute FBM," said QBP's Tim Gallant, "It is important to us to be able to work with FBM because they are a strong company with a lot of positive things happening.

If you're looking for a BMX job, maybe you should read the following. Odyssey have got some openings at their offices in Cerritos, California.

ODYSSEY BMX

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS, MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, DRAFTSMEN
Odyssey is looking for industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and draftsmen to add to its research and development staff.

Hello Everyone

Hoffman Bikes would like to introduce the new HB sticker dispenser. This model is currently being tested, but should be ready for Christmas..

For more information contact:

Mark Owen
Hoffman Bikes
24 NE 51st Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105
P:405-528-4130 ext100
F:405-528-4140
www.hoffmanbikes.com

Mikael Frisk is the owner and product designer of a new started bmx-company called ODENbikes. The Swede informed us a bit about his company:
This week our frames will hit the market in Sweden, we are also working to get the frames to Canada through Seshin Bikes. We are working on distributors in the rest of the world (but you can order our products directly from us from anywhere).

The news that Ron Bonner sold UGP was hard to believe. Ron Bonner IS UGP and has been since he was 16 years old. Why sell now? Is he still going to be involved? Who are the new owners? What about the Roots jam? What's happening with the team? All questions that needed answers. Ron Bonner explains.

Was it a difficult decission to sell UGP and why?

The crazy thing is that I have been doing UGP since I was 16 years old everything that I have done for the past 18 years has been with UGP. I learned a ton about life with UGP. So yea it was the biggest decision I have ever made and not an easy one! But at some point in life change is good and I was ready for a change.
This decision opens up more time for me to explore other creative outlets that I might not of had time to try.

Are the new guys into BMX?

They love BMX. The new CEO (Ric Coven) used to ride and was a really good street rider back in the day.

Mike Ardelean and Juse teamed up to form Lavar Brand, a clothing company that takes things in a different direction. Mike was the one answering FATBMX's questions. Find the answers here:

FATBMX: What made you decide to do a clothing company?
Mike: My friend Juse and I started and we were just not really buying BMX clothes so we didn't want to complain about BMX companies so we kind of made our own.

So how do you start with a company, there are a lot of little clothing and BMX companies doing T-shirts, what did it take for you?
Mike: We have a lot of things planned but everything is so slow. We are still doing T-shirts. It took us so long to get our T-shirts the way we wanted them and now we're happy with that so we're going to move forward.

Part of doing your own clothing company is having your own team, who's on the Lavar team?

The Benelux does not have a print BMX magazine that comes out on a regular basis. This probably hurts the BMX trade but it's hard to find people crazy enough to put their heart into a magazine production. Recently a BMX Trix 'n Tips magazine came out and we checked in with Hoite Polkamp, the man behind the pocket format BMX mag.

Do you think it's time for a BMX magazine in The Netherlands?

Hoite: Well, obviously it would be great. The Dutch BMX scene has produced some seriously amazing riders over the last few years and it would be great to give them the exposure they deserve, but commercial wise I think it would be really hard to put out a regular magazine that comes out every other month. You’d probably have to do it in English and cover the European scene.

What do you have in the works?

Concept stores seem to be all the craze. We stopped by at the VANS store in Carnaby street on our way to the Download festival in Donington. The London based store had quite some unique shoes on display so we took some pics and decided to share them with you.

We could run some old school pictures of Dylan Clayton in Mongoose racing gear from back in the day but we won't. Just trust us when we say that this guy has serious BMX roots. Dylan recently started his own BMX mailorder company and opened up a store a few weeks ago. FATBMX caught up with Dr. Smooth to find out more about the rider run set-up.

FATBMX: Tell us a little about your new operation at Firm Bikes.

Dylan Clayton [firm bikes]: The new operation was at first to open a mailorder company www.firmbikes.com to supply bikes, parts and clothing. This was launched November 2004.

American Mentality, Inc., is announcing that UGP Underground Products is under new ownership and is now operating as UGP, LLC. in Orlando, Florida.

American Mentality's Rachel Bonner: "We want all of you to know that this has been a very personal and hard decision but have finally realized that the memories and family met along the way is what makes UGP so special. We appreciate and value each of you and your efforts are what makes UGP so unique and special."