DENVER - July 1, 2002 - Colorado-based airwalk, one of the leading action sports brands since 1986, today unveils its first series of commercials since 1998, with three spots featuring top skate and snowboarding athletes from the company's professional team roster.

The three new airwalk ads themed "Possessed to Skate" feature clever pranks with an underlying message that passionate skaters will go to any length to create an opportunity to skate new terrain. The commercials represent the heritage of the airwalk brand as pioneers in the skateboarding industry and the premiere brand of choice among the target 12- to 24-year-old action sports enthusiasts. The commercials will be broadcast on MTV2 throughout the summer.

"These spots really play to the strengths of the airwalk brand; humor, heritage, and skate, said Geoff Hannen, director of marketing for airwalk and TARE7. "They will reach a broad audience in the heart of our target demographic, driving an authentic message from the creative concepts to the use of our pro athletes."

The spots star six, top professional airwalk team athletes including Skateboarders Andy Macdonald, Jesse Paez, Jon Comer and Dave Hupp, and Snowboarders Tom Gilles and Zach Leach. All of the athletes collaborated with the creative team to add realism, humor and passion to the campaign. In one spot, entitled "Foreman," the skaters lock a construction foreman in a portable outhouse and take over the work site where they pour their own street course and skate. In "Pool Cleaners," the riders stumble upon a pool maintenance truck whose owner has stepped away temporarily. Capitalizing on the opportunity, the riders drain the pool and skate it (a favored terrain of skaters), much to the chagrin of the young boy who was swimming there. In the third spot entitled "Security Man," the clever riders discover an open dry cleaning truck and borrow a security uniform which serves as a persuasive disguise while they skate the rails at an otherwise "off-limits" local building.

"Our main goal was to create authentic spots that capture the skate culture and reinforce airwalk's leadership position in the action sports category," said Josh Kern, account supervisor at The Integer Group, the Lakewood, Colo.-based advertising/marketing company that created the campaign. "Our creative team, led by Matt Hawley, associate creative director, did a great job working with not only the airwalk marketing team but with the airwalk professional riders, throughout the entire creative development and production process."

The commercials feature music from Austin-based punk bank Riddlin' Kids and will air regularly on MTV2 from July 1-Sept. 30. To celebrate the debut of the commercials, Colorado-based airwalk held a private premiere at the Denver Design Center where airwalk employees from all over the globe donned formal wear and airwalk sneakers and were met by red carpet, paparazzi and a champagne toast.

TARE7 has a vision to lead and inspire the action sports industry through its airwalk, geneticT ALPHANUMERICT footwear and ripzone outerwear brands. Founded in 1986 as the leader in marketing, sales and manufacturing of action sports and youth lifestyle products, the company's airwalk brand remains recognized as the industry original. airwalk and geneticT are registered marks of TARE7. ALPHANUMERICT is a registered mark of Shah Safari, Inc. and International News. ripzoneT is the registered mark of RMP International. All endorsements of airwalk and geneticT products by pro team athletes are compensated by TARE7. All rights reserved ©2002.

— Posted by Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Staff