Ypulse Toolbox: 10 Action Sports Sites To Know
Posted by anastasia on 07-31-2008
The youth action sports subculture is one of the toughest to tap into and can't be done without working with influencers inside the worlds of skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX or surfing. Many brands have tried and failed or failed a few times before succeeding (think: Nike). I actually think one group that has tapped this world successfully are youth ministers. They have created Christian action sports subscultures within the subcultures themselves.
We had a mini-Mashup event about this a couple of year's ago at Premise's offices in San Diego (listen to the audio here). I asked my friends at Premise and Fuse, both Ypulse sponsors and both agencies with deep connections to this world, to suggest some sites for this Toolbox. Some of these sites are doing better than others…but all are worth noting. I know there are loads of grassroots skateboard, surf, snowboard, bmx sites/communities as well. Feel free to leave them and any others you think Ypulse readers should know about in the comments. As Gregg Witt from Premise astutely noted:
I just wonder how "populated" these communities will be.. the "action sports" types are living on MySpace and some on Facebook and contrary to how innovative everyone thinks action sports culture is, it is actually quite slow to adopt technology in their marketing,etc. So when the culture insiders are not there, these communities are relying on mainstream only to make the community thrive.. a recipe that has proved not to succeed over years.
ShredOrDie According to Gregg, this is the insider site. Interestingly, it's also a collaboration between Or Die Networks, the creators of funnyordie.com, and skateboarding icon Tony Hawk and THI/900 Films (Tony Hawk's filmmaking company).
Fuel TV The online component to the action sports cable channel, it's considered the biggest and most well known of these communities.
EXPN ESPN's site created to support the X Games — plans are in the works to launch an online action sports network, called ESPN Action Sports Network.
Transworld Business This is the big trade site for the action sports world. A must read to stay on top of the big news, trends, brands and deals being made in this space. See also 5Ones, another Transworld-like news site covering the action sports world. Seems bloggier. I like it.
Grind TV This site is now a part of Yahoo! Sports (syndication deal) and definitely has a more mainstream feel to it….
lat34 AOL launched lat34 and then later backed out. Still the site lives on….
Go211 Describes itself as an "action sports community representing athletes within Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Surfing and BMX. Along with LIVE webcasts of major events happening around the world."
BNQT A site providing "action sport videos and news for the action sport community" that was acquired this winter by USA Today, which is planning on launching some sort of action sports ad network.
Loop'd These guys spoke at the Ypulse Mashup this past July and claim to be one of the fastest growing online sports networks….we'll see!
AthleteFocus This site seems much more utilitarian and is "the place for competitors ready for sponsorship to connect with organizations looking for athlete representation."
If you have a suggestion for a Ypulse Toolbox feature, please let me know.