Here comes Ashbury Goggles!

Coming out of the woodwork in 2008/2009 is the much anticipated Ashbury eyewear and goggle line. Snowboarders are already wanting to know more about the goggles and where to buy them. A great sign for an upcoming company with killer designs and style you can take to the snow.

I had a chance to talk with Lance Hakker of Ashbury to find out more about the company and products.

Shay: How did you came up with the name and company?

Lance: I think Nima’s girlfriend came up with it. Nima, Mike, and I had been brainstorming for a long time trying to figure it out. Naming is hard business. There’s that intersection in San Fransisco Haight/Ashbury. We didn’t name it because of that, but we’re definitely aware of it. And even some of our influence comes from there. So that’s cool, but definitely not the reasoning behind our name. We just like it.

Shay: What made you decide to go into goggles and eyewear?

Lance: Well we think there is a serious lack in that department. There’s nothing we really dig. Every company is kinda like whatever. And everyone is making crazy goggles that look like aliens designed them. I mean the only way I’d let Ashbury make some of those crazy goggles is if aliens brainwashed me, you know. Goggles are something that go on your face! They gotta look decent, it’s not like we’re flying into space with them, chasing UFOs.

Shay: How long ago did you come up with the idea, get it going?

Lance: Well Mike, Nima, and I have always planned on doing something. We’ve even come close in the past with a few other friends here and there. But with Ashbury Nima called me one day while I was working at K2 and asked if I wanted to start a company, but this time for real. And I jumped on it. I think it was a few weeks before I quit my job and then we kinda got it rolling right away. All that was about a year ago. I was back in California from Seattle at the end of June.

Shay: What are the Ashbury Goggle models?

Lance: We currently have one model of goggle. The Kaleidoscope. It comes in 5 colors: Stars, Tortoise Shell, Rust Red, White, and Black. The black, white, and rust are all matte and soft touch. The soft touch makes them just look and feel a lot better then conventional matted colors.

Shay: What are the influences behind Ashbury?

Lance: Well skateboarding and snowboarding are our biggest influences. If it weren’t for that we wouldn’t even have started Ashbury in the first place. Then our music tastes and just everything we do influences Ashbury. There’s just the three of us and we have pretty similar tastes. Our team and our friends have a pretty big influence on what we do as well. We listen to everyone. Well everyone that we should listen to anyway.

Shay: Are the designs a collaborative effort, or do each of you guys have your own roles in the company?

Lance: Well yes and no. My brother does all of our designs. He’s definitely the art guy, but he listens to Nima and I alot. And always asks what we think. But he’s super talented and we usually just like what he makes. The team feel the same too. His ideas are usually just better than ours. Most of the people that my brother and I grew up with skateboarding and stuff are now designing shoes or clothes or whatever at pretty big companies within skateboarding so he’s always around a very creative group of people. Nima handles the manufacturing side of things as well as sharing team stuff with myself. Nima and I kinda bounce a lot of things off each other. I handle a lot of marketing and sales stuff. But like I said Nima and I share a lot of duties. And Nima is on the team.

Shay: Where can you pick up a pair of Ashbury goggles for this 08-09 season?

Lance: Well you should be able to pick them up at a lot of the core retailers around the US as well as Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Greece, Australia, Japan, and Korea.

Shay: What other products from Ashbury?

Lance: We just make Goggles and sunglasses. The sunglasses will be out in a year or so. They’re going to be really good. We just got our first samples back and for the first samples they turned out really well. Both goggles and sunglasses are hand made in Italy, so quality won’t be an issue. We also make softgoods to compliment our line.

Shay: What team riders are sporting Ashbury this upcoming winter?

Lance: Our snow team is Nima Jalali, Jon Kooley, Jordan Mendenhall, Justin Hebbel, Joe Sexton, LNP, Matty Ryan, Josh Mills, Gus Engle, Nick Dirks, and Desiree Melancon. We’re putting together a skate team at the moment as well, so look out for that!

Big thanks to Lance!

Want more of Ashbury? Check out the Ashbury Blog and Ashbury myspace!