O’Neill is proud to announce that it has been nominated for four awards for the 2009 SIMA Image Awards. O’Neill received nominations for Men’s Apparel Brand of the Year, Footwear Product of the Year, Wetsuit of the Year and Boardshort of the Year. The winners will be announced on May 6-9, 2009 at the SIMA Surf Summitt in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Category – Men’s Apparel Brand of the Year
O’Neill has a strong history of being a leader in innovation for the surf industry. From the invention of the wetsuit to the introduction of the Super Freak boardshort, O’Neill has a pioneered the most technically advanced product to ever hit the marketplace. This leadership position continued in 2008 with development of the TIA boardshort, Jordy Smith’s first signature style. Riding the momentum of the 2007 Jordy Smith signing, O’Neill designed a unique African inspired standalone boardshort for 2008. Combining functionality, comfort ability and style, the TIA was a huge success at retail. O’Neill continues to push all other apparel categories with fashion forward trends. Key category standouts were sweaters, denim, jackets and boardshorts. Backed by an elite athlete roster which includes Jordy Smith, Cory Lopez, Timmy Reyes, Ian Walsh, Roy Powers, and John John Florence; O’Neill not only has on point product, but the star power to effectively market this product to the mainstream.
Category – Men’s Boardshort of the Year
Product Name – TIA
“This is Africa. This is Jordy.” Jordy Smith’s first O’Neill signature boardshort launched in Spring 2008 and ran the industry a buzz. With its African zebra print and bright color pops, a throw back to Jordy’s personality and South African descent, this boardshort stood out as 2008′s leading contender. The TIA psycho stretch 22″ engineered print boardshort features four-way stretch, a super fly closure, and cargo pocket. Jordy’s Y signature, inspired by the South African flag, integrated into the boardshort design gave this signature style a direct tie to his African heritage.
Category- Footwear Product of the Year
Product Name – Surf Turkey
What every surfer needs when they are stepping out of the water on those cold winter mornings. The Surf Turkey is a novelty tweed mid top after surf boot, with a sherpa lined interior, tricot lined footbed and a vision custom molded rubber outsole. This surf boot not only guarantees to keep surfer’s feet functioning but is also a stylish, comfortable addition to any footwear collection.
Category – Wetsuit of the Year
Product Name – O’Neill Psychofreak
O’Neill, the Industry’s Original Wetsuit manufacturer, never sleeps when it comes to innovative design and materials. For 2008 O’Neill’s Area 52 Product Development Team introduced another revolution in wetsuit design with the Psychofreak.
Determined to make the warmest and most high-performance cold water wetsuit, Area 52 set out to design a wetsuit that improved the insulation from its neoprene without sacrificing flexibility. The end result was the introduction of the Psychofreak made with 100% XDS-Air insulated neoprene.
XDS-Air insulated neoprene is built with a complex 3D structure of rubber and trapped air components that increase the amount of air in the neoprene. The increased air-to-rubber ratio provides more insulation, which generates more warmth than traditional neoprene.
Combine the toasty XDS-Air insulated neoprene with the insane features of O’Neill’s stellar Psycho 2, and you have a wetsuit that warrants the Psychofreak name.
Introduced in 2003, the goal of the SIMA Image Awards is to identify the surf industry’s most influential companies and recognize them for their efforts to advance and grow the industry over the past year. As you know, all regular and board builder SIMA members were eligible to enter their brands or products, as well as enter retailers. All entries were then reviewed by an industry panel of experts which included manufacturers and specialty retailers. The nominees in 15 categories were determined by a vote from this industry panel of experts. All paid SIMA member companies and a select list of specialty retailers will now vote to determine the winners. For for detailed information on the voting process, visit simaimageawards.com
