Soon...

I'm going to put up a 'How to Make a Polo Mallet, New York Style' post soon.

You need an aluminum ski-pole, a mallet head, hacksaw, drill, nylon lock-nuts, threaded rod, a tap and a proper sized drill pieces. Easy right??

phew!

The first batch of the ELVS hats are in and shipping on Friday! Very excited to say the least.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

-Ethan Laek

We Saved the Polo Court!

First off, let me offer thanks to everyone who helped out. Dave C, Brad @ Trackstar, Julie B, Turdy, the New York Hard Court (NY-HC) Polo crew, the Neighborhood kids and their parents, Gus the Deli owner, and most importantly the Horticulturists! I was sitting behind the main Horticulturist and she was awesome! So emphatic!

A summary: A petition was circulated before the local community board (CB3 in lower Manhattan) by a small group of people in favor of turning 'The Pit' (our much beloved Polo Court) into a dog run. We (NY-HC) found out about this maybe about two weeks or so ago when a new player mentioned (Rojo?) At any rate, we were understandably irate since some of the vocabulary used indicated that the court was never used (false, during the week we usually have to fight with the kids for it.) and that the inclusion of a Dog Run would help pacify and clean up the area (a dog run is evidently more powerful then the police when cleaning up the parks. Who knew?!)

With Dave C providing the central organization, we rallied and rallied hard. By the time of the meeting on Thursday, we had amassed at least 700 signatures on paper as well as
a bilingual petition in Chinese and English (big thanks to Trackstar for the sigs and Turdy for the translational). Per Dave's suggestion our argument focused on how used the space was and how it provided a safe area for the kids to play team sports (the street does not suffice) instead of what an awesome time Bike Polo is.

When the Board finally reached our topic, the Speaker made it clear that just from the sign-in sheet alone; there were 33 against the Dog Run and only 3 in favor of it. We had at least 10 of the kids there with us (they brought their footballs and baseballs, etc...) plus a good 15 or so NY-HC players/supporters and at least 6 people from the Horticulturists. In response the Dog Run people had ~200 signatures and their petition was in English only. They demonstrated that they were affluent and disconnected from the true nature of the community by ignoring the cultural implications of their request as well as the effect it would have on the children of the area.

In conclusion: Dave Rules! NY-HC lives on! Dogs can be walked!

Help Save the New York Polo Court!

If you don't know already, our court is at risk of being turned into a Dog Run. We love dogs, but frankly the court is unique in New York City and needs to be saved!

A group of dog owners in the Lower East Side is proposing to turn the "pit" at Chrystie & Broome Streets into a dog run. What they don't know is that this unique multi-use space is utilized by a number of groups on a regular basis, has been featured in major media as a multi-use space, and is often left cleaner than it was found by it's users.

Please sign our petition to keep this space as it is: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/SaveSaraDRooseveltPark

Trackosaurus Rex!

Check it!

http://trackosaurusrex.com/pblog/index.php?entry=entry071019-113619

I'm totally famous now...

Got interviewed by the NY Times by the lovely Joyce Cohen for my apartment search. Hard not to be excited or use phrases like "Wooo!" or "Sweeeet!" or "Rad!!!"

New York Times, Real Estate Section

Whoo whoo!

From Rocky Thompson's great outdoor products blog, The Goat.

http://thegoat.backcountry.com/blog/2007/10/16/laek-cycling-glow-in-the-dark-hat/

Los Marcos Mayhem!!!! This weekend!!!!

Holy crap! Los Marcos Mayhem is this weekend!! Awesome.

They've reserved the court for both days this weekend and people are coming from all over. We're going to have Philadelphians, Bostonians, DCians, Chicagoians and maybe Canadians too! Stoke is high!


http://www.losmarcospolos.com/

Site is updated

Site is updated. Pre-order your Laek Hat's now!!

Website Updates

Seriously, who wants to design Laek House something new, clean and with a nice GUI. This stuff makes my head turn into foam. If you think you can do it, contact me directly at ethan@laekhouse.com with "I'll build you a fancy website" in the title.

-Ethan

MASH

Finally saw MASH last night at the St.Marks Church. Good times! Can't believe I'd never been in there before, there was so much more space and nature then I'd expected, a pleasant surprise.

Props are due to KyleDQM and the T* kids for finally getting this movie to the east coast. I can't wait for the NYC answer, hopefully I'll get to cameo with my silkscreen press too.

Ethan

Laek Hats

The response to the hats has been fantastic and we've moved them into production. Ought to be done within the fortnight (thats totally two weeks dude).

In the meantime I'm going to set up a pre-order space on the site after the weekend so you don't have to camp-out outside of the studio to get your Laek Hat on...


Later-
Ethan

Velocity and Laek House prototype ELVS Deep-Vs

As shown at Interbike 2007, a collaborative effort between Laek House and Velocity Rims: the ELVS rim. Still in the prototype phase, the ELVS rim is based around the popular and colorful Deep-V and features 360 degrees of retro-reflective visibility.

We're stoked, they're stoked. Once testing is done, these rims ought to be showing up at finer bike shops across the world.

Click to Enlarge

Back from Interbike

Pics of the new ELVS Laek House cycling cap. These will be available in white and black (pictured).

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Going to Vegas

Okay, so obviously this whole 'bolg' think has turned out pretty dismally for us to date (clearly calling for an intern...). It hasn't been as enticing, interesting or compelling as it was supposed to be and clearly the blame falls on me for not updating often enough. Sooo....

BIG UPDATE!
Whoa!

New products! We've designed four shirts (one is ELVS) and are introducing an ELVS cycling cap. The ELVS cap will come in two colors, black and white.

We're going to be in Las Vegas for the 2007 Interbike show. We don't have a booth but I'll be walking the floor meeting, greeting, kissing babies and taking swag. Hopefully I'll bring my camera and drop updates (with photos no less) on you all. But, don't hold your breath my track record is pretty shysty to begin with.


Also, and most importantly, Interbike will see the debut of our collaboration with Velocity rims. Look for it, nothing like it exists right now.

New Shirt

Forth Coming Shirt:

Play Polo.

Myspace Page

We've set up a Laek House MySpace page as a brother to the blog.

Join it!



http://www.myspace.com/laekhouse

Prospect Park Summer Slam 2007!

We're helping out with sponsorship duties for this one! Week 1 has already come and gone, but you all can make it for Week 2 for the Scratch race.

More soon!

- Ethan

PROSPECT PARK SUMMER SLAM!!!

http://www.summerslam07.com/

General Info:

Event will be every monday from july 16th to august 27th.
registration is at 9:30 pm and racing begins promptly at 10:00 pm.
meet inside the park at the big grass triangle at the grand army
plaza entrance.

Each event is $3. two of the dollars go towards the cash prize for the
winners of the event that night. the other dollar goes towards the final
cash prize for the entire series, which is split between the male and
female winners. Additional prizes from various sponsors will also be
presented as they are received.

Schedule:

Week 1: team event (come with a team of two)
Week 2: 3 lap scratch
Week 3: team of 4 time trial (come with a team of 4)
Week 4: catch the organizer!! (extra sprinter's points)
Week 5: get ready to hurt. (double points)
Week 6: team event (random teams of 2)
Week 7: 1 lap scratch (double points)

Keep it safe and fun!

Got questions or comments? got summer slam photos or videos you
want to share? want to help sponsor? email! summerslam07@gmail.com

Settling In

We're settling in to our new digs in Brooklyn now. Expect big things soon!

Moving

We're moving spaces this weekend. Might be a while before we can return any emails.
Later-
Ethan

Upcoming Alleycats!

We are fortunate enough to be sponsoring the following races:

1. July 14th 2007
Demoncats: TheTour de Simpson (Washington DC) a team race.
http://tourdeledistrict.blogspot.com/
















2. July 28th, 2007
The Departed (South Boston, duh)
The Departed
A great summary of the movie.


3. September 8-9 2007
The Scumbag Cup (Boston), a weekend length event guaranteed to be huge with six races in two days.
http://www.scumbagcupboston.com/


NOW GO RACE

Caps Project

Latest item to be developed; the ubiquitous cycling cap!

Always looking to keep you in one piece, we are working on a short-run of ELVS four panel cycling caps. We are will partner with someone who we feel can provide the quality and workmanship needed for this project to a success.

We're not going to re-engineer the hat, but are going to produce something dope!

Later-
Ethan

A couple of things-

Firstly, I want to welcome our latest retailer into the fold; Go visit Braden Govoni's new shop - Carytown Bicyle Company, located at 3224 West Cary Street in Richmond, VA. Its a new shop, opened within the last few months and should be awesome. Go show your support!

Secondly, let me address the remarkable lack of female sizes in our catalog. When we first started Laek House we offered a whole ton of colors options and female sizing. Over time we trimmed the offerings to only the most successful color combos (which happened to be earthier tones and baby blue(!?)) and dropped the female offering due to lack of sales. This is not to say I want to keep excluding my sisters from the Laek Club, in fact we have no problem producing one-offs for you at the same price as the other shirts. Just drop an email to info@laekhouse.com and we'll get you situated.

Bike Polo Again?!?

Again and again!

This time though the New York Times, that ennobled gray lady of the press, has written an article and edited a video on our regular Sunday matches. I'm not in the article per se, but have a couple of cameos in the video (I wear a white shirt and a helmet (safety first!)).

I think the article is good but the video is great! ESPI fever!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/sports/othersports/27polo.html?ref=sports

Ad for Urban Cyclist

Some of our buddies at Dirt Rag, Jeff and Brad are putting together a 'zine on the side. Its about, well, urban cycling!

http://www.urbancyclist.org/

Here is the advert that we're going to run provided I didn't screw something up.

Outside Magazine

Page 26 of the May 2007 Outside mag! Sweet!

Also, the ESPI's (East Side Polo Invitational) is coming up at the end of the month. Should be some heated polo matches!

Spring 2007 has Sprung!

The site has been updated with all the new gear! Go take a look, we're just waiting on a few shots from the photographer.

Dirt Rag

ELVS is in the current issue of Dirt Rag! Sweet! Will post a pic when I get a copy!

Spring 2007 Stuffs

I've gotten the Spring 2007 shirts about 80% done at this point. Need to print two more samples and they're off to the photog to look teh pretty.

Feeling really good about these shirts!

Monster Track 8

This weekend saw the running of the fixed with MonsterTrack 8! Laek House was proud/honored to help support this rendition of the 2007 race.

We get a lot of requests from races being put together around the country (and a few from the UK) and haven't really had a chance to put as much support as we'd like behind the local scene. The moment we saw that MT8 was in motion, we motivated to contact the organizers and got some gear into the right hands. I wasn't there for the awards or the after-party due to familial obligations, but I hope everything went out okay.

Thanks to Victor for being the central figure in the production!

http://www.nycmassive.com/mt8/

We're in Road Magazine!

One of Laek House's ELVS shirts is featured in the March 2007 (#28) issue of Road Magazine. Page 82! Thanks to Neil and Tim!

I'll post a scan as soon as I can dig one up.

Bike Polo = Awesome

Bulletin!

Newest Awesome award goes to Bike Polo!

Bulletin!

After two weeks of being a spectator on the court, I stepped up and into a game. I was a nervous at first and totally awkward (my dominant hand held the mallet and I had to steer/brake with my right hand) and took my share of spills. But you know what? I'm going to build a mallet later today when I take a break from redesigning the site and putting together the spring tees. Many thanks to John Birdseye for lending me a mallet!

PS I am ever so upset that I missed Los Marcos. Their Hawk was there, but they never showed...

Freebie Stickers

Free Stickers with an SASE or a meeting!

So, I had a bunch of stickers printed that say "This bike is " in the same font as the notoriously misunderstood "This bike is a pipebomb" band stickers. You might recall, some poor college kid had his bike eradicated by the local Police because they thought the sticker was literal! That sucked for everyone involved, but I understand he got a new bike in the end.
Thanks to Chombs for handling the graphics!

Send the SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to:
Ethan Benton // Laek House
84 East 4th Street, #2
New York, NY 10003

Rode my bike in the woods!

Rode (legal!) trails in Manhattan this morning! Andy (NYC VELO) and I chimped out and took the train up from the E.Village to 125th to get to Highbridge. A good idea if there ever was one cause it was damn cold! Not sure what the exact temp was, I had at least 11 pieces of clothing on (socks/shoes/gloves, each count twice) and was still a little cold on the road.

We had an 8:30am meet up with Jamie Bogner (www.nycmtb.com) and some others to sample the trail system. Highbridge is a crazy little NYC park. Its nestled in one of the less, um, nice areas of the Manhattan up by the GWB and is filled with a lifetime supply of broken glass and other detritus. Up until earlier this year, it was just another abandoned and forgotten park in NYC, but the NYC MTB guys, in conjunction with the Parks Dept have been building trails! Dope!

The trails are looking good and I'm going to donate some hours when the ground thaws.

Ride was uneventful except for Andy catching a flat and me eating it on the ice at Astor Place. Slid for a couple of feet and looked like a dummy, didn't get smushed by car though. Nice!

Ta-dah!

My interview.

To see what it looked like in print you'll have to look at the daily pdf. There's a sweet pic of me on the couch at NYC Velo.

Only error was the price of the shirts, they sorta said they were cheaper then they actually are... oops! No biggee! Stoked on the article. Stoked like whoa!

Interviews and other news

I gave an interview (my first ever) to a local paper called AM-New York. Its a free daily paper thats owned by Newsday. If you're ever in NYC, there are really only three daily papers to mention, the Post (25 cents), Newsday (50 cents) and the NY Times (not sure?). Post and Newsday are the only ones worth reading for fun most times though.

Anyhow, the interview and some pictures should be in the Monday paper! Thanks to Andy, Justin, Cat and especially Mina!

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