Nemo teamed up with Fuel TV to promote their show Dew Underground about the Dew Tour in Portland. We came up with the dewy and sticky idea of collaborating with Voodoo Doughnuts to create the Mountain Dew doughnut, known from here-out as the Voo Dew!

Voo Dew Doughnut - Nemo and the Dew Tour from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Nemo’s Chris Hotz explains the process that leads up to a special doughnut - it ain’t simple…

i suppose i should let bare my past for this project. you see, from the time i was 16 thru 23, i was on a strictly mountain dew diet. i didn’t drink water, or milk, or beer, or god forbid, coke products, ONLY mountain dew. at one point the Dew people told me i was drinking so much it was bad for my heart and i needed to stop. instead i asked for some coupons and like good americans, they gladly obliged. so with that in mind, this collaboration was actually pretty easy to come up with. the AST Dew tour only happens in a few very lucky cities, portland being one of only five venues. so as a city, we’re pretty fortunate.. we started to think about how lucky portland is to have such a cool and creative culture. those, “Keep Portland Weird” stickers are for a reason. as far as portland-centric institutions, Voodoo Doughnuts is one kick ass independent doughnut shop. i mean seriously, a maple bacon bar, genius… it almost seems like they make doughnuts that they dare you to eat. so as we started brainstorming, we threw out the idea of a Mountain Dew flavored doughnut. and honestly, i was thinking more about the color and the presentation, but when we contacted the VooDoo guys, they we’re all about getting the flavor JUST right. boiling down Mountain Dew into a syrupy reduction, lemon lime additives, caffeine powders, adding lemon sprinkles, laboring the color of the frosting. the first taste tests were unbelievable. the second test brought back memories from my childhood. damn i’m thirsty.

Mark Lewman our CD at Nemo who works on the Nike 6.0 brand came up with the idea of freezing the 6.0 shoes into blocks of ice, so Nike found a rad ice sculptor guy to come out and carve an 8 ft tall Mogan Mid. See below.

Then the kids had at ‘em to see who could be the fastest to thaw out the shoes and win a free pair.

More pics here.

Stop 3 of the AST Dew Tour is in Portland this weekend. And if you are 21+ you can come to the AST After Party - click here for info and to RSVP.

K-Mart has just announced that it will be releasing a new collection of action sports-inspired apparel under an unimaginative in-house brand name called “Boarding.” This is taking place on the heels of similar retailers’ forays into the same market including Walmart, Target, and Steve and Berry’s. Unfortunately, it is a telling sign that the terms action sports and extreme sports (which were once a hallmark of announcing one’s place in the counterculture) have finally lost the last remainder of their street-cred.

When the term extreme sports first surfaced in the late 80s, the market was geared more towards adult sports. As Baby Boomers and Generation X have aged, the marketing efforts have shifted towards Generation Y with ads focusing on their clothing, music and even soft drink preferences. In the meantime, as more mainstream sponsors have infiltrated the market (including Mountain Dew, Taco Bell and the U.S. Navy) the edginess of being associated with the extreme sports movement has dramatically dulled.

Youth-centric culture is constantly pushing boundaries and influencing larger societal movements, but in time, the ‘new thing’ loses its charm when every mainstream outlet markets the hell out of it and drives it into the ground. What’s interesting about this phenomenon is that many of today’s trend-setters eventually grow up and fill the marketing positions at top-tier ad agencies whose sole job is to blanket the mainstream with their clients’ take on the next social rebellion.

Just as the hippies of the 60s grew up, tuned in and transformed into yuppies during the 80s, action sports fanatics will eventually mature. Their gashes will heal and though you’ll still be able to spot them when their dress shirt cuff rises to reveal a smattering of tattoos, the gaggle of babies in trendy t-shirts and the new home tucked into a safe suburb is bound to give them away.

As the term action sports continues to lose its coolness, it’s natural to wonder what the next rebellion will be. Youth by nature is often tangled in rebellion and you can’t rebel any longer when the remnants of your scene are splashed everywhere, including K-Mart.