You may have noticed some subtle changes going on with Freestyle. Such as, where did the shark fin logo go? Remember the little fin with the round arcs that used to be in front of the F in Freestyle? Well, it’s gone missing. The reason is due to the success and popularity of our Shark Watch division, we have decided to give Shark Watches it’s very own voice. In fact, the new Shark Watch landing page is up now at www.sharkbrand.com including the updated shark fin logo in the square box. Looks rad if you ask us. Eventually, this fall we will have the new store up and running featuring all the existing Shark Watches that you love with the addition of new Shark Watches that will Blow Your Mind! So in a nutshell, the shark fin logo is where it has always rightfully belonged, with Shark Watches. Until then, Shark Watches will continue to be available in the Freestyle Watch Shop.

You may now be asking yourself, “What does this mean for Freestyle?” Truthfully, it just means that Shark Watches are Shark Watches and everything else that is not a Shark Watch is as it always has been, a Freestyle Watch. The only difference is that we are developing a wider range of new Freestyle Watches in the future. Alongside your favorite Freestyle watches will be new performance pieces which we are calling work out watches. These new Freestyle Watches will be designed to help you train, run, bike, swim and have fun keeping yourself in tip top shape.

While these changes will continue to be subtle over the next few months, they will become more apparent when the new Shark and Freestyle lines hit the market, alongside with fresh marketing campaigns. Then the big picture of why Freestyle and Shark are their own entities will come into clear focus. Nevertheless, to start the process, we have placed our first ad for the Shark Brand in the Big Issue of Surfer Magazine, which hits the newsstands on July 5th. Check it out below, and thank you for your support! Feel free to hit us with any questions and we’ll answer them pronto. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with the future home of Shark Watches at www.sharkbrand.com

A lot of talk has surfaced about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While the problem is real it’s also really easy to turn a blind eye and continue consuming plastic products as if they don’t have any effect on the planet. Let’s face it, we all use plastic products at an alarming rate, it’s almost impossible not to use them. Sometimes it takes visionaries like photographer Chris Jordan to bring the crisis to our senses in a powerful and undeniable way. It is difficult to look at these images. Without a doubt they force you to feel a sense of hopelessness or even shame, but as Chris Jordan mentions in the interview, these are not meant to paralyze us into doom and gloom, rather they are meant to be a wakeup call to inspire us to face the horrors of our time and collectively respond by making new choices about our dependence on plastic. We applaud Chris Jordan for bringing the plight of the Midway Island Albatross to light. We are inspired. We have some thinking to do about materials we use in our freestyle watch bands. What can we do to make Freestyle Watches more environmentally friendly? Can we recycle plastics for our bands to help keep them out of the ocean? Is there an eco-friendly plastic like product we can develop in the future? These are all questions that these horrific images have inspired in us. What have they inspired in you? We’d also like to point out that no response is too little. Even grassroots organizations like Surf Happens are helping the plastic problem through their Plastic Experiment documentary project. Lots of little things turn into big things and The Plastic Experiment illustrates simple steps you can take to start making a difference.

We want to throw out a big thanks out to the crew at BNQT.com for the cool Freestyle profile they posted today. Click on through to read and see some of the new stuff. We are just days away from dropping even more newness, so keep your head on a swivel. Best put BNQT.com in your bookmarks too!