Yeah Keir , 1st place Nippon Open!

Way to Keir, 1st place at the Nippon Open in Japan!! Sweet! Keir of course rides for Maku Furniture, Burton Snowboards, Gravis footwear, a bunch of other cool companies, and is a Carlsbad loc!

Check out all the results and good stuff here.

More on the Global Green Oscar Party

Here's a cool little video of the Global Green Oscars party I found on Lime.com Around 2:11 is where you start to see a bunch of Maku Furniture and our good friend Daniel from Vernare.

Welcome Orange Skin to the family!

WOW, 2 new Maku Furniture partners to announce in 2 days!

Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the world and home not only to many great pubs and of course my favorite mother-in-law (ok, she's my only mother-in-law, but she's super cool!) But also home to one of the finest modern furniture retailers in the country - Orange Skin.

Graunk, his partners, and the rest of the Orange Skin crew not only hold down the title relating to all things hip and modern in Chi town, they are also involved in many design projects throughout the midwest.

We are really excited to have Orange Skin representing us in Chicago and welcome aboard!

Welcome Mod Livin - Denver

Check out it - Maku Furniture is pleased to welcome Erick, Jill and the crew from Mod Livin in Denver to the family and officially rocking Maku in their amazing store. If you live anywhere in the rockies and especially the front range, Mod Livin is a must see store.

We are really excited to partner with Mod Livin and look for great things to come!

Somebody is getting it!

I've been meaning to post this for a while and just now getting around to it. Thomas Prais is the editor of Furniture style magazine and a while back he did a great little article on marketing to a younger more affluent and vibrant demographic. Of course this article included some commentary on Maku's strategy and a few quotes by your truly. In the world of Baby Boomeritus old school furniture marketing it was refreshing to see that Maku's strategy was starting to resonate!

A few months later he followed it up with a small online piece talking about the power of email / electronic communication as a form of branding. Those of you industry types that are on our mailing and get our newsletter know what I am talking about.

Here is a link to the online story that Thomas wrote

And here is some brief commentary at the end of his segment. Thanks for the great words Thomas it is refreshing and I am really glad that what we are trying to do is starting to resonate in a fairly stagnant old school market place!!

Thomas 2.0 Responds: I think Maku has put together a pretty smart marketing strategy. Other than, perhaps, at the very highest end of the furniture price spectrum, the furniture industry seems to be highly committed to hobbling along with small marketing budgets, and advertising strategies from the 1950s. Most furniture marketing seems to be flyers and commercials featuring uninspired product shots and a promise of low, low prices. Which I guess is fine, IF the key to commercial success is waiting for a consumer to decide she wants to buy something and then making sure she knows that your company sells that said something, and IF she even notices your commercial sandwiched between their favorite TV show and far more compelling, entertaining commercials (and that’s assuming she doesn’t TIVO past commercial breaks entirely). What I like about Maku, which reaches out to Gen X and Y consumers, is that they’ve picked up on this lifestyle branding thing pretty well, going out to Extreme Sports venues, sponsoring competitions, etc. In other words, they’re connecting their product with something their intended audience cares deeply and passionately about (and, in this case, the consumerrs have the scars to prove it). If your selling something to sit on, I guess a price story is the only one that makes sense. But if you can transform your product into the locus where a consumer’s life intersects with her desires, passions and self-image, well then you’re creating desire, not just waiting for it to happen. I don’t think a lot of people in the industry understand how important brands are in the lives of my generation (I’m a Gen-Xer). I don’t particularly like that aspect of my generation, but there it is. We Gen-Xers carve our identities out of the stuff we buy. We Gen-Xers love our IKEA, our Starbucks, our J. Crew. When we get together we talk about the stuff we’ve bought and how great (or awful) a brand is. Shopping becomes our master narrative, consumption is how we change the world. So we especially love it when a brand is associated with things we either (a) care about or (b) like to think that we care about. In addition to its Extreme Sports angle, Maku also associates its brand with art, travel and saving the environment. I think they’ll do well in the long term. Thomas 2.0, Furniture Style Magazine 12/20/2007 at 10:50 AM

Global Green party update

sorry, no pics yet waiting for them to arrive from some of the photog's and like a knucklehead, I forgot my little digi cam in the car...

But, the party was pretty cool and for an amazing cause over $420,000 was raised! There were a lot of A list celebs chilling on Maku pieces from Sophia Bush, Selma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, and Molly Sims (all ohhh so hot!) to Oliver Stone, Bill Maher, Adrian Grenier and I think I saw Pete Wentz or an emo look alike.... :) from Fall Out Boy, yeah Pete way to get your green on!

All in all it was a super fun event and we were privileged to be involved with Global Green, Vernare, Cisco Home and all the other great sponsors of the party. Oh and by the way, my favorite brewery New Belgium was dolling out some great Mothership Wit that made things that much better!

Here are a few clinks with some added coverage of the event.

Click Here

Click Here for a few pics of celebs and Maku pieces in the background or on them

Click Here

5th Annual Global Green Oscars "pre party"!

Getting ready to head up to LA for the Big "Global Green" pre- Oscars party tonight. Oh no, what am I gonna wear...! I don't think my typical flip flops and shorts / t shirt is gonna cut it...

Maku totally dialed in the Spider Room at The Avalon with a bunch of cool pieces like our sectional and lounge chairs in conjunction with our ultra hip West Hollywood retailer Vernare for all the VIP's to chill on.

Should be a fun night for a good cause and I will post up some pictures tomorrow! In the mean time here are a couple of links with info about the event.

click here and here for more good stuff

Maku and Vernare Rocking the Grammy's green!

So check it out, Maku in conjunction with our rockstar West Hollywood retail partner Vernare were Rocking the 50th Annual Grammy Awards @ the Green with Music luxury Retreat.



Located in the lobby of the super hip South Collection Building in downtown L.A., rockers, actors, agents, producers and those shi shi PR people were all checking Maku out and chilling on the goods!

Here is a little snipet of some of the coverage we received. Many thanks to Daniel and his crew for representing us so well and to Treehugger and Fox 11 KTLA for giving us some love!

Click Here for the Treehugger.com coverage

Click Here for LA Fox 11's coverage. About 1/2 way through the segment you'll see some great shots of the furniture!

But wait, there's more to come from the NAACP image awards last night and from the Oscars later next week with the Global Green Oscars Party that we will be a part of! Check back in the next couple of days on updates from those events and our participation!

Hurley -"sound and vision" Vol 2

Check out this amazing video that the crew over at Hurley put together featuring non other than the Prince of Bali and Maku Lifestyle Ambassador - Rizal Tanjung.

Click here to see the Video

Riz is sponsored by Hurley and this is the 2nd installment in their Sound and Vision series. We'll have the videos up and available for viewing on www.makufurniture.com in a couple of days. In the meantime, ENJOY the sights and sound of Bali firsthand with Rizal

Mission Accomplished!

Last night about 11:15 pm the CCC voted overwhelmingly 8-2 against the 241 Toll road! There were some great comments during the hearing yesterday including the following from Ralph Faust, retired Coastal Commission counsel in response to the TCA's attempts to sway the vote by bribing ooops I mean "offering" 100 million dollars in subsidies to parks throughout California.

"I can't say this more clearly, offers of money can't buy compliance with the Coastal Act."

Although by the end of the night there were only a few hundred supporters remaining the excitement and energy from what the Surfrider foundation as well as all the thousands of supporters that attended earlier in the day will be felt for long time!

Congratulations all, job well done!!!

Here is some video of the final vote.

California Coastal Commission Hearing on the 241 Toll road

So as you have read most of this week, today was the big hearing for the California Coastal Commission to make a decision on the 241 Toll road that would cut straight through Trestles and San O' state beach.

So after a very chilly morning surf, I went on down to attend the rally sponsored by The Surfrider Foundation in order to mobilize the troop. Surfrider was hoping for 1000 or so people to show up and give support and by my estimates there must have been at least 3000 and maybe as many as 5000 people all against the toll road! Although I could not stay for the entire day, the 3 hours I did spend there were amazing!

Many surf celebrities ranging from World Champion Shaun Tomson, to local hero's Taylor Knox and Holly Beck, to the former Transworld Media receptionist and now superstar MC of Action Sports Sal Masakella were all in attendance and it was cool to mingle with old school eco-hippies, surf stars, local groms, and eco-conscious business owners alike.

This goes to prove the fact that you can think globally and act locally! While I am a long ways from "Treehugger" status, it is no secret that I appreciate and care for our environment. Be it in my backyard, our state, country or globally.

I just wish I would have taken the kids out of school today so they could have experienced a grass roots movement to defend our environment first hand.

Here are some pics from the day:

Side by side images of the current day trestles and a rendering "after" should the 241 get approved.


These girls were getting "hassled" by the police because they were "protesting" in the wrong area...


The Crowd gets all Fired up!





How many rallies do you think this guy has been too? Looks like a seasoned veteran!


The State and the TCA brought in some Cal Trans Workers for the day.


By the way, they were on the State payroll for the day. hmmm

Do you feel lucky punk? Well do ya...?

Dirty Harry aka Clint Eastwood weighs in on Trestles. Check it.

Welcome to 08, will this be the end of Trestles??

Wow, where has the month of January gone... Sorry for the lack of updates. A few good swells to start the year off, ramping the business up for the spring, and trying to stay ahead of the "recession" which the media keeps hyping despite GDP growing (albeit not as strongly as the past few qtrs...) has made this month just fly by.

Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not saying there has not been a slowdown in our economy. My daughter dragged me into a mall last week for the first time in years and it definitely was not bustling. But if you delve into the numbers and don't just listen to the over zealous media machine, the economy "appears" to be doing "o.k." Fortunately we are going into spring and a time that traditionally brings solid consumer spending, so we will know soon.

So what's new? Snow, snow, and more snow! There's lots of good snow all around the world; Europe, Japan, Canadia, and most importantly the good ole US of A all are having epic snow sliding seasons. Yet somehow this season I don't have a single day on snow for the first time in almost my entire life. Gotta change that for sure, can you say Spring Skiing!

The good news is all those watersheds that were dwindling in supply particularly on the west coast here will fill back up with the spring melt off!



One of the biggest environmental battles to face Southern California in years is the proposed 241 toll road right through the middle of our beloved Trestles and San Onofre' state park. For those of you not familiar with Trestles, it is the last remaining relatively untouched watershed and wildlife areas on the coast of So.Cal. And the waves aren't too bad either!

Set aside by President Reagan in the early 70's with a decree to never be touched and with a long and steeped history in the surfing community, many say that Trestles / San O' were the birthplace of west coast surfing. Spanning over 3000 acres of beautiful coastline and home to many endemic and endangered species that can now only be found here this area is certainly a place of solace in the hustle and bustle of So.Cal. Access is by foot, bicycle or skateboard so you truly feel like you are away from everything when you spend a day at Trestles.

On Wednesday Feb 6th @ 9 am the California Coastal Commission will be holding a meeting at the Del Mar fairgrounds and will be (once again) hearing arguments for and against this road. Every major coastal city in So.Cal has voted to against this toll road yet the TCA believes that paving over one of the last remaining coastal resources in California will all the sudden solve the traffic issues we face here.

Check out the Surfrider Foundation website for all the info on this project and how you can help save THE LAST remaining piece of undeveloped coastal So.Cal. by clicking here and sending a letter to the Coastal Commission

Happy Holidays from Maku! (don't forget to recycle)

it is estimated that between Thanksgiving and the New Year an extra million tons of waste are generated nationwide each week. In fact, 38,000 miles of ribbon alone is thrown out each year--enough to tie a bow around the Earth!

As we all prepare form xmas day here are a few tips to lower your impact on the earth

• Use old newspaper to wrap gifts. Not only is it a unique look, you can recycle it!
• Switch over to rechargeable batteries for all those new toys. Here is some great info on rechargeable batteries. (from the state of CA no less!)
• According to the National Christmas Tree Association's website, "There are approximately 30-35 million Real Christmas Trees sold in the U.S. every year." The website also notes that real trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. Try and replant or better yet recycle your tree for mulch that reduces the need to water all the time, it's a double winner!
• If you are lucky enough to get a cool new 46" Plasma flat screen from Santa this year but aren't sure what to do with your old TV, PDA, IPOD, or computer check out these guys Erecycle.org

Happy Holidays and wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous and green 2008!

Trash Blob 2X's the size of Texas

So I talked about this trash blob in the December Newsletter to our awesome retail partners and to update everybody on what's new with Maku.

While eating breakfast this morning, I happened to flip past the "Fair and Balanced" news channel as they were doing a story on this issue which you can check out here. It's good to see the mainstream media starting to take notice to things like this!! And here is a report that the ever progressive (insert sarcasm here) CBS news did on this issue almost 4 years ago. You can also check out up to date info on this by clicking on Capitan Charles Moore's website The Algalita Foundation

Long story short, there is this blob of viscous trash floating in the North Pacific gyre where all the currents meet and the trash collects. It's twice the size of Texas and floating just beneath the surface. Made mostly of decaying plastics, it's pretty knarly. The thing is plastic does not Bio-degrade, it Photo Degrades meaning it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces yet never totally diminishes. Despite this area being a veritable oceanic desert the few Fish, sharks, birds, whales, and dolphins basically all parts of the food chain in this area of the North Pacific have been affected by this mess. Birds mistaking the small pieces of plastic as bait fish, bigger fish eating smaller fish, sharks eating bigger fish you get the picture and it's ugly! How long until this affects the dinner that end up on your table? Truth be told it probably already is...

The solution to keep this blob from growing is simple RECYCLE. The solution of how to clean up this blob is not so simple.

For more ideas on easy eco living check out our buddy Josh Dorfman's book "The Lazy Environmentalist" and his website Vivavi.com for some excellent sustainable products including Maku!