ORANGE 21 ANNOUNCES CORPORATE NAME CHANGE TO SPY INC., STOCK SYMBOL CHANGE TO “XSPY”

So Calif. Eyewear Co. Punctuates Focus on Core Brand with Eponymous Return

For Immediate Release: Feb. 10, 2012

CARLSBAD, Calif.—Orange 21 Inc. (OTCBB: ORNG) today announced that it has changed its corporate name to SPY Inc., effective Feb. 15, 2012, and has received preliminary approval to change its stock symbol to “XSPY” (OTCBB: XSPY), effective that same date.

On Feb. 6, 2012, Orange 21 Inc., a Delaware corporation, filed a Certificate of Ownership and Merger to effect a merger of the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, SPY Inc., with and into the Company, and to change the Company’s legal name to “SPY Inc.,” effective Feb. 15, 2012.

Also on Feb. 15, 2012, the Second Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company reflecting the name change, as previously approved by the Company’s board of directors, will become effective. Other than the name change, no changes will be made to the Company’s bylaws in effect prior to Feb. 15, 2012.

“The changing of our Company name back to SPY harks to the business’s renewed focus on its most important and valuable asset—the SPY brand,” says SPY CEO Michael Marckx. “The Company’s design, marketing, financial resources and psychic energy are now singularly concentrated on SPY.”

Orange 21 decided to cease any new purchase orders of additional inventory for the O’Neill^®, Melodies by MJB^® or Margaritaville^® brands in 2011 and sold-off interest in its former Italian-based manufacturing subsidiary, LEM, on Dec. 31, 2010.

In connection with the name change, SPY Inc. anticipates it will begin trading under the new ticker symbol “XSPY” on the OTC Bulletin Board on or about Feb. 15, 2012.  The Company’s common stock has been assigned a new CUSIP number of 85219W107 in connection with the name change, to be effective on Feb. 15, 2012.

Outstanding stock certificates for shares of the Company are not affected by the name change; they continue to be valid and need not be exchanged. 

About SPY^®

Orange 21 Inc. designs, develops, markets and produces premium products for the action sports, motorsports, snowsports, cycling and multisport, ophthalmic, and lifestyle and fashion markets under the brands SPY^®, SPY Optic^™, SPY Performance^™ and SPY Rx^™.

By TIFFANY MONTGOMERY
February 10, 2012 07:47 AM

The industry turned out for the SIMA Image Awards at The Grove in Anaheim Thursday, with nominees hoping to take home a coveted Image award.

Several brands showed their dominance in their categories again this year.

Hurley won the closely watched Men’s Boardshort of the Year for the fourth year in a row, L*Space won Women’s Swim Brand of the Year for the fifth year in a row, Channel Islands won Surfboard of the Year for the fourth year in a row, Billabong Girls won Women’s Apparel Brand of the Year for at least the fourth year in a row and RVCA won Men’s Apparel Brand of the Year for the third consecutive time.

Huntington Surf & Sport was also a big winner, taking home both Women’s Retailer of the Year and Men’s Retailer of the Year.

Quiksilver had a big night after a dry spell with the Image Awards. The brand won twice last night, for Men’s Marketing Campaign for its promotion of Kelly Slater’s 10th world title, and for Hardgoods Accessory Product of the Year for its Cypher PS+Heat Vest System.

Stance won the coveted Breakthrough Brand of the Year award and Maui Nix of Florida won Breakthrough Retailer of the Year.

About 750 people attended the event, which was held for the first time at The Grove in Anaheim.

See a complete list of the winners and nominees here. See our slide show, above, for lots of photos from the evening.

By Devon O’Neil and Colin Bane
XGames.com

ASPEN, Colo. — Nothing any athlete did at Winter X Games Aspen 2012 was going to cure the emptiness in their guts. Not the medals they won, not the memories they shared, not the tears they shed.

The spirit of freeskiing’s godmother, Sarah Burke — who died Jan. 19 at age 29 after a fall in the Park City, Utah, halfpipe — was everywhere this week. It didn’t matter what your sport was, it didn’t matter whether you were 15 or 50; the action-sports community united to mourn one of its heroes in Burke, a woman who personified class, grit and grace.

It didn’t get easier as the week wore on, but there was solace to be taken from each tribute, each sticker, each smile. As Canadian freeskiing pioneer Mike Douglas said of Burke on Wednesday: “She loved the X Games. This is the family that she loved to surround herself with. This is where she was happiest.”

And so began a week of ecstasy, heartbreak and history, one that will be remembered for the way in which some of the most talented athletes in the world honored their beloved friend by forging forward in spectacular fashion.

Trevor Brown, Jr./ESPNShaun White, superhuman.

PERFECTION, PROGRESSION
Shaun White notched a perfect score — 100 out of 100 — for his victory lap in the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final after unveiling his new frontside double cork 1260 in a run that also included a double McTwist 1260. Oh, and did we mention he was riding on a bum left ankle? He sprained it before arriving in Aspen this week, aggravated it in practice Thursday, missed the Slopestyle competition because of it and spent most of the week icing it on his couch. Must have been some good ice. “I’ve been wanting that 100 forever,” White said. Not one to rest on his laurels, he’s already thinking about how to top it with a six-peat in 2013: “There’s always next year,” he said.

Torstein Horgmo brought the first triple to the Winter X Games Big Air competition last year with a triple flip 180 that left many purists quibbling that it wasn’t a true triple cork spin. This year he shut them up for good with a picture-perfect triple cork 1440 and a perfect score — 50 out of 50 — to match it. Still, it was only good enough for silver since Winter X Big Air results combine the total of each rider’s best two runs, and Horgmo didn’t have another score big enough to fend off Mark McMorris. Horgmo spent most of the competition trying triples instead of putting down a solid safety run, and we have a feeling he was working up to something even bigger before time ran out. Why go for broke at the expense of winning? “It’s the X Games,” he said. “It’s just something you gotta do.”

Joshua Duplechian/Trevor Brown, Jr./ESPNCanadians Roz G. and Kaya Turski, who dedicated their wins to the memory of Sarah Burke.

FOR A TEAMMATE
Sarah Burke made her name in the halfpipe, so it only made sense that one of her Canadian teammates and protégés, Roz Groenewoud, won the first gold medal since Burke’s passing. Groenewoud did it in typical Burke fashion, too, boosting massive, fearless airs and linking technical tricks throughout her run. She won gold two days after another of Burke’s teammates, Kaya Turski, strung together a near-flawless run to complete a three-peat in Women’s Ski Slopestyle, sticking a trick she pioneered: the switch 1080.

Turski landed her run in the clutch, too, needing to overtake two of the sport’s brightest young talents on her final trip down the course. “We have someone watching from above that we need to make proud,” Turski said. “We all need to follow in Sarah’s footsteps. She was pushing the sport even when she didn’t need to, she was trying new tricks, landing new tricks, and I think now it’s our turn to keep pushing for her.”

Joshua Duplechian/ESPNMark McMorris, what teen dreams are made of.

McSOPHOMORE: THE GOLD STANDARD
Eighteen-year-old Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris was the biggest winner at Winter X Games 2012, taking gold in Big Air on Friday with a mind-blowing triple cork 1440 then doubling up with Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle gold on Saturday.

Only a year ago he was McRookie, winning silver in Slopestyle and just missing the podium in Big Air. This year he rode like he owned the place. The frontside double cork 1080s he threw in his Slopestyle runs? Yeah, he learned those last week. All the pressure of riding under the lights in the big show at Buttermilk Mountain? “It’s so much fun,” McMorris said. “I love riding at night.”

Fun is the operative word for McMorris, a snowboarder’s snowboarder who doesn’t seem to realize that the events at Winter X Games are competitions. “When you’re riding with the people you love to ride with it makes everything so much fun,” he said, shrugging off his wins.

FLIPPING OUT
Heath Frisby’s frontflip in Snowmobile Best Trick on Sunday was the first time the trick has been landed on a snowmobile and only the second time it’s been landed in any motorsports competition (Australian freestyle motocross rider Jackson “Jacko” Strong won Moto X Best Trick at X Games 17 with a front flip last July). Frisby wasn’t deterred after seeing his friend and rival Justin Hoyer auger into the snow on a failed double backflip moments before taking his run. “No one can explain the feeling athletes get,” Frisby said, by way of explanation. “When we go out there it is the worst feeling in your stomach, in your head, everything, and I just knew that I had to stay focused. I knew that I trained for this and I knew what to do.”

SBX PLANET REALIGNED

Nate Holland was back on top of the Snowboarder X podium this week after a brief tear in the fabric of the universe left him settling for bronze in 2011. Holland slipped up and moved back to the middle of the pack after an early lead out of the gate in Saturday’s six-man final, seemingly destined to fall short of gold again. But Snowboarder X is rarely that predictable: Leader Stian Sivertzen tumbled in the banked turns on the X course, clearing the way for Holland to take his sixth gold in seven years, leading an American podium sweep. We’ll check back in on the status of Holland’s six-peat dream in 2017: One down, five to go.

YOUNG AND OLD
Every year it seems like the X Games get younger, with fresh-faced teens usurping the very athletes who inspired them. That’s true in freeskiing as much as any sport, and in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle final on the games’ opening night, young and old collided. Small-town Indiana boy Nick Goepper, 17, and Pittsburgh urban wizard Tom Wallisch, who at 24 is akin to an elder statesman, engaged in an epic duel that ended with Wallisch claiming his first Winter X gold. It made you wonder which was more impressive: the fact that Goepper could ski so well at such a young age, or that Wallisch came so close to perfection at an age when most of his peers are past their prime.

Trevor Brown, Jr./ESPNUltimate Heath Frisby, frontflipping to Snowmobile Best Trick gold.

Two days later, Reno, Nev., skier David Wise strung together the run of his life to win SuperPipe gold. Forgetting for a moment that Wise used a rare switch double 1080 to vault to the top of the podium, the most stunning stat to qualify his notice-serving victory was that, at age 21, he was the oldest man on the podium. The combined age of the other two medalists, Noah Bowman and Torin Yater-Wallace, was 35. With his 3-month-old daughter watching from the bottom of the pipe, Wise’s perspective was just as refreshing as his athleticism. “Spending time with my wife has really centered my mind and made me realize that life’s not all about skiing,” Wise said. “It’s about being a good person as well and being passionate about all aspects of your life.”

Meanwhile, with everyone fixated on who’s next, one of the original action sports superstars seems to defy age altogether. By winning her second straight Snowboard SuperPipe gold Friday night, Kelly Clark made it 13 victories in her past 13 contests. This year’s win came 10 years after her first X Games gold, and thanks to her willingness to push the sport even when she doesn’t need to, Clark remains as close to unbeatable as any athlete we saw this week. “I’m kind of in awe of my streak right now,” Clark admitted. “But at the same time, I’m having fun and I think that’s the biggest component to my success.”

As it was for a certain fearless freeskier from Squamish, B.C.: the late great Sarah Burke.

How to describe the Zumiez 100k party in Keystone Colorado last night?

The annual party rewards the top Zumiez’s store employees who sell more than $100k during the year.

It’s a frenzy of hundreds of young people with energy and enthusiasm mixed with wacky costumes, creative and funny games and videos during the awards ceremony, nearly every action sports star athlete on the planet and nearly every CEO of brands carried by Zumiez.

Spend a few hours at the party and it is so clear why Zumiez has dominated the mall and taken market share from teen competitors.

First of all, it’s so real. The kids aren’t pretending to like the brands carried at Zumiez, or pretending to like action sports, or pretending to like their employer. They are passionate about the brands, the lifestyle, and Zumiez itself.

The room went wild when Zumiez Founder Tom Campion was introduced.

“Thank you for this year we had, you guys are friggin awesome! You are incredible sales kids,” he told the crowd.

They went crazy again when he spoke of the 10% comp gain during the holidays and said Zumiez will comp up 9% for the year.

Tom said it was because of them and their sales prowess that Zumiez was taking market share at the mall from stores like Aeropostale, American Eagle, etc. – and best of all, he said, Zumiez is “putting the pipe” to PacSun. That comment drew lots of wild cheering and yelling from the crowd.

“We are taking market share because of your guys’ ability to sell and all the work you do on sales floor!,” Tom told them.

Another reason it becomes clear why Zumiez is leading the pack is the sheer number of brands it carries. As part of the ceremony, Zumiez brings brand founders on stage, and the founders thank the kids for all of their hard work. That made is very clear the depth and range of brands it stocks, from a larger band like Volcom to smaller ones like Diamond Supply Company and Brixton.

The kids hooted and hollered a lot when the brand founders were introduced, and it was interesting to see that younger brands drew just as enthusiastic response as some of the more established players.

I was also struck by the sheer creativity in the room. The kids created imaginative costumes, and whole award ceremony was wacky and funny. Retail-themed games on stage included a race to scan huge, hanging bar codes and a “door buster” game where you try to break through a faux door to a prize on the other side.

The company culture that Campion and Zumiez have created is so strong, there was so much positive energy in the room, and the kids seemed anything but jaded or cynical. You walk away feeling optimistic not only about the industry, but the younger generation as well.