The word “swag” is commonly used in Hollywood circles and within the entertainment industry to describe free goods given out at parties by companies, often with the company logos emblazoned for all to see.
In Marquette, on the other hand, swag is hardly ever provided at parties, and comes up in conversation even less.
That will all change when Marquette’s Casualties Skate and Snow throws their annual video premiere party Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m..
On that day, swag will be flying over the heads and into the hands of hundreds of NMU snowboarding fans packed into JXJ 102. Casualties will pass out free snowboarding equipment, as well as raffle off larger goods, such as a 2006 Ski Doo Freestyle snowmobile wrapped in a custom graphic. Cost of admission is $3 at the door, and each raffle ticket costs $1.
Mike Forester, a Casualties employee and junior graphic design major, said this year’s event will be one of the biggest giveaways in the snowboarding industry.
Last year’s premiere of a Mack Dawg Productions film was the third largest American snowboarding video premiere in 2006, according to Forester. That year’s premiere brought 700 students into the Jamrich auditorium. Sacramento and Seattle were the only two sites with larger crowds. Forester expected this year’s premiere to be as big, if not bigger, partly due to the addition of a metal music theme.
“We’ve really been watching these premieres grow from the grass roots of snowboarding to the full on assault that they are now,” Forester said.
He said the video premiere has been mentioned in snowboarding publications such as Snowboarding magazine, Stuck magazine and Snowboarder.
“We’ve got kids from downstate Michigan who come up just for this,” Forester said.
Casualties puts on two large events a year; this is different from the practices of other skate and snow shops around the nation, who put on a variety of events all throughout the year.
“One day we just said, ‘Why don’t we have two events and make them the most banging events in the Midwest?'” Forester said.
Two professional snowboarders featured in the Mack Dawg film will be at the premiere — Aaron Bittner and Bjorn Leines.
Casualties’ other event is a boot camp in which professional snowboarders teach youth snowboarding basics.
“As far as production for this event goes, we’ve been working on this for at least a month and a half,” he said.
Along with Casualties, the event is being promoted by Northern’s American Marketing Association and the NMU Skate and Snowboard club.
Corey Brochu is one of five officers in the NMU Skate and Snowboard, and he said he’s been working on this event since the beginning of the 2007 school year.
“If we’re not working every day, then we’re at least working every other day,” Brochu, a junior environmental science major, said. “Just this morning I was up at 6 a.m. boiling water to make hot chocolate to give out in the academic mall.”
Brochu said that presenters from last year’s premiere said the Marquette event was one of the best stops, and that the presenters had the most fun at this one.
“Hopefully we can just build on last year,” he added.
