used food, corduroy panties, two blondes & a shrimp (sub title: my trip to the UGP warehouse)

after listening to me bitch about what seems like never ending cold weather and how Flip was having all the fun in Florida the fantastic folks down at the legendary UGP surprised me with an all expenses paid trip to the Orlando area to preview their upcoming back-to-school line, show me around the warehouse, introduce me to the behind the scenes crew and fill me to the brim with a booze fueled shmoozing...and shmooze they did.  first, for those that don't know, The Shadow Conspiracy and UGP used to be owned by the same person but that guy sold UGP a few years ago and all i (and most others) heard was that "a foreign investor" bought it.  those words instantly wreak of big business, corporate minded, money first/team second ideology (think Mongoose) but we're open minded enough and brought in the first season under new ownership.  we were not stoked.  most of what we got seemed like ill fitting Urban Outfitter rejects and that was enough to get us to stop carrying the brand.  jump forward a couple years and we got a call from a girl named Nicole that tells us she's new at UGP and wants to know what it's gonna take to get us back on board with them.  we told them what we thought and they said they were aware of the past problems and had corrected them and offered to send us a box of stuff for us to check out.  the stuff available now is much better (as promised) and from the look of the next few seasons it's only getting better.  new designers/graphics department, new sales weasels and an awesome new marketing department have done the trick.  and it's true that the new owner is a tad Asian but he's not what i pictured.  he's a rad, laid back hippy-ish sort of dude.  the first night in town they took me to some hip-hop bar/craft show thing and the owner was right there with us drinking, singing, dancing and making drunken promises i don't think he remembers.  the funniest part of the whole trip is that they somehow got into their minds that i love sea food (i don't) and kept taking me to sea food restaurants.  sure, i'll munch on the occasional all-you-can-eat Perch dinner and at one point i found myself with a mouthful of Nicole's oyster but the bottom line is how much i appreciate their effort's to make me happy.  after all...why should they be putting out all this effort on my lame ass?    i found it to be simply because they're just really cool people...each and every one of them from owner through shipping (although chick in the book keeping department kept giving me the stink-eye but i'll let it go).  now, if you're thinking they have somehow bought this advertorial with their free trip, fancy hotel room, two dozen free pairs of socks and getting me away from this lousy weather you're wrong.  even after all that, if i thought the stuff was shit i would tell you...i'd thank them for their efforts but ultimately, i still prefer to be honest with you guys.  so, if you dig the stuff then buy it...if not, then don't, what the hell do i care...just don't write them off as another corporate buy out trying to make a quick buck off of an "extreme sport"

todd...