Fourkast Launches!

We are very happy to announce that the Fourkast Footbag Company has launched out of the birthplace of footbag, Portland Oregon! The evolution of Fourkast has been a long time in the making; the story essentially begins in 2003 with resurgence in footbag in the Portland area. Through the work of a few people (Ethan 'Red' Husted, Jaime Scheffler) the long running (but more recently dormant) Sole Purpose Footbag Group was reactivated, and steadily grew from that point. In 2004 the group's first footbag DVD (entitled Fourkast) was released, which chronicled the rise/return of freestyle footbag in the Northwest United States. A year later Red Husted would team up with the inventor of footbag and Hacky Sack (Mr. John Stalberger) to run the Founder's Cup/Northwest Fest Invitational. This would be the precursor to the creation US Open Footbag Championships (which combined both freestyle and net footbag in one giant national event) in 2006. It was a great success, and from there the group and event continued to gain momentum. Within its string of successes, the Sole Purpose Group also continued to grow in numbers. Soon the Sole Purpose Group had reacheived the status of being one of the strongest footbag scenes in the world (for the third time since footbag's invention in the local area). This new golden age in Portland produced and attracted many great players including new school sensation Nick Landes, and more recently the 2009 US Freestyle Footbag Champion, Scott Bevier. While the group enjoyed a talented new school scene, it retained many of it's legends from the history of footbag such as John Stalberger and Kenny Shults (possibly the greatest champion of footbag of all time, and inventor of many of the moves and concepts in the sport). Other footbag legends that remained active in the scene included Tricia George, Ted Huff, and Kendall KIC. Taking a page from these footbag legends' playbook, the new generation of Portland footbag worked hard to promote the scene in the area, this included school performances, public and corporate shows, and work with non profits and after school programs. Through this time the Sole Purpose Group began to retail and market footbags at their shows and online. Slowly but surely, the group was naturally evolving into the business realm of the sport. In 2009 at the US Open Freestyle Footbag Championships, the Fourkast Footbag Company was officially launched, representing the business side of the Sole Purpose. There are many projects slated Fourkast in the short and long term, the launch of the site represents the first phase of a four part project. Fourkast will be specializing in 4 major areas upon launch. They are;

-Footbag Products and related, ecommerce, retail and wholesale
-Footbag Media (online videos and promotions)
-Footbag News Coverage and Online Magazine
-Footbag Social Networking

At Fourkast, it is our goal to represent the cutting edge of freestyle footbag, as well be all inclusive to the various types of footbag player out there (from casual kicker to pro level freestyler). Below is a more in depth breakdown of what we will be doing;

Footbag Store:

After much research and many years in the game, here at Fourkast we have dedicated ourselves to the vision of bringing the highest quality footbag products to the people. Thus we are happy to roll out the Fourkast Footbag Store! Though there have been pockets of quality here and there (mostly provided by our good friends in the community : ) we are looking to expand beyond the base, producing and marketing our product on a mass level. This means an aggressive push in product promotion online, at the wholesale level, and in person. Great attention has been placed on the quality of our product (both mass produced and locally crafted), and we are dedicated to providing the best customer service possible. The majority of our footbags are produced using high quality synthetic suede fabric, including Amaretta, or Ultrasuede Light fabric. All production is either local, or made under the articles of Fair Trade or Business Social Accountability. On the apparel side, we are looking to provide quality clothing that not only works well for the kicker to play in, but also sharpens the image of freestyle footbag. The Fourkast product line will be expanding regularly; we are already planning our next gen product line after the initial launch. You can be assured we will keep the people informed as we continuously update our selection. It is our goal to get a quality Fourkast footbag in the hands of every player and storefront in North America and beyond!

Footbag Media (Fourkast TV):

This is where Fourkast originally began; promoting footbag on the media front. Our goal is to bring high quality media to the people. Taking advice from our good friends and accomplished video producers Jere Vainikka and Elliot Piltz, the Fourkast Media Team has gained access to high end HD video recording equipment. This combined with a handful of good video editors; we plan to again bring high quality representative media to the people, via the web and DVD. Expect good things coming up! Aside from the video production and editing, we have also set up a major area on our site, Fourkast TV. From here forth we plan to have this area act as the archives for online footbag media. It has been divided up into many areas including;

-Shred Video (the most up-to-date freestyle footbag videos online)

-Tournament Videos (people can watch how certain tournaments went down)

-Trick Section (An ever expanding comprehensive trick area for people to study and learn the moves)

-Freestyle Team Section (An area designed to showcase the Fourkast Freestyle Team)

-Player Archives Section (We store videos from the past, and will be building a library of past and present footbag players for public record)

The real power of the Fourkast Media area is that not only can the staff contribute to the video sections; members of the site can contribute their own videos as well! We offer two options for this; the video can simply be uploaded to our site quickly, or it can be embedded from another video sharing site (say from youtube or other). There is also a trick section offered, sorted by adds by request of the viewer. We also have a strong keyword search option attached to the videos; an example of this would be searching out the footbag term 'stepping'. Every move that has a stepping has been tagged and will be pulled up as reference. The same rule applies for players, type in David Clavens, and you will see everything related to him, including video of moves he performs often! We will be continuously updating the tricks section as moves evolve and media changes, our intent is to stay updated as the sport grows and evolves! Our ultimate goal is to bring an easy and accessible viewing/uploading option to the people; we feel Fourkast TV is a strong step in the right direction.

Footbag News/Online Magazine:

Here at Fourkast, footbag news coverage is of great importance to us! This is why we are happy announce the Fourkast Footbag Online Magazine! This area will provide comprehensive coverage of footbag internationally. A variety of topics will be covered including;

-Shredlines (up-to-date headline footbag news)

-Tournament News (reporting from various competitions)

-Interviews (with a variety of individuals in the footbag world)

-Commentary (writers input of various footbag subjects)

-Tech Talk (footbag pros give tips and suggestions with the game of freestyle footbag)

-Around the World (footbag news and articles from around the globe)

-Kicking It Old School (footbag stories about the history of the sport and players)

-Kickers Corner (for the casual kicker, not necessarily freestyle oriented)

-Shreditas (chronicling women's freestyle footbag)

-General Articles (for non specific articles)

We are lucky enough to have some very good writers on board, including Asmus Helms, Jay Boychuk, and Andrew McCargar to name a few. Other writers/players will be contributing articles along the way; don't be surprised to see an article or two from a few top rated freestylers!

Footbag Social Networking:

As of the official launch of the site, this area will be ever expanding. Our main goal is to link together people in the sport, and further create a realm footbag players can interact in. Many of the before mentioned areas were designed to support this, including the footbag video section and the footbag news/magazine area. There is also the Fourkast Photo Gallery, where players can post their footbag pictures and comment on them. Each player can also build a profile that can be search and found by other players, expect this area to expand a bit in the near future : ) Aside from these things we are building a few other social networking options, which we will happily announce upon their competition. We are very proud of the Fourkast site, and are excited to work on its evolution to the next stage!

You can learn more about who we are here;

About Fourkast

To sum up, here at the Fourkast Footbag Company, we are excited and honored to promote the sport we love from the epicenter of footbag. Expect great things!

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