Article on "Street Style Magazine"
11-12-2002, 11:07 AM
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Article on "Street Style Magazine"
Duo rev up biking mag
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
By MARY KATE FRANK
Herald News
If you ever read Street Style magazine, you will find out how to improve your "12 o'clock wheelie."
You will meet Dustin "Insano" Apgar and the Wheelie Boyz.
You'll get to see cool pictures of professional bikers displaying their various injuries.
This is the vision of Derek DeLotto and Nicholas David, two fans of a new sport known as freestyle sport bike riding. At 22, they are Generation Y entrepreneurs, preparing to launch a magazine with a couple of credit cards, an iMac computer and a clear understanding of the difference between a "rolling stoppie" and a "stop stoppie."
A 28-page prototype of their venture, Street Style magazine, is now at the printer.
They expect to distribute 1,000 copies in the next few weeks to attract advertisers.
"We have to make sure we get it to the right people and they see it in the right way," said DeLotto, of Wayne.
The magazine focuses on the competitive aspect of sport motorcycle riding and emphasizes safety along with stunts, he said.
David added, "If you keep pushing the street aspect of it, everyone will think it's just a bunch of punk kids. That's not what it is."
As a trend, freestyle sport bike riding is about where skateboarding was 20 years ago, before breakout star Tony Hawk and the X Games made it mainstream. As a sport, it's growing more rapidly.
"Over the last few years is when it really exploded into a huge underground subculture," said Ken Abbott, director of competition for the X-treme Sport Bike Association, the Chicago-based group that coordinates sport bike competitions on racetracks in cities such as Daytona, Fla., and Portland, Ore.
The first-ever sport bike X-treme freestyle event was held in 2001.
This year, 10 are planned. There are about 20 professional teams and 60 professional riders across the country.
"It wants to become mainstream," said DeLotto. "But it just needs the help."
As a kid, DeLotto was a menace on his dirt bike. At 18, he graduated to a street bike (which can cost from $6,000 to $10,000). A part-time graphic design student at William Paterson University, he came up with the idea for Street Style while at the International Motorcycle Show in New York in February.
Using their computer knowledge and industry contacts (neither competes regularly but they attend the events), DeLotto and David produced the prototype themselves, writing articles, taking pictures and laying out the magazine. They also launched a Web site (www. streetstylemagazine.com). They paid for it all with their credit cards, spending about $20,000.
Now that the prototype is being printed, they admit to being nervous - and with good reason. Maybe one out of every 10 magazines launched survives, said Samir Husni, author of a yearly guide to new consumer magazines. In 2001, 702 magazines were launched, down from 1,065 in 1998.
"There are a lot of people out there into these extreme sports," said Husni, a University of Mississippi professor. "But we have no proof yet that they are into reading about it."
A few other magazines already chronicle the sport, but DeLotto and David say Street Style will be the first to be devoted to sport bike riding, without including other so-called extreme sports like motocross or snowboarding.
The bimonthly magazine, which will probably retail for $4.95, will include competition coverage, interviews with teams and riders, a new-products page, reviews of sport bike videos, and tips on stunts.
Both DeLotto and David say putting together the magazine has given them a direction and they don't plan on giving up, despite the mounting credit card bills.
"Before we started this, I was so lost," said David. "We have nothing else. This is what we put our heart into."
Reach Mary Kate Frank at (973) 569-7155 or frank@northjersey.com.
found here
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
By MARY KATE FRANK
Herald News
If you ever read Street Style magazine, you will find out how to improve your "12 o'clock wheelie."
You will meet Dustin "Insano" Apgar and the Wheelie Boyz.
You'll get to see cool pictures of professional bikers displaying their various injuries.
This is the vision of Derek DeLotto and Nicholas David, two fans of a new sport known as freestyle sport bike riding. At 22, they are Generation Y entrepreneurs, preparing to launch a magazine with a couple of credit cards, an iMac computer and a clear understanding of the difference between a "rolling stoppie" and a "stop stoppie."
A 28-page prototype of their venture, Street Style magazine, is now at the printer.
They expect to distribute 1,000 copies in the next few weeks to attract advertisers.
"We have to make sure we get it to the right people and they see it in the right way," said DeLotto, of Wayne.
The magazine focuses on the competitive aspect of sport motorcycle riding and emphasizes safety along with stunts, he said.
David added, "If you keep pushing the street aspect of it, everyone will think it's just a bunch of punk kids. That's not what it is."
As a trend, freestyle sport bike riding is about where skateboarding was 20 years ago, before breakout star Tony Hawk and the X Games made it mainstream. As a sport, it's growing more rapidly.
"Over the last few years is when it really exploded into a huge underground subculture," said Ken Abbott, director of competition for the X-treme Sport Bike Association, the Chicago-based group that coordinates sport bike competitions on racetracks in cities such as Daytona, Fla., and Portland, Ore.
The first-ever sport bike X-treme freestyle event was held in 2001.
This year, 10 are planned. There are about 20 professional teams and 60 professional riders across the country.
"It wants to become mainstream," said DeLotto. "But it just needs the help."
As a kid, DeLotto was a menace on his dirt bike. At 18, he graduated to a street bike (which can cost from $6,000 to $10,000). A part-time graphic design student at William Paterson University, he came up with the idea for Street Style while at the International Motorcycle Show in New York in February.
Using their computer knowledge and industry contacts (neither competes regularly but they attend the events), DeLotto and David produced the prototype themselves, writing articles, taking pictures and laying out the magazine. They also launched a Web site (www. streetstylemagazine.com). They paid for it all with their credit cards, spending about $20,000.
Now that the prototype is being printed, they admit to being nervous - and with good reason. Maybe one out of every 10 magazines launched survives, said Samir Husni, author of a yearly guide to new consumer magazines. In 2001, 702 magazines were launched, down from 1,065 in 1998.
"There are a lot of people out there into these extreme sports," said Husni, a University of Mississippi professor. "But we have no proof yet that they are into reading about it."
A few other magazines already chronicle the sport, but DeLotto and David say Street Style will be the first to be devoted to sport bike riding, without including other so-called extreme sports like motocross or snowboarding.
The bimonthly magazine, which will probably retail for $4.95, will include competition coverage, interviews with teams and riders, a new-products page, reviews of sport bike videos, and tips on stunts.
Both DeLotto and David say putting together the magazine has given them a direction and they don't plan on giving up, despite the mounting credit card bills.
"Before we started this, I was so lost," said David. "We have nothing else. This is what we put our heart into."
Reach Mary Kate Frank at (973) 569-7155 or frank@northjersey.com.
found here
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