From their About Page:

Azriel Clothing started with the idea to make sick clothes at an affordable price all the while helping others less fortunate. Founded in Bend, Oregon Azriel is a socially conscience company with a deep rooted belief in helping the community and others around them. 10% of everything Azriel sells goes to children’s charities. Along with this Azriel is currently working on a shirt project to financially aid the family of Tyler Eklund, a 14 year old snowboarder who was paralyzed at a competition this last year.

However, they also stated what and how they support Team Eklund:

Tyler Eklund, The Bend, Oregon 14-year old paralyzed in a snowboarding accident in Nevada is now recovering at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Tyler suffered an injury to the C3 section of his vertebrate in a snowboarding accident this last winter. The nerves in his body are not healing like doctors had hoped. When he injured these nerves, the damaged extended downwards, and while lower body nerves such as ones of hands of fingers can heal themselves, the nerves in the spine cannot.

Doctors say he will only be able to use the top 2 segments of spine and his head. Theses sections do not include control of his extremities or lungs. Chances are he will need a respirator for the rest of his life and a home to accommodate his immobility.

75% of every shirt sold goes to the Eklund family to help in aide the construction and renovation of their house to make it accessible for Tyler.

I’ve been working at boardriding industry for about 5 years, make a lot of good connection, get to know the industry better through industry reports until i left my (corporate) work last month. The picture of the industry in my head is full of fake corporates, jocks and ignorance. That’s how i left anyway.

So it’s a very nice feeling everytime i find a cool company in the industry exist not only for the money and sh*t (who don’t like money anyway, i just want to continue to have money with style…) but also for a good cause. Which is rare to find these days.

Check Azriel Clothing here, a very good web design as well!

nvohk™: The First Crowd F(o)unded Eco-Clothing Brand Signs Up 1,250+ Future Members within 2 Months

nvohk™ is The First Community-Managed, Surf-Inspired, Eco-friendly Clothing Company

Los Angeles – February 13, 2008 – Today, nvohk, inc. announces that it has signed up over 1,250 future members interested in developing and managing nvohk™ (pronounced ‘invoke’), the first community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. The Company began recruiting members via www.projectnvohk.com on December 4, 2007.

In addition, because of the enthusiastic and positive response from nvohk’s early adopters, the Company is accelerating its member activation target to 5,000 future members. novhk will continue to recruit and activate up to 40,000 members.

“nvohk’s model is about shifting power into the hands of consumers. So after receiving numerous inquiries from people wanting to know how they can get involved immediately, we decided to accelerate the model,” said Brendan T. Lynch, President of nvohk, inc.

nvohk combines the best of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding business models to develop and launch a new lifestyle brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance. nvohk is the first lifestyle brand to give consumers meaningful managerial power.

nvohk is recruiting 5,000+ members to contribute $50 a year to develop and shape the nvohk brand. Membership will be capped at 40,000 members. Members will make major business decisions including logo design, web design, product design, advertising, etc. Members will also receive an exclusive member t-shirt, 35% of nvohk’s net profits in the form of reward points that can be redeemed to purchase products, and 25% off all nvohk products. In addition, nvohk will donate 10% of net profits to environmental organizations selected by its members.

nvohk fills a critical gap in the lifestyle brand arena. nvohk will enable consumers to get involved and participate in business decision-making and environmental causes. It will provide consumers with an entertaining and sustainable platform for making a meaningful and positive impact on the environment by putting members in the driver’s seat and allowing them to drive the nvohk brand to a profitable venture that will contribute 10% of net profits to member selected environmental charities.

“nvohk has proven to have global relevance right out of the gate. With about 40% of future members coming from outside the U.S. to date, nvohk is a great example of how the internet and globalization are changing the business landscape forever,” said Brendan T. Lynch, President of nvohk, inc.

To learn more about nvohk or to become a member, please visit www.projectnvohk.com

About nvohk™

nvohk™ (pronounced ‘invoke’) is the first community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. The Company is recruiting, through www.projectnvohk.com, 5,000+ members to contribute $50 a year to develop and shape the nvohk brand. Membership will be capped at 40,000 members.

Co-founded by Brendan T. Lynch and Sergio Salas, nvohk combines the best of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding business models to develop and launch a new lifestyle brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance.

The company is based in Los Angeles, California.

Like always most of my internet hours filled by RSS readings. This time i found an interesting company / business idea through CoolBusinessIdeas: Nvohk (spelled invoke).

Like the title of this post, Nvohk is a community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. The company is now recruiting members via their site.

How it works:
1. Enter your Name and email address at the site.
2. When 20.000 members sign up, you will be invited to contribute $50 a year to develop and manage the company.
3. Members make major business decisions including logo design, product designs, advertising etc.
4. 10% of net profits go straight to environmental charities.
5. 35% of net profits are rewarded to members via reward points.

It sounds like some sort of Public Company or even a one tier multi level company but better. Because you don’t have to recruit anyone which will become your affiliate and because their concept is community driven. Also what interests me is the eco-friendly message they are in. It is important. Many times, surfers are contributing saving our earth, and we can’t stop because saving our earth is a never ending project.

For more information you can go to their site www.projectnvohk.com and make your choice. FYI, the company also supported by Transworld Surf magazine.

I’m in.

2. In seven days 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore is going to address the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Surfersvillage and Earthwave have signed his petition showing their support for the important call for a visionary treaty to address the climate crisis. We hope you will too.

3. Volcom Entertainment is proud to announce the birth of the Volcom Ent. Vinyl Club (VEVC), a yearly – 6 release – subscription based split 7inch vinyl series, with the following artists scheduled to contribute songs in 2008; Birds of Avalon, Dark Meat, Earthless, Monotonix, Red Fang, RTX, Totimoshi, Turbonegro, Tweak Bird, Valient Thorr, Witch, and Year Long Disaster.

4. Zumiez Inc. recorded a 5.6% increase in same store sales for fiscal November. The comps improvement comes on top of a 12.1% jump in the year-ago month. Total net sales for the four-week period increased 28.5% to $33.3 million, compared to $25.9 million for the same period last year.

5. Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. sales for the four weeks of fiscal November were $120.9 million, an increase of 3.6% over total sales of $116.6 million during the same period in 2006.

Quiksilver continue to grow its customer base beyond its surf, snow and skateboarder roots. The company has hired Greg Perlot, strategic director and co-founder and partner of its Los Angeles shop 72 and Sunny, as its top American marketing director.

Greg Perlot, 44, will become senior VP-marketing of Quiksilver Brands Americas, reporting to its president, Steve Tully. Mr. Perlot has been working as a “creative consultant” to the company for three years, the company said in announcing the hire.

Volcom’s third-quarter profits and revenues were undeniably good. Net income increased by 43% to $14.5 million or $0.59 per share, and revenues jumped 49% to $91 million. The company’s stepped-up European operations contributed $26 million to the revenue growth, although continued investments in European infrastructure contributed to a 49% increase in SG&A expenses.

Personally, I’m impressed by Volcom and its clever, authentic branding to the board sports crowd. I’m also aware it’s one of those high-growth stocks that wipes out when it disappoints high expectations. Given the tough macro environment, conservative investors might wait to see if the fourth quarter presents an opportunity to buy shares cheaper, but given its high-growth history, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to go shopping for Volcom shares on this dip right now.

Summaries at Yahoo Finance.