Well the Grand Opening of the Lab finally happened. It was a great time and to all of you who were there; Thank you for all of your support.! To all of you who couldn’t make it we missed you and you missed a bang up party!
Last week was utter chaos here at the Lab. It was absolutely awesome! The one thing about us is that we seem to thrive on the madness and the chaos of life. I won’t bore you with all the details of how everything actually came together, but I will tell you a few pieces of how things got crazy and we pulled it all together. So the following is an account of what lead up to the grand opening and an account of the night itself(albeit one account and pieced together at that).
So it’s Monday morning and we have exactly 130 hours to pull off the Grand Opening of the Store and produce approximately 400+ pieces of apparel…No problem. Well as the show room was filled with boxes from top to bottom and front to back the challenge seemed a little daunting. But we have done more with less and the pressure is what makes us who we are. Remember, “pressure is what turns a piece of coal into a diamond!” We didn’t let the sheer size of the task wavier our determination to have a great party and show off the new designs. We split up the tasks between apparel that needed to be produced and the party preparations. The party preparations included; having a stage for the Band (Moska Project was going to do a live set), food, open bar with bartenders, port o potties, chairs, etc.
Alright let’s fast forward to Thursday, Party essentials are basically secured we are just waiting for delivery on Saturday. So the main focus is the apparel and some minor touch ups around the lab. There were shirts and hoodies everywhere! You couldn’t see the pool table in the main room and barely make out the couch or even the floor for that matter. Richard had the screen press going double time and Scotty Rad had the heat press slammed. We were here till about midnight on Thursday, although you know we had to take a mini-ramp break around 8pm just to keep our heads right. After pressing out some final designs, we shut it down and got right back at the next morning.
Friday was much of the same except the pressure was certainly building and we were getting to a point of deciding what was going to have to be cut. We were going to have to cut some designs, as time was just not going to permit and wrenches kept being thrown into our system. Although Richard, the ever present optimist, still said we would have everything. Being the realist I am, I knew there was no way we would have it all. There was still like 100+ pieces to get done. Well by Friday night everything was starting to come together , although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the place. There were still boxes everywhere and the shirts were in relatively organized patterns/piles. Friday night ended somewhere after midnight and we had to get right back to it first thing in the morning on Saturday.
Saturday–PARTY DAY!–Game Time! Well Saturday is here and there is no going back. Only straight ahead into the madness is the only way we can make it out alive. So we all put our heads down and got to work to make it all happen. We got some final shirts printed, but the hoodies were not going to make it, “oh well if that’s the worst that happens today we are going to be alright.” Richard stayed in the production room and the rest of us just concentrated on getting everything ready for the party. It was a mad dash from noon on as we only had 6 hours left before people started showing up and the Lab looked like a tornado had gone through it. Well we got everything outside that was going to be for sale and began setting the booth out front just as we would for a show. Dave and Savannah took charge of the booths, as I got the rest of the place set. The stage and chairs made it, the port o potties made it, the bartender even showed. Everything was coming together. Richard finished printing and was finally able to get some fresh air, since I wouldn’t let him out of the back for three days, as if he was in some Chinese sweet shop. Seriously though, the guy pounded it out and I am truly grateful for all the hard work he puts in here at the Lab. Alright, so enough of the little details leading up the party..let’s talk about the party.
The party was absolutely amazing! Family started showing up around 4:30 to 5pm and really helped get all the last minute items knocked out for us. By 6pm we were ready to rock. The Moska Project made it and started to set up their equipment and get some tunes playing. Then all our friends started to show and before you knew it there were cars everywhere and you knew it was going to be a great night. A few of our boys came out with boards in hand ready to shred the mini and the mini ramp session that ensued would make any skater proud. Big shout out to Cody and Rob for showing us all how a mini ramp should be skated and for making me jealous. lol Well we kicked the real party off around 7 with The Moska Project’s first set and the crowd was stoked. By that time there was a good 60 to 70 people here and as the night went on the party swelled to around 125. The drinks were flowing and maybe there was even a hint of evergreen in the air. And from the pictures(see below and FaceBook) it looks like everyone got at least a little twisted. As we have stated in the past we are a lifestyle company. A company influenced by skateboarding, surfing, punk music, hip-hop, south florida, and more. I feel the grand opening really show cased that aspect of Evidense. There were skaters, surfers, mma’er, punkers, and hip-hop’ers, models, and even some bodybuilders. With all these different types of people and attitudes you would think there would have been some altercations. But it was quite the opposite, everyone was mad chill and having a great time! Some of the standout moments were the wall rides and front side ollies on to a chair in the mini ramp room. And of course getting to catch up with all of our friends.
So the night came to a close with good vibes and times all in the air. We even sold some clothes and generated some new business. All in all it was a success.
Thanks to all of you who came out and we missed all of you that couldn’t make it. There will be only one grand opening, but you can all rest assure that we will be throwing more parties in the near future.
Special Thanks to: Savannah Griffen, Scotty Rad and Family, Dave Hall, Jamie Probst, Lindsey McIlwain, Candy and Darren Gordon, Alex and Toni Velong, Alex Nikolis, Andrea Lauren, Triston Carroll, and everyone that came out to make this event a huge success.
