Deckstool: Recycled Skateboard Furniture

The Deckstool is not a stool that goes on your deck, although it could be. It is, in fact, far cooler: a stool made out of recycled skateboard decks, produced by skilled craftsmen in what is arguably the skateboard capital of the East Coast: Philadelphia, PA.

The Deckstool started when Jason Podlaski’s brother handed him a pile of his old, broken skateboards and said, “Make me a piece of furniture.” Five years later, the Deckstool has garnered Interior Design Magazine’s Future Furniture Award, as well as the attention of both Playboy Magazine (September 2009 issue) and that fount of all man-things noteworthy and momentous, Uncrate.com

Deckstool has printed a number of different stickers with Custom Sticker Makers, including their logo, which is (you guessed it) a Deskstool. Their latest design takes a different approach: it’s the DeckReaper (the Grim Reaper dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.) It’s raison d’etre? To encourage skaters in the greater Philly area to recycle their old decks. (Deckstool pays dividends to skateshops for helping them to keep pallet-loads of busted boards out of the landfills.)

Why CSM? Jason Podlaski says, “You guys were reasonably priced, and when we got in a pinch a couple of times, you turned our stickers around in just a few days.”

Mana Energy: Potion of Choice for Discerning Gamers

Mana Energy Potion looks like exactly what it is: an energy potion from a fantasy game come to life. The brainchild of gamers Aaron Rasmussen and Eli Szasz, Mana is a new energy drink that comes in a supercool little potion bottle about the size of a bottle of mini-booze that packs a 5-8 hour punch.

Specifically developed by gamers for gamers, Mana is popular with both the video-gaming and role-playing crowd, as it allows them to “level up” their energy without losing points and concentration by uh, having to go to the can.

The folks at Mana are super-savvy with their marketing, and it shows: after just two years in business, Mana and its sister drink, Health Energy Potion, are now distributed at Hot Topic, Spencer’s Gifts and ThinkGeek, as well as at comic book stores from coast to coast.

Their killer marketing strategy? Sponsorships (of conventions, LAN parties and bar nights), social networking and viral videos featuring ingenious “how to” hacks (of everything from the Nerf gun to the Wii) and of course, custom stickers printed by Custom Sticker Makers. At the gaming convention Comicon alone, they distributed nearly a thousand of their distinctive die-cut stickers.

“We looked around and tried a few other companies,” says John Brence of Mana Potions, “but when I talked with Jeff and Daniel, it was just like talking to a friend. They worked with us and gave us exactly what we needed.”