Welcome to Lab-Gear 2008. It took a little longer to get back online this as there was some significant work behind the scenes to get the new cart system running. We think the wait was worth it though, our friends at CWS have done a brilliant job providing what is the fastest and friendliest cart system we have ever used.

The relaunch also signifies the return of Lab-Gear back to Australian shores. Scott of Lab-Gear UK, who’s been running things for the past few years, is still on board as the man and contact point for the UK and EU, but the main distribution point will once again be in Australia. Doing this allows us to produce new designs and restock faster than if we had to ship it over to the UK and distribute from Manchester, as well as being more flexible in the way we run things; and that to us is very important.

Over the next 3-4 months we will be working on a new and comprehensive line of kit, as well as continuing to offer GTO kit, as it comes, to our mailing list subscribers.

We at Lab-Gear are all excited about what this year has in store, we hope that our loyal customers out there will be too.

Cheers,

The Lab-Gear crew.

If you missed it last year, Refill 7 has a wonderful set of images from all decks from it’s exhibition at the MTV Gallery in Sydney on Flickr now.

And what was Refill 7? Refill magazine, asked a select group of artists around the world to design art for 50 skate decks. The art was then laser etched into the decks to produce beautiful, fine and often intricate pieces.

[check the Flickr set here]

Nuts!

…. yes, this is serious.

[via all sorts of places but the source is here]

“Charles F. Brannock only invented one thing in his life, and this was it. The son of a Syracuse, New York, shoe magnate, Brannock became interested in improving the primitive wooden measuring sticks that he saw around his father’s store. He patented his first prototype in 1926, based on models he had made from Erector Set parts. As the Park-Brannock Shoe Store became legendary for fitting feet with absolute accuracy, the demand for the device grew, and in 1927 Brannock opened a factory to mass produce it. The Brannock Device Co., Inc., is still in business today. Refreshingly, it still only makes this one thing. They have sold over a million, a remarkable number when one considers that each of them lasts up to 15 years, when the numbers wear off.”

[Read more of this interesting article by Michael Bierut at Design observer]

At long last, a tablet notebook Mac…. but not from Mac!

Axiotron takes a Mac Duocore Macbook and slaps it with touchscreen and new case to end up with a ‘Axiotron Modbook’.

Yes, we think it’s too cool for school and def. want one.

[see the love]

An interesting exhibition going down in London soon.

“PostlerFerguson is proud to present Paper Wars, an exhibition of the Death Machines series of paper reproductions of classic weapons systems at Portobello Road’s Craze Gallery.

The exhibition features a series of one-off pieces by an international selection of artists and designers. Using PostlerFerguson’s paper AK-47 kit as a starting point, each participant has recorded a personal reaction to the tension between the AK-47’s blend of seductive aesthetics, robust design and murky morality. Participants include Ben Wilson, El Ultimo Grito, Oscar and Ewan, Pixelgarten, Hiroko Shiratori, Paul Wysocan, Inkie, BASE23/DC|DE and more.

Also featured is a new addition to the Death Machines series, the Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun. First produced by the Swiss company Oerlikon Contraves in 1914, it was either sold to or stolen by all sides during WWI and WWII and continues to be used today.”