As you may or may not have heard, Surface is teaming up with Skullcandy for a line of co-branded skis, poles, headphones, and other trinkets. The press release has been posted and reposted on most skiing related websites, but there were still some nagging issues we wanted to clear up. We decided to ask Mike Schneider, the man behind the “the fastest growing brand in freeskiing,” a few questions.

I have no idea if this is an active rumor, but if not we’re going to start it: Does Skullcandy own Surface now?

It would be a great rumor if it were true, however, we are not owned by Skullcandy.

How did this collaboration come to be? What is the relationship between the brands?

The collaboration has been a long time coming. We have been discussing it with Skullcandy for the last year and finally decided to pull the trigger and make it happen. The relationships there all tie back to skiing. I have been good friends with Skyler Gillette (Core Sales) for a lot of years and ski with a bunch of folks up there like Dan Levine, Steph, Zack Leader, Uda and Jeff Earl…all really good people.

We’ve seen Level 1 and PBP headphones co-branded with Skullcandy, but what’s unique about the Surface collaboration?

Our collabo with Skullcandy is actually and entire line of co-branded products, skis, clothing, poles, accessories. I believe the PBP and Level 1 deal was strictly caps for the Icon headphones. Another differentiator is the fact that our collabo products will be sold through all of our channels here in the USA, virtually every country in Europe as well as Asia, NZ, Australia and South America. It’s not just strictly a promotional program. This is the first collabo of this magnitude in freeski.

After reading back through the press release, I’m not sure when these skis will be released. Will they be in shops this fall/winter?

The skis will debut in Windell’s Summer Camp the entire last week in July (Session 6) where we will be hosting on and off snow activities all week and then celebrating the collabo with a live performance from Del tha Funkee Homosapien on Friday July 30^th on the Windells compound. The skis will be available for consumer and retail purchase in September sometime.

Who is designing the graphics for the partnership models?

All design work has been from Surface in-house designer, Jay Eichhorst.

Are there any plans to extend the partnership beyond this season?

We will carry the collabo through the season and show these and new collabo products at SIA in January and also have them on display at the Skullcandy booth at ISPO as well.

Surface has a pretty strong brand identity within skiing, how do you think it meshes with Skullcandy’s much bigger profile?

Skullcandy hasn’t been that big for that long. It wasn’t that long ago when they were on the tram at Snowbird giving away ridiculous amounts of stickers and those first round of Skullcany Links to everyone on the tram. Their growth has been recent and with a lot of hard work and smart choices made along the way, similar to Surface. A lot of people think Surface is a new brand, but we are actually going into our 7^th season this year. By teaming up with Skullcandy it adds a level of legitimacy to our brand and gives us one more creative outlet to use.

There’s been some mention of the shoddy quality of Skullcandy headphones…what has been your experience with their product?

I think I know where you’ve seen some of those comments. My opinion there is that everything breaks, especially electronics. A lot of it depends on the user and how much they appreciate and take care of their possessions, no matter what brand it is. After owning a skateboard retail store for a number of years, I know that a lot of kids in our market are actually proud of breaking their equipment, whether it’s a skate deck, snowboard or a pair of park skis. It gives them the feeling that they were crushing it harder than everyone else. As we get older and actually have to pay for things ourselves, it seems like we start taking care of our gear a little more and making it last. I have 20+ different pairs of Skullcandy headphones in my house and have never had a problem with them breaking. On another note, I do know that Skullcandy was the first core audio brand in the world and has paved the way for brands like Matix, Nixon, WESC, Siege and more to create a headphone division within their companies. Their products are trusted and used by such musicians as Jay Z and Roc Nation, Snoop Dogg, Thrice, Del and many more world renowned artists.

Any chance that this foreshadows a future leap by the Surface brands into the audio market?

No, we have enough on our plates with Surface and Joystick and now launching an apparel brand this fall, Causwell. I am content with my new Roc Nation Aviators I have just acquired.