Black Dot, known for its performance snowboarding apparel, announced its plans to introduce a new lifestyle apparel collection to make the brand available to retailers year-round. The Spring 2006 line will be unveiled at Action Sports Retailer in San Diego.

Black Dot joins the Spring 2006 Action Sports Retailer show as a “new brand,” repositioned with an entirely unique, graphic-oriented product line designed to connect with the core drivers of active youth culture.

“Black Dot’s new line takes its inspiration not just from the brand’s roots in action sports, but from other meaningful youth culture influences such as music, TV and art,” says Dane Hjort, Black Dot’s newly appointed brand president. “We have an excellent foundation in youth and action sports culture from which to springboard into year-round apparel that fuses fashion, sport, culture and lifestyle.”

Highlighting the inaugural line is a flagship series of tees, hoodies and swimwear designed in collaboration with three of today’s hottest pop culture artists – Brooklyn artist James Marshall (better know as Dalek), Toronto artist Derek Hodgson, and Mike Giant, a fine artist with a global reputation for graffiti art. The Artist Series features original artwork by these artists.

Conveying slimmer cuts and colorful palettes, Black Dot’s new lifestyle collection for guys and girls offers a wide assortment of basics including tops, pants, shorts, skirts, jackets and swimwear. The collection also includes a graphics line of tees and hoodies featuring unique graphic embellishments for each color way.

Hjort continued, “We see an opportunity in this marketplace to sell our brand year-round, particularly because lifestyle products and categories continue to capture significant market share. We have strong support from our parent company London Fog Group, with its heritage of quality apparel manufacturing, to grow Black Dot into a strong, year-round lifestyle brand. The London Fog Group’s sourcing and manufacturing capabilities will enable Black Dot to grow successfully in this new lifestyle direction.”

Black Dot’s parent company London Fog Industries recently hired Hjort, a 15-year action sports industry veteran to serve as president of the Black Dot brand. Hjort previously held senior brand management and marketing positions at Rossignol Snowboards, Northwave and Ride Snowboards.