Though both Samalik and Call’s businesses are based in northern Michigan tourist destination towns near the 45th Parallel (Halfway Between the Equator & the North Pole), their reach is international.
One of Samalik’s most recent customers was the Birds of Prey World Cup Race in Beaver Creek, Colorado. The race, which is sponsored by Charles Schwab, is the fourth stop of the men's Audi FIS World Cup tour and one of alpine racing's marquee events of the season. The development of the Birds of Prey men’s downhill course in Beaver Creek is now recognized as one of the top downhill courses in the world and the only men’s downhill in the United States. In addition to Birds of Prey, Samalik has worked with a Charlton Heston sponsored event, a nationally recognized basketball tournament, and the largest canoe race in the country.
Call’s “Snoloha” brand, introduced with a clothing line, just turned one-year old and already has customers stretching from Florida to Alaska, and Hawaii to Maine, and now reaches across the Atlantic to England. The Snoloha brand encompasses a lifestyle people live everyday, a couple times a year, once in a lifetime, or in their minds all the time. It’s carrying a vacation mentality through everyday life, celebrating and enjoying all the seasons that get thrown at us.
After a summer spent sailing together on Traverse City’s West Grand Traverse Bay, Samalik and Call soon realized that their attitudes and goals in business and life were too similar to ignore. As Call puts it, “it like the Big Man up stairs plopped us both on that sailboat this past summer for a reason”.
Now, the Snoloha brand will be their main focus. The initial product, a clothing line, is currently available through the website (www.snoloha.com)
Snoloha’s goal is to carefully introduce its clothing and lifestyle, while providing exclusive retail arrangements wherever possible. Call and Samalik both realize the clothing market is crowded, but quickly point out that Snoloha is only being introduced with clothing, and that the “big picture” is much larger and consists of a variety of product categories in addition to clothing.
Samalik and Call are both free-spirited entrepreneurs that enjoy time on the water, on the snow, and on the sand. They genuinely enjoy every season Mother Nature has to offer. It is this mindset, and this concept that has enabled each of them to create businesses of their own with backgrounds that complement one another – Samalik has owned and operated a successful screen printing business for 17 years. Call has 14 years of retail and marketing experience and launched the Snoloha brand a year ago after several years of planning and preparation.
