Everything has a purpose at 686. We don’t do things just ‘cuz, we do it because we want to constantly innovate and keep heads thinking. When we were designing the 20th Anniversary collection, I thought it would be cool to tell a story about how each year helped define the brand. There were a lot of people that have supported our vision who I’m completely grateful to, but I chose 20 influencers from 1992-2012 that made the mark. Since 686 is about moving forward and not being confined to a box, we brought all of the year’s full circle to one product. For 2012, we worked with Scion Racing scionracing x Spin Imaging and developed a concept car that did just this. Words cannot explain the complexity in nature of what we wanted to do. We didn’t just give it a cool paint job, add some snow tires and call it a day. We started from ground zero and re-created the car into a winter story around snowboarding. After more than a year of planning and a half of year building the actual car, it’s finally here. I’d like to proudly present the first of it’s kind, The 686 Scion Numeric Concept Car.

Like I previously mentioned, what makes this different than anything else out there is that each aspect of the build was directly inspired from a product or brand that’s progressively pushed snowboarding and skateboarding over the past 20 year history of 686. Each brand brought a unique twist to Numeric’s unique look. The snow specific tires reflect NB686 snowboarding boots and are branded as New Balance tires. The top of the car is designed like a Bern protective carbon fiber helmet, complete with their patented brim technology. The windshield is designed from Dragon’s APX frameless goggle and offers full peripheral view inside the car. The Sparco modified seats are inspired from actual Union® team snowboard bindings and are constructed in a high-back cup shaped form. The sound system is engineered and designed by the Skullcandy team, which used their premiere Aviator headphones as inspiration. GoPro came in with their POV expertise in visual racing mirrors and interior mapping. Vestal watches and their ZR-3 Chronograph inspired the custom built time gauges. The devil is in the details and Freewaters sandals clearly did this in the first ever heated floor mats. BOA Technology added their “dialed” in fit to the cars heating and cooling system. Recco Avalanche Rescue systems supplied their sophisticated radar technology on the road and mountain terrain. Blind skateboards legendary artist, Marc Mckee provided his custom touch to the interior panels. To finalize the winter shred story, 686’s technical textile background pushed manufacturing boundaries by successfully wrapping the world’s first and only fully functional waterproof and breathable snowboarding outerwear vehicle, complete with stitched panels, laser welded seams, waterproof zipper and mesh venting.

Numeric made its automotive debut last week in Las Vegas at the SEMA car show and will soon travel to all the auto shows around the globe. Heads in our industry will take their first look in the 686 booth at SIA in Denver from January 26-29, 2012.
Stay tuned for detailed storyboards on how the hell it all went down.