K-Swiss Takes on the Ultimate College Basketball Tournament With the Launch of 'Tournageddon' With HBO® Cult Hero Kenny Powers

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., March 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing on their paths to sports world dominance, California Sports Company K-Swiss and TUBES® training footwear Ambassador Kenny Powers are reemerging this Spring with a hilarious and disruptive campaign that will leave all others on the bench. Introducing Tournageddon – a no-holds-barred bracket hosted by Kenny Powers. All bets are on at Tournageddon.com.

Tournageddon first began February 15th when fans of K-Swiss TUBES and Kenny Powers had the opportunity to join the Tournageddon Yahoo! Tourney Pick 'Em (http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/4) group.  Fans of the wildly uncensored character, played by Danny McBride in the HBO® hit series "Eastbound & Down," will be prompted to fill out their tourney selections before the March 17 tipoff of the tournament's first game. During the selection process, Kenny Powers will offer users his personal, unfiltered, and uncensored assessments of every team and matchup to help you create the best bracket possible. Throughout the tournament, he will keep everyone up-to-date with recaps of games and previews of those to come.

"Kenny's been talking about TUBES and training for the past six months and he's always kept the conversation interesting, to say the least. College basketball is the perfect audience for Kenny and K-Swiss Tubes.  Tournaggedon will not disappoint," said K-Swiss Vice President of Marketing Chris Kyle.

Links to join Tournageddon will be available on Yahoo! and via K-SWISS.com and the K-SWISS Facebook page with secondary support from Twitter. Kenny will also take over a page on the K-SWISS Facebook page where participants can find an exclusive app that invites users to challenge friends to college basketball selection supremacy and allows them to get up-to-the-minute updates, analyses and trash talk from Kenny throughout the Tournament.

The Tournageddon group page and message board will include Kenny's custom "scientific analysis" of each team and game in the tournament, "must watch" game recommendations, TUBES training challenges, a Tournageddon group leaderboard, and in true Kenny fashion, general smack to anyone threatening his tournament dominance. Throughout the tournament, fans will compete not only in the traditional tourney group, but will also be able to compete in TUBES training "Powers Challenges." These are training-based wagers on a single game in the tournament. For example, a group member can challenge an opponent to 100 pushups or spontaneous wind sprints (in TUBES, of course) pending the outcome of UNC vs. Duke. Messages of victory and humiliation, as written by Kenny Powers, are then posted on their respective Facebook walls.

Designed in partnership with Los Angeles-based 72andSunny, the campaign will target the younger male demographic with a broad variety of media touch points including digital, New York-based bus tails and subway posters. The campaign rollout includes banners and homepage takeovers bearing Tournageddon messaging on Yahoo! Sports and partner site, Citizen Sports, multiple ESPN platforms and a Facebook application (tournageddon.com).

About K-Swiss

Founded more than forty years ago in Van Nuys, California, K-Swiss (Nasdaq: KSWS) introduced the first all-leather tennis shoe, the K-Swiss "Classic" in 1966.  Since its inception, K-Swiss has rooted itself in California Sport with an aim to be the most inspiring and innovative sports brand in the market.  Today the company offers performance and lifestyle footwear and apparel for several categories under its California Sports umbrella including Tennis Heritage, California Fit (Running, Triathlon and Fitness) and California Youth.  K-Swiss also designs, develops and markets footwear under the Palladium brand, and owns the FORM Athletics brand.  For more information about K-Swiss, visit www.kswiss.com.

SOURCE K-Swiss