The galaxy of skate
2007.Nov.6. Tuesday - by lvhrdSkateboarding today resembles the sport the Z-Boys knew in name only.
While pool skating did revolutionize the sport with a certain kind of wrong-side-of-the-tracks glamour, it didn’t catch with the mainstream (there was money in it, but no marketing) and so skateboarding kept fading away, to be reborn in the 80s and again in the 90s.
It wasn’t until skateboarders started their own skateboarding companies that there was any real crossover success in the world of skate.
The skateboarding juggernaut of 2007 is fueled by visionary athletes marketed and paired with stellar design. Skateboarding’s image has moved away from the grubby Hessian wandering out the drainage ditch with a joint to skaters sponsored by Playstation and Nixon Watches.
Skate companies that started out making products exclusively for skaters quickly realized that the real money was in the art, in the design of clothing and shoes.
We can remember when DC made shoes that looked like skate shoes. Now their design owes more to Nike and Bape than functional skateboarding. They have models co-branded with NYC restaurants owned by Jay-Z .
Not that any of this is a bad thing. It’s evolution, the natural marriage of sport and design. If the face of skateboarding stayed grubby there would be no money in it, and if there was no money it, there would be no professional skateboarders.
That skateboarding is controlled by skateboarders, however, is the reason skateboarding continues to grow and remain appealing to millions of people. When you start to see skateparks built by Chase, the sport will enter a new phase of decline.
If you were or are a part of this world, weigh in with your opinion on the state of skateboarding. Join us to continue the conversation live at BIFOLD SPORT on November 13th.
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Nov.7.2007 : 9:01 am
Gone are the days of just pining away for that simple, pristine skater’s rail . . .
Nov.7.2007 : 10:50 am
Sigh…so it seems…Cowtown…
Nov.9.2007 : 12:18 am
still nothing beats putting together a new board and rolling down a hill just flipping on a rug in doors. I’ve fallen off vert ramps and my worst knee came from doing shuvits in my basement. The industry need s to evolve, destroy itself, grow and then rebuild. If you love skateboarding you can love it at whatever stage appeals to you most. Just keep rolling
Nov.9.2007 : 10:53 am
Say word. The industry will continue evolving until it breaks down–which is not a negative thing–but a regenerative restructuring of the skate economy, the skate hierarchy is necessary to keep new ideas and new athletes at the forefront of the sport.