I used to skate and film with Jack regularly during his A Third Foot days. He completely went off grid and I’m still not sure why to this day. It’s a real shame bc he was one of the most technically gifted skateboarders I have ever seen. Wherever he is is I hope he’s going ok
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Shier lived in L.A and worked for adidas the entire time Isle existed.
Did he sink isle with his American corporate agenda as some sort of inside job?
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Where did the Blueprint pros go on to work? Let’s think.
Shier - adidas
Colin - Nike SB
John - Nike SB
Baines - New Balance
Vaughan - Nike SB
Also Mackey - New Balance
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There’s no business like shoe business.
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But I thought corporate shoe brands were bad?
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Shafted, the lot of them.
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Yeah but didn’t Blueprint do a shoe with Nike and alot of the riders were on too (and some of the companies)? So a lot of those guys already had relationships with these shoe companies.
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Vaughan was Supra before Nike* Now Vans. But your point still stands
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Could have had both of those - and Hours Is Yours - but I’m sticking to corporate brands.
Blueprint Abington, fuck me Iv mentioned that on here multiple times in 6 years haha
But yer corporate shoes being the death of UK
Board companies is a wild concept.
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Maybe but I do think corporate shoes are bad for skateboarding in general (except for the few people getting massive paychecks). Like the SOS discussion in the other thread
I mean we are like 22+ years late to this argument. I started skating Nikes because of footie and then realised they were considerably better shoes to Es and Lakai (what I’d mainly skated before, odd DC etc) either way it’s like any “niche” sport.
There never used to be sports brands in say like Cricket, now there’s Adidas cricket. Wouldn’t have said it killed out specialist cricket brands. But yer whatever debates been happening for years and years.
In my head, if a Skater owned shoe brand was any good at this point, surely people would back it? But it’s never going to generate models people rate over the big boys.
Some shops here had to close as a result of Nike’s practices though right? I thought the debate on that had stopped altogether.
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Most companies have minimum orders, its not Nike exclusive.
Have there been any shops that were thriving then took Nike on and had to close or were they a convenient scapegoat? What shops have said “Nike killed us”?
Not trying to be a dick but genuinely curious.
IMO the buying habits of skaters desperate to get the cheapest shit/blag wherever they can is just as damaging as sportswear MOQs
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All good questions, looks like the debate still rages on!
Personally I don’t really buy many Nike’s now but it’s more because the standard of design has gone dramatically downhill.
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Has there been a Nike release that has got anyone really hyped in the last few years? I feel like they’ve had more misses than hits with pro SB releases too.
Nike also shot themselves in the foot (pun intended) by relying too heavily on their old catalog and flooding the market with their once hype shoes.
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Look up ed selego skateboard story for Nikes bully boy over pushing practices.he shut one shop plus the m.i.a skatepark.its all America but they must have put some UK shops in at least £5000 debt.i do know one up north that shut but I ain’t saying due to the guy that ran it was one of the nicest people I met in skating.they do threaten debt recovery if you don’t pay , so that’s means channel five and paul bohill coming to visit you with his dulcet tones.
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Yeah Blueprint did a Nike Abington. Sold a mint pair in the box to someone in the States a few months ago.
I think it’s fair to say that the commercialization of skateboarding has been both a benefit and a curse. Skateboarding was all about marketing. Everything that caused it to spread was about selling something. Videos are marketing tools. Magazines are marketing tools. Competitions are marketing tools. Somebody’s getting paid at every step.
From the moment Marty McFly first ripped the handles off an orange crate scooter it’s been downhill. If you weren’t ripping handles off orange crate scooters, if you were buying prefab skateboards from shops, you are part of the problem.
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