It was. Not any more, or certainly not to the pre teen demographic.
In my world Gustav would be the Prince Regent and living in a Barcelona penthouse, never having to work again, but the fact is a lot of kids like “personalities” (aka kooky goofs) and wanna buy their boards. As I said before, regardless of whether we see any merit in their abilities the brand would be stupid not to elevate them to pro status (and pay them handsomely for the privilege).
To the kids getting their parents to buy their boards they do have “it.” They have it more than the rest of the industry.
Anyway, my Revive sponsored mate has just turned up, gonna do pivot fakie and look shit in comparison.
In fact, forget about CMOAC, i’m a good case point to use actually. These dudes are at my level when I was back then. Of course since the late 90s early 2000s the bar has raised insanely but the distance between me and say John Rattray back then was pretty big and John Rattray was not near Jamie Thomas then but John and Jamie were up there in that pro level regardless of who is best. lets take John Hill, in todays time, he’s the equivalent of me and Bobby Worrest is John Rattray and Jamie Foy is Jamie thomas. Do you see?
I think we can blame social media for the flattening of the skateboard hierarchy, for the most part. People talk about gatekeeping and how magazines/videos/companies dictated direction, but I never had a problem with that, and now we are where we are.
When I was a kid, the magazines always had these Variflex ads in them (long after Lance Mountain’s era). Even as a kid I was like “who is Jeff Jones? And what is this corny stuff?” and it’s how I view these YouTube guys. I’m sure a lot of people getting into skating think that about the YouTube guys. Although they are making 10K a month or whatever . I doubt that is all board sales.
The pyramid is still there and should stay. Revive has rocked the world but their type of skater is in a new category. They are famous for their content and personality not solely for their skateboarding. They are separate. Still legit skateboarders but just different. They shouldn’t hijack used terms from the old way, they should be themselves.
As long as YT stays popular, they stay popular with children. That is a shitty business model to me. It’s preached precariously on what YT decide to do at any moment. They can pull the rug from underneath them in a heart beat. I can’t even see YT being around in the way it is now in ten years say. Youtubers are complaining all the time about how it is changing at this moment in time.
Eventually these sort of companies will flood YT if there is money to be made or kids think this is how you start your own company and that is going to water down their profits and appeal to children. As someone else will learn off them and do it better. Then where are they going to go? Shitty business model really for longevity and it’s dependence on another company (YT) that doesn’t care about them in the grand scheme of YouTube’s future.
Exactly, everyone knows who they are, but some do get delusional, this is the problem with over exposure, you get above your station and question why you’re not where someone else is. That’s what I hear when I hear John Hill talk, it’s hidden under his jokey fake modesty.
Before YT the magazines probably behaved in a similar way, but at least they were a skateboard entity and not a completely third party with no actual interest in skateboarding.
Looking at revive they seem like a toy company using YouTube for free advertising and let’s face it, once kids hit puberty they’re gonna sack off revive and look at the prime skaters for influence .
Revive are only ever going to have kids as customers, it’s very world industries so if there’s ever another crash revive are going to be screwed.
It seems that YT has changed alot in recent years, leading to everyone on it to start up Paterion accounts to make up what they used to earn just off ad revenue.
Agreed. Yes, then traditional skateboard companies will be the long term skaters, but will miss all the first timers, and one timers. And I’m sure there’s probably more money in that than the long termers.
There’s a lot to read through so this might have come up already but…
They’re very ‘safe’.
Skateboarding has had a history of being an activity seemingly undesireable types participate in.
What with no care about language used in videos that have no age restrictions, crass Tom foolery, see CKY or Pritch v Dainton, substance abuse, nasty gory slams and so on.
Parents, many, won’t want their kids skating if that’s what they think their precious kids are going to get up to if it is a normal part of skating, and typically skate vids are rammed with it.
Braille and Revive are very safe in this regard in that they have none of those things so kids can safely watch them in the presence of their parents who will see no harm in their kid being into it, and therefore skating gets a pass / parental approval.
Just to say - John Hill, Jonny Giger and Chris Chann could be am/pro on a legit small brand somewhere. Take away their YouTube bullshit, they are good skaters. Whether you would’ve heard of them at all is fair enough
Exactly, some backwater small brand that’s famous in their city and neighbouring towns.
I’d still say that they are maybe not even quite there but you’re right, they are good just lower down the food chain. Does not make the skaters or company less legit but they are where they are.
A Happy Medium did that Jason Park collaboration with Revive.
Make of that what you will.
Probably belongs here. Revive, SLS, all the same sort of thing.
Hahaha fucking spot on
Seeing as we’re in the right thread I might as well answer other points made in response to mine that were irrelevant to my point.
The reason that Revive is successful:
They are the new first port of call, the entry point to skateboarding.
Kids will see their first glimpse of skateboarding on YT and chances are it will be via a youtuber and not a brands video output as the former is what’s pushed with YT’s algorithms aimed at kids.
We all know that people, when choosing something that they know nothing about is going to be the best. I mean that, say you know nothing of Smart TV’s or stereo’s, turntables, anything… You get the thing and you’re stoked, you tell people about it, post about it, rave etc. You have no idea how good that item is against others by other brands, you could have bought an inferior product but because you know nothing, you’re none the wiser. You don’t know that what your’e seeing or hearing is not the best it could be.
It’s the same with skating. You got a pacer board for christmas in 1988, you have not seen any magazines, all you have seen is a dude go down the road on a skateboard. For a year maybe, that’s going to be the best skateboard ever, until you immerse yourself in skateboarding you don’t realise that the world is soooo much bigger. We all have soft spots for our entrance point into whatever we love and if we stick at that thing we find out that maybe that entrance could have been so much more different, you could have seen Neil Blender spray painting in his competition run or Dressen in Spead freaks, but we still love the underdog and would keep them dear in our memories.
My point is that Revive is only successful because it’s in your face, unavoidable and because humans are what we are, we think we know it all, until a door opens and proves us wrong. Traditional skate content is what’s behind the door and this is what will keep skaters loving skating after their first year or so. Skaters learning now will either shun revive because it’s uncool or will still hold them dear as a “GUILTY PLEASURE” 
Or most probably will stick to that YT niche of skateboarding, see the level of the skaters and say “I could do that” and join the trend. Then you have so many skateboarders on one platform, all trying to find their selling point in as little time and with as little effort as possible. That will be a totally new industry, separate from skateboarding. A totally different level.
ugh, tldr, don’t blame you.
Kooky guys being asked to do kooky things for exposure. We’re going to see many industry folks switching over in fear that this is where the industry is going.
People need to stick with what they believe and if they crash out then they have been true or they’ll ride it out and be seen to be real and will get their dues in time because of it.
Saying those boys are kooky?
