Then again if you are a young skateboarder who hasn’t been subjugated to other skateboard media or had influences from their peers you’d find comfort in the Revive/Braille model.
They don’t judge, they do kooky product reviews and speak to their audience with a calming tone with easy to follow trick tips and al under the guise of a confidence only BBC Bitesize can match.
The product is pretty flimsy but Revive also have 3 Block Skateboards, Force Wheels and AM Grip.
Hectic or heretic?
And Braille too have had a metoo moment in recent times,
In the wise words of MumNet. It’s up to the parents discretion.
I don’t think we should worry too much though, one of the new skateboarders must have been 10/11 years old saw Guy Mariano’s name and said ‘That pack of bolts has the same name as Guy Mariano from Mouse.’
I didn’t, and now I’m going to spend the day debating do I visit Slap and sully the memory of my first favourite skateboarder, or just wait until I inevitably read something on Instagram
Is it possible to be both?
It was all over Instagram first. Hard to know what to make of it without any other evidence.
I watched this and this the other day:
Braille is straight up exploiting the people who work for them, using their goodwill to make them work mega long hours whereas Kyro only does one day a week now! I could see why this model works for the Berrics as it has the kudos of allowing you access to the industry. But no idea why you would get suckered into this Braille world like these guys. I get cult vibes from it all - Kyro got them involved young and now they can’t leave the programme!
Also interesting that John Hill is exploring this stuff in his videos as he’s sponsored by Revive. Maybe he senses that the Braille wheels might fall off and he’s looking to pick up some cheap clicks (well he got me)?
I had no idea who Braille or Revive were until the other day. Does seem cultish and mega cringey.
Reminds me of these christian sports things that set up events and products so that they can lure the kids in for preaching. Weird vibes. Especially the name “Revive”
That’s a really good point. One of those lads lived in Glasgow for a while, it’s some creepy shit.
No, he must be trying to hedge bets and still cater for his audience, still hoping for the dream. If he had an offer of a guaranteed spot on a decent brand with a good wage he’d jump on it. He’s just seems so desperate for acceptance. Staying on the fence where one side is adoring eyes, cupcakes and waterslides but still staring over at the hot girl next door even though the dogs are barking at the bottom of the fence.
Some of these youtube skaters, like johnny Giger, are pro level, but the vast majority of them are so similar to annoying vloggers, in fact, half of them are just vloggers who have skateboarding in their videos, that no self-respecting skate brand will have anything much to do with them, but then as I said, there are a few of them, like Johnny Giger, who are not vloggers, so they are respected, I mean johnny Giger, it’s literally only him.
There’s a lot more to being a legit pro skateboarder than just being good at askateboarding though.
You watch Gigers last part, it’s a really good scene vid part, no more.
Not necessarily Braille-specific but this kind of thing has been on my mind recently. Beyond mentoring from older pros and TMs who might take new kids “under their wing”, how much structured protection and guidance is offered to young ams when they start their careers? I’d imagine it varies massively company to company. Does this kind of stuff get discussed between skaters on more than just an informal basis (or just on forums, The Nine Club etc.)?
More broadly, is there anything resembling workers’ rights/union activity within professional skateboarding? To help sponsored skaters and industry workers (factory workers, designers, TMs etc.) against exploitation, to deal with abuse, help understand contracts, health insurance + not being pressured into doing shit they don’t want to do etc.
This might already exist, I’m just genuinely unaware of it.
Like I said earlier, Revive / Braille etc are more like a Pyramid schemes than a skate companies.
I think we’ll see something post-Olympics, if not before!
Username checks out.
If there are checks and balances for young 100m distance runners you’d expect to see a framework for future skateboarders?
At least I’d hope so.
Well if they’re even going ahead next year and I fucking hope not. Covid proving skateboarding doesn’t need the Olympics. And it shouldn’t take the Olympics for the skate industry to sort it’s shit out.
