A grifter is someone who engages in swindling or trying to make a fast buck.
Mike Mo’s NFTs, Nine Club memberships, Mikey Taylor investments, Supreme scarcities, Blind jeans, Mob grip, Cariuma, energy drinks, perhaps even the notion that skateboarding as a profession…
I’m not throwing it all under the bus but I get the impression a lot of the culture is based around snake oil salesmen and this passes over to very dubious business plans. It feels like some skaters have no qualms in trying to sell magic beans to other skaters if can get them money fast. Is this endemic of how shady the industry can be?
I also like to believe skateboarding teaches a lot of life lessons and entrepreneurial skills. It’s not all bad.
I would offer the counter point that “fuckwits and their money are easily parted” so if there’s a load of shady stuff being punted to skateboarders its not their obligation to buy it.
Maybe through this place but I always thought skaters had a pretty finely tuned sense of fuckery towards scams and chancers so only the very stupid ever got caught out
I’ve always thought the commercial model around skateboarding was really weird. Pro skateboarders were basically influencers before influencers were a thing.
For a long time it was the only commercial “industry” that tried not to seem like it was actually doing commerce. Like products were marketed in really different ways than other product verticals, with the illusion that it wasn’t about capitalism (or was anti-capitalist) when really it was all about capitalism, moving units. We’d buy t shirts with logos or different shoes because we’d see our favourite skaters wearing them.
I know a lot of skate company founders weren’t necessarily in it for the money at the beginning but money crept in a LONG time ago and the marketing/advertising model never really changed. Now the rest of the world is doing influencer marketing (with STAGGERING budgets) and it’s very grifty and the skateboarding “industry” got just as grifty in line with the rest of the world. Couple that with lots of washed up ex pros not having any other life experience (or probably any interests outside of skating) and it all starts to look very suss because everyone has to make a buck. Or eat.
Using “industry” in quotes because I don’t know how much of an industry there really is around skateboarding, only so many deck pressers and massive companies actually making shoes themselves in big factories. The rest of it just seems like a wrapper to me.
Probably articulated that really badly but I’ve always found this kinda interesting.
