OK, I get where you're coming from but it seems a like quite a little niche compared to how skateboarding has developed over the many years. Skateboarding is aspirational, so are clothes for a lot of people. In the money orientated world we live in people aspire to owning a pair Nikes or Vans if they see their favourite pro wearing them. OR even without even seeing that - when you're a little kid who got bought cheap generic sneakers you aspire to the pair of Jordans or whatever the kids at school have got. You pay for that swoosh or stripe. I'd go as far as to suggest that the majority of skateboarders want some branding or graphics for their money.
I too have been into skateboarding and it's business for a looong time - long enough to remember sanding the graphics off my boards, peeling the stripes off my Gazelles and wearing a generic stripey tee 'cos that's what I saw in Love Child or whatever. The thing is, at that time the skateboard industry was tiny with nobody making much money out of it at all and we're well past those days. Now, in order to survive or go up against the big boys in the shoe game I honestly think that you need more than a blank shoe to stand a chance.
Bit of your sentence I put in bold I think could generate a lot of discussion, but for now I'll just say I'm not totally convinced by the validity of that statement of yours there. Are you certain?
For the rest, yeah I more or less figured that was your stance. But why would circular economy within skateboarding and skateboarders be impossible nowadays, just because now there also happens to exist what's essentially a parallel market for it that's being exploited by corporations targeting non-skateboarders? The classic model is still viable, as still proven on the daily by every skater-owned operation that remains afloat - except most people overlook their existence due to being distracted by mainstream facades. The tiny skateboarding industry you speak of still exists to this day with plenty of individuals doing cool stuff everywhere; granted not so much in the shoe market as it's less accessible but even there you have brands like State and Proper, and now this one, out of other examples. And those don't have to go up against anyone in terms of marketing either, because most often they will care about the needs of their core niche over capturing the attention of always more and more randoms. For those I'm not so sure that just making shoes really suffices to put them in the same arena as big sporting goods companies; similarly to how one can't say Sheep or even I-Path ever actively tried to go against Nike for instance. The target demographic is just too specialized.
Skateboarding being mainstream means a shit ton of money for those enjoying the wild fire right now, but also more people getting exposed to it that occasionally won't succumb to its merciless marketing and superficial presentation, and eventually fall into it long term, then in turn contributing to the culture with their own thing too, just far out of sight for those staring at the gigantic Nike and Vans shop windows; so, there always will be authentic lifers feeding that comparatively small niche and keeping it alive, as now that's an organic phenomenon and nothing fabricated around fashion. There's just no doing away with the circular model regardless of how established names would love to, because it's the same basic human logic of self-sustenance that leads the average customer to go wherever their specialized needs can best be actually addressed that was already there before we apparently got distracted.
tl;dr it's all still the same shit, don't let the clutter fool you. The power of marketing is so strong it can lead one to forget there even are alternatives.
Also just an extra observation - I never ever looked up to other kids wearing Nikes at school. I was actually stoked when I started skating to find out about brands like éS and be able to 'represent' something different (on a very naive scale).