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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: Still Tippin on June 27, 2016, 01:21:06 PM
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http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2016/06/27/wheres-johnny-layton/ (http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2016/06/27/wheres-johnny-layton/)
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Sucks how many unproductive pros are still on teams and getting a paycheck and dudes like Jlay are getting the short end, whoever is steering the ship at tum yeto is blowing it
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If I need boards from someone or whatever product, I can get it, but it�s the fact that I�m just not part of a team anymore that breaks my heart. Not being part of a family like Toy, I think that hurts the most. I mean, cut my pay� I�d skate for Toy Machine purely out of the love for Ed and for the brand and what it stood for.
...this history again. Shame on you Tempster. Toy Machine with a legend team would be rad.
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Sad. JLay is amazing. I'm glad he still has ties to skateboarding though. Stoked to see him working for Vans. I want to see him put out more parts for sure! Hopefully (as a Marketing coordinator), Vans will let him film more like a couple hours a day or so. I mean, videos are marketing the brand so why not?
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seems a little odd that he'd be dropped for "not producing" when he has a whole part in the bag...
Vans: we know you have a whole part filmed, and we are going to let Hunt give you all the footage back for the part... but we aren't going to renew your contract because you haven't been producing anything, oh, and you don't have a part for the video.
Toy: we know you have a whole part filmed, and Hunt gave you all the footage for it, and we could release it as a stand-alone Toy Machine part, but... since you haven't been producing anything, like, say, a full part for us to use, we're going to have to let you go.
did I miss something?
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Favorite Parts:
"I could still go out and fuckin' switch tre something and still hold my own. I still roll into a skatepark or a spot and people are like, 'Look it's J Lay!'"
"I'm not the average build skateboarder so you gotta just roll with the punches and pretty much just tell people to go fuck themselves. Can you fuckin' switch tre this? Nope? Alright, then fuck off."
He does seem really bummed out about his career ending. Glad it worked out for him with Vans and he has a job in skateboarding. That could have went really bad for him and his fam. Pretty much down to the day his severance pay was going to run out. Scary.
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This is weird. Were his boardsales down that much? I care more about J-lay than that European kid that just got on, he's got a good 5 more years in him, what the fuck.
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the tempster holds contempt for any pros that have children, that's why he lets them go. prove me wrong.
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the tempster holds contempt for any pros that have children, that's why he lets them go. prove me wrong.
At Home With Billy Marks and His Kids - KING OF THE ROAD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPKfeG_G7NM#)
That was easy
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the tempster holds contempt for any pros that have children, that's why he lets them go. prove me wrong.
Bennett
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Johnny layton on the killing floor would be cool
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He kicked skateboardings ass
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Does Ed realize that Josh Harmony is still on the team?
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(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ibtJULuk--/1505889532142612258.jpg)
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If I need boards from someone or whatever product, I can get it, but it�s the fact that I�m just not part of a team anymore that breaks my heart. Not being part of a family like Toy, I think that hurts the most. I mean, cut my pay� I�d skate for Toy Machine purely out of the love for Ed and for the brand and what it stood for.
...this history again. Shame on you Tempster. Toy Machine with a legend team would be rad.
Johnny Layton will forever have a spot in skating for me. I watched his Good & Evil Part to no end growing up. Yes, it is a bummer about Toy Machine, but good for him to still have what appears to be a solid back up plan. Not to mention at this current point in time, Toy Machine is awful. And that hurts me to say, as I loved that brand to no end. But Stephens retired, Layton left, Jordan went to WKND (good for him), and such is life. I would like a Leo Romero part though....the graphics are some other artist doing his "twist" on Templeton graphics....
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the tempster holds contempt for any pros that have children, that's why he lets them go. prove me wrong.
josh harmony
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J-Lay has always been one of my favorites ever since Good & Evil. It's really a bummer that he unwillingly got dropped while there are so many dudes with pro careers who haven't done shit in years. Even if his coverage slowed down a bit he definitely wasn't at the bottom of the barrel for any of the respective teams, especially when you consider some of the guys still on Vans didn't even have full parts in Propeller. If his was just dropped somewhere in the middle it would have been one of my favorites in the video.
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This is Josh Harmony's latest coverage. Let it speak for itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAaAA-Mfc1Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAaAA-Mfc1Q)
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was fully expecting them to tackle the whole selling weed rumor that went around... odd they didn't.
i love me some Johnny just like everyone else... but i've heard he's a tad bit up his own ass, and always was. he also has a Bob Marley poster hung up in his living room... i question just about anyone making that move.
but yeah... keeping Josh Harmony and not Johnny is regular... but Josh does have years of seniority over him.
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Does Ed realize that Josh Harmony and Billy Marks are still on the team?
The fact that Billy Marks is still getting paid for his disgusting skateboarding and Johnny Layton got kicked off of everything while still putting out amazing footage is fucked.
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Johnny Layton - Toy Machine Brainwash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtAzNnX_keo#)
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Not sure how any sane person could look at his Berrics part footage and think he wasn't producing.
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was fully expecting them to tackle the whole selling weed rumor that went around... odd they didn't.
i love me some Johnny just like everyone else... but i've heard he's a tad bit up his own ass, and always was. he also has a Bob Marley poster hung up in his living room... i question just about anyone making that move.
but yeah... keeping Josh Harmony and not Johnny is regular... but Josh does have years of seniority over him.
hahahahaha
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this was from 2009 but DAMN
(http://skately.com/img/library/print/large/toy-machine-johnny-layton-2009.jpg)
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Fucking stoked this interview finally came out. It's such a bummer talking to him about it but he still kills it. For being fucked over so hard I can't believe how positive he is and that's he's still involved in the industry. It's also rad seeing how he didn't throw a fit on insta or even talk a bunch of shit when he got the chance.
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i hope Sinclair ends up stuck in a van with Trevor Colden.
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I feel like whenever situations like this happen where somebody gets cut it's all because skaters and skaters that run companies are the least assertive people in the world. It seems odd being part of a team that they can go months without talking to anybody and then act surprised when "all of a sudden" they're cut.
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I feel like whenever situations like this happen where somebody gets cut it's all because skaters and skaters that run companies are the least assertive people in the world. It seems odd being part of a team that they can go months without talking to anybody and then act surprised when "all of a sudden" they're cut.
Thats why now they hire PRs. :D
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judging from Sinclair's revolving-door track record with pros, i'd be willing to bet he had a lot more to do with this than Ed. �
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i don't know what happened but, i think it's pretty obvious that there was somewhat of a fight based on that toy ad calling him out alone. i don't think it was just that he 'wasn't producing enough'. as already mentioned, how much does josh harmony produce? this dude had his own clothing line on vans and his own shoe, he was kind of a big fucking deal to say the least. something had to have happened.
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This is Josh Harmony's latest coverage. Let it speak for itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAaAA-Mfc1Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAaAA-Mfc1Q)
Anyone remember when josh harmony was on etnies, also is the entire rvca team gonna skate the same spot. .and dude is wearing vans otherwise
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"....a traumatic experience, such a brutal slam and beating to my asshole"
;D
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i don't know what happened but, i think it's pretty obvious that there was somewhat of a fight based on that toy ad calling him out alone. i don't think it was just that he 'wasn't producing enough'. as already mentioned, how much does josh harmony produce? this dude had his own clothing line on vans and his own shoe, he was kind of a big fucking deal to say the least. something had to have happened.
Can someone post that ad? Also, I've been a Harmony fan since Good & Evil when I started wearing bootcut jeans and tried 5050s down hubbas, but his time has been over since before Ride The Sky
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I think Ed is as far away from the brand as he could be. Judging from his ig account he is in permavacay. No wonder Toy is shit. Glad my uncle kept his Bam and Senn toy decks. Poor dude but I don't think anyone gets kicked off of everything for no reason. At least he's working though.
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this is pretty weird. I'm skating a layton toy machine board right now...
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That pulaski Ollie beats lots of toy guys last 5 years of clips. Sorry Leo Romero. You milking It
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That pulaski Ollie beats lots of toy guys last 5 years of clips. Sorry Leo Romero. You milking It
i have to assume you're kidding...singling out SOTY Leo on a team with Josh Harmony and Billy Marks (nothing against Billy, but his rampaging kickflip into anything on a rail days have been gone for awhile)
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Not kidding. Leo's bad music isn't ok cause he got soty. He never ollied Pulaski. He just went up a four stair
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I think Ed is as far away from the brand as he could be. Judging from his ig account he is in permavacay. No wonder Toy is shit. Glad my uncle kept his Bam and Senn toy decks. Poor dude but I don't think anyone gets kicked off of everything for no reason. At least he's working though.
I've read some older interviews with Ed and he's pretty much just the brand manager/graphic guy there, it didn't even seem like got paid very much buy Tum Yeto. The interview in transworld said that Emerica was his main sponsor as far as pay. I'm guessing Ed sits in his house in HB draws, does graphics and lays out ads, emails that stuff into Tum Yeto and maybe goes to Tum Yeto a few times a month to handle other stuf. They've prolly convinced him he's out of touch with skating and let them handle all the team decisions, i know it always seems like its someone at Tum yeto that decides where flow guys end up.
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thinking about it more, could it be that its just impossible to sell product with Johnny Laytons name on it? Vans went hard on his clothing and maybe no one cared and it all ended up on the sale rack.
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He must have either burnt some serious bridges or been a major dick because his skating is incredible
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ed seems to fuck up constantly by kicking off people who would have ridden for toy for free i.e. chris senn and johnny layton. josh harmony sucks.
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Eh, we'll probably never know the whole story because it definitely seems like something is being left out....
Someone post up that toy ad again where it's talking shit on Jlay
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"You're blowing it" is sometimes synonymous with "You're the guy that doesn't fully fit in with us, so we make fun of you/talk shit non stop because we're all such good friends and we enjoy gossip as a way to pass the time".
Everyone takes days off from skating...sometimes weeks or longer. I don't see the difference between smoking weed while eating burritos and making emo acoustic albums. Obviously they thought other guys weren't blowing it....which is insane when you compare them to Johnny and what he as done on a skateboard.
Teams are looking to be more marketable to the youth and bring in new super talents, but I can guarantee you the vast majority of people would take his last part over anything the new dudes are putting out there.
The biggest tragedy here is that the Berrics released that footage instead of Toy Machine.
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The biggest tragedy here is that the Berrics released that footage instead of Toy Machine.
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ed seems to fuck up constantly by kicking off people who would have ridden for toy for free i.e. chris senn and johnny layton. josh harmony sucks.
That's only something people say when they're far removed from the situation.
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Just skate for fun.
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fuckin' switch tre
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The biggest tragedy here is that the Berrics released that footage instead of Toy Machine.
Can anybody do a Toy style edit of it?
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johnny's style simply is one of the better out there. straight up fact.
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Does Ed realize that Josh Harmony and Billy Marks are still on the team?
The fact that Billy Marks is still getting paid for his disgusting skateboarding and Johnny Layton got kicked off of everything while still putting out amazing footage is fucked.
combined Billy Harmony has nothing on Johnny Layton. Total Bummer.
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ed seems to fuck up constantly by kicking off people who would have ridden for toy for free i.e. chris senn and johnny layton. josh harmony sucks.
Chris Senn said thats lie in his Chrome Ball thing, he just told Ed that "to twist the knife".
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J Lay for Welcome!
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J Lay for Welcome!
i would have preferred him on toy, but that would actually be pretty sick.
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seems a little odd that he'd be dropped for "not producing" when he has a whole part in the bag...
Vans: we know you have a whole part filmed, and we are going to let Hunt give you all the footage back for the part... but we aren't going to renew your contract because you haven't been producing anything, oh, and you don't have a part for the video.
Toy: we know you have a whole part filmed, and Hunt gave you all the footage for it, and we could release it as a stand-alone Toy Machine part, but... since you haven't been producing anything, like, say, a full part for us to use, we're going to have to let you go.
did I miss something?
I was thinking the same thing. Something just doesn't add up. He had a full part ready to go (plus extra footage on the side) and he gets kicked off for "lack of production"? That can't be the actual reason why he's off both teams.
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seems a little odd that he'd be dropped for "not producing" when he has a whole part in the bag...
Vans: we know you have a whole part filmed, and we are going to let Hunt give you all the footage back for the part... but we aren't going to renew your contract because you haven't been producing anything, oh, and you don't have a part for the video.
Toy: we know you have a whole part filmed, and Hunt gave you all the footage for it, and we could release it as a stand-alone Toy Machine part, but... since you haven't been producing anything, like, say, a full part for us to use, we're going to have to let you go.
did I miss something?
theres three sides to every story. One side vs the other side and the truth. Mike would be the best person to explain but I'm sure he don't want to get into that and cause controversy.
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I don't like welcome at all, but I'd buy a JLay welcome board in a heart beat. Bought JLay boards consistently when they'd come in.
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It'd be cool to see him on hockey. I feel like his style of skating would fit there.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
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It'd be cool to see him on hockey. I feel like his style of skating would fit there.
that would be dope then they could put a husky bros promo vid out with allen and johnny
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deep sixed by a dickpic.
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Jlay knows what he did
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
I totally get what you're saying. I know skating is not a stereotypical profession. In my industry someone might have a kid, then take a week or two off. I think we romanticize that pro skateboarding is about relationships and not actual production. See PJ and Castillo. If I just did nothing at my job for a year or five, I'd be gone.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
This.
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This just shows how lame most of the CA industry is.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
This is so spot on, pro skateboarders are such babies when it comes to this kind of thing.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
It is indeed a fair point. As a pro I wonder how much you really *need* to skate each day? Like I leave my house at 7:45 and get home at around 6:30 in the evening on a normal work day. Is there really any pro skaters out there that are putting in 8 hour days? Realistically you could skate like 4 hours a day and still be home in time for lunch if you wanted to. Maybe chuck in a few 6 hour days when you've got to travel to spots etc. Business trips (i.e. skate tours) could still be feasible too imho
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This is not much different from Pop's shit or Trepasso. People can talk about footage but Trepasso and Pops weren't fallin off the map at all in terms of relevancy at the time they got demoted. Those dudes were still 'selling the brand'. As stoked as you guys are for J-lay he wasn't 'that dude' for Toy in terms of brand repping (like he was at one point), maybe he was keeping you dudes stoked and thats rad.
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Dude is a beast! His skating is fucking rad.
I never, ever saw any of his Vans gear in the wild though. They pushed it hard didn't they?
It's been a good day to check Slap for interviews today.
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Dude is a beast! His skating is fucking rad.
I never, ever saw any of his Vans gear in the wild though. They pushed it hard didn't they?
It's been a good day to check Slap for interviews today.
I had a sweater of his that i got a vans store when his shoe was out, it think its still at my moms house. I also loved his shoe. Although they were a bit narrow at first for me once they broke in they were amazing. They were kinda like the No skool but was a bit more flexible.
(http://i.imgur.com/vN1HBvS.jpg)
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
To add, there is a little bit of wiggle room as far as specific job duties are concerned, that's what so dangerous for the undisciplined pro. You are a contractor. You are your own boss, and you have clients that use you to help sell their product. That's really what your work is. Your work is whatever is outlined by your client as what they are paying you to do. In the pro skaters case, some of these things include:
- being good at skateboarding in general
- turning in photos for ads
- filming for promotional videos
- going on team trips
- skating (well) at demos and in general getting young kids excited about you and the brand
- attending random events (element make it count, no board left behind, for examples)
- updating social media in some cases. Posting team clips they ask you to post, sometimes posting product.
- having a sticker on your board for photo incentives.
- representing the brand in a positive light.
Plus more or less depending on the sponsor. You may even be required to wear certain things.
These are things that you don't punch in an 8 hour day to do. They take self discipline and motivation. When you don't have a boss it can be easy to slack off. But when you start missing those ads, not skating the demo, or just missing your job duties then shit comes down to.. I'm paying you each month to do all these things and I've gotten nothing. It's like if you contracted someone out to build your patio and they just stopped building it, you'd fire them.
In some ways, a professional skateboarder is a lazy job. But when you have 4,5 or 6 sponsors and they all require all these things, it would be easy to just say "fuck it" for awhile if there was no immediate consequence.
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
His Vans footage was pretty old actually. He wasn't skating at all, or doing anything. You can only milk that for so long. He had been talked to several times from both Vans and Toy according to a friend of mine who worked at Tum Yeto. Your name and past legacy is only worth so much, you gotta keep pushing and getting your shit done, in most cases. J Lay unfortunately couldn't PJ-it. Seems like he fell into a rut of not skating and just let it run for too long.
The whole being a husband and father excuse thing is bullshit really. Being a professional skateboarder, you forget about "work" pretty quickly. You have so much free time. If I had a kid right now, I'd be expected to show up to work every day, and work 9 or so hours. If a pro baseball player had a kid, he'd still have to show up to games, or show up to practice. You can't take a year off skateboarding because you had a kid.
Respect to J Lay. One of my favorite skaters of all time. His part in Good&Evil changed the way I looked at skating as an impressionable youngn.
To add, there is a little bit of wiggle room as far as specific job duties are concerned, that's what so dangerous for the undisciplined pro. You are a contractor. You are your own boss, and you have clients that use you to help sell their product. That's really what your work is. Your work is whatever is outlined by your client as what they are paying you to do. In the pro skaters case, some of these things include:
- being good at skateboarding in general
- turning in photos for ads
- filming for promotional videos
- going on team trips
- skating (well) at demos and in general getting young kids excited about you and the brand
- attending random events (element make it count, no board left behind, for examples)
- updating social media in some cases. Posting team clips they ask you to post, sometimes posting product.
- having a sticker on your board for photo incentives.
- representing the brand in a positive light.
Plus more or less depending on the sponsor. You may even be required to wear certain things.
These are things that you don't punch in an 8 hour day to do. They take self discipline and motivation. When you don't have a boss it can be easy to slack off. But when you start missing those ads, not skating the demo, or just missing your job duties then shit comes down to.. I'm paying you each month to do all these things and I've gotten nothing. It's like if you contracted someone out to build your patio and they just stopped building it, you'd fire them.
In some ways, a professional skateboarder is a lazy job. But when you have 4,5 or 6 sponsors and they all require all these things, it would be easy to just say "fuck it" for awhile if there was no immediate consequence.
I live in DC and have worked as a 1099 aka "Independent contractor" a lot due to Federal and industry connections. I worked for a company based out of Alabama on a 60 day contract during the winter of 2015. I never met anyone who worked there. It was so easy to slack off. I had no office or responsibility to show up for work, but the money was great. I finished the project, but realized I needed a more structured environment.
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those j lay shoes were rad when they came out..one of my buddies had these and always thought this color way with the white tongue looked rad.
(http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/3/9/1/9/9/4/webimg/437460735_tp.jpg)
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Something had to happen. You don't just go from pro shoe/clothing line on a huge company and a pro board on a well respected board co. to nothing. Look how many guys hang around in the industry for five plus years, "Not producing." Love his skating, but would like to hear some other prospective. At least Vans has his back.
I heard from a homie who lived in Cali and broke into the scene a bit that JLay was moving mad weight, like selling weed was his first job, then pro skater.
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Man.. you are the worst.
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A man with that set of skills, both in and out of the bathtub, should be legend status with his name on a deck forever.
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I've heard a ton of stories from industry heads of JLay just slacking off and having bullshit excuses for not skating or going on trips. I assume he just got real lazy and bitchy and no one wanted to deal with him. I'm not gonna dry snitch like makaveli, but you guys probably have that part figured out.