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I have a copy of a 1998 interview issue of a Transworld, where all these pros are giving their opinion of the current skate industry.
Almost every interview in that thing has someone complaining about how there's "too many pros these days", that the market was flooded, game was fucked up, "back in 1993 you had to pay your dues", "it doesn't mean anything anymore", etc etc etc.
people have been bitching about this since the beginning of street skateboarding. It seems like a dumb argument in 1998 and it seems like a dumb argument now. it never seems to actually "fuck up the game" or water it down the way people claim it will -- after all, it's 2022 and the industry is still here and the culture is still alive. I think it's a thinly veiled way of screaming into the abyss "i hate change" or "new things are scary" or maybe "i like the existing monopolies"
I think the only criteria to put someone's name on a skateboard should be that the company is stoked on them, and they think that person can sell a few boards to the target demo. Any other criteria for what makes a "real" pro are gonna be either jockish (how many inches high can you ollie) or impossible to define in objective terms (he/she/they paid their """d u e s""")
Should everyone who's currently am or flow be pro then, in your opinion?
No. Why would you imply thats what I am getting at?
There are a thousands of no name Am and Flow skaters who have no name recognition, aren't quite developed, or haven't quite baked themself into a team or crew enough to be representing that brand. The people that run skate brands and who are fronting the money to make the boards, making the calls to get them distributed, and packing the UPS boxes with web orders, etc, get to define who makes sense to be Pro, based on the audience they are trying to aim towards. And there aren't infinite slots on a team: obviously you are limited by how many boards you want to drop in a season without wearing out your audience, and so many different graphics and board shapes you can press up in a season before you run out of money. So brand owners still have to be selective, and will be.
And this gets me to the main point : anyone is allowed to start a brand and test the waters. If skaters think it's bogus, they will not buy the boards, but if they think it's sick, and identify with it, they will. If skateshops think their customers fuck with a brand, they will order some boards for the wall, but if they don't, they won't. What makes skateboarding so interesting is this process playing out every couple of years, and legacy brands constantly having to re-prove why they are relevant and worth supporting.
Why does this completely normal (and to me, exciting) process get people so bent out of shape?