Thrasher is paid to advertise Nike, Converse, and Adidas on a monthly basis.
Lowcard throws an Adidas ad on the back of every issue.
They're magazines.
They want to sell copies of the Prevent This Tragedy DVD (which was probably given that title in order to sell old boxes of Prevent This Tragedy shirts that weren't selling anyway), and Converse probably offered this to them. I'd be more pissed about them collaborating with CCS, personally.
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Why? CCS sells skateboards and skateboard shoes. They have been involved with sponsoring skaters longer than Converse has, whether or not they are cheesy. They have been in the business of providing those who want to skateboard with the tools to do so, just as Nike, Converse, and Adidas have been providing people with shoes to skateboard in. (However minus Adidas and their love for Gonz, these shoe companies have not done a damn thing for skateboarding or providing skaters with a living until the past 5-8 years. Which is why a lot of people have a problem with them entering the skateboard world, they just saw an opportunity to suck the life out of the companies who were built upon skateboarding and leave them with nothing.)
I also think a lot of you are fooled into thinking that the skaters who skate for Nike, Converse and Adidas are making a lot more money than those who skate for the "skate" shoe companies. They don't, unless you are P-Rod, Janoski, Salazar, Busenitz and maybe a couple of others. However, where were they in the 80's, 90's and early 00's? They could have been helping out, but they weren't. Just b/c people skated in them in the past, does not mean the companies gave a shit about helping skateboarding grow and provide legitimacy to the sport/activity/art.
I used to skate in SB's and then realized they were no better than any other skate shoe company (someone try and prove me otherwise with a legitimate comparison) and so I quit buying them.
Skateboarding is dying, and it isn't due to Nike, Adidas, and Converse...it is just pretty stale and lame, but fun for me so I continue doing it.