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Didn't eS drop their whole team with out warning?
I highly doubt there was no previous discussion when they decided to put es' on hiatus, or when team riders were let go. I'm sure it seemed out of the blue to fans who only see the brands through their media output, but huge decisions like that are not just made on a whim with no notice.
But my point was that the corpos do the same thing, if people want to get upset at SoleTech for questionable decisions.
I remember reading an interview with one of the riders at the time (maybe Mike Anderson?) that there was no transparency from eS, and one day the program was just done with no warning.
You can be upset at both.
It was virtually overnight. No one internally really knew either. Maybe the executive team. One day people came in and their jobs and team rider slots and the brand were gone and everyone was scrambling to fabricate a narrative. "Creative hiatus" was a lie. Banks were involved. It was a multi million dollar budget cut essentially. In other words "they are just going to abandon skateboarding and skateboarders when it's not lucrative anymore!"
Damn. So it was that abrupt. Weak.
It doesn't affect my opinion on their products and team, but interesting to hear it was as bleak as a lot of people suspected when the whole "creative hiatus" explanation was put out there. Didn't they come back only a year later or something? Wonder what changed? Less investment in team for sure.
Very weak. Yeah, came back a few years later with very little overheard, barely paying skaters. Recycling one old shoe after another. You know, really progressive and giving back to skateboarding. Happy to see those evil "corpo" brands took care of the riders that Sole abandoned, glad so many landed on their feet. TX, Bobby, Manderson, Terps, etc. Scuba and Rattray working at Nike and so on. Ironic huh?
I personally love Accel slims, and the slim plus, and the Swift. The SLB 97 with the toe cap was so good I had about 5 pairs in a row when they remade it. Quattros look really dope, as does the Silo redone with the Quattro sole.
I don't think the recycling old shoe designs argument is a good one to make when we're comparing a company like es' to the majors like Nike. Blazer, Dunk, Bruin... ahem. The Janoski is a copy of a damn boat shoe. Most pros are lucky to get a colorway while being buried in an imageless team hundreds of riders deep. I agree it's good they're getting paid well, but Nike and the other sport brands almost exclusively rely on previous shoe designs they recycled for the skate market. I'm not hating on them for it at all - just pointing out it's a normal practice for the majors too, possibly even more so.
I don't think the major sport brands are evil, even if I wish they weren't involved in skateboarding. My reason for not liking them is because to me they represent two things - sports, and the jocks who harassed me for simply being a skateboarder during my youth. It bums me out they've infiltrated skateboarding and I genuinely do not like to see huge sport logos on shoes in media. Even still, I would never fault a pro for quitting a "core" brand to ride for the majors - you'd be dumb to turn that down. As much as I back Sole Tech, it's a new era and they have less money/relevance than ever for up and coming skaters.