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Gino is literally the only reason SB exists. He completely legitimized Nike in skating.
Nah, that was Paul Rodriguez, at least from my view.
Gino was an old guy even back in the early 00's, same with Reese, Shimizu and Supa. Seemed that the established heads on the team were just there for some quick retirement cash while anyone 'new-age' (Hassler, Omar) were more niche-fillers than universally adored.
Paul was in his prime and indisputably killing it when he quit e's for SB and came out with that frontside flip ad for his first shoe. He brought an entire generation of consumers to the game. I have loved Gino's footage over the years but his nonchalant footage-ghosting has actually spurred me away from financially supporting brands that associate with him.
Give cash to somebody who doesn't do their job? I'm okay on that.
Nah, I get that this seems on the surface to be correct, but it really was Gino and the original four (Gino, Reese, Mulder, Supa) that did it. At the time, Nike hired away key people from TWS and other folks to come in and really have the brand immediately hit as something exclusive and cool.
The first thing they had to do was get the core buy-in. At the time, 2002-2005ish, you'd see the occasional photo or footage of a pro riding dunks or wearing Nike casuals, even though they had another shoe sponsor. Nike was smart. They convinced the core first that they were doing this right and legit, part of it through reminding people how great Jordans were for skating etc by basically making the new dunks in their effigy and doing the whole collaboration/limited colorways, etc. That first team and the first ads and the core mystique they started building was the entree to the rest. They had to establish they were serious about skateboarding after their first attempt.
We can argue all day about whether or not Nike is good for skating, but they accomplished all of their goals, I imagine, including the hardest one- maintaining relevance.