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slap still scrutinizing the lifestyle of a pro loved by basically everyone except the weirdos here on Slap. in a thread not about him where he was just brought up because he's also black. Furthermore the aspiring financial analysts here can't figure out the math behind how the pro with the most sponsors ever at one time can afford a car and a house.
Again, the issue wasn’t that he afforded them or what he did with the money, but why a skater who was never considered notable talent-wise, but was seen as a good kid was making Bentley money when you’re average pro was making Honda money. It’s not specifically about Bentleys, that’s just a symbol for his rarefied levels of earnings he’s made as a skateboarder (which no one has a problem with).
It was/is a discussion on how skateboarding isn’t a meritocracy and how brands value riders because of what they bring to the table as well. I never knew personally what Theotis brought to the table outside of skateboarding. Just like I didn’t know what Brophy did. People are discussing it, sharing tidbits they know. It’s not some attack on anyone.
People are on Slap because they’re interested in skateboarding as an activity and as an industry. Perhaps I, like others, may not express questions/opinions I have as delicately as I could, but spend anytime on the boards beyond the past two weeks when you’ve been trying to stir up helter skelter and you’ll be able to tell the people who are trolls who bear ill-will and say shit just to be outrageous (you) and who are aren’t.
how was he never considered notable skill-wise? theotis is on a similar level of tech skating skill as torey pudwill but with a better style. just watch his chronicles 2 part, i had that shit on repeat when i was 14. i'm sure it might not appeal to you, i kinda grew out of that too but i know for a fact that back then he was one of the top pros on baker next to herman and reynolds, pretty much all of my skate friends fucked with him, we bought baker boards because of him, we wore p-rod 6s because of him, we wore 5 panel hats because of him and as much as i wish that it wasn't true it's the kids like us then that decide what's cool and what's not cool in skateboarding. i just watched that whole video just to know that i'm not biased because of the nostalgia and that fucking banger of a lil wayne song but it still is the second best part of that whole video (ishod is 1st of course), it's just the fits and the pinchless crooked grinds that didn't age well. you just don't like his skating and that's ok, but the fact that YOU don't like it doesn't mean that it's objectively wack and that theotis isn't talented because he sure as fuck is. those average honda-driving pros you mentioned probably don't have the skill, personality and the marketability of theotis, that's why they're driving that beat up 1998 honda accord while theotis is flexing his bentley on insta.
Theotis was considered notable talent-wise. This is clear with his early Nike/Baker/Mountain Dew sponsorships. He was really fucking good as a kid and showed a lot of promise. I just don't think he ever progressed past a certain point and didn't keep up with skateboarding's increasing talent level, as well as the way tricks were going. As has been mentioned before, he literally took any sponsor he could get. Most pros don't do that. When dumb corpo sponsors call they say no, either because they personally don't want to work with brands like that or don't want to appear to have sold out. Theotis doesn't seem to have those qualms and was willing to take those paycheques. I bet there are lots of pros that could be in his financial position if they were willing to sell-out in the way he did (no disrespect to him, get that money if you want it).
To say that Theotis is comparable to T-puds is a joke right? I'm not a big Torey fan, but he was on some next-level tech shit around that time. Theotis was a really talented kid skater. Torey was doing shit, like it or not, that was basically NBD.
Topic: Kader on Nike (Read 72046 times)