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I see ownership in a way like Spanky is doing Baker graphics, or other older pros are now doing back-end stuff for brands.
Having Reynolds and Koston as part owners of both 'es and Emerica whould have rejuvinated the company, and probably kept a tighter team without having so many people leaving and creating a sort of identity hole.
In the end Nike or Vans or any other bigger shoes brand doesn't offer this but pays well and it's a great way for an aging professional to fade out.
Now basically all SoleTech brands have lost a lot of history and a lot of branding that even Koston or Reynolds brought to the table.
This literally.
idk man. This board is filled with older heads saying 40+ year old skateboarders would have rejuvenated a dying small footwear company. do younger kids really care much about either Koston or Reynolds? No doubt they are legends but obviously having Reynolds on wasn't cutting it for Emerica towards the end. would I have loved to see both have ownership? Yes, but I don't think it would save either brand (Reynolds owned Altamont and that shit still went under). the big companies offer the best contracts and can afford the most advertising and that's that. This board just circle jerks around everything these brands have messed up over the years but in reality, the second the big names came in with good money it was done no matter what, it just does not make sense to turn that down.
Lets be real, you and everyone you know has been skating nike and vans for the past decade and that is not gonna change anytime soon. I think we can stop talking about this on every soletech/lakai thread.
Fuck knows, but what's for sure is kids couldn't a spec of a damn about fuckin' Soletech. And I'm pretty sure that if younger skaters were privy to the fact Emerica or eS is owned by it they'd be pretty bummed also. I know my couple of emerica fan mates were when they realised it's affiliation with etnies.. In the Uk etnies is kinda some wasteman shopping centre brand shit.
It's sometimes weird coming on here, I forget how in real life a lot of people who skate don't actually delve into the background of things too deep, kinda wish I was naive to some of this bullshit too...
Did the same kids just realize Nike SB is actually affiliated with Nike? Not cool Nike, the Nike your mom bought you from mega-chain-x as a kid. That weird Nike old people wear and so on.
If you spoke to a young person on which was cool, nike or etnies? I think you'd be sadly surprised man.
I just don't think 'skater owned' companies workout for new generations when said skater becomes totally irrelevant, there's no face, it's just another company, especially when you realise that an even bigger company owns all 3. Hence why people are saying if Koston or Reynolds had ownership over the 2 other brands it probably would have helped over the last decade... maybe? When the company seems like 'just another company' it's all down to marketing and guess who trumps that?
I think the world's moved on too much in the last decade for these boarderline-skaterowned/corpo cyborgs companies i.e soletech and lakai, there's a dwindling market for it now. No one gives a shit anymore unless you have the small business 'mindfulness' direction of better product, more ethically produced/sourced and backed by likeminded skaters, ie Last Resort, although some of those points are contested, it's still an attempt that people can get behind. The other 4 companies are offering nothing different to nike other than nostalgia and the fake 'bbUt wER'rE sKatEr OwNed' puppy eyes of guilt effect on all the older heads lol.