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a skate shoe. doesn't change the fact that no skater ever developed any part of a skate shoe ever in his live.
all ideas by nike and Adidas and some surfer at vans by doing shoes over 100 years so a son of a bitch from California could make millions by just using those informations and making his own shoe out of it. just so the consumer who doesn't know shit can point a finger at nike because they are the bad company because they don't even skate in office bro. bet they don't even smoke pot in there or shot gun a beer fucking lames.
How about DESIGN, ENDORSEMENT and in some cases MONEY.
Is that enough?
Yeah, that's a bullshit claim. Do they expect a skater to go to a Chinese factory and build them themselves? Sure, not every pro is going to design their own shoe these days but to say they're not involved whatsoever is BS
no I don't I expect them to not claim to be the holy gods in shoe business because the money they make isn't going straight into skateboarders pockets.
I know you love the idea that your shoe company looks like your local skate shop and the owner is like your skate shop owner and fights to make a living so you buy some goods from him and he's so thankful and brave and talk about how the years fly by and he's still there and you sit in front of the shop and its getting melancholy.
that's just stupid.
give me an example for a shoe technology made by a skater?
Sole Tech (started by a skater) built a skatepark purely for the skaters they followed to work on and test out the science of the skate shoes they made
And also donated a ton of money for the skatepark in Lake Forest to get built as well as the Buy A Shoe, Plant A Tree program, putting on events such as Game of Skates, Wild in the Streets, demos/signings to get skaters to the local shop, giving away thousands of pairs of shoes to the homeless and much more.
I may come off bias but my opinions are purely from 20+ years of being a skateboarder, not because of who I work for.
First things first, I don't really have an issue of the corporate brands being in skateboarding. They're huge companies and saw opportunities to get into sports that they weren't in and wanted to make as much money as humanly possible. I get it and who am I to say who can or can't be in skateboarding. I can say though that I've never bought a pair of SB's, Adidas, Cons or #NB. Growing up there weren't many corporate brands in skating like there are today so all I knew about were the "core" footwear brands. Basically I wore mostly Emerica and Es with some Circa's and Fallen in the mix. Even after Nike and the rest of the corporate brands got into skateboarding, I never had any interest in supporting those brands because it just felt wrong to me. I wanted to support the guys that started brands for the right reasons, not to make a quick buck. I can tell you Pierre Andre started the Sole Tech brands because there just weren't a ton of footwear options for skateboarders back then. As a kid to an adult, that always stood out to me and was proud to support the brands that were there for the right reasons and deserved to be. It's very unfortunate that brands like Circa, Adio, HUF, and even Osiris (when it was cool at one point) couldn't survive due to those big brands coming in and taking over.
In regards to this thread, Nike doesn't give a fuck about skateboarding and neither do the other big brands. I'm not saying that in a hateful way, it's "nothing but the truth". The second those skateboarding programs aren't profitable, they will pull out. SB already did it in snowboarding and is doing it now in skate to a degree. Cutting pros, flow riders, and even valuable employees is proof enough. Now add in all the core skate shops they're pulling out of to focus on their own Direct to Consumer business model. Getting into these shops years ago just to become legitimized to skaters only to bail on shops to make more money for themselves is a giant fuck you to skate shops especially after posting that "58 reasons to support skate shops" video on Skate Shop Day while at the same time sending letters to shops dropping their accounts. There's no doubt that Nike did a great job recruiting core skateboarders to run SB and to me, it's a major red flag when they decide to get rid of the guys who basically built the SB program and helped make it so successful. At this point, SB is out of the hands of skateboarders and run by people who have never stepped foot on a skateboard and never will. The truth is that SB doesn't need 50+ team riders or to flow every kid anymore. They could just have a few riders such as Ishod, GT, Nyjah, Prod and be totally fine. They've already stated they're moving away from athlete endorsements. I don't think SB will ever fully cut the skate program but could they downsize it or murge SB into just Nike? Yeah, probably.
I won't be that guy that says "support skater owned because it's right thing to do". Support whatever you feel like. I just hope people realize that they can either support brands who truly care about skateboarding or those that don't. The more support the little guys get, the more they're able to do whether it be to take care of more skateboarders, put out more projects, give back to local skate scenes, etc. Some people care about skater owned and operated while some don't and that's totally okay. I think there's enough room for all the brands core or not to be in skateboarding but I'd rather give my money to the guys who are still doing kickflips in their mid-50's than to some suit who has never once thought about picking up a board and pushing down the street.
Topic: is nike cutting skate program soon? (Read 62992 times)