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the current Powell team gives off big Christian youth group vibes to me
In the mid 1980s, the skateboard industry collectively realized that by framing their products as totems of rebellion, they could capture the birthday dollars of little boys who were too tender or awkward for tackle football.
They started to name their products cool Garbage Pail Kid names like, Bones and Slimeball (and eventually, antihero, creature, deathwish, heroin, and snot..etc etc etc) to solidify this profitable brand position.
People with fragile identities took the position of these products to heart just like people do with brands like Black Rifle Coffe, West Coast Choppers (weird, same Maltese cross logo as Indy), or Harley Davidson…
Football is authentically more dangerous than skateboarding.
Action sports that didn’t take this “outlaw” position (bmx, rollerblading) have seen their fortunes decline.
Rest assured focus groups and mba consultants had a hand in Vans sponsoring Warped Tour or choosing Grosso to tell skateboarding’s history.
Stacey Peralta even made fun of the branding crap in the opening scene of Animal Chin. Its marketing. That’s all. There is nothing intrinsically punk rock about the act of skateboarding.
Some people feel threatened when a brand pivots because of how they have constructed their sense of self (remember the whole Bud Light thing a couple months ago)…but, if it is hard, take your time…maybe drink a Liquid Death.
If you’re using “punk rock” as synonymous with rebellious, you think that was added in marketing whole-cloth and has no intrinsic link to skate boarding?
Many skateboarders would be exceptional athletes in other traditional sports, though they are generally much (much) smaller than football players. Foy or Frankie are considered large or fat skateboarders, and they would be the lightest people on the football field by what, 40 lbs?
Saying that people pickup skateboards because they are too soft for football is silly, though an argument could be made for size playing a factor in diminutive men picking individual sports that favor a smaller body type like skateboarding.
As for the Powell team, they seem to be a group of sub elite pros (in marketability more than skill level) for a variety of reasons, specific to each individual. This is just who Powell can pull, they’d gladly take some elites if they could, but its 2024 and they’re Powell so it is what it is.
Making a joke that their eccentricities make them seem akin to a group of christian (cult) youth, is just some light humor at their expense, typical of SLAP, nothing more. I don’t think anyones opinion on Powell has changed much (teir 2/ historical relevant brand) in 20+ years and doubt their team in an affront to anyone’s identity at this point.
Ps. I think slimeball as the name for bright green liquid urothane cast into a ball shaped wheel is pretty self explainatory.
While we’re on the subject of wheels, somebody should prolly point out that Bones wheels were first introduced in the late 70s, rather than the 80s, as cited by our esteemed colleague
@RembrantQeinstein, and they were branded as Bones because of the (at the time) distinctive white urethane compound they were composed of, rather than a desire to seem edgy.
Let’s keep in mind that George had selected the mildest, seemingly least rebellious member of the Zephyr squad as his burgeoning new company’s brand ambassador.
The famous Ray “Bones” Rodriquez pro model sword & skull graphic by VCJ that spawned the eventual use of skeletons/skulls on nearly every Powell graphic (Lance exempted) until Ray Barbee came along, started as a one-of, vato low rider inspired graphic, but for some while the graphics were everything from planes, to tanks, to dragons, to poorly drawn masks (I’m looking at you, Grabke pro model).
Pointing these facts out in the spirit of historical accuracy.