Are Skate Brands Setting Riders Up For Failure?

[Aatila]

I had some crazy debate with friends and even wrote this response in a thread, but do you feel some brands set riders up to potentially fail.  I always hear of riders getting the boot from companies due to budget cuts, not selling enough product, etc. and while the company knows it seems like the rider is left in the dark.  Could it be the riders fault if they have no control of board sizes or graphic or fit of product which are the main points in business?

[imgne]

Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

[69]

sk8ers are kool

[ben3350]

It's just like any other sport/activity that involves sponsorships.

Companies sponsor athletes/whatever for publicity and sales, thats the whole point. So if it doesn't end up being worth it for the company, then they may end up getting the boot. Seems cruel, especially when talking about a pro that you may really admire, but thats the business.

Sponsors aren't there to be your friends and hook you up, ultimately they want the money and only you if you're worth it to them.

[yukaton]

If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make sense.

[Rutger Hauer]

It's just like any other sport/activity that involves sponsorships.

Companies sponsor athletes/whatever for publicity and sales, thats the whole point. So if it doesn't end up being worth it for the company, then they may end up getting the boot. Seems cruel, especially when talking about a pro that you may really admire, but thats the business.

Sponsors aren't there to be your friends and hook you up, ultimately they want the money and only you if you're worth it to them.

Well...we also have companies like SkateMafia which is a company but also a homie/family thing...

[Box of Frogs]

http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2011/12/28/the-stuff-you-want-to-know-about-jeremy-wray/

Element sort of did it to Jeremy Wray

[sid vicious]

i can't be bothered posting in this thread

[Fenzadill]

Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

Yeah except for instead of drinking a strangers cum,  you ride a skateboard and promote products

[JB]

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Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

[close]

Yeah except for instead of drinking a strangers cum,  you ride a skateboard and promote products

almost all prostitutes make you wear a condom for blowjobs. just saying.

[thugnificent]

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Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

[close]

Yeah except for instead of drinking a strangers cum,  you ride a skateboard and promote products

[close]

almost all prostitutes make you wear a condom for blowjobs. just saying.

nah i think thats just for you

[Oprah Winfrey]

Really its just insane exploitation.

Pretty pathetic pay. Worse career span than NFL players (without the pay, benefits, pension).

And most of these skateboarders, ams or even pro, are literally child workers..


Skateboarding as a profession is a childish goal really.

[GAY]

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Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

[close]

Yeah except for instead of drinking a strangers cum,  you ride a skateboard and promote products

[close]

almost all prostitutes make you wear a condom for blowjobs. just saying.

Not gay prostitutes...they'd be out of a job quick. Guess that's why they're all veritable petri dishes of disease.

[GAY]

Really its just insane exploitation.

Pretty pathetic pay. Worse career span than NFL players (without the pay, benefits, pension).

And most of these skateboarders, ams or even pro, are literally child workers..


Skateboarding as a profession is a childish goal really.

#realtalk

#ugogirl

#truthfromdaheart

#angelasashes

#dikesquad

[Oprah Winfrey]

Skateboarding is like real world career HIV, with 90% of cases leading to AIDS.

Good luck out there Tom Astas.

[Monkey_Mcpott]

Some pros can be amazingly good, and kids wont care. Its been proven time and time again. Some Pros just don't appeal to kids no matter if they switch trey flipped el toro. Theres so many tricks that people never heard of being done because people didn't know the skater or didn't care enough because they favorite pro didn't do it. I remember when furby had switched flipped Hollywood 15 and nobody knew about it till like 5 years later. But if say Reynolds would have done it people would know about it the next day. Not hating on Reynolds because i love Reynolds but that's just how the industry works. Sometimes new up and coming pros cant get out of the shadows of the hottest pro in the same team. Then next thing you know they get injured and we never hear from them again and people wont even realize it. Its jacked!

[rideforJJ]

no matter how good one may be riding for Split is getting setup to fail... dude needs to at least wear some weed socks and/or get advice from Dollin on how to make the Australian accent seem cool.

[doublesteveburger]

Expand Quote

It's just like any other sport/activity that involves sponsorships.

Companies sponsor athletes/whatever for publicity and sales, thats the whole point. So if it doesn't end up being worth it for the company, then they may end up getting the boot. Seems cruel, especially when talking about a pro that you may really admire, but thats the business.

Sponsors aren't there to be your friends and hook you up, ultimately they want the money and only you if you're worth it to them.

[close]

Well...we also have companies like SkateMafia which is a company but also a homie/family thing...

i'm not necessarily saying sk8mafia did this, but the whole 'homie/family' type thing can also be a good selling strategy.
it's all marketing.

[Spike Hawke]

No matter how cool you think it would be to be a pro sk8er boi, its still a job and business. Companies need to make money to survive, so if you think you are carrying bodies that aren't pulling there weight, they be gone. Much like any other business.

[MuchasGracias]

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Professional skateboarding, its like being a whore but with corporate pimps?

[close]

Yeah except for instead of drinking a strangers cum,?  you ride a skateboard and promote products

[close]

almost all prostitutes make you wear a condom for blowjobs. just saying.

Blasphemy!

[ben3350]

Really its just insane exploitation.

Pretty pathetic pay. Worse career span than NFL players (without the pay, benefits, pension).

And most of these skateboarders, ams or even pro, are literally child workers..


Skateboarding as a profession is a childish goal really.

well yeah thats because skaters go pro for board companies and not organizations as big as the NFL.

It's not like the board companies are making bank and just not giving their pros any, the whole industry isn't that big and is not a huge moneymaker. Many board companies want to pay their riders more, they just can't. The NFL can pretty much pay whatever they want.

[dillanharp]

Skateboarding is over saturated with pros and pro products. I'm not even talking about boards. Do you really need a new graphic or series every few months? It used to be a huge deal for a pro shoe, now anyone can have one.  I love the guy, but Jose Rojo didn't need a pro shoe. It's not even in the catalog anymore. I'd rather take a higher base salary than have a company spend the time and money to design a pro truck that's not going to sell. Over saturation, it's the key kids.

Edit: One thing that's bugged me for the last couple of months is over at Etnies. The Marana and the Gilman(Cairo's shoe) came out pretty much at the same time at the exact same price. With the amount of hype and advertising that went in to sheckler's shoe, which I really don't blame etnies for, Cairo never had a chance.

[Aatila]

Skateboarding is over saturated with pros and pro products. I'm not even talking about boards. Do you really need a new graphic or series every few months? It used to be a huge deal for a pro shoe, now anyone can have one.  I love the guy, but Jose Rojo didn't need a pro shoe. It's not even in the catalog anymore. I'd rather take a higher base salary than have a company spend the time and money to design a pro truck that's not going to sell. Over saturation, it's the key kids.

Edit: One thing that's bugged me for the last couple of months is over at Etnies. The Marana and the Gilman(Cairo's shoe) came out pretty much at the same time at the exact same price. With the amount of hype and advertising that went in to sheckler's shoe, which I really don't blame etnies for, Cairo never had a chance.

i could even throw other pros in this talk.  Like rowley gets a shoe every other month and other pros would make a shoe and get less promotion.  Then the other pros shoe is dropped due to lack of sales which then you would get a pay drop for not having a sig shoe.  But is it really the riders fault for this?  or another example would be tom penny's pro shoe not getting much promotion or jeremy wray having a bunch of sick shit that element gave him the cold shoulder for only to promote bam not skating and destroying cars .   How do you expect the pro to win when you purposely overshadow the dude with an obvious big name right after or even during the other pro campaign then look at the pro like hes not doing his job?  

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

[annoyedwithskating]

keep dreaming the dream, dont listen to the unhappy workadays. "get a real job" sounds like somebodys been listening to their parents or some other fags.  not a bad goal really. look, its all about image. dont focus so much on being good or doing the gnarliest thing, no one really cares. exploit your strengths. if you have a good 180, then do with a bunch of lights flashing behind you with maybe some smoke. believe me, youll get more attention with 30 seconds of the best stuff you can do rather than 3 minutes of quality skateboarding.  hosoi will do a guest cameo for a couple bills no problem. the trick is, figure out what is coming in style, then make that your thing, with some minor tweaks of course. it helps to have friends with an eye for editing and some marketing skills.
changing your name is not a bad idea either. no one cares about john smith, try this one, jon smooth. you could wear a chain and clock hoes. remember, youre selling a lifestyle. if you want to retire at 30, get started. move to LA, make the right connections but be careful. start drinking your red bull now so you can build up a tolerance to ass droppings, you dont want to pucker up in front of the ceo at the luncheon.

[Ollie Ringwald]

Really its just insane exploitation.

Pretty pathetic pay. Worse career span than NFL players (without the pay, benefits, pension).

And most of these skateboarders, ams or even pro, are literally child workers..


Skateboarding as a profession is a childish goal really.

But sometimes they are actually exploiting children, Flip has a pretty solid track record for fucking kids lives up.

[Monkey_Mcpott]

Expand Quote

Skateboarding is over saturated with pros and pro products. I'm not even talking about boards. Do you really need a new graphic or series every few months? It used to be a huge deal for a pro shoe, now anyone can have one.  I love the guy, but Jose Rojo didn't need a pro shoe. It's not even in the catalog anymore. I'd rather take a higher base salary than have a company spend the time and money to design a pro truck that's not going to sell. Over saturation, it's the key kids.

Edit: One thing that's bugged me for the last couple of months is over at Etnies. The Marana and the Gilman(Cairo's shoe) came out pretty much at the same time at the exact same price. With the amount of hype and advertising that went in to sheckler's shoe, which I really don't blame etnies for, Cairo never had a chance.

[close]

i could even throw other pros in this talk.  Like rowley gets a shoe every other month and other pros would make a shoe and get less promotion.  Then the other pros shoe is dropped due to lack of sales which then you would get a pay drop for not having a sig shoe.  But is it really the riders fault for this?  or another example would be tom penny's pro shoe not getting much promotion or jeremy wray having a bunch of sick shit that element gave him the cold shoulder for only to promote bam not skating and destroying cars .   How do you expect the pro to win when you purposely overshadow the dude with an obvious big name right after or even during the other pro campaign then look at the pro like hes not doing his job?  

Sucks but its true. When i company has the hottest thing in skateboarding everyone else on the team is filler which can suck because when you're trying to live off of skateboarding you need evrything you are getting which sometimes isnt much because the company is too worried about pleasing their top rider. I remember as a kid opening up a CCS catalog and seeing like 10 bam boards in one month then maybe like 2 other random element boards.

[Shredsledder]

I think most people who are making a living off of skateboarding are fully aware that their "job" could end at any second, if anything they are setting themselves up for "failure". I could see how people who have been getting paid to skateboard since childhood could end up having a very skewed perception of what it means to have a job.

[Fenzadill]

The skateboarding industry exists to sell skateboards, it is not any deeper than that.  That is the very definition of 'industry'.

[KUberry]

Yep. Lawyer up and get that bread so you can have a fallback strategy...maybe start a grip tape company