Aiden Clarke is probably the worst poster on here in a long time.
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I think Colden told me that his contract was over in 2015, he also told me that Kyle Frederick who rides for mystery only gets paid $100 a month 
my point only is this. those contracts were put in front of them, and they weren't forced to sign them. thats why they call them CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS. Someone offers you a contract, you READ it, see which terms you don't agree with and you counter. If Trevor signed a contract that kept him at Black Box until 2015, it means he AGREED to the terms. Same with Kyle. The thing is, these dudes are skateboarders that have NEVER made money from skateboarding, so if anyone offers them anything, they're pretty quick to take it.
Did Jamie take advantage of their naivety? Possibly. But the point is they weren't forced to do anything they didn't want to do.
And I stand by my point that it's BULLSHIT that Jamie tried to grease Nike for the money to buy out Colden's contract. He's not stupid, and knows how the industry works.
Yes man, I agree with you that Trevor probably should have read his contract better, but when you're a kid exciting to be talking to a legend with no idea how the skate industry works or how willing people are to fuck you over, then I also understand why you wouldn't think about it like a seasoned business vet. Secondly, it's well-known that the skate world, especially skater-owned companies, really frown on people bringing in agents and lawyers. I remember an interview with PRod when he got on Nike where he said he got an agent to go into negotiations with him but he would never do that with Girl (for example). I'm not sure if that has changed but that's a well-respected money maker saying this. Do you think a (at the time) no name kid would have survived in skating if he lawyered up right away? They'd probably be like, "Who the fuck does he think he is?" and since all it takes is pissing off one person, he could easily be screwed for some time.
Aside from that, people leave from their contracts all the time. If someone wants to quit or is blatantly talking shit on your company, why would you want them around? This happens all the time in the business world and it's called "grounds for firing." Then, you don't have to pay them anymore and in most positions, you cannot force someone to stay if they say they quit. And usually, you can't or don't charge them for the privilege of quitting because it taints your brand and image, making you look like a dick and other people hesitant to work with you. People quit companies all the time in skating. Do you think every single one of them has waited for their contract to expire or had to pay a lot of money because of it? In fact, the only similar move I can remember is when Shane was supposed to leave Nike for DC and they threatened to sue him over it. So I guess congrats to Jamie--he's at Nike's level (assuming this is true).
Oh, and the Grant leaving AWS thing didn't go down the way you described. He was set to quit AWS and told them he was jumping to Anti-Hero so AWS talked to Grant and Deluxe and asked them if they could keep it under wraps because they had just printed a bunch of boards and they needed them to sell. So all three parties reached a deal so that AWS wasn't out a shitload of money. They didn't try to force him to buy out his contract if he left early.
You want to know why skater owned companies don't like lawyers and agents coming in and negotiating on behalf of the riders? A couple of reasons really. For one, they are not as good with business as corporate companies that report to shareholders and deadlines, so if something messes up on the companies end and the skater tries to hold them to their contractual agreement its easier for them to keep it under wraps in their favor. So now that we've established that skateboard companies aren't great at business, this leads to the other reason, and that is that skater owned companies are notoriously known for not taking care of people and historically don't offer the amount of money and incentives that the skater is worth, and on top of that they're used to these skateboarders excepting these low ball terms and conditions. They can't persuade/ trick/ bully a rider into a shitty contract as easily if the skateboarder has adequate representation. It's the skaters fault if they let a company intimidate them into accepting an offer without consulting a professional second opinion.
For your second point, skaters do not just up and leave contracts before their release date all the time. The reason why you see some skaters drop companies and pick up new companies is because they never had a contract, so nothing was legally binding them to the company for a specific amount of time to begin with.
The reason why a company would want to keep a rider under contract even if the rider wants to quit is because the company wants to see a return on their investment for all the money they gave to the skater to push their company. Skaters are paid salaries and sign on bonuses because the company expects to make a lot more money than what they paid the rider through selling things with their name on it. If a company gave a skater thousands of dollars and the rider wanted to back out before profits from that rider were realized, companies would go out of business. Your concept of employment is much different from sports contracts, which is what skateboarding most resembles in today day and age. So the rider wants to leave after getting a sign on bonus, a salary, free product etc, before the company made any real money off of their investment in the company. That's where contract buy outs come from, because the company needs to recoup their losses from the rider not holding up their contractual agreement. If someone wants out of a contract before their time is up, they either wait it out or put up money to get out of it. That way the company doesn't take a major financial hit from the rider backing out. Take p rod and the spray painted boards he was riding, it was clear to people like us that follow skating closely that he wasn't feeling plan b anymore, but most people don't realize that. The average street league viewer doesn't know that p rod hates plan b, all they see is p rod skating on tv and his pro model board hanging up in zumies, which they'll buy without hesitation. Even if p rod was on social media shit talking plan b, these little groms would never know and support plan b regardless. The reason p rod didn't just leave? Plan b paid him one of the heftier sign on bonuses and salaries in the industry for a deck sponsor, and it was too much money for him to see a fiscal gain from paying what they needed to get him out of the contract. It was financially better for him to just wait it out and not sign a new contract when it was time for renewal.
Another good example is Brian wenning, since you brought up aws. When he left habitat, he did so when he wanted without penalty because he was not under contract, it was all on a hand shake. Carter warned him about going to plan b because skating for a board company under contract restricts your options for mobility between companies. He ended up signing that plan b contract, and then realized they weren't pushing his name as he wanted. He wanted to get out way earlier than he did, but the money he would have had to pony up to get out was beyond his means. They continued to make money using his name and likeness while he wanted to go back to habitat. The only reason why you can only recall share o neills dilemma between dc and Nike is because it isn't advantageous to the skater or the company to put it out in the open. Wenning only let his story out after he started lockdown.
Grants situation is different since he wasn't dealing with contract hound companies like plan b or zero/ mystery. His deal had flexibility, and fortunately for aws they tend to not fuck ppl over so they get the same kind of respect from like minded companies. Had it been grant wanting to leave plan b for anti hero, the story would have sounded just like trevor coldens.
Jamie is a good business man who knows how to trim fat from his companies so he doesn't take a hard hitting financial loss. No companies, skate related or otherwise, offer team players contracts that benefit the team mate more than the company offering the contract.
Edit: I also want to clarify that some companies will pay riders an advance, meaning the company pays the rider money before they actually earn it with the intention of making it back over the time period that the contract specifies. That way if a company pays a rider money that the rider hasn't generated through endorsing the brand, and that rider wants to jump ship before the company sees a return from what they paid, the buy out for the rider to leave will recoup some of that loss.
Topic: Motta of Skate Mental? (Read 17360 times)