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That Mike Sinclair thing is fucked up. Going from Dekline to nike...... man.....
Wasn't he the one tripping and making a big deal how Nike was poaching Blake to ride for them before Dekline folded yet he went with Nike too?
Weird times indeed.
Thank God Emerica still has a relatively cool image, Team, and Reynolds because if Emerica ever folds idk what i'd do. Can you imagine walking into a skate shop and only having to choose from Nike, Adidas, Cons and NB?
Yeah thats the irony of it all. A lot of these corporate brands dont need skateboarding, but their presence in skateboarding has caused skateboarding to need them. You can say a lot about skateboarding shoe brands like Vans, Etnies, DC, Circa, and other brands catering to snowboarding, motorcross, bmx, surf, etc; We all remember when skateboarding had its low points and downs in the 90s. These brands had to branch out into other areas to survive and in order to also make shoes for skateboarding. Nike, Adidas, Cons, and NB could survive even without having a presence in skateboarding, after all theres a bunch of other corporate shoe companies that dont bother with skateboarding, and I hope it stays that way.
Fallen was a skate shoe brand through and through. Its a bummer that it died but we can take this as a sign of things to come, and sometimes I really fear that we're entering an age of skateboarding where the kids dont even give a shit about the defending skateboarding from the corporate predators, from local skateshops to skater-owned shoe brands. I really dont care how good the Janoskis are or are not but I'm never ever putting a pair of them on my feet ever. And I frown everytime I hear a really good skateboarder's reasoning for getting NikeSBs is that "they're good shoes man." Cool that may be true, but there are also shoes by skater-owned brands that perform just as well, but its understandable that Nike has more money so the models that reach the consumers have a low percentage of shoes being defective, where as small brands have to do with inventory, thus ending up with people having stories of "this pair of shoes blew out within 2 hours of skating". I've had a pair of Reynolds 3 that had the vulc fall off on the 3rd day of skating, but all the pairs of Reynolds 3's and Hsu's I've had before that held up just as any normal skate shoe would. And the Emericas that Ive had since have been fine. Its unfortunate that sometimes these shoes reach the hands of the consumers who may be purchasing from a brand for the first time, and thus leaving them with a negative impression of the brand.