illustration: lauren kolesinskas
in the past decade there has been a huge increase in the level of corporate involvement in skateboarding, and we may be returning to a form of skateboarding that steve rocco, mike vallely, mark gonzales and others desperately tried to escape in the early 1990’s.
new members within the skate community, like eric wiseman, phil knight, herbert hainer, the maloofs, gary ream, william sweedler, neil cole, and andrew kline, are all challenging what it means to be a skateboarder and how we skateboard. these men (that have probably never stepped foot on a skateboard) run or are the money behind vf corp [vans], nike, adidas, maloof money cup, woodward, sequential brands [dvs], iconix [zoo york] and park lane sports Investment banking [street league]. through their economic capital, and power outside of skateboarding they have been able to force their way into powerful positions within skateboarding and are able to directly profit off of our activity. should we care if non-skaters are allowed to hold powerful positions in our culture? should we care if skaters associate with these people and buy their products? will it change how we skateboard, how we view ourselves and how we view the world?
- lurper.
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