"Core"?...you dolt. I haven't got an opinion on Jason Jesse either way.
It's just a great fucking quote and it's powerful on a few levels. Kids who've only been skating 10 or less years would look at that quote and think it's lame, negative and silly. But those of us who remember when skateboarding had a movement behind it, a collective energy that tied all skaters together, lament the explosion of skateboarding into every home and mall in America.
If the city came in and put in new street lights in our neighborhood and repaved the roads, sure you and I alike would be signing it's praises. But when they showed up with steam rollers and the use of eminent domain to buy us out of our own neighborhood and force us out so they could build a new super-highway over it, that would be a different story. And that's exactly what has happened in our industry.
These companies went from mild benefactors to a few skaters to basically owning our industry outright. We have no control over this industry any more because we cannot direct where it's going. We are no longer the voices of our own movement. It's been commandeered. It's like the Black Panther movement in the 60's. The CIA sent in their Counter Intelligence Operatives to become part of the movement and then they eventually sabotaged it from within. But there's no need to sabotage an industry that you're milking for so much money and, more importantly, implanting your brand into the brains of those millions of consumers for life.
That's what it's all about. Don't you get it?....Skateboarding money doesn't mean shit to Nike, Converse or Adidas. It's about conquering an underground scene, owning a movement and being able to say "Hey, look over here. Even the SKATEBOARDERS are embracing us!".
We lose.
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buck-fifty | Tue, 06/23/2009 - 10:44
"Core"?...you dolt. I haven't got an opinion on Jason Jesse either way.
It's just a great fucking quote and it's powerful on a few levels. Kids who've only been skating 10 or less years would look at that quote and think it's lame, negative and silly. But those of us who remember when skateboarding had a movement behind it, a collective energy that tied all skaters together, lament the explosion of skateboarding into every home and mall in America.
If the city came in and put in new street lights in our neighborhood and repaved the roads, sure you and I alike would be signing it's praises. But when they showed up with steam rollers and the use of eminent domain to buy us out of our own neighborhood and force us out so they could build a new super-highway over it, that would be a different story. And that's exactly what has happened in our industry.
These companies went from mild benefactors to a few skaters to basically owning our industry outright. We have no control over this industry any more because we cannot direct where it's going. We are no longer the voices of our own movement. It's been commandeered. It's like the Black Panther movement in the 60's. The CIA sent in their Counter Intelligence Operatives to become part of the movement and then they eventually sabotaged it from within. But there's no need to sabotage an industry that you're milking for so much money and, more importantly, implanting your brand into the brains of those millions of consumers for life.
That's what it's all about. Don't you get it?....Skateboarding money doesn't mean shit to Nike, Converse or Adidas. It's about conquering an underground scene, owning a movement and being able to say "Hey, look over here. Even the SKATEBOARDERS are embracing us!".
We lose.
»