Skateboard Companies – Skater Owned vs. Not

Question:

Hey,
I have been checking out sublimited for awhile now. Great site. Thanks for taking the time. Anyways, I have always thought about opening up a shop. Recently came into some money, so I am finally starting to get more serious about it. That’s besides the point. With your industry experience and knowledge I was wondering if you could help me out with some info. When I start a shop I only want to carry skater owned brands, and as many local(colorado) brands as I can. There is always a long standing discussion between my friends and I about companies that are not skater owned. Is there any list out there that consists of non and skater owned companies, or could just just give me a quick rant on non skater owned companies. I don’t expect much, I know your busy. So no rush, and if I don’t hear back from you, no worries. Just keep posting on Sublimited, its appreciated. Thanks again.

-Matt

Disclaimer: The nice thing about having a blog is I can write whatever I want on it, without any evidence to back it up. And that’s what this answer is–just my own meandering opinions and thoughts. Take them for what they’re worth. Oh, and some of my info may be woefully out of date, like when I start talking about who owns which companies.

Answer: First off, I don’t know of any list of skater-owned vs. non skater-owned companies out there, but I’m guessing there might be one on Google somewhere. I should probably create it myself, since it would probably draw in a bit of traffic, but I’m kind of lazy. Tell you what, you create it, and I’ll post it here, fair enough

Second, it’s kind of hard to determine which companies are skater-owned vs. not. For example, is Element skater-owned? Well, it was started by a skater. It’s run by a skater. But technically it’s owned by Billabong, right? Zoo York was started by skaters, but is owned by Echo. Santa Cruz is not skater-owned, but Skip is about as down for skating as anyone, isn’t he? Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know the guy, but he seems committed to skateboarding. DC was started by Ken Block and the Way brothers. Danny is obviously a skater, and Damon and Ken…well, I don’t know if they ever skated, but they probably did. I don’t know anything about Damon, but I owe Ken a debt of gratitude because he sold product to me when I was starting my first shop 15+ years ago and nobody else would sell me stuff in small quantities. I don’t know anything about him today other than that he drives fast cars, but he was cool to me once and I won’t soon forget it. But of course now DC is owned by Quiksilver. Emerica seems like a core skater brand, right? I mean, you don’t see an Emerica surfwear line, right? What about Etnies? Yeah…not so much. But Etnies and Emerica are the same company, SoleTech, which is definitely skater-owned (Don Brown and Pierre were also cool to me when I was getting started–Pierre talked to me for 10 minutes about glue, once).

So if you’re going to draw lines as a skateshop owner, where do you draw them? Do you decide which companies are really skater owned, which are sort of skater owned, and which aren’t at all? Or do you have to go even further and decide which are skater-owned and marketed to real skaters (i.e. Emerica vs. Etnies)?

Here’s what I say–it’s all brain damage, so just sell the kids what they want, within reason.  What do I mean by “within reason”? Well, there are some products I wouldn’t sell, because I find them objectionable and I don’t think kids should have access to it. Not that I think the government should step in and ban stuff, or anything like that, I just mean that if I think a particular product has artwork or language or something that’s beyond what I find acceptable, I won’t sell it. No offense intended, that’s just the way I choose to do things. Luckily skateboarding already went through its “porn phase” over a decade ago, and hopefully it won’t come back.

In a different vein, there are products I might just not want to support, even if the kids want them, because I think it’s just going too far outside skateboarding. A few years ago I felt that way about Nike, although I’ve since changed my mind because they sent me a million dollars. But I kid, they’ve never sent me anything, I just changed my mind because I feel like they’ve proved their commitment to skateboarding, and because Koston threatened to send his goons after me to break my knees. I can’t think of another product at the moment that I feel that way about, but I’m sure they’re out there. You can probably think of a few.

So would I carry Element? Sure. DC? Probably. Etnies? Yeah. Zoo York? Why not. As long as kids buy the stuff, and it’s not crazy stuff like skateboards with 16 wheels or Snakeboards then it’s within reason for me.

That said, I happen to like certain brands better than others, and a lot of it has to do with them being “real” skater-owned companies. Girl/Chocolate/Lakai/Fourstar, for example.  Zero/Mystery/Fallen is another. Alien Workshop, Habitat, and pretty much anything Steve Berra reps is dope, even though DVS is run by a fat, washed-up, has-been of a skater (just kidding, Tim!…well, sort of). Baker, Deathwish, etc. Those are some of the brands I would go out of my way to promote. Others, like Element, I would have up there just in case kids want them. There are plenty of others as well, I just mention those because they spring to mind.