By Jack Wills
@jack_k_w
“He was a skater boy she said ‘omg is that the new Supreme drop?’”
It’s been quite some time since she said “See ya later boy”, in fact the facelift which skateboarding has seen over the last ten years somewhat resembles that of the Kardashians pre to post riches.
The skateboarder, the original skateboarder, was typically portrayed by an individual wearing the baggie jeans, an ill-fitting flanno’ and a stained white t-shirt underneath.
But it would seem that these are days gone. The skateboarding that we once knew is slowly but surely being wiped away. Prior to the existence of multi-million dollar companies playing their hand at the skateboarding game, skateboarders were unable to support themselves simply via their sponsors. So labels such as Powell, Bones and Vans were created in order to fill the gap, designing specific skate attire that regular brands simply couldn’t.
It used to be that when riding a board, you immediately drew cold looks and the odd ‘faggot!’ call. But with big brands like Nike and Adidas now thinking our culture is worth a buck, they’re bleeding whatever they can out of the industry and turning it into a fast fashion nightmare.
Look around at all the festivals; there are guys there with muscles the size of my torso busting out of a Thrasher shirt with his floral short-shorts from General Pants…probably wearing a new pair of Yeezies too. It’s safe to say that for some skateboarders, this is what doomsday looks like.
They’ve even got it in vogue…and I mean literally – last year the magazine published an Article titled:
To which the Editor of Thrasher, Jake Phelps actually released a statement asking the likes of Justin Bieber and Rhianna to please stop wearing the thrasher attire.
*for those of you who don’t know, Thrasher is the Vogue of skateboarding…“We don’t send boxes to Justin Bieber or Rihanna or those fucking clowns, the pavement is where the real shit is. Blood and scabs, does it get realer than that?”
It’s not to say it’s been all bad for the skaters of the world, hey I welcome the fashion world with open arms. It’s actually done a lot for us, I definitely can’t complain. I’m getting way more attention from the opposite sex than I ever have and we’re even being considered a ‘sport’ for the Olympics.
But with all this comes a cost, as like anything in fashion – the industry elite come, they see and they conquer. Regardless if they’re ripping to shreds a culture built on much more than a sellable logo. This already happened to the music industry; talentless trash tops the charts because there’s a fat cat behind the scenes and the local fashionista’s are repping merch they’ve never even listened too.
I guess that’s just the way it is, skateboarding was just next in line…
