Skateboarding Vs. The Corporate World
Every kid who grows up riding a
skateboard everyday looks up to the guys they see in the videos, on TV; or
especially in today’s culture, on the Internet. Although it may not seem like
it, all of the skateboarders being filmed or photographed are role models to
younger generation regardless of their level of skill. After 9 years,
skateboarding as changed a lot since I started. It seemed as like skateboarding
was just a cohesive unit, the only that mattered in skateboarding was
skateboarding. Now it is very clear that there are two distinct sides: an authentic
side versus an unauthentic side. The two factors that cause this debate to
exist are the company ownership and the style of cinematography.
In 2015, a
company that really breaks the mold and really sticks out as an authentic
company is Bronze 56K. Peter Sidlauskas started the brand in around 2011, as a
hardware company with his friends who would just spray paint cheap bolts the
color bronze. As a lot of other people, Peter was fed up with the direction where
skateboarding was headed. In 2012, they dropped their first video named
“***56K***”. He wanted to potentially make the worst video in skateboarding
that would ban him from the industry, but fortunately enough for him it did the
opposite. The video blew up and received really good feedback from the
community. It got everyone hyped. It was so different but presented a more
real, authentic aspect it the industry that skateboarding hasn’t seen before.
Peter and the crew continued to make videos with this style and came out with a
new one each year after ***SOLO JAZZ***, ***ENRON***, and ***TRUST***.
Something that makes Bronze so
special business wise is its garage to glamor story. Its first priority is
giving to skateboarding. The last thing on its list was to get wealthy. To this
day, no one became “rich” from it. Bronze mainly became popular through the
Internet. The way that most things become popular over the Internet is for it
to be originally started just as a joke. They weren’t ever trying to “make it
big” which goes hand and hand with the main message in skateboarding, the “who
cares” “just have fun” attitude. Bronze did not start actually selling hardware
and apparel until 2013, after they released ***SOLO JAZZ***, which really put
their name on the map. Since they’re all from the New York City area, it was
very necessary to a have a video premiere for the release. For the years coming
after Bronze had a collaboration video with Palace Skateboard from England, and
collaboration shoes, shirts, and hats with the well HUF Footwear, most
notoriously know for their weed socks.
The music
used in a Bronze video is most likely something that you’ve never heard before.
He’s not trying to an overdramatic hipster; it’s just original and sticks out
as their own style. He shoots for songs with less than 10,000 views/plays. They
are definitely some funky picks ranging from chopped and screwed rap, underground
hip-hop, or vaporwave. The music fits very well with the choppy editing style.
There is organization of songs and tricks like most skate videos. There is no
“banger” at the end either, just good skating all through out. He often throws
in clips of things in media that he grew up with such as television shows,
video games, or scenes from 90’s basketball games. All of the edits feature a
very junky 90’s vibe that really makes the brand unique, even though it is a
giant copyright infringement but it is the first skateboarding company to
really do that.
The thing
that is ruining the industry the most right now is large corporation companies
“buying” skateboarding, such as Monster Energy, Zumiez and Nike. In some sense,
people will say it is a good thing because it makes skateboarding well known,
which is true but it is not providing the accurate images of skateboarding. It
gives it a more mainstream look, taking away from the authenticity of the game.
A study was conducted by a man named Dick Hebdige, about how this kind of thing
happens to every other subculture out there. He focused a lot on the punk rock
culture, which is similar to skateboarding culture, in the sense that they are
both an underground scene with a rebellious, individual attitude with a strong
community to back it. The punk rock style was bought up by big name mall stores
such as Hot Topic, which attempted to portray that style, but was giving off an
inaccurate perception. This was the same situation for surfers dealing with Pac
Sun, but that store also took a stab at skateboarding too.
Knowing
that this corporate mainstreaming of subcultures has happened before for many
other groups gives me great hope for skateboarding and helps me believe that
its imagine will never be completely tarnished thanks to Bronze and other
skater-owned powers.
Work Cited
Photos:
***56K***
***SOLO JAZZ***
***ENRON***
***TRUST***
Subculture – Hebdige
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture. Routledge, 2013. Print.
Nick great blog, I am not a part of the skateboarding community but I have seen this for myself especially in regards to the clothing. I myself wear lots of HUF and Vans products because I like the skating style but have never really skated. I also have seen this growing playing tennis tournaments where there are always a couple kids who are decked out head to toe in the newest Nike tennis clothes worn by Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer where 99% of the time, those kids are among the worst actual tennis players there. But my question is although it can be irritating to the "day ones" and the authentic people, is it really that bad of a thing? It increases the popularity and helps these companies that authentically would remain pretty small and reach only a small portion of the specific community. So if a couple of un-authentic people get mixed in in the process, I lean towards thinking, so be it.
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