Monday, August 24, 2015

Christian Hosoi #4.



It's back to old school fashion week.

Reader Andrew requested I scan some stuff from clothing companies that sponsored skateboarders in the late 1980s. The idea was to look at some of the bigger brand name companies that weren't necessarily part of the core industry who gave it the college try of getting into skateboarding. I figure with school starting back up all across the country right now that this is a good time to get some new clothes.

Jimmy Z was started by surfer Jimmy "Z" Ganzer in 1984. Ganzer was an important figure in surfing in the 1960s and was an assistant art director for the magazine Surf Guide. He came up with a side mounted Velcro waistband for shorts and the company took off from there. The team included Christian Hosoi, Scott Oster, Tommy Guerrero, and many more. Jimmy Z is still around today and sponsors Steve Caballero, Sean Goff, Eddie Elguera, and few more.

Props to the Skateboard Mag for having Leticia Bufoni on the cover of Issue 139. She's boardsliding a big handrail. They did a special series of eight different covers for the eight skaters who are filming video parts for the Mag and/or the Berrics. I got a fully padded Ben Raybourn doing an Andrecht at Chicken's. They also have started to dabble in adding words to go with the pictures and feature short interviews with the people who are participating in the project.

Warren Bolster took the photo.

Transworld - October 1988 Volume 6 Number 5

5 comments:

Justin said...

Jimmy Z:
http://jimmyzworld.com

nonickname said...

Yes! I had a horrible/awesome Jimmy'Z paint splatter shirt that was of some crazy heavy weight cotton that made it a beast on warm days. Speaking of warm...I'm in Florida for the first time ever, how do people live here? My Canadian self is broiling, the humidity just punches you in the face when you open the door.

Justin said...

Humidity doesn't bug me, but I'm not in Florida and I've never been in the South during the worst months of the summer.

I never had any of the splatter/all over prints. That stuff is too chaotic to look at, although I didn't know that back then. I'm glad I was smart enough to avoid some of those fashions.

I noticed in this ad there was a sticker of the Jimmy Z logo with the Confederate Flag. You probably can't see the sticker in the scan, but Hosoi was wearing the shirt in a Jimmy Z ad:

http://vertisdead.blogspot.com/2009/12/christian-hosoi.html

rnc said...

That's a sick picture.

nonickname said...

Regarding the heat/humidity: during a break from the craziness that is Disney (2 kids), I ducked into a Volcom store today, even the guy working said he was surprised I came into the store (it was about 4pm) as "no one really moves from 1 pm to 5pm unless they really have to"...