It's weird how some skaters can ride for companies that aren't exactly considered the freshest of the fresh and nobody bats an eye, but other skaters are forever doomed by one poor sponsor choice when they were younger. The opposite also occurs when a particular middle of the road skater is deemed cool simply because their sponsor happens to be the hottest thing going. Of course there are a multitude of factors, some valid, others arbitrary, that all go into deciding what is hip on any given day. Skateboarding is a strangely fickle creature.
Thrasher - August 2012 Volume 32 Number 8
3 comments:
Sketchers.
Yeah companies, especially shoes can be weird. I remember Puma during the Kein L and Alan P days being good...then later on being verboten. Vans too during the cupsole Era also had a bit of stigma - and Dill on Etnies is something he craps on but they're good shoes and have always had a strong team. No real consistency.
Louie also skated for Skechers.
I wasn't going to delve into the beef between Austyn and Elijah, but I kept finding Globe ads for Louie and decided to put together something abstract about the topic.
Louie on Globe makes sense. Duffs faded away and Globe is the in-house shoe brand at Dwindle so there you go.
Everybody hates on whatever company for no reason. I'm certainly guilty of it, too. Yeah, Vans were not hot in the late 90s. Didn't Puma try another skate team in the 00s/10s? I don't think that ever went anywhere. But odd colored Pumas in the low 90s were the pinnacle of high fashion footwear.
From Louie's Chrome Ball:
How’d you get hooked up with Sketchers?
That was just through a guy I knew.
You know, I always kinda laugh at people who try to dog it a little… because I was working three jobs at the time. I wasn’t getting paid by Emerica or Sonic back then. So getting a paycheck from those guys really helped me get out of that day-to-day rat race. Granted, the “work ethic” side of it helped make me who I am today, but still... I was stoked on Sketchers, dude. It paid my rent. It paid my car insurance. And it allowed me to skate a little more during the week.
How did those skate?
They were okay. That was a weird era for shoes anyway. Everything was getting all big and puffy. But Sketchers had these ones that were basically Simple Shoes rip-offs. I wore those the most. They were the most skateboardable ones.
It’s funny because Sketchers has commercials on TV now. And every time he sees one, my Dad will always say, “You should’ve stuck it out with those guys! You could’ve been a millionaire!”
“They did plenty for me back then, Dad. It’s all good.”
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