Run, skate, chill.
Nike recently kicked up a little dust with their 30th anniversary rerelease of the Air Max 95 sneaker. They borrowed a quote from Stevie's part in The Reason, Transworld's video from 1999, and didn't exactly attribute it to him. Stevie was included in the promotional video for the shoe, but not mentioned otherwise. He was not overly thrilled. This led to some valid discussion on the internet about the appropriation of skateboarding's culture and whatnot. After giving it some time, I decided Nike is always going to do dumb stuff, but people are going to keep buying the shoes regardless of how bad a job the Swoosh does at anything. Failing to cite a source isn't going to cost them any business. Shrugs shoulders.
I've been skateboarding slightly better this week. Nothing fancy, but I'll take it. I am not sure if I'll post anything next week. Have a good weekend.
Transworld - January 2013 Volume 31 Number 1
2 comments:
I think I will always laugh at phrases like 'appropriation of culture' within skateboarding. No doubt there are hip-hoppers who talk about the 'appropriate of culture' that skateboarding took from hip-hop. Surfers in the 80s? Well, thankfully the BS thought of 'appropriation of culture' didn't exist then but I don't think they'd have cared anyway. IF skateboarding has any culture it is certainly nothing to do with a petty squabble between a professional skateboarder and a sportswear maker. I mean, it's just a tired shoe and an advert. They might even have been tipping the hat to him. What did he expect? A cheque for £100K? And... sounds like he'll still wear Nike.....
Bravo. That's the best take on the situation.
It's very possible whoever came up with the ad campaign for the Air Max 95 didn't even know about or forgot about Stevie's part in The Reason. We're talking about a video that is over a quarter century old. There was an interview with Stevie that was mostly a whole bunch of "I'm not mad, but . . .", which is the business aware thing to do since I'm sure there are riders on DGK that get shoes from Nike.
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