Now obviously the presence of the world's largest sneaker company is going to ruffle a few feathers in the small skateboard world. Even though skateboarding was growing at the time, the bulk of the industry was skater owned and operated. Or at least the parts that people really cared about were. Consolidated took offense to Nike and started their Don't Do It campaign.
It's funny. I've never worn a pair of Nikes and I doubt that I ever will. There's always been a certain aura of coolness that the company presents itself with that I've never gotten into. I know part of this comes from when the Bulls beat the Lakers in 1991 to win the NBA championship. I'm a Laker fan so I instantly hated Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Since Jordan was the face of the brand and I didn't like him, that meant Nike was guilty by association.
When this ad came out, I thought it was pretty cool how Consolidated was taking on Nike. These days I don't really have anything against the company. I'm not going to run out and buy their shoes, but if they make another video, I will probably check it out. They have managed their second stint in skateboarding much better. They assembled a well rounded team and for the most part the shoes look decent. Nike has even done things Consolidated feared that they wouldn't in terms of helping the shops by releasing special colorways of shoes available only at skateboard shops. They even made a Chromeball Incident Dunk, which is pretty cool.
Thrasher - April 1998 Volume 18 Number 4
6 comments:
Look out for that Nike spam. I've never gotten a pair either. It's a conscious decision but nothing I care that strongly about. There's just plenty of other stuff out there.
I've gotten a few sb's gratis but I've never bought a pair. They really aren't popular where I live.
Consolidated is sort of a weird company. They've been beating the "support small skater owned and operated companies and shops" horse for way too long. I've never owned anything Consolidated in my life. I don't think I've ever really seen them in any shops except maybe once or twice since their inception.
Never a fan of the SB. Try to keep skateboarding with skateboarding, which would include your local skate shops. Now fortunetly the skateshop I have supported for years now, don't have Nike's. Not one pair. Your got to be out of the norm, and I agree with your about the second video. The AM video was way better then nothing but the truth!
birdo is a fuckin dweeb
Nike is a strange company, people love to hate them. But man I bet the riders love them. Chet Childres gets a pay check from Nike. To me thats rad. I have skated the shoes but don't care for the hype. I hate getting 100 calls a month at my shop from shoe nerds looking for the quickstrike, but then again we get paid. And nerds get happy. Consolidated is a rad company but they have really beaten the Nike hate too far. Like how many years have the wasted and in todays world kids just dont really care. It's kinda sad but the game done changed. Happy late b-day.
The irony of it all is in their dealers section, they have Zumiez and other "mall shops" in there.
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