John Lucero #7.

Thumbs up.

In 1990, John moved Lucero over to Vision for distribution. I don't think I even noticed the switch per se back then, although it was fairly obvious as a small tag of "Distributed by Vision Sports Inc." was added to the advertisements. You tend not to think about industry minutia when you are younger.

When Lucero was backed by Santa Cruz, John and Riky Barnes were the two pros with models. Based on ads, the other riders were Tony Chiala and Mike Lohrman. After the move, the team expanded into the cast of characters that we would know and love at the Black Label. This included Jeff Grosso, Skip Pronier, Shawn Martin, Ben Schroeder, and many more.

I didn't know this until recently, but John also worked in the art department at Vision and created graphics for some of their other companies. He did a board graphic for Kevin Staab at Sims, for example. This totally makes sense that he would also work there and was probably a good way to learn about running a business in skateboarding. Side hustles for 1980s pros were a little more interesting than our modern day gig based economy.

Thrasher - March 1990 Volume 10 Number 3