Darren Navarrette #19.

Dig for fire.

Thrasher - October 1996 Volume 16 Number 10

Phil Shao #16.

Dump Truck.

Phil takes flight at Fort Miley. The photo was probably taken around the same time as his Thrasher cover where he grinded the top bar. It's not the same session because he's wearing a white shirt and riding a board with black wheels on the cover. This Emerica ad could almost double as a Sheep ad. It's wild to think Sole Tech had enough gas in the tank to briefly field four different shoes lines in skateboarding in the late 1990s.

Thrasher - September 1996 Volume 16 Number 9

Tim Brauch #21.

Hiding in the shadows.

Tim's ad would be the first Emerica ad that looked like an Emerica ad with the new company name. I think he's doing a mute air of some sort over a hip in the photo. Tim was moved back to the Etnies roster by December of 1997. I went with another week of Emerica because it completes the story of the changeover and established what the company would be going forward. Plus there are some cool skaters in the ads.

Thrasher - August 1996 Volume 16 Number 8

Rune Glifberg #9.

The dawn of Emerica.

This is the first formal Emerica ad from 30 years ago. It looks like they moved the whole Etnies squad over to the new brand. Etnies was then put on the back burner until the later 1990s since they were also focusing on the all-star team at éS. There are a few long forgotten names on the list. The team didn't stay this big for long as many of the riders left for other shoe companies like Axion, DC, Globe, Osiris, and Vans.

I didn't really have much going on this week. I skateboarded some, but I think I'm worn out and need a bit of a break. Hope everybody has a good weekend.

Thrasher - July 1996 Volume 16 Number 7

Gershon Mosley #8.

Automation avoidance.

GMOS was wrecking spots for a good chunk of the 1990s. He was pushing what you could do with switch stance skateboarding as well as skating mini ramps. He had previously ridden for Powell and Human before joining the A-Team in the fall of 1997. This is essentially an Emerica ad masquerading as an Etnies ad.

Thrasher - June 1996 Volume 16 Number 6

Jamie Thomas #19.

Nice receptionist.

This ad is an outlier in the changeover from Etnies to Emerica. Jamie's trick and headband basically dictated a vintage 1970s look. The 50-50 was in Welcome To Hell, which premiered right about the same time as the mag hit the newsstands. I imagine they wanted a last call for their old style of design before starting the new project. Or maybe not, as they did use something somewhat similar for the debut of Emerica. I like everything about this one.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Dan Drehobl #37.

Decay of modern society.

It's neat to see how Etnies developed the aesthetic for Emerica in their last couple ads under the old name. Yogi Proctor was the graphic designer and he had a vision for what the artwork should be. Emerica has more or less stayed consistent with this look over the decades. Obviously there will be changes as time passes, but they haven't strayed too far from the original concepts.

I don't associate Dan with Etnies as much as I do with Emerica. This must've been his first ad for Etnies since I don't recall any others. He had his fair share of ads for Emerica in the later 1990s and early 2000s before he switched to Vans. It's also a little odd to see him wearing the Etnies shirt since he usually wears thrift store tees, plain shirts or button downs.

Thrasher - April 1996 Volume 16 Number 4

Chris Senn #15.

Etnies America.

I decided to take a look at the transformation of Etnies to Emerica for the next two weeks. The publicly visible part of the change happened in 1996 and moved along from month to month in the ads that ran in Thrasher. I'm sure there was more behind the scenes stuff that took longer, but the advertisements create an easy to follow chronological breakdown of what happened. I'm going by memory so things might end up a tad hazy. Anyway, this Etnies ad has the company listed as Etnies America. I'm considering it the starting point of the changeover.

Chris Senn is in peak SOTY form in this ad. His son Anakin makes a guest appearance. It's wild to think the kid would grow up to be a pro skateboarder like his dad.

Thrasher - March 1996 Volume 16 Number 3

Sean Mullendore #12.

Tones of magenta.

Sean squeezes a switch 50/50 against a wall in an alley. I didn't remember this Capital ad and thought I'd covered most of their stuff. It's always nice to unearth something you had missed or forgotten about. Sean ripped around DC and was sponsored by Capital, Stereo, Circuit Wheels, and a few other companies.

The season is slowly changing from summer to fall, although our weather tends to stay mild for the weeks ahead. I've been trying to fit in skateboarding whenever possible, but the lack of daylight and occasional rain is throwing me off. The next feature will be a look at how Etnies switched over to being Emerica. I've got some Dukes Shoes and possibly éS planned for the future. Have a good weekend out there.

The photos are by Ben Wagner.

Big Brother - Spring 1997 Issue 25

Wade Speyer #15.

Evil Eye.

Wade trucks a frontside pivot up to the top of a tall vert wall. I like this photo and had been looking for the ad for a while, but couldn't find until recently. The trick was in his part in Dedication, the Think video from 1998. That's the part where Wade destroys the spine ramp at the indoor park in Antioch.

RIP MIC-E.

"This year Mic-E Reyes is at the helm and he never sleeps."

For the Real ad: Slap - September 1995 Volume 4 Number 9

Thrasher - April 1997 Volume 17 Number 4

Scott Bourne #12.

Bourne winner.

I watched the Mongolia trip section from Strongest of the Strange a couple of times recently. Scott traveled to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, with Pontus Alv, Muki Rüstig, Vincent Gootzen, and a young Chris Pfanner. If I recall correctly, he had a rough journey because a vegan diet isn't an easy option out there. I think the part is really cool because of the atmosphere the less traveled location creates for skateboarding. The crew still manages to find some ramps and hit a few street spots. The plaintive Neil Young song sets the proper tone for the place and the distance they travelled. It's neat to see Pfanner blast a couple of big gaps and stairs before he became a household name.

The photo is by Bryce Kanights.

Slap - March 2001 Volume 10 Number 3

Louie Lopez #2.

Consolidated was right.

The general talk in skateboarding lately has been of the team cuts at Converse. I guess the brand isn't selling as many shoes as they used to in the heyday of the Cherry era and parent company Nike is looking to make some adjustments to help the bottom line. It sucks for some of the riders who aren't the bigger names because they probably won't be able to land another shoe sponsor simply because the money isn't out there.

It's strange that this spot hasn't changed much since Steve Nesser ollied it back in 2006. I wonder what the place is?

Thrasher - July 2021 Volume 42 Number 7

Adidas.

It's no wonder the big time shoe companies found it hard to gain traction in skateboarding in the 1990s. They were simply trying too hard to be hip and followed many of the awkward alternative advertising trends of the era. It's also worth noting that DC and éS were inspired by the aesthetics of the bigger shoe brands and pulled it off much better than who they were inspired by.

It's one more week of random stuff and then I've got a couple features ready to go. I wanted to get the early days of Adidas out of the way since it was on my mind.

Tongue: Thrasher - March 1997 Volume 17 Number 3

Positrak: Thrasher - October 1996 Volume 16 Number 10

Fire: Thrasher - September 1996 Volume 16 Number 9

Rob Welsh #11.

Neon Optical Art.

Rob preserves his graphics with a frontside bluntslide. He's riding an Aesthetics board and would turn pro for them later on in 1999. This has to be one of the more disorienting and vibrant Venture ads ever.

Vert Is Dead is on a late summer break.

I'm taking next week off from this thing. There's a chance I might take two weeks off. I'll see how it goes. I've found a few interesting items that I have to put together. It feels like I never have time for stuff any more.

I'm still looking for the Adidas Norton ad with Paulo Diaz. It was a sequence of him doing a manual trick in a garage or warehouse setting. The shoes were available from Sartorius in 1995, which corresponds to the release date I found. I've checked most of the Transworlds and Thrashers from 1994 to 1997 and haven't found anything. I'm wondering if it ran in a different mag or even a non-skating mag? I'm going to put this one on the back burner because it is driving me crazy. I don't really like Adidas so I'm not sure what my motivation is to find it beyond proving that it exists. I did find a couple of other Adidas ads. If you think Nike had an awkward initial foray into skateboarding, Adidas struck out swinging on three straight pitches.

There's been rain and early sunsets so skateboarding has been lackluster lately. I did check out the new park on the Seneca Nation's Reservation. It's a little Grindline creation with some ledges, a tiny hip, quarter pipes, and a bowled wall type of obstacle. The place is really fun and has me stoked on skateboarding again. Have a good weekend!

Slap - April 1999 Volume 8 Number 4

Skip Pronier #11.

Brickyard.

I've always been a fan of Skip after reading a couple of interviews with him in Thrasher and Transworld a very long time ago. He rode for the Black Label, Vans, Indy, and TSA Clothing.

The photo is by Dean Yoshihara.

Thrasher - June 1997 Volume 17 Number 6

Javier Mendizabal #8.

Barbed wire skies.

I gave Strongest of the Strange a rewatch a couple weeks ago. It's such a great video and hard to believe 21 years have passed since it was released. Javier has one of my favorite parts ever. He's living in France, painting, and surfing these days after being pro for Cliché. I never knew that Javier was getting some boards from Stereo.

The photo is credited to Palo. I'm not sure on a full name.

Slap - November 1999 Volume 8 Number 7

Brad Hayes #2.

Here for a good time, not a long time.

Good Times Operation (GTO) was a clothing company from San Diego that was around in 1995. The team was Marc Johnson, Brad Hayes, and Tony Tieu. Marc was often wearing their shirts at the time and that's what made me think of them. GTO also had a women's line called Ethyl. Brad rode for Acme, Origin, Volcom, and a couple other companies. According to the quote section in Big Brother once, his sponsor me tape was heavy.

Transworld - November 1995 Volume 13 Number 11