Lip Fla’page

I waited anxiously for the release of this groundbreaking de-evolution mastermind of a skateboard.  When I saw it, I had to have one.  Online venders are showing over $120 for the Riprider, this means my local shops will be needing nearly $140 to make it worth their while.

Call me old fashioned, but a plastic injection molded deck shouldn’t be fetching 50% (or more) of the cost of this complete assembly.  I was really dissappointed in the price tag.  My initial estimate, based on the purchase costs of the individual components, came out to around $75.  Who would have thought the lowest cost method of skateboard manufacturing through the years would have become a more expensive venture with 30 additional years of manufacturing technology our belts. 

I hated to cancel my order, but I just can’t stomach a price tag like that, knowing the history and role that injected boards played in the cost cutting measures of 70’s skateboarding.  I guess today’s popsicles have truly become the equivilant to injected plastic mass marketed skateboards of yesteryear.  I quit skating on plastic in 1977 and I dont skate popsicles; I will just keep it that way.

In skateboarding, vert is the short form or abbreviation for vertical.  The Merriam Webster dictionary defines vertical as being perpendicular, or at a right angle, to the plane of the horizon; upright, straight up or down, etc., and additionally as a right angle to the plane of the supporting surface.  Basically, vertical means straight up and down; the same direction as gravity’s pull.  For skateboarding, it means skating on terrain that is straight up and down, as in a swimming pool where the floor curves upward and reaches the vertical orientation of the walls; the skater and board transition from riding flat ground to riding on a vertical oriented surface.

All this hoopla concerning the recent issues of the X-Games and vert skating has once again assigned a definition that is misleading.  What is a vert skater?  Is it a skater who skates big ramps with the overall concept of catching air in any way imaginable, or is it simply a skater that rides on terrain that has a vertical face? 

At the close of the original skatepark era (~1980), the desired terrain was the bowls and pools with their vertical walls.  When the skateparks were gone, homemade ramps filled that void.  In the mid 1980’s, vert ramps became derigueur, replacing skateparks.  Ramps by their very nature limit terrain utilization, by forcing all the activity to the lip of the ramp or into the air above the ramp.  When this occurred, vert ramp skating basically became so aerial oriented that “vert skating” became associated with aerials and big ramps exclusively.

In the latest Transworld Skateboard Magazine (Aug 2008), there is a whole article discussing the death of vert, building on the recent EXPN (X-Games) comments.  The problem is, it is not really vert skating.  It’s aerial skating that is made possible on the big vert ramps.  So while the media is talking death to vert skating, which in reality is aerial skating, the rest of skating is thriving on vertical terrain found in parks and bowls all across the country, in numbers far bigger than the 70’s ever hoped. This is vert skating, not the air-air-air show, but the real utilization of terrain that permits an endless variety of skating.

The Potentate’s Dictionary defines ”vert” and/or ”vert skater” as a term attributed to skate terrain that achieves a straight up and down attitude; the skate surface being 90 degrees to horizon.  A common example would be a swimming pool, in which the floor begins curving upward till it reaches the vertical orientation.  A vert skater is one who skates on vertical skate terrain.

I read about a recent book signing at Skatelab Skateboard Park (and museum) where a new book, Stalefish, was hitting the market.  Stalefish was going to tell it like it is/was in the skateboarding world.  As ususual, I did not pay it any mind until I noticed a few of the old skaters from the 70’s showed up to support the event.  I decided to check it out.

The book is basically a collection of interviews, divided into sections or topics so each of the interviewees’ ideas can be compared, for the given topic.

It’s interesting how things changed through the years, and it gives indications on why things happened.  For instance, Stacy Peralta remarks about taking care of your skate spots; painting and trashing the area was grounds for losing the spot.  Take care of the spot, respect the property, and it may stay around for a long time.  Contrast this with attitudes of “don’t care” and “they owe us” and problems arise.  Once the respect was lost for the spot, then it became a law issue with the property owners, and before you knew it, skateboarding became a crime. 

After reading the complete book, I feel that Lance Mountain’s comments on the industry topped it all off when he commented on the act of skateboarding was not doing well, so something else had to come in.  That something else came in the form of media manipulation and attitudes that had nothing to do with skateboarding, yet it drove the industry.

The book serves a good purpose and shows, once again, that history is lost and the industry does not learn from its past.  I recommend the book to skaters that care. 

Here is an Amazon link:   

http://www.amazon.com/Stalefish-skateboard-culture-rejects-made/dp/0811860426/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214178900&sr=8-1

Boy Howdee, did I get some responses to the Magazine Advertising Trends entry from 5/23/08.  A while back, I put together a process for tracking advertising trends as a method of determining the pulse of the mainstream industry.  It did not receive much attention at that time.  In addition to the current magazines, I included some magazine data from 70’s, as well as a recent Concrete Wave magazine.  Concrete Wave was close in alignment to the 70’s magazines, and this is one of the reasons the older skaters like the magazine.  It’s ads focus on product design differentiation and real shops that you can actually order from.  The content focuses on the big picture of multi-disciplined skateboarding.

The current mainstream magazines are taking a different path, and have been for 10(plus) years.  Is it an indication of the type of relationship their readership and consumer base have with skateboarding?

The softgoods portion of the mainstream skateboard market make up an overwhelming percentage of the profit base.  Likewise, as one would expect, softgoods and endorsements make up the brunt of the advertising in the magazines, echoing the market’s reliance on these as the big profit drivers.  The trend shows the mainstream skateboard market consumer base is more geared towards wearing skate branded items and buying endorsed products.  The consumer is very conscious of the look and authenticity of the product.  In short, the consumer is  looking for a relation or connection to skateboarding.  Does the whole market follow this trend? No,  but so much of the market does that softgoods lead the skateboard market. 

Look and Authenticity give the consumer a level of acceptance that allows them to fit in.  Is it really skateboarding, or is it a simply connectivity to skateboarding?  Based on the advertising trends and target market groups, it appears to be the latter; simply an identification with a lifestyle by being relationally connected.

Does this mean that the mainstream skateboarding market does not apply to real skaters or to the hobbyist?  No, not entirely, because product availability still plays a huge role, especially with the skaters that use modern skateboards.  But it does mean that the marketing angle is lost on the very small portion of the skateboard market that are in it for the real sake of skateboarding.  This begs the question of whether the mainstream brands and endorsement are as relavent as the market thinks.  I can’t answer that, but I can say that the IASC Blank Board Initiative which attempted to sour the shops and skaters on unbranded equipment was as succesfull as a lead balloon.

I saw an ad for this new Creature board on the Skate and Annoy site.

 http://skateandannoy.com/2008/05/30/beyond-cool/#more-6643

The Rip Rider is really cool on so many fronts.  It gets the kids on something that is very different, yet very ridable.  It may be economical.  It rocks the boat on the current industry, for sure.  By essentially taking a step backwards (de-evolution), they are taking a chance by leaping forwards.  The Rip Rider has alot of possibilities with the older crowd too - hope it is robust enough for 200 pounders.  Talk about a beer store runner,  there all sorts of possibilities.  Look at that coffin shape and spider webbed reinforcement, this thing is awesome.  I echo the sentiments of the Skate and Annoy site, I hope it is for real too.  I am contacting my local Creature dealer.

In September, I put together a comparison of skateboard magazines, based on their advertisements, to show where the magazines focus.  The outcome of that comparison indicated that the mainstream heavy hitters were biased towards the softgood advertising dollar, and only an incredibly small percentage of the advertising  had anything to do with real distinguishable product (sorry, graphics dont count).

The July 2008 TWS just came out.  Here is how it stacks up.

Total Ads: 80

Skate Related (hardgoods products, videos, contests ads, distributors, etc- no softgoods) made up 42% of the total ads.

Softgoods (shoes and clothing) made up 58% of the total ads.

Endorsements (Pro or Am) were used in 74% of the total ads.

Actual skateboard hardgoods design differentiation or specifications were only used in 54% of the Skateboard Hardgoods Category, a subset of the “Skate Related” category shown above. 

To finish it off, actual skateboard design differentiation or specifications made up 10% of the total ads!

What does all this mean?  It confirms that softgoods continue to drive the market. It also confirms the mainstream skateboard industry’s reliance on professional (and amateur) endorsments/image to sell products.  It also confirms that product design, or benefit,  has very little to do with the mainstream skateboard industry; image is far more important as a marketing factor. Essentially, the mainstream skateboard is standardized. Who rides for who is of utmost importance.

Hidden problems that begin to surface in the mainstream skateboard market are things like this:

1) Skateboard design and performance, void of an endorsement, is a bad thing. Why? because it drives the companys that rely on endorsements out of the picture (ie mainstream skateboard advertisers), and therefore pros (and ams) drop out of the picture..

2) Skateboarding activity and performance is a bad thing. Why? because it enables the skate consumer to make up his/her own mind and shop for price versus performance. This drives high end profit margin seekers out of the picture because cookie cutter manufacturing techniques squelch real product development, endorsements do not carry as much importance with the skate consumer, and image is not much of a player.

 There are clearly two skateboard industries.  One, the mainstream industry, is heavily reliant on image and endorsement, using a standardized product.  The other, the activity side or niche side, relies on performance and product differentiation for different types of skateboarding.  It is very clear why the mainstream industry considers themselves threatened, they are too reliant on image and endorsement.  This, in itself, will keep them too narrowly focused.  They are convinced their answer lies in keeping more people skateboarding. Their real answer lies in moving with what skateboarding is doing, but they refuse to acknowledge it.  They are wanting to dictate to the consumer.  In reality, they should be responding to the consumer.

 Oh well, I will check back on this advertising trend again in a few months. 

It seems the IASC is continuing their self-appointed reign of the mainstream skateboarding industry.  I wonder what sort of things they discussed this year.  The press release stated that the future of skateboarding was going to be discussed.  Wow, thats a hefty topic.  They said, all but a few of the industry’s heavy hitters were present.  The meetings were comprised of shoe company leaders, motion picture execs, mall store retailers, and a host of others.  Is this really about skateboarding, or is it about keeping the cash cow flowing milk? 

I will try to keep everyone informed, as I get the bits and pieces.  Here is the press release that was sent out for the summit.

http://skateboardiasc.org/news-detail.asp?NewsID=112&f=h

Concrete Wave’s Michael Brooke has finished the buyers’ guide for 2008.  It is organized a little differently this year.  Instead of being broken down into disciplines like street, bowl/tranny, freestyle, slalom, downhill, longboarding, safety equipment, etc., as it has been in the past, it features each company and their products.  A lot of skaters knock the magazine for being milked down and not showing highly amped skating, so they go back to reading their mainstream magazines that show the same things over and over and over, and appear more like a clothing catalogs than a skateboard magazine.  Concrete Wave covers more skating than any other magazine out there, in addition you get to see the venders that are really making products, as opposed to the same old cookie cutter popsicle sticks. 

 If you can’t get it at your shop or bookstore, you can download it here.

http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/

Fan Mail:  What is your f-ing problem?  Go back to your 70’s hole so you can find your a##. 

Response:  Hey Nineteen Ninety-Who, it’s obvious that you are riding the skateboard train to coredom.  I will try not to upset your popsicle luv’n highness.

It all comes down to attitude, doesn’t it?  When you begin getting close to the treasure, everyone begins to get excited and plan ways they can hold all the treasure for themselves.  You can definitely see this when the companies call out to the skaters, defining their “coreness” (whatever that means) by the length of time they have been in the marketplace, or their sponsored pro riders or even pro owners.  They are staking their claim for the treasure.

What’s really in these claims?  Is it workmanship, is it ingenuity, is it consumer awareness, is it usable product, is it performance; Is it anything whatsoever that demands some sort of recognition on the part of the skateboarder?  No, its simply just being “core”.  Their claim is “core”.  That’s a deep thought, in a shallow sort of way.

The treasure of the skateboard market is “coreness”.  “Coreness” establishes a claim in the market; it’s the golden ticket (so to speak).  It says, hey look kids, we are as core as it gets, so buy our products.  It is nothing more than selling a brand.  Brands are very important when the product base is essentially the same.

So, the question was posed, “what is my f-ing problem?”.  I guess it comes down to this.  I support concrete things.  I do not support “coreness”.  ”Coreness” is transparent, it’s easy to see through to the real motivation.  Performance, design, and quality are concrete. You can see it, you can feel it, you can experience it, you can differentiate it.  This is what skateboarding is all about.  Staking claims on being “core” is the litmus test that proves the opposite is true. 

 I can crawl back into my 70’s hole, now.  Maybe that will make me core like Nineteen Ninety-Who.

Juice Magazine is great reading.  The latest issue doesn’t dissappoint, check out Lance Mountain on the cover, then there’s Brad Bowman, Pat Ngoho, Inouye, and Gregg Weaver( holy cow!); and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  It’s always chocked full of interviews that appeal to the new crowd as well as the old crowd, albeit, the skating tends to be more tranny oriented, which is fine and dandy with me.  A problem with Juice Magazine is that it is completely random in nature.  Sometimes the issues are a few months apart, other times  nearly a year passes by.  This definitely gives the mag a personality all its own and moves at its own pace.  One thing is for certain, every issue contains so many interesting articles/interviews, that even the most critical reader will find something of value.

My favorites are the interviews with the 60’s and 70’s skaters.  I guess that was too obvious!

Here’s the link to their site: http://juicemagazine.com/