I am conflicted this afternoon.
One of my favorite skate companies is apparently now doing a collaboration with Nike. Why is this an issue, or at least, an issue for me? There are few reasons.
First, ever since I was a teenager, I am always balked at big corporations. Or rather, I have always balked at openly representing them (I realize it is hard, if not impossible, to fully escape them). I have never owned a single product made by Nike. As a kid, teenager, and young adult, the Nike swoosh was always the “gang symbol” of the people who tried to do me physical and mental harm. It was always seen associated with those big team sports I hated. It was seen on “normal” people who I always tried to distance myself from. Maybe I should just let-go of old notions, and “grow-up”…but that’s just not who I am, or who I’ve ever been. I just can’t bring myself to “advertise” for big corporations. Like, I own a North Face windbreaker. It’s great, I love it. But the second I got home with it, I put a band patch over the North Face logo to obscure/erase the “corporate presence.” To this end, when a skate company aligns with Big Corporation X (let alone Nike), it bums me out.
Second, the skate company in question had a long history of openly mocking and satirizing big corporations (inc. Nike). The owner even once said, “Please let’s not let skateboarding become just another selfish capitalism cheerleader product etc.…It isn’t. It’s a bastion of skepticism and stoke. For us, by Us. Believe and defend that.” Thinking of those words, as we see assorted Nike/Anti-Hero branded swag paraded around is rather, well…disquieting. I never thought I’d see an a "product line" with those two logos together…but here we are.
I’ve always subscribed to the idea of “vote with your dollar.” And I’ve always been a fan of Anti-Hero because they frequently ridiculed vapid consumer culture. So much for actual counter-culture ethics. So, now what? Is this “discretion” so acute that I now cast a different “vote” with my dollar? Part of me says yes. And another part of me is under no illusions---what I am writing about here has absolutely ZERO impact on skating a curb by myself, or a ditch in Texas with 40 friends. This is to say it has NO impact on my actual day-to-day skateboarding. This is a "problem" of theory, and not so much one of "reality." So, what am I getting all flustered and fussy about then? Principle, I suppose.
Where do I go from here?
Unknown.
What is known?
This pic is just four to five flavors of icky.
When we just had a horrible result in the presidential election and the horror is returning, it would be nice to not feel betrayed by your favorite brand of board.
ReplyDelete“We're pretty lucky in SB, because a lot of our athletes are also artists,” says Jesse Leyva, Senior Design Director for Nike SB.” One of the best elements of this collaboration, and what makes it truly unique, is that the athletes are the ones—Brian really—who said, ‘We should do this!’”
ReplyDeleteI hate it when they refer to skaters as athletes.