I've been in the skate scene since 1989, and I can tell you skating has been mainstream since the first X Games and Tony Hawk Pro Skater came out. All the gate keeping in the community is ridiculous because skateboarding sold out a long time ago.
Same but since ~93 and it always blew my mind when people were called "posers" and other shit when they work skate branded clothing when they didn't skate. Do you also call out people who buy NFL/NBA/NHL etc clothes/jerseys when they don't play? It's some of the dumbest "I wanna be a hipster" things.
Been in the game for over 23 years, rolling ankles and knocking myself out, punk rock anarchist my entire youth, and I got to say at my age, I agree 100%
defiantly since pop culture, fashion and media borrows from skateboarding so much. im happy all the skater now get so many brand deals and making more $
I've been skateboarding since 1992. And I love when skateboard brands get noticed by the mainstream. It means they're thriving. Brand is a business. And businesses have to make money. As long as they're still keeping their core values, they're still good in my book.
I couldn’t agree more. Also thrasher wouldn’t have survived without all the hype from celebs. I would be so sad if thrasher died, it’s at the heart of skating.
Yeah I like the fact that people hated me for being a skater nowadays it's just gate keeping and eliteism from other skaters that are just up them selves
I mean there's two sides to the coin, not one or the other. It's great to hold true to your values and only when $$ compromises your values do you have a problem.
I remember meeting him once in Sf while I was delivering for Uber.I walked into a off South of Vaness restaurant called Starboard and he was in there hanging out with the owner. He handed me a fortune cookie and I was like, ok , cool, free food.
Great video about Thrasher, however you failed to mention the two most important people who Created the Magazine AND were the reason Thrasher mag was totally core for so long- Kevin Thatcher (the First editor, Creator of the mag, and artist who created the first cover, and MOFO- the first photo editor, and photo journalist who wrote most of the stories and took most of the photos.) The skateboarding World and Thrasher owes EVERYTHING to these two men- Visionaries who were let go without even a thank you for their groundbreaking work for DECADES before the Phelper was made editor to completely Destroy and sell out The Most Core Mag in Skateboarding History.
Sad But Well Spoken Hack Man , MOFO Is Still Accessable But KT Has Gone Way Underground And His Words , Insight , Photography And All Around Skate Art Sense Will always Be Missed !!! Skate Boarding History Cannot Be Changed Glad Icons Like yourself Still Speak The Truth And Live It ...
Kinda fucked up to not mention Jake's passing. Also bananas that people don't understand that they are a business trying to survive in a failing economy where skateboarding as a whole isn't in the public eye as much as it was a decade ago.
Sorry, but Thrasher has never fallen. It’s been around forever and has never gone out of business, unlike every other skate mag (and surf and snowboard mag). It’s got the most watched RU-vid channel in all of skating and it’s Skater Of The Year Award is the most respected and desired of all. Who cares if celebrities started wearing Thrasher merch? BFD. The Izod collab is questionable but Thrasher is just a small privately owned company and does want to survive. Especially considering they’re still printing a magazine, and magazines have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaurs. Thrasher has been supporting skateboarding for decades and they deserve immense respect and credit for their hard work in representing the pure heart and soul of skateboarding🙏❤️
There was also the PS1 game: Thrasher - Skate and Destroy At the time, that was the best skateboarding game for actual skateboarders. But if you weren't a skateboarder you would've hated that game, and would have had much more fun with the Tony Hawk's games
I always wondered what happened with the all of a sudden popularity of Thrasher magazine clothing. I had a subscription for about 3 years or more in early 90s. Being from a small town in Pennsylvania Thrasher magazine was my connection to the bigger world of skateboarding. The music got my attention more in long run and found out about a ton of awesome bands idk they used to have interviews with lots of punk rock and hardcore bands that is what I liked best about Thrasher. I used to order so much stuff through that magazine.
It seams like most of the Top Skaters have moved down here in San Diego - good choice! I worked at Thrasher in 1987 for a little over a year. I owe that to Steve Cab introducing me to MoFo at a party in San Jose. I got my story submitted into Thrasher called "Pacific Theater" about me skating all over the Pacific in Asia, mostly Japan while in the US Navy on the USS Midway. Anyway I worked in Production at the Magazine mostly making T-Shirts and sending our products out to stores and Skateparks. MoFo, Matt Etherege, and another guy all played in a band called "The Drunk Injuns" and they were the coolest band! Oh - memories! I remember Maria (Fausto's Niece) Secretary, KT editor, MoFo, Fausto & Eric. Sorry to hear of Fausto passing away from a Bicycle accident and Eric passing away from - well - not a good scene. It was an interesting part of my life!
Got my first copy of Thrasher around 1986 at Kona in Jacksonville, FL. The magazine was made for us and encouraged us to continue skating regardless of the push back we received from the masses. Who gives a sh*t if they decided after several decades to sell their gear in a few mainstream stores, collaborate with Lacoste or make a few extra dollars. Long live Thrasher!
People who actually skate dude, pretty sure the video went over it but i bet you know more, show me one line dude. Go film a line of tricks, u probably cant even skate.
Bro stfu you're the worst type of skateboarding culture and shouldn't even be allowed apart of the culture. Assholes like you are the ones who dont know how to skate past a kick flip. Idc if someone can Ollie or not just enjoy the skateboard you have. Youre just a young piece of shit gatekeeper who won't back up his shit. Go upload any trick and this 32 year old man will one up you easily each time I fucking challenge you
Try me bro upload anything you have your best trick and I'll match and up it..try me.. skateboarding is for everyone and You're the worst of it....I can call you a poser for only doing the easier tricks..anyone who rides that board are worth respect
That’s why skaters hate it. Because what does Napalm Death and GG Allin have to do with skateboarding. Do you think Nyjah Houston or Daewon Song listen to Napalm Death or GG Allin?
@@robfromvan I know Salman Agah hates music. I dunno about these other guys. Well Thrasher started notes from the underground so I guess somebody there likes music
@@godstomper I know, I just fail to see the connection between the music and skateboarding. Between 86 and 89 skateboarding got really huge and so many kids got into it, but they were mostly normal kids who played other sports before that like baseball, etc., and none of them gave a rat’s ass about punk rock. Actually more of them were into rap. Even now most pro skateboarders simply don’t listen to punk. Can you imagine Daewon Song or P-Rod listening to punk? I doubt it. Punk really has nothing to do with skateboarding, yet Thrasher puts them together as if they’re somehow connected just because that was the musical taste of some skateboarders in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
I've been a core skateboarder and underground punk for over 23 years, I get the critic, I know the position of the culture... and you've done a great job here with the history and the break down. You're points are valid. but can we just admit that Zumiez does care about skating? I've been with the company for a few years and I gotta tell you guys. There's not a single company event I have attended where skateboarding hasn't been spotlighted and catered too. More than half the homies in home office are tattooed punk rock kids trying to survive in a world where capitalism won, and they've found a business that lets us be us, throw hook ups to the locals, all while speaking our minds far more than any other chain would ever allow. I've literally watched us take small brands and do whatever we can to help them getting printing contracts and stay afloat. Even our company training events always end in big skate sessions and hang out time with pro's and skate companies. We can say moving in to the malls was wrong, but on the business side capitalism doesn't care how "true clvt" a brand is. Transworld mag? gone. Skateboarder mag? gone. all the other big mags? gone. Do I dislike celebrities' in thrasher clothes, absolutely yes. Do streetwear fashion heads know about twisted ankles from front boards down Hubba's? no. they don't know shit. BUT if that's what it took to keep the bible alive for all of us, then I'll swallow that pill. Because with out those shirt sales thrasher would of folded like the rest, and for every one of them eventually a kid walks into the mall and gets exposed to the magazine and the youth is only thing that will keep this alive. accessible or not. we -need- a entry point into counter culture. Is there a weird dynamic of getting anti-consumer messaging from a consumer product? absolutely. But in a world as plastic and as fast as the DLC, subscription service, tiktok, consume, hype, consumer world we live in. Winning over hearts and minds is a battle of attrition, and I'll take what I can get.
Also I don't care if some teeny boppers who've never done a ollie wear Thrasher, I'm an old guy I earned my pass, and they have no impact on what it means when the core people wear it proudly. Our thrasher hats are earned in blood, sweat and bruises, it will never be less legit when I don my hoodie and go mob up in a parking garage with the homies. They'll move on with the passing of time, and we'll still be here, I sincerely hope Thrasher will be here too.
👏👏👏 They get a lot of haters for good reason but when I was coming up Zumiez and CCS was all we had access to, now 15+ years later it's easy to see that it probably wouldn't have become such a huge part of my life without them.
@@TorkeyDubs we still care about how someone carries their board? and yeah sure, call it whatever you want, but It's worked out so far. I don't have much to prove to anyone at my age.
I got a homies that work in locals and Zumiez and of course I’ll support local quicker than Zumiez but I agree with you. I’ve got no problem with this. Great comment!
My first thrasher had the Red Hot chili peppers in it as a new punk band they had just been in the movie Thrashin! The ink used to come off on my fingertips.
Whoa that's crazy I hadn't thought in along time about how the ink from print media used to come off, I think it was around the year 2000 or so they started adding something so it wouldn't come off. Thrasher switched to glossy paper long before that but I remember you'd buy smaller zines or the newspaper and your fingers would turn black.
My Dad made me get a checking account in fall 1986 at age 15. The very first check I wrote was to Thrasher mag for a green crew neck Thrasher sweatshirt. Check # 2 went to Skip Englbom for a pair of SMA Natas rails. Those went on that black JFA mini I was riding then.
I just miss king of the road and bust or bail. I don't believe Thrasher has fallen. They are actually on the top of their game, they have just adapted to the nex gen in skateboarding. I think Thrasher will always be the top skateboarding magazine, even though there are a lot of other skate mags, no one really comes close to the importance of Thrasher, its legacy and its success, past, present and obviously its future.
Hey! It was rad to learn more about the magazine and scene. Could you tell me what the clip at 0.42 is from (The guys in the van playing guitar with doom paint?)
Thrasher is still the biggest skateboard mag and news source. They rack up millions of views on RU-vid every year and if you’re a skater the most credit you’re gonna get is a thrasher cover and the SOTY award they give out. You know you’re the best of the best when your video part drops on thrashers channel.
@@BillFromHalifax yeah, i dont think the creator is a skater himself so i wouldnt call him a joke. but honestly thrasher is no where near dead. i think he meant it was "dead" as in from that time when the jenners wore thrasher merch and boosted its popularity in 2016 til now that people who dont part take in the community dont even take a glance at the clothes hemselves unless at zumiez or something. it did fall out of the "mainstream" a little bit per say, but definitely didnt die considering the community continues to grow everyday
Good video. ive been skating for over 22 years and im happy that today I can purchase thrasher clothing (I live in Brazil) when i was 15 I had to import the magazines and could only dream about getting a shirt.
If I had known as a teenager that they were selling Thrasher T-shirts down at the mall in the 1980's for the masses to buy and wear, I would not have worn their t-shirts. Skate Harassment was a real thing for me growing up skating so seeing the masses become more accepting of skating means that hopefully future generations will not have their skateboards snatched up so quickly by the deans at their high school or get harassed by people so much out on the streets or fun spots. Having the world wake up to the greatness of skateboarding is not such a bad thing IMHO.
I have been skateboarding since 1973. At that point in time, I had heroes in the industry. skaters like Patti McGee and so on. skateboarding has come and gone. One decade starts out great, the end of the decade completely disappears. skateboarding will always be here. It’s not main stream, it’s a fashion statement/fad. All that could change, but then it would be considered sold out. let’s face it. Without becoming like a little league and starting with the youth, it will never be something considered necessary. most skateboarders consider it a throwaway. not even winning it in the Olympics. and yet the most focal points of what I considered Skateboarding was a backyard rep or somewhere in an unmarked location in the woods. what’s my point here? My point is, Skateboarding can be everything. It can be punk rock, it can be a fashion statement. It could be in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana on a ramp built out of crates and paneling. The one thing that we all should make sure happens with our most useless wooden toy is that it’s not forgotten. That has a solid history of where it came from and how it got to wherever it ends up. We need to understand that if we don’t start with the young youth that does fun loving thing we cherish will continue to go up and down and struggle. because bringing in the youth and making it like a little league will bring in revenues that will actually make that happen. If you look back at the history on why Skateboarding goes up and down, it’s because the corporations make mistakes because they’re running the show. That is a fact. when the people lead, the leaders follow. When the people do nothing, that is exactly what you’ll have at what you cherish the most. nothing. It’s not yours. It’s who you’re buying the useless toy from that owns what you cherish so much. what I’m saying here is, this is ours. Cherish it. Make it a part of your entire community as it promotes uniting each other. Or, we could behave like we’re hard-core then realized as we get older our children can’t wear a helmet when they skate down a 22 stair handrail because the magazines won’t post the picture. Or they won’t win the contest because they didn’t wear a helmet. Could you imagine that in any other sport? Seriously think about your child have to play FullContact football with no gear. most state officials would consider that child abuse. when I was a kid, I never wore pads. But when I went to the skate park, it was mandatory. That was Clearwater Skateboard Park in Clearwater Florida. at the time I felt like that was stupid. But now at 60 years old I can’t walk right. that’s what I mean by us as individuals taking care of our sport. Taking care of that fad. Taking care of that fashion statement. taking care of the most amazing thing that ever become of a subculture. take possession of your cherished useless wooden toy. Pull it out of the hands of the big corporations. put it in the hands of you, we the people. Our neighbors, our fellow individuals in a community. i’m not going to say who told me this from thrasher magazine. But in the end, he looked me in the eyes and said, in the end, God wins. I thought to myself, what a profound statement. what does that have to do with Skateboarding? maybe everything. I don’t know. I’m just dialing about how cool the thing we all love the most is and how throughout the decades it comes and goes. it comes and goes, because we let it. There’s other people who want to guide where we’re going with it. blah blah blah blah blah. HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! no matter what. I love this useless wooden toy as much as I love the entire community. skateboarders are not just skateboarders, we are family. GO US! 🤙🏼🍻🫡🏴☠️ #OfTheEpic #ItIsUs
Damn this takes me back!!! I remember it being so hard to find the magazine in my area, but when you had one , you became a God in town…until someone got the newest addition! I always liked Gonz!!! I had his deck with Indy trucks, PnP crossbone wheels, NMB bearings!!! I thought I was bad ass! Cool video! I really enjoyed it!!!
THE THRASHER EMPIRE SHALL NEVER FALL!!! BURNETT CARRIES US WELL AFTER THE FALL OF PHELPS!!! I FOR ONE OF MANY WOULD HONORABLY CARRY ON THE THRASHER CROWN AFTER BURNETTS REIGN!!! LONG LIVE THRASHER MAG!!!
I bought my first thrasher magazine in the spring of 1988 and had a subscription until about 1994. I ended up buying a maroon thrasher shirt that’s actually featured in this video about 4-5 years ago and shortly after the brand blew up. Now I feel if I’m wearing it people may think I’m a poser 😀
Hi Michael, well documented story! My problem with Thrasher : I subscribed 20 years ago, then last year, I started skipping issues, no new magazines for 2 or 3 months. I sent a couple of complaints but nobody is responsible for "publications lost in international postal service " , neither Thrasher nor US Mail nor french LaPoste. I'm sure there's some lousy dude stealing it somewhere on the line but nobody is responsible. So I sent more angry emails to Thrasher and without me asking for it, they decided to refund my last subscription renewal. All I wanted was to actually receive the mags and I got dropped out. After more than 20 years of subscription, it hurts.
They became quarterly publication online instead of being in print. It was in the last issue of Thrasher they announced they're going to switch to online publication. I'm sorry to hear you missed the big announcement.
Nike bought their way into skating years ago and now they are a staple and this opened the floodgates for any and all brands to homogenize our culture. I would love a Target sponsorship BTW
Only sells out if people let it. It doesn't bother skaters if they have money or don't because it never was ever supposed to be about the money because that is anathema to the culture of skateboarding.
I started reading Thrasher in 1986 nd stopped about 1993 when I graduated high school. I don't recall anybody I skated with wearing Thrasher clothes. I'm from the Chicago area, and our mall sold skateboards back in the day.
This video is a 14 minute "tell me you know nothing about Thrasher". Jake died years ago. It seems like you're blaming him for things you don't like. The fact that Thrasher is still able to exist in magazine form is because of all the non-skaters buying Thrasher shirts. They're financing what is essentially a dead format for skaters. Good. Thanks. Enjoy your shirt. Thank God that Thrasher still exists. I first subscribed to Thrasher in 1987 and I was able to get my son a subscription a few years ago. It was a great feeling.
I do skate and I like Lacoste, but didn’t get anything from the colab. I don’t think I have any thrasher shirts in general? To be fair I also like LL Bean, but I live in an area that has a heavy winter and they make high quality seasonal gear.
the most upsetting thing about the lacoste shirt is that when i was in school, it was us skaters vs the jocks, and jocks wore lacoste shirts and we (well 1 friend lol) had thrasher shirts. feels like when the money got right like thrasher ditched us for that 'up river' money
When Phelps passed, you started seeing cartoony Thrasher intros and that was a sign the company switched into the wrong hands, Burnett is just not anti establishment enough and will/has made Thrasher a shell of its former self
Great video. I agree with your basic premises. I remember when I first saw one of my high school students wearing a thrasher sweater... "that's weird," I thought. "How do they know about this magazine I had bought in the late 80s?" This was 2014.
This company will never die iv never got a thrasher outfit but im a thrasher for life p.d. rip Phil i loved the day i met you and feel blessed for being put on kotr id get the tattoo anyday hommie much love a thrasher for life j
My brother s friend he has known since school, is the owners of thrasher's son. Back in school (in the 90's) I had the 2 foot thrasher logo stickers in like 10 different colors. I still got a thrasher hoodie with the thrasher logo and a pentagram with a goat head and trucks in it to this day. The logo that's half hidden behind the King of the Road logo in this video.
Excuse me please but I am a 62 year old SF born skater Thrasher is named after the empty public pool we use to session in San Leandro Ask Bryce or the Guerrero Brothers
Random Bay Area Skating Lore: Remember Alameda Skatepark? Remember the Freeway Scene in Matrix Reloaded? They built the Fake Freeway they shot that on right next to Alameda Skatepark. I went after they finished filming with my YMCA Summer Skate Camp, but it was still there because they only finished filming recently at the time.
I own and run a skate/surf shop. We made a ton of money through the Thrasher bubble from normal customers. But as of night now we don't stock Thrasher and I refused to look at it. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes the way of world industries
Jake did NOT coin the phrase "skate or die"... It was popularized by the video game 720 and then was the name of an NES game in the 80s... Who knows who actually said it first.
this should be titled "The Rise and Fall of Thrasher Clothing", pretty much everything the magazine does still bangs. I wouldn't be surprised if they exist as 2 different enteties and are ran by completely different teams,
Magazine is soft and trash now, subscribing to woke pc culture as well as selling out to large corporations, thrasher is totally different since Phelps died but I wouldn’t expect you to notice that. The brand is the opposite of what it’s supposed to represent.
as a skate kid in the mid 90s I'd totally buy a Thrasher shirt today at the local mall and wear it even though I havent stood on a board in 2 decades. It's nostalgic. the logo is iconic. It's a part of my youth. IDGAF if some 15 year old today think they sold out. But I can totally see why said 15 year old wont wear it and look down on it. I was young once to.
Eh, I think the Lacoste collab was beyond whack and seeing the t shirts everywhere is like seeing people wear band t shirts and not listening to the music, but everything they've done with Vice was actually good and gives them extra resources to make longer, better presented docs and videos. Honestly, if they would just do the galaxy brain move (and they might already) of selling different clothes exclusively to skate shops, I don't see the problem. Skating has always had its commercial side and it's a necessary evil to keep companies afloat or to help them expand and reach more skaters, but the thing you neglect to mention is that MAGAZINES are damn hard to make any money off today. And considering that they're constantly putting out a wholly free flow of videos now where they didn't before, they have to find their money somewhere.
Im 46 this year, I do Sometimes still skate, But i have been Buying skate clothing since you had to write them a Check or Money order to get youre clothing or parts. I Do miss Vision Street Wear too...
If you have an original Thrasher Magazine from the 80s or 90s, or in my case both! Really a shitload of em! And all are still great reads 📚 to this day! Still frame pics, captions, miss the old days
"Skate or Die" was around way before Jake Phelps / 1993. Everyone was tagging it on their grip tape and school book covers way back in 1986. I know the bumper stickers were out around then too.
I gotta say, vice aint exactly a main stream channel. Only people i know that watch anything on vice are probably the people most likely to pick up skating or just enjoy skate and adjacent cultures.
I've been skating for 20 years now. People didn't hate thrasher for selling in zumiez strictly based off the fact zumiez is "corporate". It's the trickle effect that selling to a corporate company would have on skateboarding that made people hate them. It wasn't about thrasher not being a rebel. It was a betrayal to all skateboarders because, selling in zumiez was taking money out of skater-owned shops' pockets, which were already hard to keep running because it's a niche market and rarely get business. In small cities there's not enough skaters to keep the shops running. Without local shops being able hold events due to lack of funds, less awareness is brought to skateboarding and less new skaters are joining skateboarding which directly effects the skate shops sales. And with shops closing down production slows and it's harder to get boards. This slowly kills skateboarding. Skater-owned shops could have been the only ones selling thrasher, which would have forced people to go to the their shops if they wanted to buy it, which keeps them in business and in turn keeps skateboarding going. With the huge rise in Thrasher's popularity, this would have been huge for everyone's local skate shops. So much awareness could have been brought to skateboarding with that money. It seemed like Thrasher wasn't doing it for the love of skateboarding anymore. They went against everything they were about, and was even hurting skateboarding, for money. And almost all skateboarders couldn't forgive them for that.
I've skated for 22 years, and I can really care less about the sellout thing. The entire industry sold out to Nike, Adidas, Converse, New Balance etc. I can care less about hype beasts or celebrities wearing Thrasher gear. Thrasher is the shit, but it had become synonymous with Jake Phelps; he was the mind behind Thrasher for the entirety of my skateboarding life. After Phelps' death, it's felt a bit different. It's like a great band losing their lead singer.
Fausto and Kevin Thatcher were not “punk rock”, but they did hire younger people and put skateboarders in the magazines that did embrace the movement and featured bands who were. It was actually how I and lot of other skateboarders would find out about and eventually listen to punk, hardcore, thrash metal and hip hop, etc.
I loved the magazine. Mid to Late eighties. There was a grit to it that we loved as street and homemade ramp skaters. The articles and the music this magazine presented, was about all the skate culture we had and needed, besides our own creativity....and powell peralta and hstreet films.... but yeah, thrasher was like a hub of the culture.
in 88-91 my room was blasted down in pages from thrasher. i also discovered cool punk and hardcore bands by reading interviews in the mag or seeing the t-shirt adds for the bands. i was a little confused about ten years ago when i started seeing everyone wearing thrasher shirts but i try not to judge : anyone who remembers the mid to late 80s in so cal remember how everyone was constantly being accused of being a poser, so i go easy on people.
The ads for mail order in the back was the source of my first board: a green Lucero with black Trackers and 92 Slime Balls. I wore that thing out big time. Also remember Boneite from Powell? Sadly I do
I never liked Powell Peralta. I always remember their boards being so big and flat with almost no tail at all, so I went with a blank from what I think was called Z-Board and had my dad paint it, then I moved onto a G&S Grigley.
As somebody who grew up skating from 99 and forward. It used to piss me off when all the kids who talked down on me would start wearing skate brands and didn’t even skate or know anything about skateboarding.
I remember being a young 80's dork, buying this magazine whenever I could find it. Only one store in town got it and I had to beat my friends out to get it. I miss having young bones, cuz my town has a killer park.
I got a skate and destroy tattoo over 20 years ago. Thrasher was for the kids who wore vans and smoked cigs between classes. Transworld was for the kids who wore D3s and bought everything from ccs
I'm cool with skaters making money off of non-skaters. Skateboarding is part of mainstream culture now but there will always be core skaters. Skateboarding has proven it can last beyond the trends.
As a skater thru mid 80's-2015ish from PDX, ive seen every fad and gimmick that was a part of skating. I was lucky enough to have a parent that supported my strange addiction to self mutilation that we refer to as skateboarding. I am a life long member to the Thrasher mag subscription, probably still gettin mags at the address of my youth.. anyways, skateboarding really was a crime and you needed to be somewhat of a hoodlum to participate in bombing spots. This included, running from the cops, avoiding the crazies that HATED you 'destroying' their picture perfect whatevers.. Thrasher magazine was one of the only places you could get new information on the pros, ams and products. I remember meticulously goin over ever square inch of this 'skaters bible' from cover to cover to see who had the most tweaked out japan or the hugest boneless on vert. Being lucky enough to grow up near Portland, and still skating, in the early 90s-2ks i got to experience the gnarl we call Burnside. Nothing will compare to that time in my life.. nothing! I dont skate anymore as i have the fear now but i will support skating untill the day i die. I dgaf if skating is mainstream or not, i dgaf if Zumiez sells boards n shirts to lil groms.. skating is not a thing, its a battle determined by how much you are willing to risk to push yourself out of your comfort zone.. self enlightenment, not whos wearing what shirt.. skateboarding doent care, skateboarding has no feelings.. so, SKATE AND DESTROY!!
Thrasher sells an entire year of their magazine PLUS a t-shirt for $18. Full stop. That’s a hell of a deal for the shirt alone. With print media dying almost completely, everyone should bless their stars that Thrasher is still in business. I understand wanting to remain underground, and the Lacoste collab is cringe, but they have to make moves to even stay around.
The real issue is people thinking that a skateboarding brand is something like a role model… it’s just a brand from the beginning… every skateboarder has different values and different personalities and lifestyles. The Thrasher founders were military men, they liked punk and motorcycles… most skaters have different kind of lives, that doesn’t make them less skaters. If you skate good, you are a skater, that’s all that matters
After 25 years of skateboardintg, and having been in the industry myself, and having several friends that are either pro or have been pro: I don't know a single person that "hates" Thrasher. Now, we definitely discuss how Thrasher has changed, not entirely for the better, since Phelps paseed; but "hate" Thrasher..? Uh, just no lol Im sure there's some people with bad Thrasher experiences, but overwhelmingly overall, skateboarders do not "hate" Thrasher"
Started reading THRASHER in 1991. I’m more of a Transworld guy, but I’m still a skater and I don’t hate thrasher at all. In fact, it’s the YT channel I rely on to keep me up to date on skateboarding. I still wear thrasher tshirts occasionally to this day. It doesn’t matter to me that famous people started wearing them. I started wearing them in the 90’s so why would I stop?
I skated in the mid 90s-2004. That's when I got into martial arts as a career and couldn't compete if I was hurt from skating. I see a parallel with the TapOut brand. It was cool when it was underground but once it went mainstream nobody I knew would be caught dead in a tapout shirt.
Vans was always at the mall and you could buy Thrasher shit there. Hot Topic used to sell skateboards, at in Tucson and yes, more Thrasher, Powell, Vision, Hosoi.
Hell, the local skateshop in Visalia, CA was in a mall for years in the 80's and 90's. The Surf Shop in the Visalia mall was the only skateshop in town. Just being in a mall doesn't make it bad really.
