Just Do It Already

Filed Under: Skateboarding, Sneakers

Nike’s involvement in skateboarding has always been a source of controversy, for those who care anyway. In fact, their attempts were denied by skateboarders four times before finally entering the industry successfully. Nonetheless, this commercial from their first stab at skateboarding in 1997 is thoughtful and amusing. Even if they don’t necessarily “get it,” they’re at least pretty good at faking it.

Initially, Nike SB’s success could largely be attributed to the fact that Nike corporate finally clued the fuck in and tried to actually help the skateboarding industry while reaping the ludicrously exorbitant benefits, rather than exploiting the culture entirely without giving anything in return, which is a practice Nike is both familiar with and quite good at.

Ultimately, their decision to sell SBs in actual skate shops rather than mall chains was a pretty meager effort considering skateboarding is bringing them in $15 fucking billion a year. To put that number into perspective, that’s almost 6% as much money as Ludicrous has (estimated worth, according to the rapper, “a million, billion, fafillion dollars”)! Either way, Nike SB’s strategy worked and their shoes have become incredibly popular, within the core skateboarding community and well beyond that. In fact, more sales are probably made by hipsters and sneaker heads.

However, there will always be those who despise Nike’s elbowing in, since after all, they only wanted a piece of the action once skateboarding had become a multi-billion dollar industry and couldn’t have cared less when our forefathers were pushing around, but mostly eating shit, on 2x4s with roller skate wheels attached. Additionally, many people still say that Nike has failed to penetrate the market as the limited runs and high price tags have made the shoes collector’s items appealing largely to the insatiable, monstrous hunger of sneaker fetishists.

Personally, I think skating a pair of Nikes would feel like raking sharpened fingernails across a chalkboard, and not even because I do feel that they’re merely cashing in and will be gone again once the culture isn’t trendy anymore. Something about scraping the toe of an $120 dollar extremely limited edition sneaker just doesn’t sound all that attractive to me, probably for the same reason that I don’t make a hobby of ripping up stacks of $50 dollar bills for fun.

That said, Nike’s commercials continue to be fantastic. They recently collaborated with Indonesian artist Darbotz to produce this fucking incredible animated short done in the artist’s signature monochromatic style. It goes down particularly smooth considering the Nike branding is admirably minimal, so the integrity of the art isn’t really compromised. Everybody wins! High fives all around, guys!