Respect Authority

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”)! Read More ›