A Brief Interruption To Our Annual Year-End Programming Because Anthony Pappalardo Gave This Rather Frank Interview On 48 Blocks Today

It was a curious thing to observe the responses when, a couple weeks ago, you had in New Balance the umpteenth major-league footwear company announcing its late entry into the SB club. Time was, a couple pros would cobble together some investment group and foist upon the beleaguered consumership some new truck company or shoe company and be met with a round of harrumphs and annoyed sighs, whereas lately an entry one by one of the multinational shoe companies tends to get a subset of the culture atwitter over the prospect of being catered to with theoretically better technology and construction backing another vulcanized, low-top sneaker bearing a logo recognizable to principals, moms, the captain of the football team, etc.

One justification offered up for backing new corporate competitors centers on allegedly poor quality of the shoes manufactured under skater-owned or -birthed outfits. When it comes to the extremely basic designs that have generally conferred some equilibrium across the shoe landscape and the fixation on suede, canvas or leather as the material, quality seems like a red herring. There seems a certain willingness (in some cases eagerness) to reject the “grassroots” players that, whatever their warts, of the skateboard industry’s own creations in favor of these larger and more powerful entities that until 10 years ago were not much thought of, except for some disdain when it came to various hamfisted efforts to enter in.

Now we have a telling from Anthony Pappalardo, to 48 Blocks, on how he was allegedly given short shrift by Converse, which wooed him away from Lakai despite his apparent misgivings, made him a pro-model shoe and then shifted into some bare-knuckled contract fight that seems to have severely dented Pappalardo’s self-esteem. Some of the story as Pappalardo tells it is confusing — kind of like some 60-to-zero shift from “pro-skater-with-shoe-deal” status with no in-between option like seeking a different sponsor. Pappalardo describes a sort of catch-22 in which Converse is not supporting him, forcing him to hustle to survive, which leaves him unable to skate, so Converse (and later Chocolate) doesn’t support him. It isn’t clear what happened to any royalties from his shoe model, which seem to have sold briskly.

It seems like there’s several pieces missing from the story — during the time period in question Pappalardo was not exerting a Lil B-like flooding of the market with coverage and his career arc may not have afforded him coasting abilities with an international sports wear company. But at a time when shoe companies like Es and Gravis have rolled out of the frame, it seems worth hearing out a dude like Pappalardo, even given these past few years of traipsing down a path toward trick minimalism and an urban recluse profile.

Tags: 48 Blocks, Alien Workshop, Anthony Pappalardo, Chocolate, conglomerates, Converse, feelings, Lakai, murk, negotiating tactics, New Balance, ollies, Versailles