Retired 1990s Professionals Present To You: A Tale of Two Brand Visions

Why did you decide to launch a footwear company at this time? What opportunities do you see in this market?
Tim Gavin: Right now we see a huge opportunity for a footwear brand with a different mind set when it comes to product. I decided it was the right time for a concept that I’ve always wanted to do for so long. I wanted to think different with our product as that is our primary focus. We are brand-driven and product-focused as we feel product prevails and a lot of what is out in the market simply looks very similar in terms of overall product mix. Our mix of product is very different as a total collection with no vulcanized soles in the first season. I always thought about how skateboarding, art, and music have such a deep connection. The catalyst for the footwear direction really came about in the discussion and belief that skateboarding is not only an art form, but a modern day individual sport. So, we used that as the basis to create a footwear collection that delivers great functionality and style. There is a quote from Mies van der Rohe that we use as a brand guideline: “Create form out of the nature of our tasks with the methods of our time.” That really says it all.

Meanwhile, in Cincinnati…

You recently started Hela Cool Skateboards. What’s the vision for the brand?
James Kelch: HELLA COOL SKATEBOARD CLUB is a little company I started on my front porch. It’s a cartoon me and my girl Lee Ann were working on. It’s about a princess who skates and has pets who skate. And a plant also. Each character is a version of a modern skater. Hella cat is the maniac rager skater. The princess is the skater who thinks they deserve everything. The bunny is the skater who can ollie but has no tricks. The squirrel is the skater who spins in circles running his mouth and won’t shut up. The potted plant named Potty is the stoned skater who you drop off at the park, and when you come to pick him up, he is sitting in the same place. He has no feet. They all live in a haunted house. I started it in May 2013. The vision is to just maintain and sustain a positive attitude in such a weird high-profile business-owned skateboard world. No pros at the moment. Maybe never. I have no plan. I let the universe decide what happens. I just go with the flow. Since I ain’t trying to get rich—I’m a vagrant—I won’t waste the money living like a movie star. It’s all for the club! And you’re all invited to join #HELLACOOLSKATEBOARDCLUB. And one more thing—the club isn’t about me or my past. It’s about enjoying skateboarding for what it’s worth. And the only thing it’s really worth is your own peace of mind.

Gino Iannucci’s Most-Productive 14 Months Ever, And Other Assorted Notes On 2013

2013 fucked around and turned out to be a banner year footage-wise for Long Islander and long weekender Gino Iannucci, doing a mini-Beyonce with a quick minute of mostly-park footage uploaded without warning Christmas Eve by hardworking Brick Harbour elves. Pinning down Gino when he’s on his board doesn’t seem to have gotten much easier over the years, despite his willingness to wax nostalgic on video about train station parking lots, but if you put this footage together with his tricks from ‘Pretty Sweet’ plus the inexplicably trimmed extra footage you’d have a nearly three-minute section that would readily accommodate a Mathematics instrumental.

10 Other Video Parts

-Derm – ‘In Crust We Trust’
One of the oblique thrills of marking time via local scene videos jockeying for YouTube chart positioning is that you may or may not ever see any of the dudes again, or, you might. It’s an open question as to whether Eric Dermond desires or will have any type of ‘career’ in the industry but his section in the enjoyably grimy “In Crust We Trust” felt like watching “Subzero” era Fred Gall skating “Inhabitants” era Fred Gall spots, topped with a nicely bone-crushing slam.
-Kyle Walker – ‘In Color’
-Mark Suciu – ‘Philadelphia’
-Jordan Trahan – ‘Boros to Bayous’
-Matt Nordness – ‘Hurry Up & Try’
The intro with the blocks is almost enough all by itself.
-Jake Donnelly – ‘Jake’s VX Mix’
-Evan Smith – ‘The Evan Smith Experience’
This one seems to have come and gone pretty quick, but Evan Smith loosened up his trucks and floored it and recorded a bunch of fairly heavy tricks for this.
-Lucas Puig – ‘Bon Voyage’
-Ben Raybourn – ‘New Ground’
“Horse pool”
-Cole Middleton – ‘Video X’

Thrasher: Have you ever exercised in your life?
Fred Gall: I started lifting weights a little bit to try to buff up when I thought I was going to jail.
-Thrasher Jan. 2014

The Rise of Coloured Pants

Increased embrace of shorter/smaller videos from the likes of Emerica, Nike and Habitat harkened back to certain early-90s practices that make current economic sense — the trend toward ever-larger teams and vague desires to recoup travel expenses via blockbuster video projects remain at odds with the general public’s tendency toward watching individual parts on Youtube and skipping back to watch specific tricks rather than whole parts. Meanwhile some of the wealthiest professionals, including Theotis Beasley, Ishod Wair and Nyjah Huston, participated in their own early-1990s style revival by sporting loudly coloured pants and in certain instances what appear to be swimming trunks, signaling a potential new front in the swag wars.