Ph: Anthony Craine
Jenkem Mag have a really good interview online today with Marc Johnson who discusses the state of the skate industry, the changes that are going on with people leaving brands to set up their own and much more. The issue of major sports brands within skateboarding was also raised:
If a big sports shoe brand paid you 2 or 3 times your current salary, would you consider leaving Lakai to ride for them?
Okay. No, I wouldn’t ride for a mainstream sports footwear brand. I would not skate for Big Company Footwear.
Why not?
Big Company has a policy where if a skateshop wants to carry that ONE shoe that everyone wants, the skateshop is forced to carry ALL of their shoes. FORCED to carry all of their shoes. When those shoes don’t sell, the skateshop goes into debt and that debt gets bigger and bigger until the skateshop goes out of business. Your local shop owes Big Company a lot of money and must continue to sell the popular shoe just to pay their bills, and then they go even deeper into debt because the other Big Company shoes don’t sell at all. No one wants them. But skateshop is forced to carry those shoes too in order to be able to sell the one popular shoe. And now, skateshop doesn’t even have a choice about what they order. Shoes just randomly show up at the shop, and now skateshop owes Big Company money for product they didn’t even order.
Who the fuck does that to a skateshop????
Obviously someone who doesn’t care about the skateshops, skateboarding or skateboarders. It’s terrible. Skateboarding footwear brands don’t do that shit to skateshops. Skate Footwear brands let the shops decide what shoes they want to carry. Skate Footwear company doesn’t force skateshops to do anything they don’t want to do, or strong-arm them into a debt-slavery relationship.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.
Going on a skate trip this summer? Have an iPhone in your pocket loaded with tunes? We were sent one of these little silicone contraptions last month from 
Sometimes a track comes along and just smacks you right in the face. ‘Secret Surprise’ from Cardiff/London outfit Joanna Gruesome does just that. It’s the first cut from their forthcoming album Weird Sister which will be coming out through the excellent Fortuna Pop! label (Allo Darlin’, Evans The Death, Shrag) on September 16th – if this track is representative of the rest of their debut then colour us very excited indeed.
Get some out takes from Bake and Destroy with Don “Nuge” Nguyen and Sammy Baca. There’s a Nuge slam in here that is insane too. Fuck that.