Destroy Everything Now
88 Shoes
It feels rather funny reviewing a video from a company that no longer exists. ‘Destroy Everything Now’ was 88 Shoes limp effort at getting their riders noticed before the company went out of business, only to re-appear as Vox Shoes minus a few heads… The industry takes no prisoners. Straight away, I knew I wouldn’t like this video because of two things: the title and the shelf life. ‘Destroy Everything Now’ seems like a rather childish rant when you think that destroying stuff never really helps. Plus, half the team isn’t exactly reckless on their decks… As for shelf life, this video was released to a lukewarm audience as the “hell-bent for leather” fashion wave broke and faded away. Bad luck. However, it had hardly spent a month on the store shelves, that it was already being distributed for free with various magazines. Ummm..? Despite these off putting aspects, this video did have a few highlights for me. Firstly, any Justin Strubing or Neil Blender footage is good footage, even if they both fit the company image as well as a couple of shrunken socks on size 12 feet. Peter Hewitt had me smiling with his MASSIVE fastplant in a concrete bowl. Peter is a ripper. Uhhh… And I think my pleasure stopped there. JT Aultz almost made me feel warm inside, but somehow fell short. Adrian Mallory is all punk-rock and marketable, so let’s not comment. Kristian Svitak hasn’t changed since his ‘Label Kills’ part, and Corey Duffel comes through with a trademark two song hammerfest for a part. Sure, Corey’s stunts are impressive, but it’s all on a whole other level to your average kids street skating. Plus, if I ever see one of these modern day stuntmen align more that 3 tricks, I’ll stand down and re-think my argument.
I guess you can tell that ‘Destroy Everything Now’ didn’t rock my boat. But, I suggest you try and view it all the same because of Strubing and Blender. I mean, you might love all this hammerfest/stunt skating that’s flying around the media at the moment, in which case secure yourself a copy quick! Otherwise, don’t go blue in the face and accept it as a freebie with the latest skate rag…
