I will do more hand drawn graphics in the future. I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to see on the wall right away, like that colourful plain board with the banana. Brad and I had an artist friend that lives close by, so I would find the perfect colour, email it to him and would sketch out how I want the banana laid out. Then take a photo of it and send it to the artist, Brad’s really good at piecing things together. I would have all my ideas ready and sketch them out, Brad would help me and we would sit down and look at them. Then call the artist and say, “hey change this shadow…move this colour…this yellow needs to be darker” and so on. We had to make boards super fast. That whole catalogue began distributing in two months so it’s pretty gnarly if you realize what it takes. I’m really proud of how fast Brad and I got everything ready for that Agenda Tradeshow, it was rewarding.
Did you have a favourite out of the first run of boards?
Yeah it’s got to be the Bear. We all know that was Rocco’s influence and where that came from. I never had that board growing up and always wanted it. Even before the trend of wood grain recently came back, I was always a huge fan of the colourful simple graphic in the middle and wood grain left alone. I like the plain one with the crowd and I like Austyn’s tickets. I mean, I like them all really… I had all these other ideas but narrowed it down to that group. But the Bear’s probably my favourite, I’m gonna be riding that one a lot, (laughs).
To what degree will being a pro skateboarder for so many years help you better understand your riders’ needs?It helps immensely because I’ve been on so many tours that have been too long. I’m trying to make 3D really small. I wanna go on smaller trips; I mean I had tons of fun on all the big Girl trips. I don’t think it’s because I’m getting older or whatever but after a while people start to get on each other’s nerves and things like that. I just want Austyn to be happy, we’ll just do some small trips at first or maybe we’ll go on a couple with Shane O’Neill and Dan Plunkett. I think it really helps to have all that experience because I know the importance of waking those guys up on time. I know how to team manage too, from all the years. Make sure we got plenty of skate tools or wax in whatever van we’re gonna go on tour with and be prepared basically. I like taking care of people so that’s gonna be a fun part of running it.
Both you and teammate Austyn Gillette have very distinct styles. Are you hoping to take on more skateboarders with a different and unique approach to skateboarding?Yeah I would hope so, people that are like he and I, that have other interests. Like any team you wanna find people you are comfortable with on tour. Of course, I would love to find somebody with a unique style that has variety. Somebody who’ll wanna be at a ditch, at a skatepark or be at a ledge. If not, if they’re a cool person and just some kid who’ll want to jump down stairs and handrails all day that’s fine too. We want people to come to us; I’m not trying to steal anybody. We’ll figure it out, I’m gonna see Austyn in September and we’ll start talking about the next step. I just wanted to make sure that we got the tradeshow done. Also I had to release that Nike shoe, so it’s been a pretty crazy three or four months for me.
Any plans for a 3D video or promo?Yeah, I think that’s what we’re gonna start working on. I’m also working on the Nike video for the third Chronicles. Again, Austyn and I are gonna hang out in September, he just did the whole Euro Tour for Huf so I think he’s home, playing his guitar just relaxing (laughs). In September he’s probably gonna come up to the Bay area and hang out at the warehouse. We’ll take it from there. I wanna make something cool, different and small like a promo for sure. We’re gonna start working on that and figuring out a date for our first little trip soon, we haven’t even gone on a trip yet so I’m pretty excited about that.
What was the design process like for the ‘Project B.A.’?Well I like to sketch, so I had a lot of little silhouette sketches of what I thought I wanted the shoe to look like. It was really great because I worked with Fabrizio at Nike SB, he’s a skateboarder who went to school for footwear design. He’s really aware of the variety of materials and stuff. I drew the silhouette, he turned it into a crazy tech drawing and then we started looking at materials together. It was very hands on, I had everything to do with the design and we did 14 hours at Nike, we went in at 8 and left at 10pm. It was crazy, just drawing and drawing all day, going down and looking at samples. It was a really fun process.
So you had full creative control over the design of the shoe?Yeah 100%, absolutely 100%: I’m so happy with it, it’s awesome.
What was it about the running shoe silhouette that appealed to you?We started working on it two and a half years ago and at the time, you’d walk around a skate shop and everything is like a Stefan or a Vans. I just felt if Nike was gonna let me create a new shoe, I wanted to make it really different, I thought there was gonna be a time in our culture when something different on the wall would look cool after everybody was rocking vulc shoes. Don’t get me wrong I love vulc shoes, I love Stefan’s shoe, but I’m glad because it seems like people are really digging this one too. I know you’re going to ask about the influence and a long time ago when I was on Axion, Guy Mariano had one shoe with the upturned running shoe toe. I loved that so I said, “lets do something like that, let’s put some Lunar in it.” They instantly loved the idea and we started running with it, sorry pardon the pun, (laughs). We took off on the design side, had a few meetings, Nike were really happy with our direction.
You’ve designed boards for Girl Skateboards and a clothing range for Fourstar. How was designing a shoe compared to past projects?I really enjoyed it because I’m comfortable in that environment. I’m not trying to toot my own horn or whatever but because I have so many interests outside of skateboarding, I can be at Nike all day and do creative stuff that I don’t think a lot of other skaters are interested in. That’s probably another reason why Nike let me be so involved. They knew I was really passionate about the design. It was incredible, I didn’t go to college for this and here I am sitting in these meeting at Nike with important, high up, people doing presentations and talking about my life. I was thrilled to be able to do that, it made me think that I want to keep trying to do more in the future. I love working for Nike; it’s awesome.
Out of all of Nike SB’s collaborations with artists, which have been your favourites?I’ll go ahead and give my buddy Brad Staba props; he did a shoe that looked like a rollerblade, (laughs) that was pretty funny. But, man I got to tell you, I’m not much of a sneaker nerd or whatever people call it. Let me think…Brad’s the first one that comes to mind; the rollerblade was pretty good (laughs).
One last question, how important do you feel it is for skateboarders to have other creative outlets?I think it’s pretty important unless you’re just interested in what people call ‘training’ everyday. That’s fine but that could make you end up and hating the industry. So, I think it’s important to have other interests. Just get out, leave your board at home one day, or just go for a bike ride. As I’m getting older I’m getting into stretching and doing things to take care of myself, I’m always walking my dog. Drawing is really helpful; I wouldn’t recommend graffiti because you can go to jail. But stuff like that is always cool. Then when you go back to your skateboard you’re feeling refreshed. So, yeah it’s very important I think. It’s just how my brain works, I need to do other things, I need to have other outlets…otherwise I would explode (laughs).
