Nightglow Window

IASC Summit Day Two

What does success look like? It's a question the skate industry seemed to be asking itself on the second day of the IASC summit. On one hand, you have one of the fastest growing sports in the world -- especially if you spread the time horizon out over the past fifteen years. And that's just participants. It says nothing about the influence skate culture now has on youth culture.

Names like Bam, Dyrdek, Sheckler, Danny Way, and Tony Hawk have exposed millions to skateboarding through the mainstream media. Skate parks have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. The very size and scope of a place like Woodward West (where the inaugural IASC Skate Summit is being held) stands testament to skateboarding's success and growing appeal.

But the skate industry seems to have this yearning for validation from the very seats of "authority" that skaters so often raise their collective middle fingers to -- or that's how it looked during the "Putting The Government To Work For Skateboarding" seminar.

Making "Go Skateboarding Day" an official holiday, access to and a blessing from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a campaign to repeal California's skate park pad and helmet laws: these were the somewhat quixotic discussion points. To be sure, panelists Kori Bernards (corporate communications VP for the MPAA), Michael Anadon (political organizer for the Service Employees International Union), and Tom Campion (co-founder and CEO of Zumiez) made some very interesting points. Here are some of the highlights from the discussion:



But the seminar exposed a far broader -- and more interesting -- topic: how can skateboarding seek mainstream validation while maintaining its rebel appeal? It seems a fine line. Some proposed that IASC should become the "uncool" tool of skateboarding, looking for ways to highlight skateboarding's wholesome, healthy appeal; bringing well-scrubbed pros like Danny Way, Ryan Sheckler, and Tony Hawk to meet with government officials in order to gain influence; and generally dispelling the top-of-mind stereotype of the rule-breaking punk skateboarder.

Meanwhile, individual brands would be free to pursue a more "Wild In The Streets" agenda, accentuating some of those very stereotypes IASC hopes to dispel. It seems a bit of a catch 22, but could it work? Moderator Jim Gray seemed skeptical, noting how the IASC leaders are fairly well known to average skaters, and how these same skaters call bullshit if company leaders take a stance they don't agree with. Blank decks anyone?

It's a topic that engendered a lot of conversation. Surf industry leader Peter Townend (who's also the manager of his son Tosh Townend), passed around an interesting editorial from the 10th anniversary issue of ESPN The Magazine. Mainstream magazines typically miss the mark when they talk about boardsports, but perhaps not this time:

Ten years ago, the notion of action sports as a definable, still relatively contained passion/culture was defendable. Competitions were sparse. Most companies making equipment and gear were athlete-owned, small-time operations. If you knew who Tony Hawk was, it was because you were a skater, not a gamer. To most of the world, the letters BMX seemed only desperate for a vowel, and the addition of "extreme" or "X" as a prefix to, well, anything at all hadn't yet completed its journey from common to cliche to straight-out massively moronic.

Ah, the good ol' days. Of course, marketing trajectories have long gone from Relatively Small Unknown Cool Thing to Much Bigger Widely Appreciated Less-Cool Thing. This is how punk rock birthed Avril Lavigne. But while the evolution of action sports has many of the hallmarks of just another culture making a meal of its young, what really happened is something distinctly different. And in this difference lies the reason for hope, even pride, among the faithful.

Sure, once upon a time the hardcore were a rag-tag bunch who didn't fit into school or home or anyplace except whichever patch of asphalt, dirt, snow, ocean, lake or air they happened to be blithely inhabiting at the moment. Soon, though, their relentless commitment to performing in ways that seemed to defy not only the laws of physics but the most basic standards of common sense brought personal fame and fortune, not to mention increasing numbers of avid, better-looking fans.

And stuff changed. Tony Hawk became a video-game icon and the leader of the traveling three-ring Boom Boom skateboard circus. Big-wave surfers shredded through Bond movies. Snowboarding hit the Olympics and Shaun White and Jake Burton teamed with the likes of American Express and Hewlett-Packard. Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera begat Jackass, which in some strange but very real way begat YouTube. Jason Lee made My Name Is Earl and David Milch made John From Cincinnati. Kelly Slater dated Pam Anderson and Pink married -- and will soon divorce -- Carey Hart. Apparel company Volcom's IPO raised $89 million. Lots of people who never used to say "rad" and "stoked" started to say "rad" and "stoked." And "dude." (Want to see Katie Couric calling her cameraman "dude"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5a7QEHMx-4)

But if that list seems like compelling evidence of action sports going mainstream, it's actually the opposite: it's compelling evidence of mainstream going action sports. In the previous 10 years, action sports haven't been swallowed by culture at large. Rather, what we've seen is the action-sportsification, if you will, of that culture, This shift differs from your standard commodification of a hip trend in that, in this case, the hip trend has proved to by anything but fleeting, its practitioners wildly resistant to change."

You'll pardon the long aside, but the points ESPN makes dovetail with the subtext of the IASC summit -- and figuring out a way to exploit this mainstream infatuation seems like a tremendous opportunity for the skate market -- as long as it doesn't lose hold of the reins.

None of these points are in anyway new. Cultural critic Thomas Frank made a compelling case for this happening to the snowboarding market ten years ago at the TransWorld SNOWboarding industry conference. (If you enjoyed the above snippet from ESPN, you'll find Frank's speech fascinating.)

Gray was joking when he made this point, but the government panel really could have gone on for hours. Instead, the summit moved on to a presentation from Richard Anderson, managing director of Moss Adams Capital, LLC. Entitled "The Deal: From Preparation To Completion", Anderson's presentation covered in some depth the different stages of financing your business as it grows. His points deserve a separate article to do them justice, but several attendees -- including the few retailers in attendance -- noted that it changed the way they thought about their business. High praise, indeed.

After lunch, IASC organized a series of progressive roundtable discussions that covered youth initiatives, skateparks, amateur competition, research and statistics, investment capital, and trade shows.

Based on the interation at the trade show table (where Surf Expo sat for the two hours), it was time well spent, bringing up a variety of new ideas and allowing summiteers an opportunity to further interact with each other.

The day's sceduled events ended with a presentaion by Andrew Smith, who spent 22 years working for Harley-Davidson and now earns a living talking about that experience. It's scary how the branding of that company so closely mirrors what many skate companies have to deal with. It's a case study on how you can recapture the imagination of your core customer while broadening your business far beyond its former boundaries.

But those listening closely heard some of the same challenges the skate industry faces: does that broad popularity hurt your core appeal? Even the appeal of an iconic brand like Harley-Davidson? Smith seemed to think so and showed a new "hardcore" television campaign that seeks to re-establish the Harley-Davidson brand as a butt-kicking rebel outlaw and not a mid-life-crisis balm for soccer moms and CPAs.

As a thought-provoking jumpstart to later conversation, Smith's presentation was right on point.

Inside the main gates at Woodward West, two of the dozen camper bunkhouses are on the right, with the store straight ahead.

The main gates of Woodward West, which hundreds of campers pass beneath when camp is in session.

One of the very huge outdoor parks.

The thirteen and a half foot halfpipe.

The bike dirt jump area.

There's nothing rinky-dink at Woodward West. The parks, the jumps, the halfpipes -- everything -- are big and real and designed for campers who are passionate about our sports.

Okay, okay, it's pretty.

The Fuel car, which John Stouffer seemed very adept at driving fast.

Special awards to IASC leaders created by Watson Laminates.

Andrew Smith from Harley Davidson.

Skin from TransWorld, Michael Furukawa from Powell, Paul Schmitt From PS Stix, Jim Gray from Acme, Bob Denike from NHS, John Bernard From IASC, Bod Boyle from Dwindle, and Tod Swank from Tumyeto are recognized for their contribution to IASC.

Original IASC re-launch supporters: Steve Van Doren of Vans, Tod Swank of Tumyeto, Don Brown of Sole Technology, Paul Schmitt of PS Stix, Bod Boyle of Dwindle, and Jeff Kendal of NHS.

Don Brown celebrates.

Rob Campbell and Skin Phillips of TransWorld.

ZJ Boarding House Co-Owner Todd Roberts has the attention of SPoT's Ryan Clements, Modern Skate's George Leichtweis, and Calavera Board Supply's Bob Culberson.

Skin and Sully.

The three epochs of TransWorld Business editors: John Stouffer (right) 1994 to 2004; Rob Campbell (center) 2007 to present; and Doofus (left) 1996 to 2007. Photo: adam Sullivan (who also wrote that you should run if you see us coming.)