A World Without Pro Skateboarders

Blitz Distribution (Baker, Birdhouse, Flip, and other brands) has launched AWorldWithoutPros.com where Tony Hawk, Andrew Reynolds, and Geoff Rowley sound off on the importance of buying pro decks instead of blank decks. I already blogged on the topic of whether blank decks hurt the skateboard industry back in ‘05, but let’s revisit the issue, shall we?

1. Pros make more money today than they ever have. When I was growing up, I think Tony Hawk was probably one of the few pros, perhaps the only pro, to make over six figures. Today you’ve got more than a handful.

2. Pros can make money off of a lot of things without selling out. When I was growing up, nobody had a pro model shoe. Today everybody does. There is more opportunity than ever.

3. Reynolds says without pros there wouldn’t be any more good videos. Frankly we’ve got too many good videos. There are so many that a new video doesn’t mean much anymore. When I was growing up we were lucky to get a new skate video once per year. When Reynolds was growing up there weren’t half the videos there are today, but he still got psyched to skate.

4. Tony says blank boards mean a departure from respecting pros, but all I hear is a guy who makes $20M per year telling me his bottom line isn’t what he wants it to be. It’s disappointing to see somebody I respect making more money than he’s ever made, making more money than 99.99999% of this world’s people will see in their lifetime, complaining that he’s not making enough.

Blank boards aren’t a sign of waning respect for pros, it’s a sign that kids want to skateboard more than they want to work. At a minimum wage job it takes several extra hours to earn the money to get a pro deck vs. a blank that is just as good for skating. Who would choose to work for 4 more hours instead of getting a blank and skating during that time?

5. Competition drives innovation, lowers prices, and grows industries. Without blank decks as a source of competition skateboard manufacturers wouldn’t feel the pressure to be innovative and make better decks. They wouldn’t feel the pressure to grow the industry larger to increase their sales. They wouldn’t feel as much pressure to make their company stand out by having good pros and ams. Without that pressure, skateboarding would stagnate. There wouldn’t be as much progress. It’s good to have a little fear and discomfort. Truth be known, blank decks might be saving the industry rather than hurting it.

C’mon guys, are you really hurting that bad? Do you really expect kids to buy pro decks out of charity? Tony, you’re a businessman as well as a skater, you should be smarter than this. Business doesn’t work on charity. You’re fighting a losing battle by choosing the wrong strategy. Even if you’re right and blanks hurt the industry, bad mouthing blanks isn’t going to work, so why bother? Focus on making kids want to buy pro decks. Find a way to make pro decks better than blanks other than just graphics.

You pros might think I’m not your friend, but I am. I want pros to be successful financially, but this strategy isn’t going to work. In the long run, trying to make kids buy pro decks by giving them a guilt-trip is going to hurt you and the industry. It shows kids you don’t understand them and what motivates them and creates a separation between you and your customers. As you get more and more out of touch kids will sense this and move to brands they feel are more “real” and you’ll find yourself in the position of Powell in the early 90s, wondering what happened to the glory days and how you lost them.