Apparently Lance Mountain is shutting down The Firm after 15 years in business. It appears that nobody stopped The Firm but Lance himself, who felt it was time to move on to something else.
I know Lance isn’t dead, and some people don’t want to hear a lovefest about Lance, but tough, you’re going to get one because Lance is one of the nicest guys in skateboard I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting.
When I started skating in the late 80s Lance was sort of the top guy, with Tony Hawk only beginning to get popular. My first deck was a Kamikazi from Price Club. My second deck was a Powell Per Welinder deck with Bonite that I got because I liked the graphics. As I got educated about the industry and started reading magazines and watching videos Lance became my favorite and my next deck was a Lance Mountain Future Primitive deck, blue, with Bonite. I rode that deck for a long time.
Lance is one of those guys that everyone likes. I’m sure someone, somewhere has a beef with him, but all I’ve seen of Lance is that in person he has been the nicest guy, and you frequently see him hanging out with the Girl team and other skaters who have no reason to be around him except that they like him. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about him.
I’ll be curious to know where the team is going to end up. Although The Firm has never been the #1 company out there, they’ve never been at the bottom of the heap either, and I think their current team is the best it’s ever been, and quite possibly the most underrated team in the industry. I’ll also be curious to know what Lance is moving on to. At any rate it doesn’t sound like he’s going to stop skating, which is a relief. I’m about ten years younger than most of these guys which means when they start quitting I know I’ve only got ten years left to skate.
Lance has sold out to Nike…They are giving him more than he could ever make at any other skate company…They are buying out many pros, but the ones that are not in financial trouble are not selling out, and many companies are telling their pros that it is them or nike when they are approached. Lance is an awesome person and it breaks my heart to see him doing such an unchristian thing as riding for a company with such aweful human rights violations.
I agree on the sellout factor. I wish skaters would just say no to Nike. But as far as the human rights violations what evidence do you have of that? I know everybody talks about it, but I get the impression everyone is just repeating what they heard from somebody else and I’m wondering if anybody actually has any proof. I have an associate who has actually worked with Nike and been in their factories and he said they were super nice and that people wanted to work there because it was nicer than the other factories. Granted, that probably doesn’t mean they’re up to our standards over here, but countries don’t become first world overnight and China has come a long way from where they were 10-20 years ago.
Lance can live his life and you live yours. Maybe you should address the self-rightious LOG in your eye before you point out the sliver in one saint of a man. Lance sold out to Jesus long ago and Jesus provides for him. If that means a contract with Nike then so be it. Who are you to judge how God takes care of his own? God uses ALL in this life according to his will. That goes for Nike, Lance, Cops, Illuminati and even little ol’ you and me. Nuff said poopy head.