Captain Sensible

Full text of TSM editorial!

2012-01-06T19:07:00.002Z

What does skateboarding mean?

You will have doubtless asked yourself the same question at some point in the middle of one of those flinching skateboarding daydreams you’ve been having. It’s alright- we all have them.

What is this skating lark all about, exactly?

How can just standing sideways on the most simple of man’s transportative inventions come to represent so much? And it does represent much:

It can be argued that right now, today, skateboarding has become the most culturally influential performance art in history. And yet even that attempt to crystallise the ethereal nature of skate culture contains within it a load of turn- offs for other skateboarders.

Performance art? Come on. It’s just an exciting portal to innocence.

But if you accept that reality (and it is a reality), then how can it come to dominate every aspect of our lives, the way we look at the world around us, and how can it have changed the worlds of fashion, art, music, design, sport, TV, architecture- and (say it quietly) culture- forever?

Which it has, by anybody’s reading.

There are two really remarkable things about skating. The activity itself, and the people who are drawn into her orbit.

Skateboarding itself is so open, simple to appreciate, freedom- giving and essentially cool that there is no mystery in why it intoxicates; only the extent to which it does is hidden from Everybody Else.

And then the people: because it is so democratic and unbridled, skating is like a kitchen knife through the frosted sponge cake of society, plunging through tiers, layers and tastes. You meet all kinds of people through skating, and we all have a single bashful, insightful passion in common.

So these two things every skater knows: it feels untouchable and it attracts a lot of varied people. After that nothing is agreed.

And here’s why: skateboarding means different things to different people, and all those views overlap all the time.

For some of us, it is about escape; for others it is about belonging.

For some it is real life; to other skaters, it is the antidote to real life.

For some it is the only real joy; for some it is a black beast which is never sated.

For some skateboarding means transport; for others it only leaves the trunk at the park gates.

For some it is the definitive act of post- modern social comment; for others it is competition for the looks and the lifestyle.

For some it is unspeakably glamorous, what Kerouac would surely have been; for others, skating is slightly embarrassing, a secret shame.

For some, it is the totality of their chance to express their difference from the next guy; for a few it is but one manifestation of their total otherness.

Because here’s the thing about skateboarding: all of it is real, and none of it. If that sounds elliptical look at it this way:

Nobody owns skateboarding and so we see in it a reflection of what we choose to, like the smile on a dog.

The openness to interpretation explains is how it can be tired and energised, commercial and underground, better than ever and worse than ever, artistic and athletic all at once.

It’s up to you what you want to see reflected in it; like that smiling dog- there if you want to see it, and not, if you don’t.

Ultimately with skateboarding, the activity itself is the only absolute truth.

The rest is as open to interpretation as there are skaters to interpret it

Sensible Answers introduce Inhouse

2012-01-04T16:17:00.003Z

Once again the reason for radio silence has been a lot of background work to arrive at the point where we can announce our new partner in the UK, Inhouse Interactive. Inhouse design exhibitions for kids museums, visitor's centres and on behalf of many global brands. We are honoured that they have chosen Sensible Answers to guide them into new territory.

Honoured to be guest Editor of the best skate mag in the world!

2011-11-08T00:14:00.003Z

Delighted to have my name associated with the wonderful The Skateboard Mag, in shops now!

US based ideation company Redscout who flew us to Amsterdam for a 360 degree re- branding consultancy.

2011-10-12T12:27:00.002+01:00

Thanks again to Jonah, Timothee and all at Redscout for involving us in a fantastic project.

Slap article created between Mark Whiteley and I, 2000!

2011-10-11T21:45:00.000+01:00

My own personal shoe collaboration with C1RCA.

2011-10-10T14:49:00.004+01:00

Shoe model, design and colourway all conducted by myself alongside C1RCA. This pair are signed by the entire C1RCA team as a memento. Only 500 pairs of these have been made to celebrate the success of the magazine I founded 'which changed the face of skateboarding in Europe', according to their marketing peeps. Who am I to argue?

Sensible Answers in California- IASC summit 2008

2011-10-07T12:58:00.003+01:00

Just been sent this link to a Transworld Business Article by our good friend Adam Sullivan which details the International Association Of Skateboard Companies conference at Woodward West in the Tehachapi desert a few years back where I was a guest speaker. On this same trip we shot the raw footage for Balance's LA edit with Blind Skateboards which garnered over 30,000 views!

My Gonz photo from Adidas event features in Spanish Magazine UNO

2011-09-30T12:02:00.004+01:00

Science Skateboards demo at London Edge tradeshow

2011-09-09T14:33:00.000+01:00

Nike SB book I edited!

2011-08-25T17:03:00.004+01:00

London Edge Tradeshow 4- 6 September 2011

2011-08-19T13:30:00.001+01:00

Who's been a busy boy then?

2011-08-04T17:08:00.003+01:00

Sensible Answers' Alex K has been filming and shooting for this campaign for mobile provider Globul, as well as running inter- country skate events on behalf of a swanky shopping arcade chain. Alex, please send in our commission!

Sensible Answers ink long term development deal with King Ramps

2011-04-27T08:08:00.004+01:00

Apologies for the radio silence but for the last few months a lot of background work has been undertaken in order to finalise details of a long- standing brand development deal between Sensible Answers and King Ramps, the UK's leading supplier of skateboarding and BMX services. The collaboration sees King Ramps expand and internationalise their offering to a global level drawing major clients from the worlds of mobile technology, the automotive industry and other youth- orientated brands. More news to follow as soon as final pieces of the jigsaw fall into place!

Sensible run BG skateboarding awards on behalf of Monster

2011-03-08T20:30:00.003Z

With it's chat show theme, there has really never been anything like THIS!!

Sensible Answers sign Danny Wainwright for Urban Kreation

2011-03-06T09:46:00.002Z

Team Management power moves!

2011-03-06T09:33:00.002Z

Interview with our Eastern Europe office in the pan- European Boardsport industry magazine Source, demonstrating our ability and imagination in solving skate hardgoods distribution issues in the East.
Full article available in PDF form here!

2011-01-26T21:59:00.002Z

Just returned from a very fun and productive Bright Tradeshow at the former Stasi HQ in Berlin. The gang signage is courtesy of UK's Sportsvision and Germany's Radar agencies. Good looks!

Sensible Answers complete 360 degree brand development project for Urban Kreation

2010-12-03T11:23:00.005Z

Apologies for the radio silence of late but we have been exceptionally busy taking Urban Kreation clothing www.urbankreation.com from concept to market including full developmental support over a 3- month period. Please contact the site for a walkthrough of what we achieved and what we can do for your brand on YOUR budgets!

SB Block Session from Karim Bakhtaoui on Vimeo.

Karim Bakhtaoui viral launch asset.

Sensible Answers' feature on skateboarding in Afghanistan

2010-11-05T23:53:00.002Z

Printed in pan- European lifestyle magazine Huck.

Sensible Answers Quoted in Outlaw Collective Thesis

2010-11-05T23:42:00.003Z

Flattered indeed we are to have an abstract from Niall's early work for US soul bible SLAP magazine used in an academic article. Full piece here!

Division Media consultancy contract including Crossfire re- launch

2010-10-06T12:44:00.005+01:00

Recently we undertook a brand development exercise on behalf of online music PR company Division Media, expanding their business network by opening up agreements between them and Orange Mobile, Universal Pictures and Hachette Publishing among others. Here is a snippet of strong content provision courtesy of this interview with seminal French photographer Benjamin Deberdt on behalf of their web- zine's re- launch.

When we was rad

2010-10-06T12:35:00.007+01:00

Little something from Etnies European Championship 2009- the sweary Mary at the end is Fluff editor Marcel Veldman.

Sensible's Dave Carnie interviewed

2010-08-02T18:02:00.001+01:00

About his fine art photography here!

Don't panic

2010-06-20T13:26:00.001+01:00

Website moving servers, will be up again ASAP!

Article for Boardsport Source European B2B Title

2010-06-07T15:24:00.001+01:00

Recently I had occasion to ask Jagger about skateboarding. Jagger is a face from the British skateboarding scene, and possibly the first non American to ever grace Thrasher magazine’s Hall Of Meat after a particularly rapid tram track hang up whilst hill bombing in San Francisco. It is fair to say that he sees the long view.
“The activity of skateboarding has never been stronger” he noted “-its just the skateboarding business that is having a hard time.”
Skateboarding has never been more popular and yet the changes in manufacturing and distribution mean that the marketplace has seldom looked more perilous. How did it come to this?
Right away lets get rid of the credit crunch, which has ramifications wider than this or any single industry.
Suffice to say, almost all of the unnecessary expenditure which almost became a badge of honour is gone.
Flow teams are largely gone. The alternative currency of free shoes is gone. The thing about a time of plenty is that you often only recognise it in the rear view mirror. Large footwear companies have decimated their rosters, and some have withdrawn from the European stage completely. Pressing houses are in cutthroat competition for the small orders which keep saws buzzing.
Advertising revenues, the lifeblood of the magazines which sustain skate boarding’s common language, are among the worst affected, as is advertising generally.
Advertising is an unquantifiable necessity, which is to say it is important but its difficult to prove just how much. In such times, the grey areas suddenly get a spotlight. Within that, you have of course the long burning question of how to make the internet pay as the much vaunted shift from print euro ad spend to online euro ad spend turned out to be euros to cents instead.
The days of a single European country having multiple skate titles (outside of Germany, one of the top 5 powerhouse countries for skateboard sales) certainly seem to be receding -at one point France had 5.
So the financial crisis, or whatever you want to call it, has highlighted 4 underlying trends that I see as having been instrumental to the changes the industry has witnessed in the last couple of years:

The outsourcing of manufacture.
The first, and at the time perceived as being the most serious, threat to the Californian domination of manufacturing skateboards was what became known as the China Issue. Within the American media 3 years ago there began a kind of loosely co-ordinated negative campaign about the outsourcing of skateboarding manufacture to China would spell the end of a great American tradition. Or to look at it another way, the country that created the global marketplace was surprised when the global marketplace turned on it.
Within 18 months, and largely in secret, the greater number of US pressing houses had satellite operations in South East Asia, or in Mexico (even within California the workers who manufacture our skateboards are overwhelmingly Mexican craftsmen). The numbers were just too inviting to argue with and when we visited China on a skate trip the local skaters were oftentimes riding grey market models made on overruns while nobody was looking, said by one to be at an estimated 15% of total production. Thus Chinese manufacture became a reality and one axis of the old agreement was broken.

The panic over blanks.
Itself a consequence of the proliferation of manufacturing ability, blank boards are the bete noir of the hardgoods industry. The logic is simple enough: blank boards is doing to skateboarding what filesharing did to the music industry. It makes price the only factor and quality, investment, advertising and the whole house of cards comes down. And yet many of the big brand’s largest accounts sold them in parallel to the branded product. Blank boards were not a Chinese creation, but it has undoubtedly exacerbated the idle hands were going to look for further business- any further business- once the presses were operational. Skateboards are made of wood, a commodity freely traded on the open market like steel or cotton. The Asian Dragon was not about to be tethered by the niceties of the Californian decision makers; any shop owner reading this who has ever placed an order for shop decks (about which more later) has no doubt received dozens of emails from manufacturing concerns touting for business. A direct consequence of this drive for short order business has seen the widespread phenomenon of the micro- company: an enterprise where a group of mates chip in for some boards, call themselves pro and shift 50 or 60 boards at a time at spots or friends’ shops, or over the internet. There are countless such operations in Europe now, which have the cumulative effect of drowning in their own currency since few ever evolve beyond one scene or city. As Flip co- founder Ian Deacon observed: “ You can look at it like football. There are loads of clubs with a local following, but only the top 4 teams really sell any merchandise.”
Add to that the domestic distributor- owned brands that many distributors do as a sideline, plus the shop boards for their chainstore skateshops and suddenly you have a situation where the famous brands are only a lead- in for skaters who quickly suss that the alternative options are cheaper and may leave him enough money to get toasted too. This is the reason why European distributors have lowered orders for US boards while the demand for grip tape has never decreased. That is very telling, I think.

Two European board brands who have bucked the trend are Blueprint, who after momentarily folding after the distributor/ owner, Faze 7, went out of business are now back with a streamlined operation and Paul Shier taking over Team Management duties, while Lyon- based imprint Cliché were acquired by Dwindle just as their mainstream sporting goods backers AMER lost interest. Both companies are now on a better footing that they were before the crisis, and more power to them. Not everybody can say that.

The rise of IASC as a unifying force
The industry response to the blanks phenomenon was the first real challenge of the IASC organisation.
The International Association of Skateboard Companies is a committee of industry lynchpins who formed IASC with the rationale that as skateboarding became ever more high profile and popular, it was better that the industry as a whole spoke with one voice on the major issues affecting skateboarding- think Olympics, Californian skate park legislation, and so forth. The entire industry is not represented- Black Box notably, despite overtures, and Deluxe also; but a major slice of it is:
Blitz Distibution’s Per Welinder is Chairman of the Board, Tum Yeto’s Tod Swank is Vice President, ABC Board Supply’s Jim Gray is Secretary, Dwindle’s Hugh “Bod” Boyle is Industry Action Committee Chairman, Sole Technology’s Don Brown Marketing Committee Co-Chairman, Skateboarder publisher Roger Harrell holds Youth Committee Chairmanship, Black Box’s Frank Messmann is International Committee Chairman, George Powell, Competition Committee Chairman and Vans founder Steve Van Doren heads up the  Fundraising Committee.
Not an inconsequential group of people.
The call out to the industry over the blanks issue brought a rare moment of unity in getting all the major teams to initiate an anti- blanks advertising campaign. However, voices within cautioned against a potential backlash from a culture that doesn’t always do what it is told, where others asked: if blanks today, will it be shop boards next? Boutique brands after that? Some major mail -order houses in California were persuaded to drop their roaring trade in blanks under pressure from the big companies and their riders, only to quietly add that they were only suspending sales, not ending altogether.

What about shop boards?
Last year I was invited to sit on an IASC panel discussion at the Woodward West Skatecamp in the Californian desert. During it I heard the owner of a skateshop make this argument:
“I sell shop boards to keep my lights on. The distributors of the major brands give the chainstore skateshop down the street from me discount on their larger orders, meaning that they sell the same product cheaper than me. Why would a kid buy a 55 dollar board from me that he can get for 50 down the street?”
For me it was the first time that some of those industry figures fully grasped that they, in their drive for sales, had contributed to this situation too. The point has been made that in real terms the cost of even a top of the range deck is the same or even less than it was when I started 20 years ago, while the quality has improved vastly. This is absolutely correct, but it does not undo the fact that skating being as bionic as it is today, a skate rat will get through a lot of boards and eventually cost becomes an issue. As Blitz Distribution president and IASC director Per Welinder remarked, one of the biggest challenges facing skateboarding is keeping people involved. Cost is a factor in that equation.

So where does that leave the immediate future of the skateboard industry in Europe and beyond?
Increasingly, we will see large US companies in both hardgoods and footwear opting to ‘go direct’- which is to say, set up their own distribution networks. Sole Technology, Dwindle and others have already taken this path with enormous consequences for the beneficiaries of the status quo. Small brands will find it increasingly difficult to get picked up by distributors who are not keen to gamble in this climate. The criticism of mainstream footwear brands’ entries into the skate market will become more muted as their deep pockets begin to tell on event sponsorship and editorial coverage. Already this summer we have seen stalwart events like the Mystic Cup cancelled, although the Relentless Skateclash in Berlin, the Rotterdam Grand Prix and Etnies European Championships in Basel have kept the flag flying over the summer. Less international contests seem an inevitability, although the IASC have this year attempted the first World Championship series in America.
Initiatives like those from IASC, Jamie Thomas’ terrific idea of holding a skate- only expo at his headquarters prior to the flagging ASR in San Diego and the much improved Bright tradeshow in Frankfurt show how in a situation where skateboarding finds itself pulled this way and that, the old rules are the new rules: keep it centred on the activity of skating itself, pay attention to detail and execute well in promotion. Look at Baker- Jim Greco sells more boards today than Tony Hawk does.
These three points are the areas where unfocussed organisations are falling by the wayside. What remains as an industry will be sleeker, more realistic, and almost certainly better.

Working with Element to Make It Count

2010-05-18T23:02:00.005+01:00

A superb result for Element Skateboards' Europe- wide MAKE IT COUNT contest series and Sensible Answers was honoured to deliver one of the most logistically- difficult dates at a far- flung European city thanks to the Strength In Numbers network. Full video report HERE!

2010-05-04T15:47:00.003+01:00

Tony Hawk riding the King Ramps vert monster our client King Ramps assembled for the start of the Gumball Rally in Pall Mall, London last Saturday!

Interviewed by The Independent

2010-04-22T14:56:00.002+01:00

For an article about skateboarding in London.

Interviewed for article in The Times

2010-04-22T14:20:00.001+01:00

About the current popularity of Barcelona.

Life and Limb

2010-04-22T14:12:00.001+01:00

I had the honour of writing for a book full of talented writers in the USA which has some extracts here.

Eastern Europe expert in HUCK magazine

2010-03-17T09:55:00.001Z

Sensible affiliate and Eastern Bloc legend Alex Kyourkiev profiled in this month's Huck magazine.

2010-03-11T09:31:00.000Z

More Other >>

An edit Sensible made from a trip to LA to present a talk at the International Association Of Skateboard Companies conference at Woodward Skate Camp in the desert.

2010-02-16T15:03:00.000Z

Sensible Answers' surf expert Roger Sharp appointed new editor of Carve magazine.

2010-02-05T15:45:00.000Z

Ideas aplenty here which demonstrate the power of imagination when it comes to catching people's attention- enjoy!

2010-02-04T16:13:00.000Z

Attending the London launch of Nike's enormous book on its European Amateur skateboard squad. Sensible Answers were responsible for editing the entire book on behalf of Nike EMEA and Dutch design house VIJF890. It is available from Nike SB dealerships Europe wide from now.

We up on the re- up!

2009-12-03T14:07:00.001Z

Its on!