Wieger van wageningen enjoi ad / no love for the euros We always felt as if we were just some Eurotrash… We were just like, fuck that, let’s just do our own shit. In an interview with us in 2014, Pontus Alv discussed how being relegated to Emerica’s “Euro team” eventually encouraged him to launch Polar skateboards: “It’s about having a platform to express yourself as a skater. Eventually, some alienated European skaters decided to do something about it. Some companies, like Element, gathered enough foreign riders to launch European teams entirely separate from their American counterparts, but they didn’t put Europeans on the same pedestal as their American riders. “We always felt as if we were just some Eurotrash… We were like, fuck that, let’s just do our own shit.” Instead, they packaged them as miniature “Euro teams” and lumped them into montages or credits sections in their videos. But American brands were hesitant to fully put foreigners on their teams. US brands also started picking up some of these Europeans to bolster their overseas appeal (think Lakai getting Nick Jensen, Danny Brady, and Jesus Fernandez). So Europe, with its abundance of perfect spots and a sense that law enforcement there treated skateboarders more casually, became a go-to skate destination.Īmerican crews started venturing more often to Barcelona and from country to country to film for full-length videos. In the late 2000s, much of California’s skate spots had become blown out and the crackdown from police officers, security guards, and skate stoppers had become intolerable. Since the cost of doing business in Europe back then was relatively high, and the European skate market was considerably smaller, it made sense for Flip to migrate to the US and aim to break into the industry from within.īut Cliché and Blueprint helped plant the seed in European skateboarders’ minds that homegrown brands could be sustainable businesses and could play a major role in the skate industry. After Death Box started to stagger at home, they moved operations to California and rebranded as Flip with a European team ( Tom Penny, Geoff Rowley, and Rune Glifberg) that skated in the American style of big rails, big gaps, and big airs. Those brands operated domestically, sponsoring local heroes like Lucas Puig and Chewy Cannon, and releasing strong full-length videos that showcased the perfect plazas and cutty spots that Europe is recognized for today.ĭanny brady palace ad / photo: sam ashleyīlueprint and Cliché were lauded for sticking to their roots and taking the opposite approach of Flip, which originally started in the UK as Death Box. They both agreed that in the late 2000s, the two most influential brands within Europe were Blueprint (out of the UK) and Cliché (out of France). To get a rough timeline of the modern European skate market, I spoke to Wes Morgan of UK-based Rock Solid Distribution and Oli Merkelbach of German-based Beast Distribution. Hjalte halberg + pontus alv / photo: sam ashley So to understand how these brands broke out of the mold of niche foreign entities and claimed their places in the skateboard industry, we decided to do a little reflecting. Now they run globally-respected brands that rival and perhaps overshadow some of the longest standing American brands. In the ’80s, the Munster Mash contest in Germany attracted talent from around the world, and the Radlands contest similarly brought skaters from everywhere to the UK in the ’90s.īut in recent years, European skaters have upped their game considerably. Copenhagen, London, Paris, Malmö, and so many other cities across the continent have thriving scenes that the rest of the world is finally paying serious attention to.Įurope’s skate scene technically dates back to the early 1970s, when Per Welinder was a freestyler in Sweden before moving to California to join Powell-Peralta and eventually partnering with Tony Hawk to start Birdhouse. European skate brands really have their shit together these days, and they’re no longer conforming to the status quo set by the old skate-guard of the American West Coast.
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