This is a classic Tony Hawk move, just like the video games.
...Because his life is like the series of intricate series of flips, kicks, and rotates, before slamming back into the cement and losing his entire fucking combo.
This is how he takes his revenge on everyone who couldn't recognize him for the last 10 years
Is it really a shock that a guy involved in the commercialization of what was a niche subculture would do this?
For real. Dude could skate but his parents literally built him a skatepark in his back yard. He had so much advantage and treated it like a real sport and was just above the heshers who were doing it between fighting cops and playing in punk bands. Fuck Tony Hawk
Idk, want skateboarding “commercialized” pretty early on. The first Tony Hawk game came out in 99. Pretty sure there had already been a number of skate boarding themed movies and maybe even a video game or two before that. Skateboarding was invented in California around the mid 60s, and the late 70s and 80s had a pretty be obsession with “California Culture” and stuffed sanitized versions of everything cali into media. I remember seeing skateboarding in lots of movies Pre-99, and it was usually just presented as something “the teens do”.
The guy who brought being a spoiled jock to skateboarding is doing NFTs? Fuck me
I literally know nothing about skateboarding but since I know who Tony Hawk is I'm assuming he got famous off owning companies that make skateboarding equipment and him doing that killed any sort of punk, DIY fun that was previously associated with skateboarding
I'm assuming he's he Howard Schultz of skateboards and now Hawk brand stuff is everywhere
how on the nose am I
Naw he was and is a really good skater I think the reason why he got so popular is because he is like a normal ass white dude so companies (specifically acitivision or whatever company makes the games) saw him as very marketable and easy to sell to the masses compared to most of the skate scene which is pretty punk and generally scary appearing to the ole white suburbia minded people so tony hawk allows companies to bring skateboarding to a broader audience as he doesn’t look like the scary anti status quo skateboarder stereotype
but his popularity didn’t really affect the actual skateboarding community as most of it still DIY and independent and if anything I would argue that his popularity kinda helped it since his kind success helped expose and bring more people to skating although speaking about his character idk he’s probably a bougie a-hole like most rich people🤷♂️
I get where the first paragraph is coming from but the Tony Hawk games were always fairly punk and full off 2000s-gross-out-humor, in as much as a multimillion dollar product can be.,
Especially once you get to things like Underground or American Wasteland. This was adjacent to Bam Margera MTV-antics and Jackass, if anything casting milquetoast Tony Hawk as your posterboy would've backfired tremendously if that was it because what sold was edgelord / dudes rock stuff.
It was the video games, but they also brought a lot of people into skating but also a lot of those people sucked. You gotta buy gear that breaks a lot and it was a small thing so it became like anything that goes mainstream. His branding was there in the 80a cause he was really good and it's literally how you make money as a pro is being paid by sponsors to promote their fear by skateing awesome with it. The only career plan once your skating inevitably gets worse or younger dudes are better is to run a brand or become a partner with the one you had. So like, I get why he did what he did and I don't think anyone thought those games would be so fucking huge and they did get a shitload of kids into skating too. But he was kinda one of the first to treat it like a sport and was a spoiled rich kid. It's complex.
A thing I really noticed with it was cause of the games tricks became very categorized and creativity took a massive dive skating is just catching up from
I guess I'm disappointed. I don't know. Tony has always done a lot to capitalize on his talent. NFTs don't provide the consumer as much as a video game or a shirt or something, but I see where his head is at. Especially staring retirement in the face. A lot of skaters wrecked their bodies and probably made the equivalent of like $40K a year for a few years before they couldn't do it anymore. And that's the successful ones
I'm not worried about him. Google...
As of 2022, Tony Hawk's net worth is roughly $140 million.
Yeah I didn't mean I was worried about him. Just that it isn't surprising to see him do something stupid like an NFT.
Lol what? You think that makes him less likely to try and make money off of scams?
Neither do I. But he's aware that his juice is running out. That's why he's doing a crypto flash sale of all his last tricks or whatever. If you reread my comment I'm not pittying him, I'm explaining his behavior through a the capitalist framework.
Tony Hawk is set for fucking life and has been since the late 90s
Because he cashes in on every opportunity. So if seeing him put out an NFT is shocking to anyone they haven't been paying attention.
Tony hawk selling his likeness via digital media?? What is the world coming too???
I don't know about any of the games beyond American Wasteland but THPS1 through THAW all had incredible soundtracks. It's actually pretty impressive.
Always was. Dude is like the biggest wiener that the jocks would hang out with. Total Milhouse who got good at a niche thing
