• GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The guy who brought being a spoiled jock to skateboarding is doing NFTs? Fuck me

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      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

      • Ploumeister [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        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🤷‍♂️

        • 6bicycles [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          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.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        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