Bondi Rips Up The Concrete

meet joey bondi...

Skating since he was 5 years old, Joey Bondi has quickly become a force to be reckoned with. Dominating the Florida skateboard scene since early 2000, the London, ON resident has placed in the top three in every contest he has entered over the past 8 years including: The Counterpoint Skate Challenge, Spring Break Skate Jam, Thrasher, Pampano Indoor Skatejam, M.R’s Street Contest and Spring Break Jam.
No competition is too tough for Bodi. He has skated against competitors 5 years his senior crushing them with his natural talent and dedication to the sport. Last year Bodi placed 2nd at the DC Nationals and most recently he won the St.Thomas Skate comp and was awarded best trick.
He is currently sponsored by FIGJAM, THE BOARDSHOP and GLOBE.

Burton Builds and Nike Buys

When my brother was 9 he came home from a local pipe competition with a Burton backpack as a prize.
“What’s Burton?” I asked thumbing the bag’s tag.
“Snowboarding company. Basically, they started snowboarding” he replied.
“Never heard of them.”
“Good,” he said over his shoulder.
No longer the early 90s, the Burton brand is synonymous with snowboarding and snowboarding culture. Nevertheless, the conversation between my brother and I brings up two interesting points. The first was that the brand was acknowledged within a particular community: the tight-knit snowboarding community, which at that time was still considered a grassroots extreme sport. Burton was known as the grandfather of snowboarding; their boards and apparel were used and coveted by boarders of all levels. But interestingly enough it was still recognized as a unique brand that hadn’t “sold out” and that was probably why I had never heard of it. Burton was committed to snowboarding; it didn’t sponsor track and field athletes, it didn’t start making basketballs, and it sure as hell wasn’t seen on the backs of girls roaming the shopping malls, which brings me to my second point. The Burton brand, although high recognizable was built on the idea that they had created a sport and a culture. If you weren’t aware of them then you probably weren’t part of the snow and skate scene and well, then you really had no use for them. As far as I could tell, for Burton that was OK.

Flash Forward 17 years.

Picture the Vancouver skateboard scene: the quintessential hotspot for Canadian skaters due to its mild temps and its proximity to the manger of skateboarding, Cali. Skaters are gathering to shoot a skate video, which is not uncommon to do in local skate parks and urban landscapes within the sprawling ocean side city. However, something was different. The video was being shot in the dome and shot by Nike. Nike? Ya, don’t bother rubbing your eyes because you read that right. No longer part of the grassroots extreme sports, Nike had, in one day, equated the skate scene with the common baseball game. People scoffed at Nike making hockey skates, stick and golf clubs and while their equipment isn’t top notch, their brand’s worth has risen simply due to the fact they have purchased top athletes. The monolithic company, acquiring Hurley, decided that the next sport to be purchased was skating. Would Tony Hawk be next?
But what does this mean for a brand such as Burton who is known for building a sport not buying one? Well, although Burton still remains a company committed to snow sports it did something unheard of for skate and snow gear companies: they made a television commercial. Whether or not this was due to impeding competition from super brands remains to be seen however, the clever teaming with HP was genius. It diverted the attention of it being simply a Burton commercial (something a super brand would do) and became Burton promoting and the HP product it used to make its boards. But the question still remains whether or not Nike will succeed in the snow and skate scene. What will happen to the foundations and founding fathers of these sports if Nike and other likes start acquiring athletes with the lure of the shiny green Benjamins??

To read more about Nike and the Vancouver Skate scene click here

The Burton Commercial