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MD:
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Does it matter to you right now what your board sales are?
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LM:
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What do you mean? Yeah, you always want boards to sell. If your boards don’t sell then you’re like "why am I doing this?"
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MD:
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So I guess the question then becomes...you’re the only guy right now who doesn’t have a popsicle shaped deck. All of your boards actually have a
shape to them that stands out. So I’m just wondering if that decision to actually have boards that are unique that do stand out...are you taking a
risk in terms of will kids buy this or are you making stuff that you want to have that it doesn’t matter to you now?
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LM:
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Well kids aren’t going to buy my board if it’s a popscicle stick I don’t think. Cuz they can just buy a shop board or whatever is cheap. I think we
have a long way to get back where it matters. I mean, if they’re not buying a Koston board they’re not going to be buying my board.
They aren’t buying enough Koston boards in my opinion. Koston is the best. He’s put 20 years into it. He should be selling all the boards that the
shops are selling...not the shops. He should be getting that money. That’s where the industry and the boards...That’s where that market should be.
It’s just not there. It’s not fair for Koston to do all the work, to spend all the time, to spend all the risk, do all the progression, all the inspiration,
all the driving...and then have a shop just sell a board for cheaper and make that money. It’s not right. That and the reward should goto Koston. And the
shop should promote that.
There’s this argument in skateboarding "there’s just not enough money". People aren’t making enough money. The breakdown is not right in
skateboarding. It’s just too many people involved. There’s too much...there’s too many middle men, there’s too many marketed things. Nobody is making the
right mark-up. The way the distribution has changed over the last 15 years. The company, the shop, and the distribution aren’t making enough money
supposedly. And now that a board is offered at a very low price the standard is like "Well we can get these boards at this price...so that’s what the
pro board should be". But it costs five times the amount for a pro to be able to do what he does than nobody. So it’s just a mixed up industry.
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MD:
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So was some of that part of the reason why you closed down the Firm?
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LM:
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Oh of course...That’s the real reason. I was disinterested completely with the industry of skateboarding.
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MD:
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So what’s it like now just to be skating?
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LM:
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Umm… great. I mean, hopefully...I’m not saying I’m going to change anything but hopefully I’ll be a piece of changing it back to the way it should be.
In my opinion, Girl, Flip, Baker, Zero… there’s only like 6 or so companies that have pros that actually influence skateboarding and that’s what skateboarding
should be. But it’s not that way. I’m totally disillusioned with what it is right now so it’s better for me to step back. It’s better to enjoy it.
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MD:
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What do you think of there being 200+ pros right now? Every company’s got it’s pros… some of them you’ve heard of, some of them you don’t even know.
Should they basically be having different tiers of pros?
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LM:
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There are different tiers of pros! It’s just that the magazines and people don’t know what that is. <laughs> There is! There’s I mean...there’s
guys...you’ve got guys that invented it, and you’ve got guys who follow it, and you’ve got guys who feed off of it… and they’re all in the pro category now.
I’m not going to sit there and say who’s who or whatever...that’s just kind of weird or dumb. It sorts itself out. You have a team full of guys who aren’t
pros and kids don’t care about ‘em you’re going to have to start doing things to change your business to make up for it… cuz those boards aren’t selling.
And slowly but surely that’s not going to exist.
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MD:
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What do you think guys now...like how long did Stacy have a pro model for? 2 years or something like that?
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LM:
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The guys before us were amazing. Their careers were 6 months to 2 years at the most and they’re some of the most amazing skateboarders and they’ve
done more...and they’re way better than most of the pros today. They’ve done things that nobody else did at that time, they created things that never
existed. Today’s pros...not the top guys...but the majority of them...not to bash them or anything...it’s just a different world. The pros right now
that are coming to the end of their careers; they were pros and made money for 10 or 15 years. Pffftt!....it’s amazing!
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MD:
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Did you ever imagine that you’d be skating and making a career doing this for this long?
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LM:
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Me? OH no! Of course not. Nobody made money before us. It wasn’t even a thought. I was just at the tail end of it. Turned pro, started making money
right when I was 18-19. Right when you’ve gotta get a job and get a real life. And all the guys before us that were great and they were older...
We basically turned pro because they had to go get lives. And there was no money, absolutely NO money at that time. We basically turned pro because there
was nobody to turn pro at that time. And skateboarding was still kind of existing… there were like 10 pros. We traveled, got in a van with Fausto from
Thrasher, and the ten pros pretended there were contests and made up articles for the magazines. I mean, I wouldn’t trade that for anything. That was a good
time. It’s a lot better and easier than the pros today… there’s 200 or 300 or so that are amazing and you can’t decipher that. The market only cares about
15 guys. That’s all that the public can really focus on. You can’t keep track of 200 guys.
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MD:
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How do you maintain the fact that you’re still on the radar?
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LM:
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I don’t know if I am...I’m not ever in the Transworld "exposure meter". Which I guess is how you judge if you’re doing what you’re supposed to do now. <laughs>
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MD:
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Do you actually as an owner have to sit there and watch your guys, that you promote your team, and see "is this guy worth the money I’m paying him?" |
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LM:
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No. You see that’s the thing. You know, you can argue it from every point of view but my point of view is I know who’s good. I know who is good. There’s not
a lot of people that know who’s good anymore. I think it’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t matter if their good either… it just matters if you’re
marketable. That’s the part I wasn’t good at cuz… I never went with my...there’s a big difference b/w being good and being marketable. There’s a lot of guys
that are really good but they’re discouraged at being the best...because there’s nothing to reach! Koston is a specialty that he tries so hard, he improves
so much, and he stays on the top for the last 15 years. There’s other guys that are as good as him that realize there’s no pay off so they’re like
"whatever!". It doesn’t mean they’re not good...they’re just not good to sponsor. Sponsoring somebody...it’s a profession to go entertain people
and become popular. That’s what a pro skateboarder is.
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MD:
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Have you ever had somebody that you’ve sponsored and you’ve just watched that love fade away? What’s it like having to put somebody off the team?
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LM:
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Well no, there’s a difference between...there’s guys...there’s been all sorts of different guys on the team. I have had guys that their love for skating
and desire to be a great pro were different; they didn’t love doing what you’re supposed to do to make it your job. That doesn’t make them a bad skateboarder,
it just makes him a bad guy to be able to market. Cuz they don’t care. That’s what’s rad about it. It’s awesome. The only people that know they are good
are the other top pros. And there’s no way to market that, there’s no way to sell that, there’s no way for a kid out here to know who’s good cuz the magazines
don’t care, the shops don’t care, the distributors don’t care,... I don’t even care. It’s like it doesn’t matter. It’s a whole new thing. It used to be so
small. Like, when I started the Firm everyone that skated knew everything. It just changes and you’ve got to change with it.
When you have to let guys off the team it’s the worst. It’s lame. I mean you wish it could be fantasy where you can take care of everybody forever. But it
doesn’t work that way. You take care of yourself. You have to do your job. You have to do whatever it takes to stay involved if you want to stay involved.
There’s a big difference between loving skateboarding, being a good skateboarder, and loving being a professional skater. Loving being a professional skater
means you love doing the things it takes to be a professional. And most skaters don’t like that. Most of it’s terrible.
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