Skateboarding – you’re born with it. You have it or you don’t. Our guest John Davidson lays it out there that it’s not even comparable to the traditional sports he grew up playing. Hustling doesn’t necessarily equate to success in skateboarding like it does in football, baseball, and basketball. Skateboarding is more art than it is sport, he says. It’s style and how you look on the board.
We talk about how John got into skating and how he and his brother truly carved out their opportunity for sponsorships. His brother had the passion for it, and John had the natural skill on the board.
Kickflip, ollie and listen to learn about John Davidson’s journey as a skateboarder.
Enjoy episode #55 featuring John Davidson. And, listen to more episodes from the Hustle & Pro archives.
Show Notes
- [00:28] Quick Hits
- [04:20] Growing up playing sports
- [06:30] Skateboarding – you’re born with it, you have it or you don’t
- [07:20] Style components of skateboarding
- [09:20] How skateboarding competitions are scored
- [14:40] John’s path becoming a skateboarder
- [19:50] Skateboarding and sponsorships
- [30:15] What does skateboarding look like now?
Resources within this episode:
- John Davidson: Twitter: @J0hnDavids0n | LinkedIn
- John Skateboarding: YouTube | Facebook
- Pretending I’m Superman
- John’s TED Talk: https://youtu.be/4StLXX1k_9I
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
Welcome to Hustle and Pro season two talking sports and Frisco from youth to pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
Welcome to Hustle and Pro. It took us well over a year and more than 50 episodes to get a skateboarder on here. But today is the day John Davidson. Welcome to hustle and pro.
Thank you for having me.
Well, I’m excited to learn your story. Like I said, skateboarding. This is our first skateboarding episode. So you’re going to teach us some things today and dive into your story. But first couple of quick hits. Can you tell me who is your favorite athlete? Either favorite athlete in your sport or just kind of overall favorite athlete?
Yeah, I think I would say in skateboarding Nyjah Huston just because he’s the best in the world. Um, he’s the best in the streets as well as competitions. Skateboarders know the big difference between that. I just, I love, uh, I love athletes that dominate the competition. I’m not an underdog guy. I’m an overdog guy. Um, I just love to watch the best, just destroy everybody else. So I was a big Michael Jordan fan. Um, I had an opportunity actually when I was 10 years old to play basketball with Michael Jordan. Yeah. Um, it was at a camp in Fresno, California, and I can’t remember the name of the guy who ran it, but, uh, he was, I remember seeing a documentary Michael Jordan later, and he was one of his teammates that was a very close friend. He wasn’t like a Scottie Pippin level or somebody you would really know, but for some reason they were very close friends. And so Michael would come out to Fresno, California of all places that’s weird and got all the kids, got to play with them. So I loved his dominance. I loved watching LeBron dominate. Um, Barry Sanders was my favorite football player growing up and I grew up as a 49er fan in California. And, uh, my brother convinced me, I think I was 10 years old, that I had to like the lions as my favorite team because Barry Sanders was my favorite player and it completely destroyed my fandom cause it’s tough to be a lions fan. So, yeah, I’d go with this three, uh, Nyjah, Jordan and Barry Sanders with LeBron as a, a recent interest.
That’s a good variety there. Yeah. What’s your favorite sports movie?
Oh man, that’s a good one.
I mean, are there skateboarding movies?
There’s no good skateboarding movies. There are skateboarding movies. There’s none you’d ever want to watch. Um, it’s, it’s a tough thing to translate. It’s such a pure space that when you try to act it, in fact, Rob Dyrdek, uh, who’s probably the most successful skateboarder from a business standpoint. Um, he produced a, a movie called street dreams and he had real pro skateboarders. Poverty is rain check color. They had a real screenwriter who wrote it and it was still little, little weird street dreams. Yeah.
Now documentaries, there’s probably some fantastic documentaries about skateboarding. I would assume some about surfing and other similar type of sports that can probably translate when you get to, to, um, what do you call when you get to do the voiceover and, you know, explain it and really dive in that way.
Actually, um, that’s a great point. Um, a documentary that I helped to produce just premiered on Tony Hawk pro skater. It’s called, uh, Pretending I’m Superman and it’s on, um, the Tony Hawk pro skater video game. So I guess I should say that’s my favorite one. It actually, it premiered at the Mammoth Film Festival. It won two awards. Oh wow. Uh, the awards were best documentary and best action sports film at the, at the film Fest.
Wow. Okay. We’ll link to it in the, in the show notes so people can find it easier. That’s awesome. Okay. But what about, you know, mainstream sports movie? Are you like, you know
What pops in my head? I think, um, I’m not a huge sports movie guy, but what pops in my head is remember the Titans. Um, I’m a big Denzel Washington fan, so that’s, uh, that’s a good one. I think Field of Dreams is reading my mind. That’s one of mine. Yeah, definitely on my list.
Okay. So now we’ve obviously talked that you’re a skateboarder and we’ll talk about that, but what did sports overall look like for you as a kid growing up?
Yeah, I was super into sports. In fact, skateboarding was just another sport to me at first. Um, I was, you know, I’ve been pretty athletic my whole life. Uh, yeah, I was, I was really into sports. I played every sport. My parents put me in the, the youth leagues in a small town in central California called [inaudible] California. I played baseball, basketball, I played football my freshman year of high school. Um, let’s see, I did long distance running. Uh, we had these, what’s called the Jog-A-Thon. I don’t, do you know what a Jog-A-Thon is for like elementary kids to raise money?
Yeah. I mean we have walkathons and yet running kind of things where you’re doing certain amount of laps. Maybe you’re, if you’re raising money, might be donating per lap or something. When I was a kid, I did a Cartwheel-A-Thon cause I was a gymnast, so we had to do cartwheels. How long was I was so little. I don’t remember.
I know we just, when you’re a gymnast and that’s your life, like you can Cartwheel all day, man. You can keep going. Yeah. So anyway, you did Jog-A-Thon.
Yeah. So I actually, I won every Jog-A-Thon from kindergarten to sixth grade, kind of randomly. My, in fact in kindergarten, they almost give me second place because I lapped the other kid.
Oh, they miscounted.
So they miscounted. And then, um, my mom was a teacher at that school in fifth grade and when I was in kindergarten and her kids, they were about to give me a second place and her kids came to her and they’re like, Hey, John won. And the principal had also seen that I had, uh, gone a full lap. Uh, it was just beyond the other kids, so that’s kinda funny. But, um, let’s see. I played soccer. I soccer as well. Um, I played varsity tennis. Um, our in fact, we won, uh, a County championship at my school. Uh, what else? I got a lot of things. I used to win these free throw competitions.
Um, it’s a little bit of everything. What sport do you think gave you the best skills to make you a good skateboarder? Or is it a little bit of everything?
I don’t think, I don’t think there’s any comparison to be honest with you. The funny thing about it is I think skateboarding is more, you’re born with it, you have it or you don’t more than any other sport I’ve ever seen.
I’m glad you said that cause I don’t have it and I feel like I just don’t think it’s something that is, I’m meant to do. Right. The few times I’ve gotten on a skateboard where I’m like, no, that’s not my natural feel. I’d rather put on a glove, do other things like other sports that I’m feel super comfortable at. But yeah.
The thing about that I always compare it is like in, in traditional sports, you can master fundamentals, right? And you can hustle. So if you, there’s some people who they can get a college scholarship just by mastering fundamentals and hustling. You know, some people, even if you’re super tall, you could get in the NBA by just being a energy guy and things that go a long way. Right? And skateboard has no fundamentals and skateboarding is actually much more art than it is sport. And this might be a deeper conversation, but the reason I say that is skateboarding’s all about style. It’s how you look on the board, the way you catch the trick and finesse and the, yeah, exactly. So when you do those things, you, you could, um, do a number of different types of tricks and you could, uh, you could be able to do every trick in the book. And no matter how many tricks you can do, if they don’t look good, they’re not gonna. Nobody’s gonna take you seriously. There’s a number of skaters who just don’t naturally have good Scott style. They won’t get any sponsors, et cetera. Also, I’m like, if it looks forced or too textbook, not what they’re looking for when you’re smooth. Exactly. There’s Shane O’Neill, he’s an Australian skateboarder. He’s a guy who’s, um, probably best you could argue the best skater in the world. Um, you know, I said Nyjah is my favorite, but I think Shane be a close second. This is the best guy to watch on a board. Um, and, and the other thing about it is skateboarding does have competitions, but skateboard is not competitive by nature. It’s expression. And so, uh, the biggest thing in the skateboarding world is video parts. It’s photography and putting a video part together. And what that means is, um, video parts are usually three to seven minutes and these guys spend, it used to be years putting video parts together, traveling all over the world, filming at different spots. Now these guys are so good and the way we consume content has changed. So it’s about six months for a video part. Oh wow. But um, yeah, for those reasons. Um, the, for example, if you do a kickflip, which is you pop the board in the air and it flips one time. Um, the, I put my foot for a kickflip could be very different than the way somebody else does. And although physics determines how a skateboard would flip, it could flip with the nose in the air or the tail in the like the way you catch it with your back foot or both feet or however. Um, and it’s all good at anything goes is it depends on how it looks and how you landed anything goes to Bennett and how it looks. There’s no technical.
Are there technical scores too? When you’re in a competition?
That’s the, that’s the most challenging thing about competitions is it’s so subjective.
So I mean the technical pieces probably lie in if it’s the net, you know, if it’s supposed to go 180 degrees or 360 or whatever the different numbers are those things have to kind of check the box, I bet. Right. To make it, to make that trick, like count a little bit or is it all just, it’s much more subjective than even that.
So the other thing too is some tricks are just easier for different skaters. So there’s some tricks that are really hard that I can do very easily. And there’s some tricks that are really easy for other people that are very hard for me to do and I can’t even do them at all. And so you could say for me, if I did a, a kickflip down a set of stairs versus a heel flip down a set of stairs, a heel flips a lot harder for me to do well, how do you score those things? Right? And compared to, you know, and there’s all of these other things, skipper is very political as well. And so it, it creates a lot of challenges at the competitive level because there’s no, I mean, I guess gymnast maybe the same thing. Yeah. But there’s, as far as I know about don’t, I’m not an expert, but there’s certain things that are kind of worth a certain amount.
Yeah. There’s definitely value to different tracks. Right. And so there have to be certain pieces of the element have to be done, you know, like I said, a certain number of spins or flips or whatever rotations have to be done to get that value out of that trick. Yeah. So there’s, um, yeah, it, it’s so, yeah, it’s such a deep convoluted conversation. Um, you’ll even see somebody will do a trick maybe for the first time ever in competition. It scored really highly and then they’ll practice that trick. They’ll master for the next competition, the next competition. They’re not scored as highly cause they’re like, Oh, you’re, um, we saw you do that. But if we saw you do that before, it’s easy for you or it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be. It’s easy for you. It should be, that trick is worth X. Right? Right.
Is it gonna is it, is this sport evolving towards that at all or is it just sort of, that’s the way it’s going to be? I mean, do you, I mean, you don’t know, but your best guess.
Yeah, well I’m skateboarding it’ll be in the Olympics this year for the first time and that’ll be just a, I think a bigger deal as far as judging goes. We’ve seen in, I remember, uh, ice skating, there were, you know, judge controversies, conspiracies and stuff. And so yeah, being in the Olympics it might force some consistencies.
It’s got to have some structure to it in order for there to be, you know, outcomes that, that athletes are going to be okay with.
Yeah. There’s a consistent, uh, uh, striving towards that, but it’s just so difficult style. You know, it’s one thing if two guys do the same trick and one just does it and it lets looks a lot better. That’s one thing. Um, you know, as a front side Kircher grind scored higher than a kickflip backside. Lipslide which one’s more technical, but the other one’s more stylish, et cetera. It’s, it’s a mess.
So one question, when I’ve seen, you know, guys like you, you go do your run, is that what it’s called? You’re gonna do a run?
Yep.
Okay. Do you wing it or do you have it all choreographed in your mind and mapped out exactly what you’re doing or does it, whatever feels like if you just did a trick and you’re going to try to compound something after that, do you have to change it if you’re feeling something different or.
That’s a great question. Um, what you do see from the best skaters is it’s all mapped out. Uh, Nyjah Huston is very well known for having his, his rundown to the second. So he’s packing so many tricks in, but he’s letting his final trick with just like a second to go. Um, it’s super impressive. Um, and what you’ll see him do, and this is a pretty good strategy for most skaters when they’re doing runs, is you, you do a basic run basic or kind of mid-level run. And then once you land at your next one, you add one or two more technical tricks. Like the last trick will be harder or something.
Cause you’ve gotten, you’ve, you’ve landed the first few, you have some momentum and then it’s chance to take more risk maybe.
Now you have other skaters. Like Evan Smith is a, one of the most talented skaters in the world and he’s very creative and so he completely wings it. He never wins any competitions, but he’s often the fan favorite because he’s going out there doing crazy stuff. You never know what he’s gonna do. Um.
Pushes himself maybe based on the guy that went before him.
Exactly. And he’s just a very, you know, he’s not there to win. He’s there to have fun. And a lot of skateboarding too is when I’ve managed skateboarding teams in the past. And you know, when I had guys go to competition, I knew they wouldn’t win. I’d say your job is to make it in the recap video, right. Your job is not to win. The competition is to get a highlight trick.
Be memorable, be memorable. Yeah. To make the people to go and want to come back or come find you, seek you out the next time. That’s cool.
Yeah.
Okay. I got ahead of myself here, but I want, I’m curious to know your path. Tell me about the path you took to get into, you know, being a skateboarder for a living. Cause I’m sure there’s, I’m curious about the ages, how that happens, how this, like the sponsorships happened. That to me, that’s why I think you mean when you say for a living. Um, yes. You mentioned competition versus street skaters, so those kinds of, that’s a lot in that question. But tell me what did that look like getting into it for you then?
Yeah, it’s a great question. Um, I credit a lot of that with timing as far as where I lived, uh, the time and the industry as it was emerging and all that. So as I said, I played all sports. Um, I skated a little bit when I was in second grade, I would skate to school and back and I can never quite Ollie up a curve. I wasn’t very good. I was super small, you know, I mean, I don’t know if anybody’s good at skating in second grade. I definitely wasn’t, but, so I got into racing bikes and so I was about to really, really get into it. And I got a C on my report card and Fe, fourth-grade, as I mentioned, my mom is a teacher and so we didn’t go over well, I’m sure then not at all. And English, it was an English, English is my best subject. And I was, um, I was able to read, uh, ahead of my grade level. Um, and so I was reading these massive books in class and not doing my homework. So victim of my own success, et cetera, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. But, and what’s funny is that guy lived, uh, literally two blocks from our house. So it’s kind of, um, I haven’t seen him in a long time, but you know, and it’s still going back to central California. I would, um, same every once in a while and just kind of like, Hey, you know, you were kind of the thanks for that C. So um, I started skating when I was 11. I found, um, we had in a closet, had my old skateboard, pulled it out and I started trying kick flips, which is, it’s a basic trick, but it’s a little bit of a barometer of how good you are, if you can do them, how often you can, how, how consistent you can be in stuff. And so, um, I started trying kick flips and I started landing kickflips I was like, Oh, like, gosh, crazy.
So was there a gap though between with the second grade and the C in English? Did you stop? Is that what you’re saying? You stopped. So then when you picked it back up at 11, kind of instantly we’re, we’re better at it or good, come in, something, click. Okay.
Can you even explain it? And so my brother, he’s three years older than I am. We’ve been best friends, our whole lives, done everything together. So we started skating together and he honestly, he had the passion and the love for it. And for me it was just another sport. It was another activity, but I was naturally pretty good at it. And so after skating for a year or two, my brother was like, John’s really good at skateboarding. Maybe he could get a sponsor, blah, blah blah. And so I never got into it with the perspective of getting sponsored, do anything with it. Um, nowadays kids, you know, start with the goal to be sponsored cause everyone, how young do kids nowadays get sponsors?
Obviously this sport has continued to grow since you were a part of it, but like, yeah, so maybe you got yours when you were 13, 14, something like that. Is that common? I mean, is it common for even younger kids to have?
Yeah. Nowadays it’s so much more mainstream. Um, and there’s different levels of sponsorship that I can go into. But yeah, I think if you see you see kids that could be maybe 11 or 12 or something like that, they could have their first sponsor. Um, I got my first sponsor when I was 14. And, um, but to back track a little bit about that is, um, when I was skating, nobody was sponsored that we knew there, there was a rumor that the best guy in our town got a free skateboard from somebody cell one time.
So that was a major difference was when it was like exactly what the difference in sponsoring given you some shoes or gear or skateboard, right versus money.
Exactly. So what happened was I started skating, started taking it more seriously. We started filming, um, there was a skate park started to get built in my area and uh, then skate shops started to pop up to meet the demand of the growing popularity of skateboarding. And, uh, there was this one, actually it’s called mainland, a surf shop in central California. And then there was this other brand new one called onshore board shop. And so onshore sponsored this, uh, this skateboarding contest. And I ended up winning it. And so that was the second contest. I skated my first one. I skated incredibly well in the the warmups and I got so nervous I didn’t land. I landed one trick in my whole line, but I got second place cause they saw how good I skated. Warmups carried over into the competition. Yeah, I feel bad for the other kids. But so I scored really well in the second one I won the contest and I got, you know, gift cards for the skate shop and everything. So I went there, I got to know him a little bit. Well, I had convinced myself that I wanted to skate for this shop mainland. I, and I became more of a fan, more of a fan as I just started thinking about it. So I made my, uh, my skate video and, um, it was, uh, let’s see, it was on a VHS tape and I only made one copy, which thinking back was not very well. I went to this, the skate shop and I didn’t really know the owners, but, um, I went and I, you know, I’m this little kid, they’ve never, they didn’t see me skate, like they probably don’t have any idea that I’m any good. They just see this weird little kid walking in with his brother and I said, Hey, do you sponsor people? And they’re like, maybe, and I was like, Oh, I have my, my tape here, will you watch it? And they said they were kind of jerks, to be honest with you. And uh, they were, I don’t remember their names or anything, so I’m not hating on the skate shop, but those guys in particular just weren’t nice to me that they welcome you and said, yeah, pop it in. Let’s watch it with you. Yeah. They were like, Oh, if you leave it, maybe we can, the owner can watch it later. And I was like, but this is my only copy. And they’re like, yeah. They’re like, well, you should’ve made more copies. And they’re like, you know what, let’s get on the street to onshore. And I did. And the guy that was where, you know, he knew me cause I won this contest and he said, Dale, let’s watch it right now. It’s about to me on the spot.
See that’s the way to do it. Yeah. Why not if, you know.
And I was actually, I was the very first sponsored skateboarder in that area. Um, there were some in Fresno, which is a bigger town. There’s some guys over there, but I was, you know, 30 minutes, an hour the other way. And so, um, I was kind of the first guy to get sponsored. There was a lot of experimentation there. Like, what does sponsorship mean? You know, what do I get? Start off with one free board a month and a discount on everything in the store. And then my family got half of my discount or something like that. And then it grew and it kind of figured it out. And your first sponsor is your most difficult one. And then it kind of opens up because, and what’s really helped me understand marketing and branding and influencer marketing is, is being the brand ambassador myself from age 14. And so, um, fortunately I think I went further than I would have. I went further because I understood sponsorship than I would just based on my talents. So I knew that.
The sport probably wasn’t at a place where people were reaching out to you. You have to go advocate and push yourself out there and show people who you are. And, and it’s not just like that I’m a skateboarder. It’s this is what I look like, this is my vibe, this is what I can, you know who the people are that are paying attention to me and kind of connect the dots for the brand and make sure it’s a match, right? So you have to make sure the brand aligned or you’re good for the brand and you have to give voice that and literally walk up to these people and ask for what you want.
Yeah. And it’s essentially, you have to understand that the brand makes more money as a result of giving you free stuff than if they don’t give you free stuff. Right. And it’s not just because you’re cool that you get free stuff. It’s because you championship that you champion the brand, you represent them well. Um, you’re, you’re wearing and writing their stuff. Uh, anytime you have, you know, you’re putting stickers and stuff everywhere, you’re talking to people about it, you’re just, you’re an ambassador for it. And so, um, my sponsors, you know, I think I got more sponsors because they, I just naturally understood that. And so I was a good a writer for them, a good ambassador for those programs. And so what happens, um, it’s kinda funny. Uh, skateboarding was influencer marketing before influencer marketing, right? So, exactly. So it’s funny when I look back, I’m like, we’ve been doing this for years, you know.
But is there was no social to put it on.
That’s right. You know, there’s no digital platform for it. It was, it was just events onsite and hands on events only.
Right. And then in the video component, like you talked about, right, so essentially a skater has a number of sponsors. You have kind of a sponsor for each category. Um, a lot of these brands are owned by a broader umbrella company. So you’ll see the same guys on a lot of the same brands cause the umbrella company kind of sponsors and gives them all their, well, one of the things is that, um, what was it? Oh that is what it is. You’re, you’re, you have your skateboard sponsor and then there was reps, there’s local reps, right. So the reps are tasked with selling gear in that area. So then the S the shop owner would talk to the, like the shoe reps and say, Hey, I’ve got this guy, he’s the best skater in town. If you give him shoes that can help you sell more of your shoes in my shop, get more, more sponsors. And that kind of opened up the floodgates shop more revenue, more just right. More people in the door. Yeah. So I was able to, so I was able to gain, you know, closing sponsors, shoe sponsors, uh, skateboards, skateboard sponsors, et cetera. Um, I remember the first time, the first time I, a lot of what you get at that level is just free stuff. You don’t, you’re not getting paid. And the first time I got paid, um, I think it was 17 years old and, uh, this, there was, uh, a festival in town and this guy reached out to him in a skate shop. He was like, Hey, I want to do a skateboard thing. Um, who would you recommend to be the skater? And so he recommended me, thankfully. So I called the guy and it’s so funny, he’s like, I got $175 and either you can bring other guys you want to skate with you or it’s all yours.
And the worst case scenario in skateboarding is to do a demo by yourself. Oh. And I’ve done, and for people who don’t know what a skateboard demo is, um, essentially a team comes, you know, they’re typically a lot better than everybody in the town or pros or whatever. And no off the skills. Yeah. Entertain a crowd. People just watch them skate and then they throw a product and stuff. It’s the worst case scenario, downtime. And it’s all eyes on you. You don’t get to like stop and think. I guess. So yes. Need partners to be like kind of trading off with you guys. You’re ever doing tricks and things. Yeah. In fact, skateboarding skating in a demo is even very different than actual skateboarding because it’s a show. So if you know how to do it, I’ve, I’ve done them all over the country. I was on a tour for six months straight at one time, um, where we did demos every day. But it’s a show you have, you know, you, you do tricks, you know, you can land within three tries. You got this guy go this, then this guy goes, then this guy goes, it’s, it’s enough to entertain people. When you have one guy go and it’s a bunch of ramps or a skate park or something. Yeah, I’m number one. You better hope your skating well that day number two, everybody’s just thinking, why can’t I skate? Like I’m standing here watching this guy’s skate guys taking up our skate park, right? Like why can’t we skate? And then you’ve got a couple of haters who are like, I could do that. Right. You know? Gotcha. So then we set up all ramps. We set up all these ramps and um, I, I did a future, I skid for like five minutes and then I grabbed the microphone and I said, Hey, why doesn’t everybody come skate with me? And so that worked out pretty well.
But you got your pay, that was your first pay day?
First pay day, and then you know, there were, you know, all, all sorts of forms of payday from per diem to winning contest to free rent. You know, when I lived with [inaudible] owner of a company in Orlando, Florida.
Does it get to a point where that’s your 100%, that is your job?
Yeah, I had different short times, um, throughout my career where there was 100% of my income. Um, there’s, there’s a major haves and have nots and skateboarding. And there’s also a very specific distinction between pro and not pro or amateur. So there’s, there’s three levels of sponsorship. There’s flow, which means you’re just getting flowed product from company. There’s am or amateur, which means you’re officially on a team, you’re on the website, you travel with the team, et cetera. You get paid. And then there’s pro, which means you have your own signature products. Oh, okay. And your law, your status is determined by your skateboard sponsor and then the other sponsors follow suit. So that’s why I always phrase it cause it’s so much, it’s so difficult to understand. Um, that I just always say I used to skateboard for a living cause people understand that, but versus people pro or what level do you probably go in and out of different levels? Like bet. I mean you can or once you have a pro. So you’re saying pro is, what did you say? It’s having your own signature products. So your skateboard company gives you a skateboard with your name on it, your own designs and you start to get those and then line of your own line of signature stuff. So I never had my own line of signature stuff. Um, I had a company that just because I was with them for so long and I also had them a lot of on the business side and you know, they said, Hey John, when do you want a signature board? It’s yours. But I was like, I don’t deserve that. You know, like I’m not at the level of these other guys. And so it’d be, in my opinion, it’s much better that people would want to bestow that on you and you turn it down, then you have it and you don’t deserve it so too early and then people maybe don’t embrace it. Right. So there’s so it’s funny because people outside of skate where he would say, Oh you’re, you were pro, you got paid to skate and you were able to make a living on it, whether it was a short time or whatever, people inside scape room and say you weren’t pro cause you didn’t have your own. Gotcha. I wouldn’t have realized the distinction. So that’s why I just say I used to skateboard for a living and floods here.
But Hey covers your bases. It’s accurate, right? Yes. Most importantly. Yeah. What about now? I mean you, you live here in Frisco by the way, and um, you have a family here, so are you, do you still skateboard and do you still skateboard like with sponsors? And is this still your big part of your life? It’s not your full time job. I know we’re going to talk about that a whole another time, but um, what does skateboarding look like with you now?
Yeah, so skateboarding now I skate about once a week. Um, cause that’s what my body can handle and that’s also what my schedule can handle. You know, I, I do a lot of business stuff. I’m director of business development for PRG, which is the largest entertainment production company in the world. I’m the president of the sports trade association. I’m on boards for Dallas influencers and sports and entertainment, state of ventures and UNTS sports entertainment.
Yeah. So you’ve got a schedule, you’ve got a lot going on. No time for skateboarding every day.
That’s right. And so, um, I tried to skate once a day. Um, I love the Frisco park. Sorry, what’s up? Once a week. Yeah.
Here in town at the [inaudible].
Yeah, the Northeast community park. There’s, there’s good ones all over. Um, the DFW area. Um, I have a company called ambassador skateboards who I’ve skated for them for 10 years. Um, every once in a while I’ll ask the owner, am I still technically sponsored? And he’s like, yeah, of course you are. But you know, I’ll have free boards from those guys kind of for life sort of a thing. Um, that’s awesome. Yeah. I feel like.
Relationships you’ve built obviously are what made it possible for you to continue doing this this long, even from the beginning, just the relationship. I mean the example you gave of the two skate shops in California, the relationship you had with one, not knowing why you were building it is what turned it into a deal for you.
Yeah. So with relationships, so I mean, you know, businesses relationship-based, um, you work with who you like to work with. Um, you know, I always, I always tell people, uh, a lot of business comes down to are you cool to hang out with? You know, which is if you and I are trapped in a room for two days cause we’ve got a crazy project deadline, we need to meet, um, can we stand each other? Right. If you’re funny, that’s a bonus. Um, but more importantly, if, you know, if things go South in a deal or we have a conflict, can we work together to develop a solution between us or are you going to fly off the handle and cussed me out and all this craziness. And so, you know, everything’s relationship-based, including skateboarding and um, you know, I’m very blessed to have had, like I said, I understood sponsorship and so developing the deals, you know, the, the relationships with my reps and there was one time I, I skate for globe scape or globe shoes, excuse me, a skated for them for five years. And um, there was one point where the rep dropped everybody off the team except for me. And he said, John, you know, some people just think they’re cool enough to get shoes and that’s enough for them. That’s all they think they may have be is just cool enough to get their shoes. That’s where you doing different.
What I was doing different was I was an ambassador for the brand. So I was, I was doing a lot of demos. I was going on tours, I was doing contests. I was regularly, I think this was after, um, Facebook had started, so I started really posting like, you know, people were buying globe shoes because I was wearing, you were putting in the work. Exactly. And I’m 100% convinced that, you know, at least some of those guys were a lot better at skateboarding than I was. But it doesn’t always come down to talent.
It doesn’t, I mean, we see that with professional sports, um, spokespeople and brands all the time. The ones we see on TV aren’t always, I mean, we probably think they’re some of the best players, but they might not be, they just might be the right personality or have the following or whatever it is that, that brand, even their back story or where they’re from. I mean, there’s so many factors that go into why a brand wants somebody to be their voice way beyond the talent on the field or the court.
And in addition, a lot of it has to do with opportunities too, right? Because you can, you can be, um, very talented, but to also have to have opportunities to be able to take advantage of those. And then people have to want you to be around, right? So I’m sure there’s guys who have been tremendous talents and football, baseball, basketball, et cetera, who didn’t get opportunities or didn’t take advantage of opportunities because they didn’t have the other parts of it filled out. Right. Whether it was personality, whether it was easy to work with, where there was understanding the business side where, okay, you know, I’m getting to know everybody in the locker room. I mean, I’m getting to know the guys who are the security guys, you know, you, um, I think you’ve seen, you know, in the recent past there’s, there’s been a number of players towards the end of their career and they’ve had to retire early or they can’t find a team, right? Because they’re not getting along with people and they’ve relied on their talent for so long. But guess what? That only works when you’re the best in the world and you’re not the best in the world for that. And then people are also waiting to be able to get rid of you because you can get away with a lot when you’re winning, when you’re winning and when you stop winning and like it’s like we don’t have to put up with that crap. Yeah, we did before. Yeah.
Yup, yup. For sure. Well, you can probably credit your older brother to helping you get your, your push, your start with some of those relationships and sponsors too.
Yeah, well he had a driver’s license [inaudible] you know, and he was filming me. Um, and he often, um, you know, I brought it, it’s possible I would’ve quit skateboarding. Um, if it wasn’t for him.
You mentioned he had the passion, so if you had the natural talent for it at that time, the two of you combined is what probably made you a good team to go get all that done. Well, it’s fascinating. I know there’s so much more to talk about and I am, we’re gonna, we’re actually gonna continue the conversation. I want to jump into the E-sports side of your business background, um, on another episode. But for now, we’ll wrap this one up and we’ll link to some of those things you mentioned in the show notes. So thank you to everyone for listening to this episode of Hustle and Pro subscribe and we’ll see you next time.