(on old computers this movie will lag. click the antenna icon in the video player and select “bandwidth: medium” to view a lower res version…)

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For a listen check their page at: http://www.offofficial.com

it is directed by aaron rose of beautiful losers fame. there are really good people speaking, but the documentation itself is produced by a subsidiary of wieden & kennedy, a major ad agency working for mainstream brands like nike, coca cola or levi’s. another sneaky effort of some ad agency to keep a fresh image?

i for myself gave up to explain the deeps of skateboarding a long time ago. it all comes down to this.

right now i find myself in the same situation with this band. it will be hard to resist the deja-vu 20 years later.

“You try to make things work and gain something
It’s all no use, it’s all worth nothing
Complete satisfaction, too impossible to believe
Nothing’s ever fucking gonna work for me

Tomorrow seems so hopeless
Can’t keep it off my mind
Another day of nothing
I’m running out of time
I’ve got nothing I can look forward to
I’m always left with nothing

I’m always told things I don’t want to hear
My destiny’s become quite clear
Life’s never fucking given nothing to me
It’s just stood by and watched me bleed

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing”

“Ultimately, the skaters are always going to decide where skating goes. So if they want something cheap made in China, they’re going to get it. If they demand something more, they’ll have that option as well.”

“These days, it seems less of a craft and more of a commodity unfortunately. Those transfer graphics are horrible and temporary but it almost seems kind of fitting for Chinese boards, doesn’t it? I mean, companies went from lovingly crafting these intricately created skateboards and hand screening the graphics color by color to lining up popsicle sticks in China and basically applying a big decal to it. Kind of sad in terms of history and what skateboarding leaves behind as it advances… but it may have helped some companies keep their doors open.”

“The sales force has become a part of the design process because they know what’s selling and what isn’t and the average company is chasing the dragon in terms of give them what they want.”

so, what’s up with sub-stance?

since the beginning sub-stance was more of a project i did with the kind support of my friends. it started out because i got aware of the slave-like production conditions in the third world, and the fact, that more and more skateboard companies offshored their production to these countries for more profit.
the endless recycling of design clichés lend from punk, hiphop and skateboard traditions was another reason to do something more personal.

it’s not aimed to be profitable. i think the problems arise with being profitable. you have to act market driven and do things you don’t wanted to do in the first place. so the idea is not to sell but to give away stuff for a donation or trading.
because i have a regular job to earn money for a living, i don’t have to meet any standards but mine.

we are to small to produce our own blanks, so we searched for a really good, sweatshop-free factory.
our decks are blanks made by jart, which are produced in spain using canadian hard rock maple with the most advanced production processes. they are very nice folks with quality products.
since the beginning our shirts are made by american apparel sweatshop free in the usa. that was at a time when aa was only a startup blankshirt provider. as an option we have fair-trade shirts.

every shirt or deck is individually handmade for the donor. we have no stock. because of this we don’t use silk-screen printing which makes more sense for high volume productions. instead we use various other technologies like heat transfers, vinyl cutting, hand sewing and stamping…

i encourage everyone to make his own stuff. the scene would be much more fun and individual, and this would overcome all the generic crap we see today.

this year wasn’t very productive because of my main job, but i’m looking forward for much new stuff and posts in 2010!

many thanks for your kind support all these years. keep up keeping it up

even though you regulary get into discussions with others who were not aware of these reasons or didn’t believe in them. maybe this tremendous project will once and for all set the knowledge base for all mankind, even prevailing against all the lobbyist initiatives.
see home and be affirmed or inspired to change things.

the funny thing is: the whole movie reminded me of woody allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” movie. not only because of the same location, barcelona. the whole visual appearance with its warm yellowish colors looks similar. and it plays with comparable sounds and themes. this movie too had this american bohemian cliché, but i interpreted it as woody allens cynical approach.

what’s special about skateboarding is that you don’t need no actors, artists, storybooks or certain continents to create pure art with it.

and regarding the european skate scene, this might be a good example.

movie reviews always lies in the eye of the beholder and maybe i got it all wrong. just watch it by yourself and make up your mind. i really respect brian’s efforts and look forward for his next project.

like last sunday. not a typical sunday but the sunday i yearned for. the first time to ride the new concrete skatepark (more on this later).
The whole week i had too much work to go there in the evening. and then i became aware that i lost my skate shoes in a rental car the weekend before! stupid me. these were the “vegetarian shoes” i wrote about some time ago. they were perfect ridden in and now gone.

ok, so i picked some old rowleys from the attic. i never thought i would skate in some sweatshop shoes again, but that’s all i had to save a session.

so saturday came and it rained. i had to wait for sunday. and sunday started with backache. without a reason, apart from the fact that my back is quite prone to this problem. but does it have to be today??? anyway i went to the park with my friends. needless to say it was quite crowded, the shoes sucked and the back ached. i should have relaxed but i wanted to ride. after some hours my back was completely fucked. i couldn’t even lace my shoes.

so now the weekend comes and i am still curing my back. but at least it rains…

but nevertheless all the best to my bros, i hope we will still find ways to shred together!

but what happens when there are more rebels than average people? is being average the new rebellion? or may it be that you just can’t buy rebellion?

and it seems like this psycho is getting away with it.

We will be offering limited silkscreen edition for various titles plus One Voice and Commitment Crew will have their record release show at the showcase. For information and direction go to http://www.crucialresponse.com. We need some help printing up the posters. If you live near Oberhausen give us a ring after 8 in the evening 0208.872168

skateboarders had freely chosen what they wanted to skate, what worked and what fitted. may it terrain or clothing.

products from nike, converse, adidas or puma got used for decades, but these companies were never aware of skateboarding. it wasn’t a market for them and they didn’t support it.

nowadays it is different. these same industries see a market and buy themself into the scene to give their mass products a more alternative image. and skateboarders seem to follow…

so i searched for a real alternative, and found it at “vegetarian shoes”.

i’m very happy with this shoe. and it’s environmentally friendly, vegan (vegetarian?), made in portugal and perfect for skateboarding.
unfortunately as most skateshoes they take some time to get broken in.

what makes this film even better is the mix of generations from lance mountain to paul rodriguez. it shows people living their life but kept true to skating. the film is directed by brian lotti, who even contributed a spoken word audio layer. well done!

featured skaters are: Eric Dressen, Lance Mountain, Ocean Howell, Salman Agah, Dune, Tom Knox, Brian Lotti, Kenny Anderson, Mike Carroll, Marc Johnson, Ray Barbee, Caswell Berry, Paolo Diaz, Paul Rodriguez, Mark Appleyard und Brezinski, PJ Ladd and many more.

• download large movie (190 mb, 640×480, encoded in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, a fast machine is needed!)
• download small movie (19 mb, 320×240, encoded in MPEG-4)

to download directly, right-click the link and save the files to disk. quicktime is needed for viewing. if you don’t want to install quicktime, i recommend the excellent vlc player.

• alternativeapparel
• nosweatapparel
• justiceclothing

in this case it's the adidas stan smith, supported by mark gonzales. same product, different image, different audience. easy.

wassup rockers is his new movie. as always it is focused on youth culture and again it plays with skin deep clichees. or may i say skin tight? because it shows skateboarders with the look of their dad in the 80's: tight pants, long hair and a moustache. very rebelious.

so why this buzz? well, let's just go to an average shop providing all these sports- and skateboard brands. one “cooler” than the other;-) but do you think any of these “cool” brands managed to produce their “scenish” sneakers any different than in form of mass productions under questionable conditions in china or the third world? not one. may it vans or duffs, converse or adidas, nike or globe. so at least new balance shows some attitude that really stands out. their decision is business driven and they too have products made in regions mentioned above, no question about that, but it shows that it is still possible to produce in countries with social standards, trade unions and organized workers.

by the way, as long as these conditions are guaranteed for chinese workers i have no problems at all. my concerns are definitely not patriotic but ethic driven. now if only there would be a clean shaped new balance shoe to use for skateboarding…

1. most of the small companies went mainstream long ago with all the corporate asshole practices
2. the mainstream corporations figured out ($$$$) how to look like a small company

so for some time i’m trying to find products for my needs with at least some ethics and values. may it be the proof of credibility in the community, sustainability and responsibility or a fair code of conduct. and because it’s very difficult to evaluate these informations, my rule of thumb is trying to exclude products made in countries, where even human rights are not granted. so if you see a guy in a shop pulling everything inside out in search for the “made in …” label, it may be me trying not to buy from assholes

on top you get an '89 ray barbee interview out of brian's old, selfmade skatemag. nice read.

american apparel is still one of the few companies producing under fair and guaranteed conditions.

in contrast, the major part of the garment industry, like hanes, fruit of the loom, or the like, run sweatshops in the third world or have subcontracts with these sweatshops. check: fruit of the loom, hanes…

so, the next time you buy some skate t-shirt, chances are big to get this mean punkass-skull-design printed on top of some bloodsucking t-shirt blank. take a closer look, fool!