Member of the Month

PartyBullshiit
March, 2024

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

Element vs dc shoes...business related

profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5

I feel like in the years between elementality and this is my element (the last 2 element vids) element has really really exploded. A couple years ago they opened a store in time square... thats serious shit to open a store in times square. For a while they seemed like they were going to be the nike of skateboarding (even tho I know nike is getting in to skateboarding), but I think the huge success of rob and big and dyrdeks fantasy factory has exploded dc shoes reputation and business in the meantime while forcing element to contract. I love elements message and their videos are just simply superior to everything else, including fully flared which ive seen too. But lately they seem to have taken a blow from the depression it seems like, because they dont seem as dominant as they once were. Maybe their messages to the public like making skateboards with trees on them and skateboards that said "dead against hunting" are too hippy for todays generation. But personally i always liked elements perspective, which always seemed to focus on skating as something you do for fun and the aesthetic aspect to it.

I think element skateboards made a big statement by signing brent atchley very quickly (he is one of the hyphyest styliest skaters of all time) and alot of the skateboard industry seems to be embracing more of a work hard, fall alot, get the shot mentality these days, the same as skiing seems to have embraced lately. 

Anyways any of you skateboarders or skateboard vid fans have any opinions? I think the pinnacle of sking style has already passed, and it seems like skateboarding is the same way. The nature of the game skate which is (i am a human and my skateboarding isnt perfect) versus the tony hawk generation (like how rodney mullen seems to just push a button to do a manual kickflip to manual, seems to also have had an effect on todays skating.

also what do people think of skateboarding in france vs britain? what country in europe has the most skate talent? Apparently eastern europe and scandinavia are blowing up fast, but european skating is a pretty cool scene too.

Apr 2 2011 3:26PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5
so depressing
Apr 2 2011 9:40PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5
dammit why is ns broken
Apr 3 2011 8:05AM
0 0
profile picture
Raz.
Posts: 7456 - Karma: 1,611
i fucking love element, they have such a good vibe and are so chill. i still have elementality from when it first came out! i watch like all the time still, it was sooo good. i dont like DC that much anymore simply because they changed. When the DC video came out i was obsessed with DC for the longest time. that will forever be my favorite skate video.
Apr 3 2011 9:16AM
0 0
profile picture
malonius_funk
Posts: 2249 - Karma: 1,500
let me analyze this paragraph by paragraph

1. nike is the best skate shoe manufacturer in the world, trust me, their product is the best skate shoe on the market. DC was a huge shoe company even before rob and big. elements videos are NOT superior to any one elses, especially Lakai's Fully Flared. Elementality and this is my element, although they have great skating in them, are not very well made skate videos, and i can name numerous independent, low budget skate films that are much better. Lastly, element did make a bold decision to sign Atchley, but guess what, he got dropped by them. Element may have dropped off a little bit over the past few years, but right now they have one of the best teams in skating; Darrell Stanton, Mark Appleyard, Chad Tim Tim, Levi Brown, and many others. So to sum this up, Element is still a pretty sick company.

2. I don't really see how video games can be compared to real skating. even when there was tony hawks pro skater games, there were skaters like jamie thomas, who don't skate technically, but go big. keep in mind, there weren't only skaters like rodney mullen and daewon song during the THPS era.

3. It is impossible to say which countries are better at skating. The u.s. has great skaters, europe has equally great skaters, scandanavia has equally great skaters, and canada has equally great skaters. skateboarding keeps the same idea no matter where you are, and it was never meant to be a competition between countries.
Apr 3 2011 11:21AM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5

yeah i used to love the dc video too, that movie was made during the tony hawk pro skater generation, it definitely was great.

Apr 3 2011 12:46PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5
how can you say that element movies arent well made? this is my element had a completely custom soundtrack, and both videos have as much originality in the editing as teddybearcrisis. I dont see how you can look at element videos as being poorly made... they are creatively brilliant in my view
Apr 3 2011 12:50PM
0 0
profile picture
malonius_funk
Posts: 2249 - Karma: 1,500
just because it had a custom soundtrack and "originality" in the editing doesn't mean it's good. fully flared had originality, and way more. independent film's like "cosmic vomit" and "a happy medium" had much more originality, and the filming was very good compared to element's films. they are in no way creatively brilliant, they were just another skate flick, fun to watch, but nothing special. what lakai did with fully flared; the intro, the graphics, the filming, the editing, the skating, is on another level compared to element.
Apr 3 2011 1:15PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5
i have fully flared and i like it but i dont understand the huge uproar about it being the best skate video of all time. It doesnt have very good transitions between segs and the intro was overdone. The talent on lakais team isnt that impressive either, considering the fact that people like rodney mullen and greg lutzka exist. The message in fully flared seemed to be "look im old and i can still skate, although i make things look impossible".  The message in element videos is more like "i do this trick so easily that once the cameras stop rolling, ILL DO IT AGAIN FOR FUN."  Fully flared seemed to be all about effort and hard work and getting the shot...all 3 of those suck in my opinion, when people like jimmy lannon and darrel stanton make shit look like fing cake.
Apr 3 2011 1:21PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5

i would agree that fully flared is on another level although i would say a level down. What is it that makes fully flared seem so high and mighty? The intro and special video animations seemed kinda overdone to me and borderline cheesy.

Do you really need to blow up the fucking stairset in the intro? Is that what skatings about? i dont know man fully flared kinda reminds me of kristi leskinens part in 1242... all about trying and not giving up and effort and shit... fuck that man im going with charlie sheen

Apr 3 2011 1:27PM
0 0
profile picture
malonius_funk
Posts: 2249 - Karma: 1,500
HAHAHAHA the intro was overdone? that's what makes it good! the transition between segs weren't very good? are you kidding me? and the talent on lakai's team isn't that impressive? leave now. you obviously know nothing about skateboarding/skateboarding films/anything skateboarding related. so don't even start to argue with me because you will lose miserably.
Apr 3 2011 1:31PM
0 0
profile picture
Shewlur...
Posts: 5046 - Karma: 940
lol
Apr 3 2011 1:36PM
0 0
profile picture
john.stossel
Posts: 943 - Karma: 5
meh wahtevr you guys dont get it
Apr 3 2011 9:16PM
0 0
profile picture
DrZoidberg
Posts: 5675 - Karma: 4,268
When I was a kid and everybody wanted to be a skateboarder ever other kid had an element shirt and deck. I really haven't kept up with what they've been doing for a while. Anybody see the real video yet, I think it premiered recently. Okay now I'm gonna go find menikmati or however that's spelled on youtube.

And everybody I skated with stopped. Skateboarding kinda just died in my town. It went from everybody wanting to be a skateboarder to nobody caring at all. Going off on a tangent here, but do little kids still pick up a skateboard? Over my spring break, I went to skate with one of the few skateboarder I still know, and we roll up to a park with a fun mini ramp and scooterers outnumbered everybody. And at this other park with a nice bowl near my house, my friend said the scooter invasion has gotten quite bad. Why are little kids and even kids in highschool picking up scooters and having who can do the most tail whip contests?
Apr 3 2011 9:49PM
0 0
profile picture
Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
whoever said plan b over element is clearly not in on skate business, same distributor, decks are probably even pressed in the same place now.


as for element, they got back to the roots of good real skating. they dumped bam when he became a druggie has been, and got rid of nyjah houston their contest rat (though they just recently picked him up again).

instead they picked up "core" (god i hate that word) skaters, people like levi brown, darrell stanton, chad tim tim, and now appleyard as well. while this ups their cred within the skate world, unlike xgames and tv show stars its not very conducive to things like times square stores.


as for dc. they are going in the opposite direction. jumping on the contest dudes who get exposure, and trying to get the mainstream appeal. watch fantasy factory, dyrdek promotes dc more than anything on that show, getting all the mall rat kids to jump on it. on top of that chris cole, whose becoming known as a contest rat (regardless of how true that is), danny way whose all over the xgames now due to mega ramp insanity (and should be), and chaz ortiz whose the next sheckler (in terms of notoriety in the mainstream scene, not skate skill).
Apr 3 2011 10:00PM
0 0
profile picture
Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
what video were you watching? Lakai is one of the few teams that could put out a video with that many parts, and every one being all bangers. sure the dudes there are older, but they are also legends and for a reason. every single part in that movie was at the top of its game. every single one.




side note - whose stoked for the chocolate video that should drop late this year. been too long without a kenny anderson video part.
Apr 3 2011 10:03PM
0 0
profile picture
Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
sorry. my sarcasm meter was failing.
Apr 3 2011 10:35PM
0 0
profile picture
ski.the.yeast
Posts: 1007 - Karma: 33
both suck
Apr 3 2011 10:48PM
0 0
profile picture
ski_ENDUB
Posts: 2535 - Karma: 86
In all fairness though for Dyrdek promoting DC as hard as he can on Fantasy is just good business since he, along with Danny Way have partial ownership of the company. DC is definitely one of those companies who seems more about getting their shoes on as many people's feet as possible.
Apr 3 2011 11:56PM
0 0
All times are Eastern (-4)