“Selling Out” in Pro Skating | Tony Hawk, Ed Templeton, + Jeff Grosso discuss

Selling out. It was a big buzz term in the 90’s that has kinda stuck around, but does it even mean anything anymore in pro skateboarding? Tony Hawk, Ed Templeton, and Jeff Grosso had some words on the matter w/ Jenkem.

Sample:

“I think what happened was the whole attitude of selling out, or almost the concept of selling out came from the ’90s with bands,” Hawk told me. “Nirvana was this underground, cool punk band and then suddenly they’re huge, so they sold out. Yeah, the arenas are selling out, but the music is the same. I think that’s when that attitude really came into play.” Yes, Hawk made his fair share, and maybe a little more, but there was a distinct trickle down that afforded a lot of opportunities to a lot of other people outside his inner circle. He’s put a lot of his money back into skateboarding.

Jeff Grosso argues that the concept of selling out in skateboarding goes back as far as the Dogtown days, long before Hawk’s timeline. This would make sense given that that group is largely responsible for creating the primordial identity of modern skateboarding. In Grosso’s speculating words, “I’m sure people cried wolf in the ’70s. Jay Adams was still alive and it’s pretty well documented that he wasn’t stoked on what was happening to him and all his friends. They all wanted to ride for Dogtown, yadda yadda yadda… and then they all blew apart and went other places. But that’s a little before my time.”