If you check www.believeinone.com at all, you probably saw the little blade life section on AMall owner Justin Hertel. And if you have even a tiny interest in blading, you probably read this. For those of you who didn't I suggest you check it out, and read what he has to say(some good stuff). For the people who don't like to read long things like this interview, I'm going to just post a little part from it that is pretty radical...
As we know from your print ad in the ONE Skater of the Year Issue and your clip in the ONEvideo, Justin Hertel can not only run a shop, he can skate too. With that being said...what does the term “skater owned” mean to you?
I ran the ad with the “skater owned” caption because I think people throw “skater owned” around too loosely. It’s almost like saying the sky is blue. It’s obvious when you are, and obvious when you’re not (a rollerblader/rollerblade owned).
This answer couldn't have come at a better time for me. If you read this blog, I am sure you read my post on Flatline owner Rob(not, and never was a rollerblader), and his completely rediculous comment about the need for a commercial of the "best of the best", and boot companies like Razors not giving anything back( I don't know what you call paying Dre Powell to fly to NJ for the weekend to hang out, skate, etc.) Either way, people really need to start choosing who they support. You may not think that whether you buy those new skates from a 43 year old Polish man, or a skater owned shop, makes much of a difference, but your probably wrong. If your naive enough not to think this makes a difference, well, starting thinking a little bit more!
PS- I apologize for all the negative posts lately, about what seems to be always the same thing, but at least by getting it off my chest here, it stops me from doing something really dumb, which I do way too often.
