We recently caught up with Kelly Hart for the latest instalment in our “Industry” interview series. Find out more about someone who plays an integral part in the industry from many different perspectives and has performed more roles than most…
words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Kelly Hart captured on The Nine Club PH: Justin Crawford
If you want to discuss skateboarding being in good hands Kelly Hart’s are two of them. He has been infatuated with every facet of our culture since he was eleven years old, has contributed on many levels, and continues to help nurture the future and romanticise the past that built him. His journey includes his time as a professional skateboarder which wasn’t a completely linear trajectory. This is discussed in the interview, Kelly came up at an interesting time when how we digest media was evolving and his story encapsulates being on the cusp of that wave, something he embraced which has led him to where he is today. He is living proof that you can do things differently, an ethos which has aided his following roles in the industry.
Kelly has been working for éS footwear for years now having ridden for the brand previously. He came on board just after their brief hiatus and has worked as a team manager keeping the brand legacy alight while ushering in a new generation. Following Sole Technology being recently acquired by The Nidecker Group we thought it would be a good time to connect with Kelly and find out more about the roles he has played over there, what his job entails, and how it is currently evolving. His passion for the brand and his unique personal attachment to its history have him placed perfectly to help shape it and it was interesting hearing about what he’s had a hand in. This includes reviving stories from the archives, retooling existing ones, and working on campaigns to support new ones.
The conversation focuses predominantly on what Kelly has going on over at éS and his path into the industry but also touches on the other ways he keeps contributing. We discuss his time at The Nine Club, how that fits into everything else he has going on, and the role it plays in his life and ours. He also speaks on other team manager positions he has held, his time judging different events from Street League and The Olympics to Tampa Am, and how they all feed into each other. We hope this offers insight and encouragement to anyone who thinks they would enjoy a job in the industry. Kelly is a shining example of someone who cares about where it is headed…
Kelly Hart floating his powerful kickflip over a picnic table back in 2015 PH: Kyle Seidler
You first got sponsored by Kayo over twenty years ago after some shop sponsors and your career as a skateboarder began before any peripheral jobs in the industry transpired. Was there a point you did anything else early on, did you ever work in the shop you rode for?
When I was like fifteen years old there was a skate shop down the street from my house in Laguna Hills called Jay’s Board Shop. I would go in there all the time and watch skate videos. I would always be in there watching videos anyway so they gave me a job. That worked out pretty cool, I worked there for a couple of years. When that shut down I worked at another skate shop called Laguna Surf and Sport in Aliso Viejo. I was there when I got sponsored and I went on from there to just being out skating every day.
Working at a shop is a common gateway into doing something else in the industry.
You know what’s crazy about skate shops? You meet so many people who work in the industry by being there. You’re constantly meeting reps and that’s where I got my foot in the door. I would see the reps out skating different spots, then they’d come into the skate shop to buy tape and offer us some shoes or something. I think I got given two Element boards at first, then flowed an Expedition board. I was given some Vita shoes when that was going. That was an awesome shoe company back then.
That Jason Dill shoe was sick.
I never skated the Dill shoe but I rocked the Natas [Kaupas] one a few times. When Vita went out of business I met a guy named Pat Top who was the rep for Axion and he got me in over there. But the skate shop was definitely a great way to get in there and meet people in the skate industry.
After years skating for them you were meant to turn pro for Expedition, they changed their plans and you quit. This was kind of the crossroads that led to where you are now…
My perspective has changed a lot over the years after going through the things that I went through. From being a skateboarder and just trying to skate but also now understanding how businesses are run and what decisions have to be made. There are directions brands need to go in to evolve and now I understand that. I think it’s hard to understand where you stand in skateboarding when you’re just the skater. You don’t comprehend the inner workings and what brands are planning to do or what their future looks like. It was tough, I understood their decisions to go in a certain direction and focus on different riders but it’s weird to be in that position.
How did that move actually change skateboarding for you?
I had always strived so hard to try to be a professional skateboarder and get my name on a board. When I had parted ways with Expedition at that time the pressure got taken off. I had literally no clue what I was going to do. Luckily a few months later éS was coming back from hiatus and Don Brown brought me on. I was just generally helping out for about six months, I was getting $1000 a month and getting by.
“For me it was a big relief, there wasn’t this external pressure on me to skate any more. That was the point where I went nuts on my board”
They brought me on properly on January 5th 2015. That’s when I realised that I had a job, I had something to focus on that wasn’t just skating for a brand I love. I got to see how shoes were made, how they were developed, all the inner workings inside the business you weren’t aware of as a skateboarder. For me it was a big relief, there wasn’t this external pressure on me to skate any more. That was the point where I went nuts on my board. I look back at my skating and it was 2015 when I was on fire, I was on a mission with some warrior-type stuff going on. It was just so fun to not have skateboarding solely be my job.
It’s funny how that worked for you, it made you more inspired.
It was the feeling of not having the pressure. Sometimes that works for people and sometimes it doesn’t but it brought something to me. I remember when I was a kid riding for Expedition over at Kayo. Those guys were awesome to me by the way, Matt Daughters, Troy Morgan and Chany [Jeanguenin] were so nice to me. I remember saying to them early on that I wanted to be a team manager and wanted to help out with stuff. So they would give me little opportunities like running the social media for Kayo. They always knew that I wanted to work internally because I was so intrigued by how things worked.
Then later on it was your social media presence that led to Rob Welsh who was TM over at Expedition asking you to come back on board but you declined. What was the sequence of events that led to you replacing Rob after he left and finally getting that pro board you were promised concurrently?
I was just out there doing my thing, skating, working for éS and riding for Chico Brenes’ company which was called Central. I was doing that with Chico and I was super hyped that he had turned me pro, that was an honour and I’m very thankful for that. I was trying to build a new team over at éS and I had been skating really hard too, posting stuff on social media. That was what I was really focused on at that time. It was really fun and there was no pressure to it. Don Brown was really psyched on that.
He recognised that had value.
He did and certain people didn’t see that happening yet, they didn’t see the transition to that being a major factor in a skateboarders career or as being valuable from a business perspective. I did the fakie tre-fakie manual at the Courthouse and that went nuts. I was very stoked on that, and thankful that people kept re-posting it and giving it respect. That was one of those feelings you’d dream of as a kid, like getting a Grand Slam at the World Series, it felt something like that.
It was a moment, and around that time Rob [Welsh] had reached out, he said he was stoked on what I was doing at the time skating-wise and wanted to give me a board and bring me back on over there. I wanted to hear what he had to say and be open to it so we met. He was super nice and he showed me what he was thinking. I was thankful for that opportunity but declined and said I wanted to stay skating for Chico. He showed me his vision and it wasn’t that the vision wasn’t good, it just wasn’t where I wanted to go. I knew there were financial troubles at Kayo at the time, it was tough. When it coms to companies downsizing I now understand it, there are upper guys having to make hard decisions. So I said thank you but no and I told Chico [Brenes] what I had been offered but declined.
Kelly fakie shuvit flipping the wall in Santa Monica on his new pro board, 2016. PH: Sam Olson
Then it was a matter of weeks, maybe a month, and Troy Morgan called me. I genuinely don’t know what happened with them and Rob [Welsh] but Rob was no longer working with Expedition and Troy asked me to come on board and help them re-build the company. For me this had been this pedestal goal of my life for ten years, getting a pro board on Expedition was all I wanted. So I then had this opportunity not just to ride for the company again but to help with a newer generation of it that I felt fit the brand. That’s what they offered to me. I felt it was a good opportunity to try something new with a brand I’ve always loved and been a part of. It was hard for me to tell Chico but I felt thats what I needed to do it so that’s what I did. I left in a respectful way.
The Berrics had bought a bunch of boards from Central but that was the week all this stuff had happened with Expedition so I went and bought all of those boards because I didn’t want to leave those guys hanging with them. I wanted it so that no-one was losing money and there were no boards left sitting around. Those were tough decisions to make but I felt like that was what I wanted to do. It was cool to get a little pay cheque but It genuinely wasn’t a money decision at all either. I always wanted to ride for Expedition as a kid and I had gone from rep flow to being on the team as an Am. There was this whole story there so to be back and have a board, that’s what I wanted to do. I tried it, and I was super happy that I did even though it didn’t last too long.
Who did you put on during that period?
I was happy to be able to put on some younger kids, people like Will Gomez, Versace Plug [Hyun Kummer], my friend Isiah [Sanchez], Kea Smith. All these kids who were super rad and all about the brand too. It was cool to try something new and put on a new generation, I’m glad I got to do that.
So working as team manager for éS and Expedition at the same time for a stint. How did those roles differ?
It was interesting, I would just get product out to everyone who needed it when shoes and boards dropped but it was different. While working for both of those brands at the time there was no budget really to do anything. Both brands were having financial trouble so we did everything that we could with what we had accessible to us. We would go on trips and stay at my family’s house in DC, or at friends houses wherever we could. We just got out there and went skating, it was fun man. We were working with what we had on some real skate shit to be honest, we weren’t staying in any crazy hotels. I’ve never really had that luxury of working with brands who have the budget to do things on a bigger scale. That’s just how it was. We would film for projects here and there but mostly it was just all social media based.
“If you told me in 2012 that three years later I would be turning pro based off me posting a trick on social media that I thought I could never do, I would never believe you”
What did you make happen during that time working for the two brands that you’re proudest of?
There’s a lot that I’m proud of. It’s cool to see people doing their thing regardless of if I’m working with them any more or not. Seeing amazing skateboarders still doing their thing and being able to travel with them and skate with them. I think my proudest achievement would be doing things differently. Using social media but not having to do it a specific way. There was always this gatekeeping way to do certain things. I understand that gatekeeper is a tricky word these days but there was a mentality out there that you had to do things a certain way. I think I’m proudest of thinking outside of that box, doing things in a new way and still getting noticed. If you told me in 2012 that three years later I would be turning pro based off me posting a trick on social media that I thought I could never do, I would never believe you. I think that’s what I’m proudest of, trying to do things differently.
Kelly slides a lofty éS Accel SLim assisted frontside noseslide at JKwon. PH: Oliver Barton
What was the most challenging?
The budget stuff never bothered me, I hadn’t got used to having it in the first place so it was normal. I think the hardest part for me was when I got my hip injury. It wasn’t from falling it was from the wear and tear of skateboarding for twenty five years. Between 2016 and 2017 I had to get surgery which meant I could never really skate the same way ever again. So being able to work with these guys and skate with them even though I wasn’t physically able to skate how I could before was really fun to do. Then The Nine Club came into the picture around the same time which was a big thing. I wasn’t able to skate but I was super happy to be on The Nine Club talking about skateboarding every week. Then also being out skating with the people on the team and travelling. Those were the best parts and the worst parts of that time.
Did you have to mentally adjust from how you thought about skating, a kind of grieving process from that transition after injury?
I didn’t really know that the hip injury and the surgery was going to take me out like it did. There was crazy pain all the time, after I got the surgery there wasn’t pain but it still hurts when I skate. I just wasn’t expecting that. I have done all the physical therapy and tried my best. The doctor told me it’s going to be tough because I wasn’t going to be able to move it like I used to but the pain wouldn’t be as severe as it had been. There was a point where I realised that I was never going to be able to do it like I could again. That was pretty sad for me because that had been my outlet for my whole entire life since I started skating when I was eleven. Going outside and just doing a kickflip was never a problem but now that’s gone. It is sad but it’s changed into me being able to help skateboarding with brands, the podcast, judging skate contests and just being involved. I’m really thankful for that and stoked on it which has kind of taken over my skating.
Before we talk about working for éS let’s dip back and talk about how you first started getting shoes. Wasn’t it the OG Sole Tech Team Manager Tony Evejenth who hooked that up?
Yeah I would go and skate the Sole Tech park up in Lake Forest because I grew up ten or fifteen minutes away from the warehouse and skate park. I would go there all the time and skate at night and Tony Evejenth would always be down there after work, Jeff Henderson would be down there skating too. I was getting flow from DC back then, I would go on tour and skate with those guys a lot too. DC had stopped making the Lynx HE at that point and I felt there was no shoe in the line for me. I’m obsessed with how a shoe feels as most skaters are and it felt like there were no shoes they were making that I could skate.
I was friends with Scuba [Steve Chalme] and would skate with him and Tony [Evejenth] all the time. I was complaining to them that I had no shoes to skate. Tony told me he would give me a pair of Accels there and then so I had some shoes to skate. He gave me a pair of brown Accels, not the brown and gum ones, some chocolate brown ones. I was skating in them and realised it’s just the best shoe, I hadn’t skated in a pair since I was about fifteen. I continued to skate that park all the time and didn’t really know what to do with DC. Tony just invited me over, he said he’d start giving me shoes and get me on the program with éS, him and Scuba were all about the idea. It was tough to leave DC and I skated with [Anthony] Van Engelen a bunch back then so I let him know I was going to ride for éS because it was local to me and I had found a shoe I liked which I couldn’t find at DC. I remember him saying I should have told him the problem so we could have worked on a solution and maybe made something. He left shortly afterwards to ride for Vans so it was all good anyway. It was another thing that just naturally happened and I was stoked. There’s a clip in It’s Official where I switch flip – switch nose manual this manual pad with a low to high drop. That was the first pair of shoes I’m wearing where I decided I was going to ride for éS.
Honourable mention to Tony Evejenth for being a great team manager during a golden age.
Hell Yeah! Tony was super awesome, rest in peace. I’m grateful, he was super nice to me. Anyone who has met him will remember how nice of a dude he was. He genuinely always had a smile on his face. It was pretty cool to walk into the office and see him there. He really tried to look out for all of his riders.
You have this long organic history with the brand. It must be a trip when you get to work with Ronnie Creager or Sal Barbier all these years later, the people who made éS the most influential skate shoe company of all time. I’m sure you still get a kick out of getting to do that.
Oh yeah, I’ll genuinely be sitting here working on the laptop and I’ll get a text from Chad Muska or Ronnie Creager. It still blows my mind that that’s happening. There is still a little skate kid inside of me who has always looked up to these guys. To know that they’re cool dudes and to be able to work with them and help bring back their old shoes is pretty cool, I’m stoked.
Beautiful shapes on this hardflip snapped during a Venice Beach sunset. PH: Sam Olson
What skills would you say you went from having zero knowledge of to mastering over at éS?
That’s a good question, I would say actually doing something on the fly, that’s what I got really good at, especially with Don Brown and Leighton Dyer. You naturally learn a lot of things working at a brand but being able to work with fewer resources is tough. I don’t want to do that all the time but being creative when you don’t have much to work with is a skill and I think that’s something I got really good at. With Covid hitting too things got super weird and that’s one thing I took away from it all, an unusual situation people don’t get many opportunities to learn how to navigate.
Sole Tech was recently acquired by the Nidecker Group. How has that positively changed things for you? Has your role evolved even more?
Things were tough at Sole Tech before the Nidecker acquisition happened, it was hard as I said because we had minimal budget to do anything. Over the last six months the amount of positive change in a number of different ways has been incredible. I’m not just saying that, there’s a structure being built to handle many different scenarios. My new role going forward is as a Team Manager and handling Sports Marketing for éS, Etnies, and Emerica. So there is now more structure to work with certain people who are in place to handle different responsibilities.
“Over the last six months the amount of positive change in a number of different ways has been incredible”
They have made all of these moves already. There were a bunch of decisions that were made concerning riders that were difficult to make but when businesses acquire things they need to make a lot of decisions early on to be able to move forward. Those things are super tough especially when you’ve been around the brands for a long time like I have. Having the new structure means I can work with brand managers, people handling social media, someone overlooking everything. I’m excited to start communicating with all the riders and be more on point with what we have going on this year with all of the new shoes coming out. Building campaigns with them, that’s the stuff I’m looking forward to.
I saw Tom Asta’s video about being let go where he was very respectful of his time skating for the brand. That must have been a hard thing to work through.
Tom is still one of my close friends so having that conversation was really tough. It’s one where I felt the conversation was best coming from me personally too so I called him and we spoke for a while about it. At the end of the day I knew he would be doing a video like that, he is open and on point with that stuff. I felt he was very respectful, he is a genuinely good dude and I’m going to see him in two weeks. He expressed himself well. There’s nothing cool about getting let go from something, I know because I have had it happen myself.
People will always have something to say about any acquisitions and their credibility. I was talking to Kevin Parrott about the new owners and he said that one of the brothers boardslid an eight stair rail the first time he skated with him.
Oh yeah, those dudes are genuinely trying to correct what was wrong with all the brands in the first place. I had been frustrated for a while because everything was so scattered and now there are things moving forward which are structured to do well. They are all still authentic skateboard footwear brands and there are none really left. What happened with Lakai was horrible to see. I can’t think of too many beyond that, there’s Last Resort, Opus, Warsaw. There really aren’t skateboard footwear brands sharing that space apart from éS, Emerica, and Etnies. They’re still skater-owned. It’s been a wild ride but at the end of the day I’m happy to see what’s happening and to get answers now we have more direction. That’s why I’m excited.
How much have you had a hand in product development over the years? What have you been happiest to have been involved in?
I think what I’m happiest about is a shoe I’m wearing right now. I told the story of Tony Evejenth giving me a pair of éS Accels which I skated like crazy. In 2004 I remember going into Sole Tech and Scuba gave me a box, I opened it and was stoked to see the colourway of the newly reissued Accel but I saw it and instantly wondered what they had done. They had to switch factories to produce the shoe and shoes back then started to get very puffy as you would remember, and they were already puffy to start with which is crazy to look back at. I was just a flow kid back then, nowhere near being inside that building making any decisions. But they had decided to change the way the shoe was made along with the proportions of it. The thickness of the tongue was different, they didn’t skate the same way any more and they looked way different. That’s the way the shoe was made from 2004 until now.
“With this year being the 30th anniversary of éS they informed me last year that it’s coming back and I’ve been helping make sure it’s as close as it can be to the original”
Tom Penny 360 flip shot by Jesper Nillson. An éS Accel ad from 1998 next to the reworked original shape éS Accel sample in Kelly’s hand today
Then this year after ten years of being in there, and after me begging for the Accel to be made the way it used to be it has happened. There’s a reason why it has such a legacy, it’s because of the way they were made back then. All of the epic skating you saw in the Accel was from before 2004. Arto [Saari] skating them, PJ [Ladd], P-Rod, [Eric] Koston, and obviously [Tom] Penny. It doesn’t matter, all of that footage and everyone synonymous with skating that shoe are all from that era. That’s why I wanted to see it come back. The question was if it’s already a best selling shoe for éS why alter it again? With this year being the 30th anniversary of éS they informed me last year that it’s coming back and I’ve been helping make sure it’s as close as it can be to the original. I got my first sample pairs the other day and I’m excited. I posted a photo on my story and people were responding super hyped about them. I’m wearing them now, I’m super happy with how they came out the fit is how I remember it being. I think they look amazing and that’s probably something I’m most proud of helping with. We have a pair from 1997 as a reference and the difference is so noticeable.
The original shape wasn’t far off an Etnies Rap from back in the day.
Yeah they were a very similar shoe. The rad thing about the Accel is it’s such an iconic shoe that people want to wear it as it is. It’s just a great shoe. Not wanting to compare it to something from other brands really, but it’s like our equivalent of what the Dunk is to Nike. That’s what the shoe means to the brand so for me I always thought it should be perfected. It’s something I wanted to do forever and Charlie Manos had the insight to do it and I’m super thankful he did. I think when you see it personally you’ll be pretty hyped.
We are stoked to see the Two Nine 8 on the shelves as the Koston 2 was a favourite. We here will always equate that shoe with Mark Baines’ part in Waiting For The World.
Hell yeah dude!
What is your favourite historical appearance of that shoe?
Damn, you know what’s funny I remember being a kid when the Brazilian Vacation 411VM video came out. [Eric] Koston was on that trip, [Bob] Burnquist, and it was when Kerry Getz was briefly on éS also. I remember Koston skating his shoe in that video and it was a light grey with green, one of the very first colourways of the shoe. In that video he does a back noseblunt shuvit on a box at a demo. I thought a back noseblunt shuv was such a random cool trick and the shoes looked really good. I remember my parents would take me out for a new pair of skate shoes as a treat back then and I remember trying to find those shoes specifically and I couldn’t find them anywhere. I was calling all the skate shops but by that time they were already sold out. They were my favourites. I actually have an original pair of Koston 2’s at my place that a friend gifted to me years later, a Lakers colourway. That sole was wild, it was foam, shoes that weren’t as functional for skating as you thought they would be.
They had that running shoe toe.
Yeah they did, and do you remember the Axion Aries shoe? They had a similar toe shape and I skated a bunch of those. Looking back that shoe was weird to skate in but we just liked the way they looked.
Who are you stoked to see skate in the Two Nine 8 shoe now?
I definitely will have to say Aimu Yamazuki, I filmed a bunch of him skating in that shoe recently and he killed it! He’s probably my favorite skateboarder out right now. So fun to watch. You only see certain skaters like that come around so often. It’s like when Mikemo [Capaldi] and PJ [Ladd] dropped their parts back in the day. It blew everyone’s minds. That Primitive Wildfire part Aimu just dropped was on that same level I think. Other than him, seeing TJ [Rogers] doing his thing in the streets skating in that shoe is pretty rad. Anyone posting clips skating that shoe make me stoked. Anyone tagging me in their Instagram stories makes me happy because it brings back all of these memories.
The three latest colourways of the éS Two Nine 8 shoe which is available now
I heard there could be some exciting TJ Rogers news coming up.
Oh yeah. TJ worked so hard to get to where he’s at. I started flowing him shoes, I wasn’t sure there was anything there at the time but I was down to help him out with shoes. He just took that opportunity and ran with it. We would go out skating together but he started to go out filming all the time and sending me footage. It was unreal, literally ridiculous. One week would go by and he would send me three minutes of footage. He would get three minutes of footage in maybe four days and that’s not an exaggeration. He’d be getting five clips a day, it was nuts.
TJ Rogers switch backside tailslide 270 at the New York County Courthouse wearing the éS Two Nine 8. Filmed by Ed Guzman
I showed Don [Brown] and he did this edit, this Menikamati thing for us for the Evant shoe. He killed it, just came in and proved himself super hard to the whole world I feel like. When he dropped that T.J.I.F part that was something that I was stoked to work on with him and Kevin Perez. We would be out skating, Kevin and I spoke about the music and what we wanted to do, then Kevin nailed it with the editing. TJ just set himself up perfectly with everything he was doing to deserve a pro model shoe. TJ is an interesting dude, he has visions. A lot of skaters do but he really knows what the hell he wants. So he had an idea for a shoe and he came in to work with Michael Morey and Charlie [Manos] on the shoe and they fully realised his vision. He’s super hyped on it and it’s so cool to see someone like him work his way into doing that. He is a genuine workhorse on top of being an amazing skateboarder. We felt like it was right to give him a shoe and it will be coming out in Fall.
Team managers often end up producing content firsthand on top of other jobs required. Is there a moment you’ve ended up behind the lens you’re happy to have seen used?
Funnily enough I’ve only ever really filmed one clip that ended up in an actual skate video and it was Wade Desarmo in It’s Official. He does a front shuv back nosegrind revert on this drop off ledge in Barcelona. So I filmed that and one more clip of him where he kickflip front feebles that Enrique Lorenzo rail that’s also in Barcelona. Other than that, honestly, my favourite thing to do is filming social media stuff. We go on trips and that’s basically all we would do. Working with Tom [Asta], Aimu [Yamazaki], Wade [Desarmo], TJ [Rogers], whoever it is. Versace Plug when he came out here, Will Gomez. Working with all of those skateboarders on stuff has been super fun. Then you film a clip and it goes viral! Damn! When it first started with éS I would send Tony Vitello clips all the time of Tom Asta filmed at the Courthouse and he would post them which always felt rewarding. One of my favourite parts of being a team manager is working on the social media side of things in that capacity.
What do you think would be your biggest social media success story from a marketing perspective-from concept to engagement?
Weirdly enough to say it would be when I fakie tre-fakie manualled the stage at the Courthouse. I did that trick when we were rolling out the whole campaign for Sal Barbier’s reissue of the 23 shoe. I did that and perfectly lined it up with that campaign. We posted about the shoe then that Sunday I sent Tony Vitello that clip. He was hyped on it and said he would post it at 7pm which was just perfect actual timing. He was so rad to tag #esskateboarding and #centralsakteboarding in the post. The reach that one got was nuts. That was before stories too so everyone was reposting it but they were hard posts of me wearing the shoe which just dropped, I couldn’t ask for anything more than that. It was awesome for me to be a part of helping roll out that campaign with Sal [Barbier] but also being involved in that way, actually skating the shoe was something else. I remember Jamie Thomas coming up to me right after that happened and commenting on how that was like the new age of watching someone turn pro and everyone else celebrating that. He said he thought that was really cool, I was very proud of that moment. That’s the thing I have been involved in that made the most impact, or got viewed the most.
That’s an example of you being on the cusp of the way we consume media changing. Is there anything happening right now that’s an emerging change you’re aware of needing to get to grips with?
Interesting, that’s a good question. Everyone is on Instagram now but back then in 2015 there were only a handful of people really going in on that platform. Everyone skating [Brandon] Biebel’s park at that time was doing it, Dane Vaughan at that point was very active. These are all LA examples I’m giving pretty much because there was a certain group of people who were super heavy on that. But I think right now that YouTube has become more of a space where I think skateboarders can live, tell their story and share their experiences. Creating a community on YouTube has become a bigger thing. I know that because of doing The Nine Club for eight and a half years. I’ve seen that and I’ve felt it.
I don’t often use my own personal YouTube account though. I still skate but I can’t do it like I used to so it’s hard for me personally to want to start a YouTube channel. My whole life has always been all about skateboarding so if I can’t post myself skating I don’t know what I’d really be posting about. Now you see skateboarders like Pedro Delfino, Tom Asta, or Vincent Alvarez, guys you would never think would have a YouTube channel and they’re doing it and putting themselves out there. I think that’s really awesome and I see the value in them doing that, a rider having that outlet and community. There are other thing like TikTok for instance but myself personally, I don’t think that’s where skateboarders live, it’s a different thing. What’s interesting now is that skateboarders can scrape their own lanes in so many different ways.
That being said would you say what you would have been looking for in a team rider 15 years ago is different nowadays?
For me personally I think most skateboard team managers back then were looking for that talent, that gift, the way someone skates and how you do it. You would look at how good skateboarding is at a certain time and who is pushing the needle physically and in terms of possibility on a skateboard. Now it’s not really like that. The are a handful of skateboarders who are still pushing the boundaries of new tricks and what not, but now you have skateboarders having their own platforms to put videos out and build their own communities. There are different ways you can live in the skateboard world and make a living. When I was a skateboarder coming up you were paying attention to who was doing what trick, in what mag, in what video and where. Then you looked at what you could do which would compare to that trick.
“You would look at how good skateboarding is at a certain time and who is pushing the needle physically and in terms of possibility on a skateboard. Now it’s not really like that”
That’s just the way it was, now it’s not like that in any way. There are special dudes like Aimu [Yamazuki] who are special, not only can that dude raise the bar on skateboarding but when you watch him do something and it’s mind-blowing, even down to simple kickflip. Skateboarding is so precious to all of the people who love it like we do. For all of the kids who are pursuing skateboarding now I think it’s difficult for them to understand how they bring value to a company. Then if they have this following for whatever reason do they even need to ride for a company? That’s the funniest part, we all want that in the skate industry but certain people can just do things independently. They make their own YouTube channel and do their own thing. It’s interesting to see, there were fifteen board brands back in the day or maybe ten. Now there are a thousand and I don’t know who half the brands are or who rides for them. There are so many people who are on brands that are big right now and people genuinely don’t know who they are. It’s just the way it is now and it’s all good, it’s just different.
Can you think of a specific instance where your TM skills saved the day?
I can’t think of something off the top of my head but paying for dinners is pretty cool.
That can definitely save the day. This is all before we have even mentioned the Nine Club. How do you manage to fit that in? Or does it feel like downtime at this point?
It is somewhat therapeutic to go there and just talk with your friends about skateboarding, it really is. It’s funny that The Nine Club has got to this point where it’s such a big interview platform where people come to share their stories and some people get nervous because of that. Once they come on though they’re always hyped on how fun it was and often say it felt therapeutic for them too. That’s why it’s so rad. I have always been cool with being in front of the camera but I think most skateboarders aren’t that comfortable being in front of a camera talking.
For me I usually work from home or head into the office or head out skating but the studio is literally two blocks from my place so I can just skate over there and we usually film at around 5pm on weekdays. We’ll film during the day if it’s an urgent one we need to make happen. It’s pretty loose and we’re not stressing over stuff. We’ll have meetings once or twice a week on Discord or in person to speak about what we have coming up. Honestly Chris [Roberts] and Roger [Bagley] work so damn hard on everything day to day. I’m super happy to be a part of it for all these years. They understand I have these other work responsibilities with éS. So I help schedule guests, social media and am a part of the show. I love it. Shout out to the Nine Club crew: Chris, Roger, Jeron, Justin Crawford, Charley Camirand and Tom Curran.
Kelly Creasing up on The Nine Club during Erick Winkowski’s recent episode. PH: Justin Crawford
Favourite Nine Club moment of all time?
Yeah, that’s a good one. There was a random instance on an episode a long time ago. We had a pair of Emerica shoes on the table. For some reason we had candles on the table and at one point the box started to catch on fire. They put it out right away but if you look on the highlights channel on YouTube I laugh so hard because it was so silly how that played out. I loved Spanky’s story about how he was at a Sole Tech sales meeting back in the day which ended up with him running naked at some point in the night down the hallway and diving underneath some sales reps legs and just kept on running. That was hilarious, the thought of that happening. I think Bryan Herman’s story was nuts, him growing up, his investment story, having maggots grown out of his leg. It was just crazy. [Josh] Kalis was one of my favourites because he’s one of my favourite skaters. Then I also think one of the funniest, and most interesting was Erick Winkowski’s episode, that was really cool. I genuinely have a lot of fun in every episode but certain guys come on who really surprise you, there’s too many good ones. I loved Erik Winkowski talking about how he doesn’t drink anymore with huge bottle of Mezcal with a snake in it, hahaha.
Is there going to be more subscriber only content on The Nine Club?
We have been doing the Experience and The Live Show for so long, every Thursday. We are going to start doing The Live Show for our channel members every so often and focus on other things going on like the More Nine Club channel and Nine Club highlight clips. We will keep doing the interview show as it is, the original one. The plans always end up changing and evolving.
Do you feel like you’re progressing in all of the roles you have? With Street League too, your time at the Olympics. It seems like you have all of these channels, different avenues that seem to plug back in to how stoked you are on skateboarding…
Even though I can’t physically skate like I used to I’m happy to still be doing the judging and working with the crew. I have the judging which involves Street League but also Tampa, Phoenix Am and I am super hyped to do that. I love seeing all the current skaters, what they’re doing, it’s fucking nuts! You get to see the younger kids doing their thing too, there is whole new generation of female skaters and seeing the progression in front of your face is incredible. I’m so happy to be a part of that. As a team manager being at these contests and judging stuff is great. You can see people who would be ideal for different companies.
You’re perfectly placed.
Exactly. I was also team manager for Mob and Ricta for a while and it was cool to offer people stuff. Do you want some griptape, do you want some wheels? I remember that feeling as a kid, getting hooked up with some stuff so I was stoked to be able to help out younger skaters or people who need anything and still am. I saw that Mob just dropped that collab with Shake Junt and Jamie Foy. That was something I was trying to make happen while I was over there. I had been talking with Shane [Heyl] and Mob but for some reason they could never come to an agreement. But then to see that happen and pop up the other day was sick.
What advice would you give to a young skateboarder who wants to work in the industry at this point in time?
What’s funny is that you see some skaters and know they would be perfectly suited to working in the industry, you can see them playing a part. Grant Fiero who works for Street League doing their social media is a good example, he does The Skate Loop. Someone like Bradley Church who is known as Baggy Brad from out in Arizona. He is a super awesome kid who loves skating and loves éS. There are certain kids I see who love, live, and breathe skateboarding and they want the best out of it. If you love skateboarding and like interacting with skateboarders you’re set. If you love doing that just go for it. That’s my suggestion, only do it if you love it. If someone wants to be a pro skater I’d say hell yeah, go for it. There’s no blueprint to tell you how to be a professional skateboarder these days, especially now, there’s probably two thousand different ways to do it.
“I just want to help skateboarding progress. The passion for it that we all grew up on, I want to keep that going in skateboarding. It’s something that we all love and the passion for it needs to stay there”
I think working in the skate industry is awesome, it can be tough at times but that’s going to happen. It goes up and down, and it’s not always that easy but if you love it you don’t really trip out in those scenarios. You’ll be bummed in certain situations but i’s better than not working in skating. Do it because you love it, be genuine about it and don’t force anything. People will say just have fun but my advice is do it because you love it, that’s it.
Any last words?
It feels like my 411 Profile “I want to say thanks to Don Brown and everyone at Etnies”, haha. I want to say thank you for wanting to do this interview with me. I’m super stoked on Slam, you guys are epic, a big part of the skateboarding community and I’m happy to be able to do this. Thanks to anyone who has ever supported my skateboarding also, especially my parents. I just want to help skateboarding progress. The passion for it that we all grew up on, I want to keep that going in skateboarding. It’s something that we all love and the passion for it needs to stay there.
We want to thank Kelly for taking time out for this during a hectic schedule. Be sure to follow him on Instagram as well as @esskateboarding for updates about some of the coming éS Footwear news discussed above. Shop with us for the Two Nine 8 and other shoes in the line and hit up The Nine Club for the moments Kelly mentions in their vast back catalogue of interviews.
Thanks to Neil Macdonald (Science Vs. Life) for the Tom Penny éS Accel advert scan.
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