#TRENDWATCH2014: Preliminary Spring Report

doubles

Photo via The Local Weather. Is #normcore still a #thing?

Spring greeted us with a 54-degree day, a box and a barrier at the T.F. yesterday. However, a spring trend report seems silly before everyone has seen the Supreme video and adjusted accordingly. All of this stuff may be outdated by the end of next weekend, after “cherry” has been given time to marinate. This does not mean the developments discussed below are unimportant, only that they may be superseded by ones with longer staying power in the near future.

Light Ass Denim™

It’s no secret that anyone who looked chilled-as-shit on a skateboard during the #nineties indulged heavily in Light Ass Denim™ (LADs™.) For yet-to-be-uncovered reasons, the proceeding decade did not look upon denim — of any form or wash — as kindly. Sure, textile industry lobbyists who covertly unloaded a surplus of brown chino fabric to the only people who would buy already dirt-colored pants in the 2000s had *something* to do with it (See: Pappalardo, Anthony), but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Why has no research been done on why Fully Flared is the most denim-deficient skate video ever made?

The twenty-year resurgence period of LADs™ and their ties to prosperity has come like clockwork. Did you really think the parallels between LAD™-heavy footage output and subsequent S.O.T.Y. covers in 1993/1994 and 2013/2014 were a coincidence? Fashion goes in cycles, obvs.

lad

…although shit hasn’t gotten really real into someone gets a line in LADs™ and the filmer gets BGPs wearing some too.

Surfing

Thank you Beyonce, for accomplishing what F.L.Y. and even Max B could not.

“Surfboardt” became more than a buzzword this past winter — it might’ve altogether diverted entertainers’ attention away from skateboarding for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Bey, we made it through the first three months of 2014 without a single rapper dropping a skateboard video (unless Bieber counts.) That would have been unimaginable a year ago.

Look no further than this recent interview with Chief Keef for insight into where the hearts and minds of board-curious rappers are heading: “Meanwhile, Keef is trying to make the most of his remaining time in Orange County by taking surf lessons from pro surfer Makua Rothman, and even wants to launch his own surf line. ‘Ain’t nobody surf — everybody try to skateboard,’ he says, referring to rappers like Lil Wayne and Lupe Fiasco. ‘It’ll be cool. It’s a hobby.'”

Just when Keef was starting to gain high-brow skateboarder #musicsupervision acceptance with a song in “cherry”

Phone Numbers

phone numbers

Given the direction of the internet these past ten years, it was safe to assume 281-330-8004 would be the last telephone-based marketing campaign to have an impact for the remainder of human history. And what an impact it was: who else only knows their own, their mom’s and Mike Jones’ phone number?

Alex Olson’s “rave culture” reasoning behind 917-692-2706 (see the March 2014 issue of Thrasher) might’ve seemed like a stubborn refusal to acknowledge modern technology, but what if we told you it lured the man behind the 21st century’s most successful telemarketing campaign out of retirement? As per a statement on his website, WhoMikeJones.com (he apparently lost rights to WhoISMikeJones.com), the mastermind behind 281-330-8004 says: “I’m telling ya’ll, no lie, I’m back, with no politics and finally in charge of things!”

mikejones

Alex Olson: The inadvertent genius who reinstated the relevance of phone numbers, and let Mike Jones know it was the right time to return to the spotlight.

T.Fs in Brooklyn

tompkins

tfmidwest

That Bushwick park on Scholes and Manhattan has been bestowed with the coveted “T.F.” title? Wow. Our increasingly Brooklyn-based readership is starting to get away from us. There’s T.F. (9th & A), T.F. West (Houston & 6th), T.F. North (100th & 1st) and T.F. North North (175th & Fort Washington), and now, Brooklyn may have its first T.F: Bushwick’s T.F. Midwest.

We acknowledged that it was only natural Tompkins would dwindle in influence throughout the 2010s, but this is coming sooner than expected. Considering rents in the East Village are skyrocketing, is it bound to become a playground for only the 1%er skateboarders who are able to afford it by 2020? Is Ms. Lily’s opening up in the 7A space just a formative step in the T.F. region becoming bombarded with luxury variants of former low-cost, broke skateboarder staples, i.e. $4 beef patties? :(

#TRENDWATCH2013: Triangles, The 90s, Spring Trend Report, Chic skater turbans, Televisions

#TRENDWATCH2012: Final fall / winter report, $1,000 griptape, Is this 2013’s biggest t-shirt? (it’s not), Summer report, Smith kickflip outs, headphones & noseslide shove-its

20 Comments

  1. Scholes and Manhattan is not in Bushwick. Anything west/north of Flushing is either East Williamsburg, or just Williamsburg.

    If anywhere should be called the Bushwick TF it’s Maria Hernandez.

  2. Supreme is to Glaciers of Ice as everyone else is to Machine Gun Kelly. K Def and Lario be on that real live shit.

  3. 10 years ago there was no such thing as “east williamsburg.” thats a magical place realtors made up to make bushwick sound less scary to midwesterners.

  4. Have you guys ever given any thought to having a QS forum on here? I’m looking for an intelligent place to discuss skateboarding. If anybody could point me to a place that isn’t Slap where this could happen, I’d greatly appreciate it. I don’t live in NY, but QS keeps it real and is a daily stop for lots of folks, so y’all should have a forum.
    http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ben-stiller-do-it.gif

  5. I think forums are a pretty outdated discussion platform at this point, at least a new one. If you didn’t have one established by, say 2009, it seems rather pointless to start one now. Slap has the monopoly. Hella Clips just started one after having to kill their comments section because it was so out of control, so I’m not sure how appropriate of a solution that is.

    And the TF benches are the IRL QS forum anyway.

  6. The first time i skated the TF was 92/93..i lived on 9th btw 1st+A..harold was the man..there everyday before heading out…ninos pizza was 1$ a slice and arizona first dropped on the world..1$ also..the deli (rip) across from the TF was one of the first ones to carry it..XLNY was also there and was the first to sell the newly formed girl skateboards.

  7. Thanks for the response, @Snack. Yeah, the whole internet troll culture has ruined most forums and I’d probably get eaten alive at the TF benches, haha.

    .

  8. olson live in ny now

    seen homie gone off the molly in sullivan room before it closed down


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