Still The Most Productive — Johnny Wilson & Crew For Spitfire Wheels

Cannot imagine that many people have the ten-year anniversary of a random web video pinned on their calendar, but it should be pointed out that the Johnny Wilson x Nike SB “CORE” edit celebrates its tenth birthday this week. “CORE” was a watershed moment around the hallways of the QS office. The brand that sponsored Ishod, P-Rod and Koston corralled a bunch of early-20-somethings shredding New York and uploading it to a filmer’s video page, added in a young Pulaski legend undergoing a career renaissance, a Danish ledge lord, an Australian with a beautiful voice, and a teenager who had already switch flipped over Blubba — and sent them on a low-stakes, one-van trial trip through Upstate New York. (Fun fact: did you know that on paper for the powers that be, the trip was billed as a Nike SB Apparel trip?)

The resulting pilot video was a success, and the subsequent projects that built on this formula became a focal point of the QS newsroom in the ensuing decade.

But perhaps most important — as we sit here ten years later — is that everyone featured in that video, particularly the nucleus bound by those Johnny Wilson Vimeo uploads is doing …great.

Take any skate crew of half-a-dozen skaters or more, fast forward ten years, and mathematically speaking, at least ONE will have turned into some variety of gremlin.

But no. Cyrus is great. Drew’s great. Max is fantastic. Antonio is doing fabulous. Johnny just got back from a 50-mile morning bike ride and is preparing to go skate for nine hours. Bobby’s living in Portland and doing great. Hjalte’s has his own brand and two kids and is doing great. Brass is living his best life in Australia.

Except those last three did not recently get pro wheels from Spitfire. And those last three are not featured in Johnny’s new 10-minute edit — which somehow manages to feel like a full, parts-based Johnny video — pushing those wheels.

But in their place are Karim and Enzo. Some younger energy. Because you can’t expect the same roster of fellas from 2015 to carry the entire weight of the edit ten years later. You gotta shake things up and add some fresh eyes in (ideally ones that’ll try to boardslide the kinked rail that descends into the street from the High Line), even if the carry-overs from that roster are still discovering new ways to skate the same streets that popped up in those same Vimeo edits from the de Blasio years.

And while this 2019 Ben Chadourne Insta upload always felt like an iron-clad proof-of-concept for a Hjalte x Brass “Looks OK to Me” sequel, the continental discrepancies facing that endeavor are not favorable. Instead, an expansion of the first part featured in Johnny’s latest to feature-length form is probably the way to go.

Also love how “papa let me get a coco” has entered the realm of “nice to meet you I’m an artist” as a recurring drop.

Previously: Johnny’s Vid (August 2023), John’s Vid (December 2020)