Over the course of the past ~10 years, people came to somewhat of a consensus that clips from China are fast fashion on the footage hierarchy. But was China ever actually the problem?
Like, yeah: we’re still in shock how a group of adults decided that remixing a nix’d part of mostly China footage to “Get Lucky” was a good idea and not on-the-nose indicative of the creative lull that respective company was in at the time — but did anyone have a problem with Lucas’ Something Sinster part? Obvs no. We enjoyed Karl Salah’s footage from that random New Balance vid as much as the stuff he films at République, because any Karl footage is good.
“But it all looks the same!” Sure, there’s a certain homogeny to a bunch of cities that got developed over the past couple decades, and most of us can’t tell the difference between a spot in Beijing or Shanghai or Shenzhen. Can you really tell the difference between footage in Madrid v.s. Barcelona, though? Paris v.s. Marseilles? Has that ever been a problem?
Despite how widely understood it is that the spots in China are fucking insane, it is not a go-to destination for homie trips. That’s because you need a Skate Team™ that has budget to cover visas on top of around-the-globe airfare. And skate “teams?” Borrrrring. Most skate trip trends lean towards cost-efficitent options: Those $500 round-trip tickets to Copenhagen on Norwegian Air that anyone with a job and a skateboard in New York has bought before, that time Barcelona tickets were $350, it being common knowledge that Greece is crazy cheap, etc.
We have friends who didn’t get passports until they were 29 — you think they’re going to apply for Visas and go through a background check? Yeah, no.
Counterpoint, though!
Our employed friends Josh Velez, Troy Stilwell and Nick Nunez went out to spot-city Guangzhou with the Carpet Company dudes, and James Park, the …man behind the My Mans and Them edits. Can’t remember the last time a montage coming back from China actually felt like a fun friends edit, and maybe that’s more of the actual problem, not the beautiful faceless spots amidst glass buildings that many of us can’t afford to get to ;)
The Carpet crewWw
all that shirtless footage but you don’t see the sun once :( at least Mariah brought some extra shine.
Most China edits don’t hit because it isn’t that fun to watch out-of-towners do stock tricks on the same basic spots you see in every video. Think of early 00s edits of Euro or out-of-state dudes with 1 week in cali getting their mandatory clips at pier 7, hubba hideout, an LA schoolyard, courthouse, maybe a backyard pool, who gave a shit then or now? That’s what gives Peacock’s footage the edge, those are actually his spots.
God body