Metropolitan Co. | Quartersnacks

Foreva Eva

Daily News December 30th, 2019 · 12:45 am · 7

Throughout 2019, Alexis Lacroix‘s drawn out “Oh yeah!” elevated itself into a mantra of spiritual skateboard proportions. We oh yeah’d during our successes to amplify the good feelings. We oh yeah’d during troubled times, to remind ourselves that no misstep was large enough to derail our greater journey. And sometimes, we oh yeah’d when there was nothing else to say — it was a placeholder for any and all emotion. At the same time, Alexis’ skateboarding, most notably via Dime’s Knowing Mixtape Volume 2, was everything and nothing you had seen before. It made you cheer, it made you confused, it frightened you, it made you think, and it made you laugh — sometimes in the span of the same six seconds. With Rita on his shoulder, it also reminded us that our furry, four-legged friends are skaters too. Thank you for the inspiration Alexis Lacroix, the 2019 Q.S.S.O.T.Y.

We will be out of the office until January 6, making this the last QS update of the decade! Webstore purchases will ship as ordered. Everyone enjoy the rest of your break, take care of yourself, and thanks for all the support this year, decade, etc. ♥

The Shape of Tompkins

Daily News March 5th, 2018 · 4:33 am · 2

This is so cute. Shout out to any pro that’s ever sent a handwritten letter.

Rockstar pull up no guitar.

Contagiously good-vibed human and skater, Jawn Gardner, has a new part over on Thrasher, in addition to a part in the newly uploaded Creature video at the 18:10 mark.

Gino Iannucci asks “Who’s going around skating in a $400 sweater?” in his Monster Children feature about restarting Poets as a brand. I gotta introduce him to Troy, though I think his shit is a good bit over $400 ;)

Real re-issued some old Huf boards and has a bit of a feature on him over on their site + clean versions of all his parts. Slam City Skates also interviewed him about Ari Marcopolis’ iconic Metropolitan ad photography. (We talked to Huf about some of his favorite snaps back in 2015 in the event you need even more Huf content hehe.)

“I kind of wonder how I had so much nerve to do some of those graphics.” This is nine months old, but shout to Palomino for just linking it — an hour-long interview with Mark McKee that gives insight into the wild west era of skateboard graphics.

Genny hits Club Liv and a bunch of triangle manny pads in his latest iPhone edit.

Only like 10 people are gonna know what this means, but this feels like a 2018 SuchAGood clip.

Solo interviewed perennial #QSTOP10 fave and Milano Centrale MVP, Ruben Spelta on the occasion of their “THREEE” videos. Thanks for the shout out bro ♥

Huck has posted some iffy articles about skateboarding in the past, but this one about a Bristol D.I.Y. spot and the general rise of skater-made spaces is an a-ok quick read.

Interesting time capsule: a “lost” Alex Olson interview from 2012.

Boil the Ocean on “a mile-long backside tailslide and, perhaps in tribute to Dan Pageau’s freshly funded legacy, a switchstance trip down the fearsome El Toro.”

A lot of smiles in this jazzy nu-age Miami edit from the Andrew Skateshop crew.

Spot Updates — 1) The Banks are *officially* a no-go again. 2) Not sure how recent this is, but to nobody’s surprise, BAM 3 got knobbed.

QS Sports Desk Play of the Week: Lebron James what the fuck omg.

Quote of the Week: “Remember when you showed up to Johnny Wilson’s house and forced him to watch a Pat Laflamme part?” — Zach Baker to ET

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Rest in peace Bankroll Fresh, get well soon Ricky Ross, everybody else please take good care of yourselves, and skateboard and laugh with your friends as much as you possibly can yaknow ♥

“I remember when dinner depended on my fishing rod” is one of the greatest things a rapper has ever said.

Metropolitan 2.0 — An Interview With Keith Hufnagel

Features & Interviews January 5th, 2017 · 9:00 am · 7

Photo by Ari Marcopoulos

The internet has given plenty of pros, videos and companies — or at least an idealized version of them — a second life. Case in point: Metropolitan was a Deluxe-distributed wheel brand that ended in the mid-nineties. It began its second internet life on the pages of Police Informer, a defunct Blogspot page of largely east coast-centric magazine scans before Chromeball took the torch over in 2010. The company’s ads were black and white portraits of skateboarding in New York shot by Ari Marcopoulos, with a distinct non-skate photographer take on the traditional skate ad.

Since then, those iconic ads have been reblogged, regrammed and reposted in every place possible, oftentimes by people too young to have ever ridden a set of Metropolitan wheels. After seeing a few glimpses of Metropolitan gear that was a bit too clean to be vintage throughout the past year, we learned that Keith Hufnagel, one of the original teamriders for the brand, is relaunching it altogether.

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For those don’t know, what was Metropolitan?

Metropolitan was a wheel company. Deluxe was doing Spitfire in the early nineties, and they decided they wanted to have a brand that was more east coast driven. They realized they weren’t getting much traction on the east coast. It was Jim Thiebaud, Chris Pastras, and a few others who developed Metropolitan, which only featured east coast skaters. It was myself, Ryan Hickey, Maurice Key, and a bunch of other guys.

It was a cool but very short-lived company. Spitfire was doing well, Metropolitan was doing decent, and they had to make the decision on which to run with. Spitfire was the stronger brand, so they continued to go with it. We were all heartbroken because we all thought Metropolitan was the best brand ever. It was around for three or four years, but I’m not positive.

Was there any reason as to why Deluxe wanted to start a wheel company as opposed to a board brand?

I’m not sure. Deluxe has done a lot of off-shoots that were board companies. They did Stereo, they did Rasa Libre. Some stayed, some went away. I’m not sure why they didn’t approach Metropolitan as a board company, but maybe their plate was too full.