Nike Skateboarding

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The Nike SB logo, back in its earliest days its products still carried the classic Nike logo (without the SB at the right-bottom corner). It was not until 2005 that Nike started using the present logo to distinguish its SB line from its 'high street' lines due to complications between many of their products (usually are the Dunks)

Nike Skateboarding is a line of skateboarding products created by Nike, Inc. which mainly consist of shoes and clothing (with the occasional umbrella). Nike launched this line in March 2002 in an effort to enter the rapidly growing skateboarding market.

1 Background information
- 1.1 The birth of a brand
2 Riders
3 Shoes
4 Changes
5 External links

[edit] Background information

Before skateboarding was considered a sport worth catering to, skateboarders had to seek out shoes that would hold up to the stress. In the 1960s, the Van Doren Rubber Company introduced so-called vulcanized shoes, in which a rubber sole was cooked onto the body of the shoe.

In the 1980s, skateboard companies started to pop up around the globe, but skateboarding still had a relatively small community; not enough to attract serious interests from major shoe makers while they were battling out in the precious basketball territory. This gave smaller companies a chance to gain ground in the skateboarding market, Airwalk led the charge, they developed an oversized shoe that combined an inflated tongue, thick sole, suede exterior and air pockets that cushioned the foot. Although Nike had never officially entered the skateboarding market in the 1980s, many of its shoes (especially the basketball-specific) gained a following in the skateboarding community due to the fact that skateboarding shoes and basketball shoes share many similarities. Strong grips, durable ankle support and relative comfort were some of the offerings that attracted skaters to them. They were never considered the most desirable skate shoes due to the 'underground' nature of skateboarding at that time. Many skateboarders rejected Nike because they believed the brand was too commercial.

The 1990s saw the rise of skateboarding into prominence, and the vast improvement of skate shoe technology with DC Shoes making major advances in shoe design. It added stronger fabrics, multidensity rubber, gel pockets, plastic eyelets that encased exposed shoelaces and soles with a gumlike grip that improved foot-to-board traction. As skate shoes began to resemble tiny life rafts for the feet, DC Shoes began to dominate the skate shoes market. In the mid-1990s, skate shoes went mainstream. Their evolution was influenced as strongly by popular culture as by the demands of skateboarding. The loud, blocky skate shoe fell from favor as the hip-hop culture of the 1990s eventually died out. The current trend reflects the punk-rock look of the 1970s. Nike started to experiment with the market by reissuing many of its older models in the late-1990s.

[edit] The birth of a brand

By the 2000s, with a global population of around 12 million skaters, skateboarding grew into a $2.5 billion industry, with $1.6 billion in shoe sales alone. Traditional skate shoe companies like Vans and DC Shoes had grown so large over the years that size did not matter to skateboarders anymore. Nike decided it was time to capitalize on the growing market. With lessons from the past, Nike began to employ respected figures from the industry to aid their launch. Nike started its first strike on the market in 2002 with advertisements in skateboard magazines like Transworld Skateboarding and Thrasher magazine, before handing out catalogs to hardcore (skater-owned, skater-run) skateboard shops. Because all Nike skateboard shoes were still in development stage at the time, all publicity pictures in these materials show riders skating in the Air Jordan line of shoes. At the time of press in early promotional materials Nike referred to the what is now called the Dunk SB High as the Dunks SB Mid. To attract attention and establish itself as a major force in the market, Nike has sponsored many skateboarding events all over the world.

[edit] Riders

Ever since the Air Jordan success, Nike has always employ the spokesperson marketing technique to promote its many sports lines. As it is now a common practice for skateboarding organizations (usually product companies, but sometimes larger skate shops) to sponsor riders to promote their products and build company's heritage. Nike SB was launched with a strong team of riders. Present riders include:

Brian Anderson
Paul Rodriguez Jr.
Chet Childress
Daniel Shimizu
Todd Jordan
Richard Mulder
Reese Forbes
Gino Iannucci
Danny Supa
Stefan Janoski
Omar Salazar
Wieger Van Wageningen
Dan Murphy

[edit] Shoes

Dunk The flagship SB line of trainers
E-CUE (cut in 2005)
Air Zoom FC (cut in June 2006)
ANGUS (allegedly cut in October 2005, but a black/white/ yellow release dropped in Hong Kong in May 2006)
Zoom Team Edition
SB Classic
P-Rod (Paul Rodriguez Jr. signature series)
P-Rod 2 (Set to release Early 2007)
Delta Force
Blazer SB
Air Trainer 1 SB
Regime
Zoom Tre
Mogan (6.0 not SB)
Oncore (6.0 not SB)
Mavrk (6.0 not SB)
URL (Cut in 2004)
Abbington (Formerly "SC", set to release in late 2006)

Nike 6.0 is a more mainstream brand aimed at capitalizing off of the SB line's success and are distributed to more mainstream-style stores such as PacSun, Zumiez, etc.

[edit] Changes

In 2006 Nike SB has begun to phase out some of the older shoes like the E-Cue and Angus in favour of more home designed shoes. It is thought that these changes were made to capitalize on the launch of the Zoom Tre, Nike SB's flagship technical skate shoe. It is also anticipated that later on in 2006 with the launch of the 'Regime' shoe they will phase out other members of the line up consolidating the best sellers.