Zoals iedereen weet ontstaan de beste ideeen op de wc of een ander ontspannen intermezzo zo ook het volgende. 

Op 2 april wordt ons maandelijkse feestje, De Buurtsuper, weer gehouden in Off Corso en uiteraard zijn onze LEFT dj's weer aanwezig voor een muzikale ondersteuning. 

Tijdens deze speciale editie, er volgt namelijk nog meer nieuws, houdt LEFT i.s.m. de kunstaccademie Willem de Kooning een skateboard exhibition.

Dus voel jij de drang om je artifarti te laten zien aan een groter publiek, aarzel dan niet om snel contact op te nemen met coen@left.nl

We kennen World Industries allemaal van de Wet Willy, Flameboy en Devilman skateboards, de meeste weten echter niet dat dit merk grote invloed heeft gehad op het huidige skateboarden.

Steve Rocco was het grote brein achter World Industries en vele andere grote merken zoals o.a. Blind. Ook richte hij Big Brother magazine op waar eigenlijk het hele Jackass verhaal uit voort komt.

Een aantal jaren geleden is een film gemaakt over Steve Rocco genaamd "the man who sould the world" welke zeker de moeite waard is om eens te bekijken.

We hebben een document gekregen waarin Steve Rocco in het kort verteld over het ontstaan van World Industries.

The Story of World Industries

By: Steve Rocco

The Beginnings

When I was about 11, my brother Pat got a skateboard for his birthday. My dad got me one also. There was a curb about 18 inches high near our house. We would spend hours just trying to ride off of it.

The First Sponsor

There was this guy, Jim Drake, who lived near me. His brother owned Tunnel and he just started giving me free stuff. At first I was the worst guy on the team, sort of like a mascot. I wound up on Powell, but I only rode for them for about a month, then Sims offered me a Pro Model in 1979. This was the first freestyle pro model.

The Problems and the Solution

In the early 1980’s, Vision took over Sims and it was all downhill. Brad [Dorfman] treated us like bastard stepchildren while Vision got all the glory. I was very rebellious and in 1987 Brad kicked me off the team. I was living on Natas Kaupas’ kitchen floor at the time. I vividly remember having dinner with Natas and Skip Engblom [of Santa Monica Airlines] at a Mexican restaurant. I was 27, with no sponsor. I thought my life in skateboarding was over. I would have to go back to work for my dad in the dry cleaning store. Skip told me not to worry. The next morning he took me to the woodshop and told me if I bought 500 boards he could get them sold for me. I cash advanced my credit card for $6,000 and Santa Monica Airlines: Rocco Division was born.

We’ve Got a Company, Now What?

From there things just got crazier. I teamed up with John Lucero [from Black Label] and we got a warehouse together. After three weeks, Lucero backed out because I spent $800 on shelves. Once again, I thought it was over. This time rescue came from an unlikely source-Rodney Mullen. Rodney bought out Lucero for $6,000 and we were partners. This might lead you to believe that Rodney had a keen sense for business and prophetic vision of the future. In reality, I tricked Rodney out of the money and he pretty much figured it was as good an investment as flushing it down the toilet and hoping more would come back up. Which is pretty much true, because at the time, we were broke. I borrowed $20,000 in a paper bag from a bookie. The payback conditions were simple: borrow $20,000, pay back $30,000 in one year, or else. Nothing motivates like fear. And with Rodney around, we had plenty of that. I took my bag of cash down to Vision and waved it around the parking lot. Jesse Martinez was the only one who would listen to me. I offered him $2 a board [royalty], twice the industry standard, and he fell for it.

1988-Things Start Moving

With Jesse at my side the company started to take shape. He brought in Jeff Hartsel, which now gave us a team of three. For the first time I actually felt like things were starting to go well. The problem was they were going too well. We started selling more than anyone had ever anticipated, and before long the eyes of the big [skateboard companies] were on us. The first to act was Santa Cruz. At the time Santa Cruz was licensing the Santa Monica Airlines name from Skip. They got a little annoyed because I had an ad saying that all wheels come from the same place and were made of the same stuff; hence there was no such thing as "special formulas." The penalty for telling the truth was to have Skip call and tell me I could no longer use the Santa Monica Airlines name. I was devastated. Next Rodney was told that if he didn’t pull out his investment (now up to $18,000), he would be kicked off the Powell team. Rodney came to me and told me he was out. Then another competitor kicked in and tried to stop our mold maker from delivering to us the first double kick molds. At this point most people with any common sense would have just given up. [These three companies] had combined sales of over 100 million dollars. I was living off the dollar bills kids sent in for stickers. Fortunately, the only thing I had less of than money was common sense. 
Job one was to convince (trick) Rodney into staying. Rodney was trying to figure out whether to stay by confronting me and George Powell with worst-case scenarios. He told us both that he was leaving and figured he would stay with the one who handled it better. He asked me if I would pay him back all the money. I told him sure, no problem (even though I would have killed him). He then told George that he might be leaving and George told him he was an idiot for considering World over Powell. Rodney came back and said he was quitting Powell and he and Mike Vallely were going to ride for World. I tried to act surprised, but I knew what Rodney was doing all along. Mike and Rodney each put in $15,000, which gave us the money we needed for the double kick molds. We changed our name to SMA World Industries as a joke, but they said we couldn’t use the SMA part, so we dropped the SMA and World Industries was born.

Het leven van een skateboarder in Nederland gaat natuurlijk niet over rozen. Ligt er geen meter sneeuw dan regen je wel weg of vriezen je ballen er af.

LEFT teamrijder Jaasir Linger trotseerde de kou en schoot een kort filmpje in het owzo gezellige Zoetermeer.