The boys at the Nine Club podcast recently interviewed Birdhouse skateboards professional skateboarder Elliot Sloan to discuss his career and everything about skating.
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During the discussion, the vert pro skater asked Chris Roberts, Jeron Wilson, and Kelly Hart how street skaters make a living. Unfortunately, the crew had to tell the truth.
"It's tough. The money is in shoes, obviously, right? The money is in drinks." Roberts said. "These drink companies do fuck with street skaters but not on the level that I would like to see. It's like the Red Bull, and the Monsters do. Rockstar like Chris Joslin, they're there, you know, but, I mean, it's few and far between."
Although energy drink companies are getting more pro skaters on their team, The Nine Club squad says they are slowly getting more significant. However, corporate companies are using skaters to join mainstream skateboarding contests for brand awareness to promote their products.
Hart also explained how core skateboarders turned down crazy deals back in the good old days. "They are looking back at it now and trying to play this cool guy move and not have that," Hart said.
"Being a cool guy does not pay the bills," Roberts said.
According to Hart, core skateboard companies these days won't let you ride for them if you have corporate sponsorships, mainly because of branding 101 or protecting the brand.
The double-edged sword is the opportunity to make money off corporate sponsorship but stay true to core skateboarding. "How am I supposed to live?" Roberts said.
Roberts added. "The average street skater doesn't make much money."
Unfortunately, the skateboarding industry is small, but when the board companies were few, the paychecks of pro skaters and money going inside the core brands' pockets were huge back then.
In this day and age, there are many good skateboard companies. Still, at the same time, the more competition for products and services, the more it's difficult to make money in core skateboarding unless the professional skateboarder will ride for corporate sponsorships.