The Boonies Skateboards boss Tim Pool didn’t mince his words when he spoke on his famous show about the state of skateboarding.
According to him, skateboarding is completely dead, even though it is now an Olympic sport.
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The numbers don’t seem to add up at first glance. The Boonies are selling over 500 skateboards a month, particularly their pro models. That kind of performance usually signals a thriving market, yet Pool insists that the industry in America is struggling in ways that go beyond sales.
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Skate industry experts have been scratching their heads because the market is crowded, yet The Boonies seem to be one of the few companies actually doing well.
Pool’s perspective on professional skateboarders gives a clearer picture of the situation.
The current situation is a far cry from the 1990s and early 2000s, which were golden years for pros. That was a time when skateboarders were making real money. They were driving Cadillacs, raking in cash from the THPS franchise, and enjoying a level of independence that did not require corporate sponsorship.
Nowadays, he said, many pro skateboarders are holding down minimum wage jobs, delivering packages, or working at places like Home Depot just to make ends meet.
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The shift, he explained, comes down to where the boards are made. Skateboard production has largely moved overseas. “Instead of employing Americans and selling a product to Americans, all the manufacturing went to China,” he said. “We cut wood in Canada, ship it to the United States, send it to China, and have cheap labor make it for pennies. Then the boards come back here, and suddenly there are no factories, no local jobs, and no professional skateboarders.”
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The 39-year-old pointed out that in countries like Japan and China, skateboarding is booming. New pros are often young teens, and the sport has a strong presence because those countries control their own production and promotion.
In contrast, the United States gave away its advantage by choosing cheaper imports. “People would rather pay thirty dollars for a Chinese board than fifty for an American one,” he said. “Most didn’t even know the difference. The result is that American families who once built skateboards, or ran woodshops, lost those jobs. Their kids aren’t skating anymore, and the culture is slowly disappearing here.”
The skate journalist went on to reflect on how personal the topic is for him. “Skateboarding is a perfect example of what happens when we ship our raw materials overseas to be made cheaply. Americans lose jobs, the culture suffers, and when you go to China or Japan, you see thousands of kids at skateparks. You see new skateparks being built, TV shows launching, and the sport thriving. We started it in California, and we basically gave it away.”
In the eyes of Pool, skateboarding has left its home country in more ways than one.
Tim Pool Posted:
"Skateboarding didn’t die. We gave it away.
Factories moved overseas. Sponsorships vanished. Pros work at Home Depot
Now it’s growing in Asia while it shrinks in the country that invented it."