This is a couple of weeks old. I had decided to ignore it, but I was exploring the French-Canadian Versus Skatezine which has a heavy Don’t Do It Army presence. I decided to see what Birdo was up to, and it turns out the Don’t Do It campaign has branched out into the whole action sports industry. One of the first things I clicked on ended up targeting Nike’s entry into the snowboarding boot market, which in turn reminded me of the Winter Dew Tour commercials on TV that have an action sequence of Shaun White skateboarding and morphing into snowboarding. The Dew Tour has a new logo, perhaps coinciding with the creation of the Action Sports Alliance. Make no mistake about it, despite a name that sounds like an operation for activism, outreach, or a rider’s union, it’s a company jointly owned by NBC Sports and MTV.
Alli is a global business that joins the former Action Sports Tour properties (AST) with Maloof Money Cup, AMA Motocross Championship and King of Wake series to create the most diverse and robust action-sports offering in the world. The new umbrella brand, which will continue to be co-owned by NBC Sports and MTV, will offer a schedule of seven national and international action sports tours and events, multimedia content and production, a digital hub and consumer-facing lifestyle brand.
Check out the press release. No word on the official position of the Don’t Do It Army.
19 comments
bailgun
there i go again, overlooking the obvious again.
i keep forgetting that there are athletes in skateboarding now.
nweyesk8
or they care more about getting paid….
bailgun
“….you don’tbite the hand that feeds….” you do if you have teeth. if all (or even most) pros could present a unified front when stuff like this happens, they could make the corporados do pretty much anything.
either they don’t know or don’t care about the power they weild,but either way, they’re not using it.
nweyesk8
but I agree, it pisses me off that they build temporary parks when they could be building permanent assets to a community
nweyesk8
many of those pros who attend are there under contractual obligation. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
bailgun
ok, put simply…. without the pros going to compette, there IS NO CONTEST. if they would stand up against the corporados and present a unified front, some real positive change could be made in skateboarding.
i mean, how popular will the x-games be if the field of contestants is todd falcon, chand knight, and nate sherwood?
but everyone is afraid to miss a potential paycheck, so the kookfest continues.
Concretin Nik
Bailgun is right though… televised = advertising dollar$ so admission doesn’t really mean shit for something like that, it wasn’t even live. (The edited events are MUCH better for television anyway-I wish they’d realize that). And it was edited QUICK. I think it aired three or four days later. That’s some serious production. It was good for the skate “industry,” as in the pros, and teener demographic, but any skater over 30 knows they could have done so much more for skateboarding VERY easily.
I feel the X-Games is promoted much more as a live event “to be attended.” Still no reason to be wasteful with a ramp/course. For a recurring event like that, they should really spend the dough on a ramp like Tony Hawks that is perfect for tear down/set-up and could be easily constructed/designed to add elements like extensions, rainbow rails, escalators, etc.
If only I ruled the world…
Kilwag
I was pisssed about the wastefulness of the Maloof Cup park too, they built it on an athletic field with bleachers and all so they could charge admission. California Skateparks built it, and they have some videos I think. Turns out it was built with a lot of sphoncrete prefab stuff. I’m pretty sure they just picked up that stuff and reused it elsewhere. Still, it would have been nice to build a nice park and leave it in place for a deserving and needy town. Probably couldn’t fill the stands though.
Mac
I’m with bailgun on this one, and I would extend the criticism to the X-Games as well. For their “Superpark” event last summer, they could/should have built a sick cement flow bowl somewhere in Southern Cal and left it for the community. They could do this every year and leave a legacy. Instead, they built a barely adequate, temporary wooden bowl, and probably spent way too much on it. It’s a waste.
bailgun
sorry, but i don’t hate the world. i just hate it when profiteering assholes like maloof make a spectacle of something like this and all the little sheep get in line saying how awesome it was, and how good for skateboarding it is. a little extra work could’ve given some town a great park forever. it was TELEVISED so the actual location really didn’t matter much.
i see something as completely fucked as the maloof cup, and i have to say something.
Concretin Nik
I won’t go as far as to say fk ’em… because the Maloof contest was insane… even filmed an edited much like a skate vid, on network tv even (couldn’t have been CBS camera guys)… but to not donate that park to some city was absolutely asinine.
Zed-word
Ok bailgun, fuck the world. Hate everything. See where that gets you buddy.
bailgun
fuck the maloof money cup.
dickhead builds a full-on concrete plaza for ONE CONTEST and then tears it down. and fuck the pros for not demanding that the park be built somewhere it could be permanent.
KC
It beats last years.
http://i42.tinypic.com/1pjzuw.jpg
conahan
Actually, there is an activist effort called The Action Sports Alliance. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from the corporate lawyers for mistaking it for the Alliance of Action Sports.
Man, that Dew tour logo is dogshit. Their designers are no better than the guys who are supposed to come up with available organization names.
Dick cancer
Believe it or not I saw carrot top at tigard. He actually did alright.
duders
birdo should worry more about why his company is failing and less about what other people are doing.. the guy has been BLOWING it
bobcat
Shawn White ruined snowerblading, lately even if he doesn’t place or even ride they spend all the time sucking up to that ugly mofo on camera.
ssk
Unionize