Refocus

I’ve got two magazines worth of vintage skatemag ads scanned and posted in the gallery, one from the 70’s and another from the 80’s. I’ve got loads of scans from the 70’s ready to add and some interesting UK-based ads to scan from the 80’s but I figured I’d better do at least one mag from the 90’s or I’d likely never get to it since that’s the decade I find inherently less interesting. Shoe adverts are in abundance. Companies and pros sprung up overnight like mushrooms and disappeared just as quickly after you come down from the bad trip. There are companies I can’t ever remember seeing and due to esoteric ad copy I can’t even tell what the product is that is being advertised. For instance, this ad for Silverstar has me scratching my head. While I actually like the aesthetic and the nonsensical message has a certain poetry, I can’t tell you what Silverstar is without a historical reference. One thing I do enjoy about the ads from this era is seeing the once mighty gasp for new life in the changed industry landscape, with companies like Vision stooping as low as to republish pictures of Mark Gonzales from the 80’s. And of course, there are the baggy jeans. The 90’s weren’t a total waste, It’s nice to see early ads for guys like Jason Adams who are still in the mix today.

I’m going to be taking a break from regular content here on Skate and Annoy to plow through some 90’s ads. On the plus side, there usually isn’t a lot of ad copy for me to transcribe, so they go pretty quickly. After that, I’m going to get caught up on posting some stockpiles of 80’s skatezines.