A poster for Landlubber clothes dating back to 1978. Naked with a backpack, skateboard and a notebook, huh? Nothing is better than landlubber clothes? Oh… if you don’t have Landlubber, you might as well wear nothing. The seller needs some help with photography skills. This is one of the most haphazard auction shots I’ve ever seen. There isn’t a decent shot that shows the whole thing in a straight forward view.

Bob Burnquist and crew (including Jeff King) built a classy looking floating miniramp as part of a PR campaign to (Warren) bolster California tourism. Visit California, where all your dreams can come true. This commercial speaks directly to 1984 Kilwag. I remember my first time in California, actually visiting some of the places I’d read about and seen in Thrasher like venice Beach, the Nude Bowl, and random grade schools with banks. It was like making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Dream Big was filmed in 2013, but I didn’t see it until recently. It looks super fun, kind of small, almost anticlimactic in the context. Maybe their budget didn’t allow them to dream bigger. Still, it’s great that things like this are being built. Don’t forget to visit California.

5 years ago I found a weird looking board on Ebay. The wacky truck configuration and the fact that it was a promotional board for an auto parts manufacturer made me save the pictures. I just recently found an ad for Hooker Headers in the May, 1976 issue of Hot Rod that had a order form for the Hooker Headers skateboard, and amazingly enough, I was able to find those old pictures among the flotsam on my hard drive. It’s got a metal plate between the trucks, similar to the Flex-trol, but it also adds the ability to change your wheelbase on the fly. Hooker was positioning this as the “ultimate suspension system” for skateboards. Was it a way to build brand loyalty for kids to young to drive yet? I can’t imagine they had a longterm business model that involved skateboarding. Still, it was too expensive of a setup (manufacturing wise) to be purely promotional, especially considering that they offered three boards in two colors as well as the suspension system in two different configurations. Maybe someone at Hooker had a kid who skated. The brand is still around but it looks like it has been absorbed by Holley.…

Here’s three vintage Levi’s print ads from the 70’s. The one on the right is from Salvador Dali’s brief, unpublicized performance art piece where he worked as commercial artist in various ad agencies. Yes, I am making this up.

This is a TDK advertisement shot at Venice Beach circa 1989. I’ve seen this up on ebay before, actually but this one actually comes from the Google Books, repository, adjacent to the digital knoll. It’s from “Spy” magazine… ha. Remember that one? I’m looking at the shape of that board and thinking that might be Dave Hackett. Anyone got any other ideas? – Thanks to Sandor for the tip.

Hermes style wings fir your shoes. Shoe + wings = shwings. These aren’t intentionally marketed at skateboarders per se, more like marketed with skateboarding. – Thanks to Josh Burt for the photo.

Double page spread for the Gap in an issue of GQ. Almost looks like it could be 20 years old… Photo courtesy of Aaron Shims, who thinks you should patronize Black Market Skates, skateboard at Marginal Way, and swears he doesn’t actually have a subscription to GQ

Levis wants in on skateboarding. They’ve got a skateboarding collection, a collaboration with Thrasher, and a half baked campaign called Make Your Mark or possibly What’s your approach that features Natas Kaupas. I’ve got nothing against Levi’s. It’s a privately owned company that still makes (a small percentage) some clothing in the USA. Their sweatshop labor controversy is well behind them. They’ve used the Clash in commercials, why not Natas? OK, I do have a beef. If you’re going to post an “interview” with Natas, at least make sure it has a little substance. If you check out the accompanying video, it makes even less sense. I hear him talking, but it’s all chopped up, and in the end it’s like he’s not saying anything.

It’s a weird, weird world we live in, where Mercedes Benz thinks it advantageous to make “a beautifully filmed video pitting man against machine these unlikely four-wheeled allies tango at high-speed on the majestic Franschhoek Pass in the Western Cape.” Are they targeting the desire of older rich males to be associated with speed, youth and danger? It was filmed for Mercedes Benz South Africa, which might explain why there’s no “Do not try this” warning at the bottom of the screen for dumb Americans. There is a “filmed under controlled conditions” message at the end. The rider is Decio Lourenco, and you can read more on Mercedes Benz Life. Because apparently owning a Mercedes Benz is a lifestyle, and not a sport. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

We passed Freestyle Pizza near Umatilla, Oregon on our road trip out east. It didn’t occur to us to actually eat there, but we did stop for pictures. We should have checked if they had custom take out boxes. Grover claims he sent me a shot of this last year, but I must have forgotten to post it. You can view larger versions after the jump. Those are some crazy Jetsons-looking trucks.