INTRODUCING THE 2014 OUTERWEAR COLLECTION FOX HEAD BOOTH #108
FUTURE STYLE
LATERMAG.COM @LATERMAG
ART BY DANIEL CURTIS
/asphaltyachtclub.com
RILEY HAWK www.asphaltyachtclub.com
AVAILABLE THROUGH NO LIMITS GROUP 1.800.996.3327 | WWW.NOLIMITS.CA
ISSUE #3 VOL #2 SPRING / SUMMER 2014
CONTENTS
Creative Director Paul Higgins paul@knowshow.ca
20 | FASHION FEATURE - “ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT”
Photo Editor André Paul Pinces pincesphoto.com
40 | THE GOOD SHOP A’HOY
Editor-in-Chief Perry Pugh perry@knowshow.ca
46 | FYI LAB
Editor Kendra Pugh
48 | SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE TURNS TEN
Fashion Editor Tanus Lewis tanuslewis.com
54 | SHOP PROFILE - NORTH STANDARD
Layout and Design Paul Higgins
58 | ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
Production Controller Nick Brown
92 | FASHION FEATURE - “SMOKE SHOW”
Advertising Director Perry Pugh perry@knowshow.ca
106 | RHEK’S WELCOME TO JANYTOWN 110 | PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - “ISOLATED INCIDENTS”
CONTRIBUTORS
Colin Adair Colin Adair is a man of action. Action sports to be exact. After a long stint as photo editor at Snowboard Canada magazine he became the staff photographer for DC Snowboarding. In the off season he shoots for a variety of clients and publications. For more of Colin’s work go to his website: www.colinadair.com
Dave Ackels Dave Ackels is a skateboarder who has made a lot of videos ...he even worked on an Oscar nominated documentary as a filmer. A long time friend of Don Pendleton, we thought Dave would be the perfect person to interview the iconic artist. www.absorbskateboards. com @absorbskateboards on Instagram.
Kendra Pugh Kendra has been known to bend words, tickle ivories and bake banana muffins from time to time. Follow her whimsy @kendrajasper and stalk her dog on Instagram @MrBarryGibb
Grady Mitchell Grady Mitchell is a writer and photographer in Vancouver. When not writing or shooting photos, he enjoys reading or looking at photos, and sometimes motorcycles. Contact KnowMag 303 234 5th Ave E Vancouver BC V5T 1H7 www.knowshow.ca/knowmag info@knowshow.ca
The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights in regards to copyright of their work. No part of this work covered by the copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher. © KnowShow 2014
A NEW REASON TO SMILE AFTER A FRESH DUMP.
INTRODUCING THE BRAVO WITH HAPPY LENS™
LIFETIME jacket MINIMUM sweater FJALLRAVEN plaid zip fleece OBEY jeans RAINS Bag KOMONO glasses vintage scarf from F AS IN FRANK GENERIC SURPLUS boots
A
L
T
I
Fashion Editor TANUS LEWIS tanuslewis.com
T
U
D
E
Photography ANDRÉ PINCES pincesphoto.com
A D J U S T Special thanks to Apex Mountain Resort
M
E
N
T
FJALLRAVEN parka DEUS EX MACHINA scarf PUBLISH pants STANCE socks RVCA gloves NATIVE boots KOMONO glasses FJALLRAVEN bag OBEY hat
LIFETIME jacket and sweatshirt EMERICA plaid shirt NEUW jeans OBEY Hat OBEY bag KOMONO sunglasses HAN WAG boots
Vintage hat from F AS IN FRANK FJALLRAVEN jacket, MINIMUM sweater KUWALLATEE t-shirt ZANEROBE pants GENERIC SURPLUS boots
MEN’S FASHION
- 32 -
MEN’S FASHION
LONDON ALEXANDER jacket F AS IN FRANK vintage sweater OBEY tee NEUW button up RAINS paints NATIVE boots STANCE socks HERSHEL bag KOMONO sunglasses
- 33 -
ALTAMONT parka FJALLRAVEN shirt MINIMUM blazer LONDON ALEXANDER pants GENERIC SURPLUS boots HERSHEL duffle bag
MEN’S FASHION
BRIXTON hat BLACKBEAR by PENFIELD jacket PENFIELD sweater DEUS EX MACHINA pants WESC gloves HAN WAG boots
- 36 -
MEN’S FASHION
MINIMUM parka FJALLRAVEN henley ZANEROBE sweater EMERICA quilted shirt jacket OBEY pants HAN WAG boots FJALLRAVEN hat
- 37 -
MEN’S FASHION
- 40 -
MEN’S FASHION
FJALLRAVEN all clothing and hat GENERIC SURPLUS boots
- 41 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
THE GOOD SHOP
A’HOY by Kendra Pugh Photos by ????
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. As fresh air enters your lungs and stings with crispness, picture the sun slowly fading behind a backdrop of snowcapped mountains, casting a warm red light on everything it touches. Around you, trees stand guard - tall and fragrant - as water rhythmically laps at your feet. Now open your eyes… and welcome to Deep Cove. Located only a short distance from downtown Vancouver, Deep Cove is notably one of the most visually stunning and covetable places to live in Canada~ it’s natural resources and beauty serve as daily inspiration for those lucky enough to live there. One local business~ A’hoy~ was established on this very inspiration. Born from the desire to offer residents and visitors to Deep Cove a unique retail experience reflective of its surroundings, A’hoy opened its doors last July under the ownership of Lyndon and Jamie Cormack of Herschel Supply Co., and Megan Curren of neighbouring store, Room6. Focused first on serving the needs of Deep Cove locals~ an active and family based community~ A’hoy doesn’t pander to the whims of fleeting fashion trends, but rather stocks it’s shelves with tried and tested labels. From Patagonia, Pendleton, Stussy, Vans, Levi’s, Hunter, Ken Diamond, HBC, Converse, Sundry, Birkenstock and of course, Herschel Supply Co., each brand is thoughtfully chosen for it’s reputation for quality and emphasis on classic design. Fashion is not lost amongst the mix, however, with it’s artful merchandising and exceptionally edited product selection, it is more apt that you will quickly want to buy into the lifestyle and West Coast charm that A’hoy emanates the minute you walk through the door. From cozy blankets and chunky knit beanies to warm fleece jackets and delicious apothecary items, A’hoy successfully delivers something
- 42 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
- 43 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
covetable for all~ man, woman, child and even man’s best friend. Established brands aside, A’hoy Goods, the store’s private label collection that includes soft heathered tees, knit headwear, scented soy candles and more, has been a success and is positioned to expand as the store inevitably grows too. No stranger to Deep Cove and the retail scene~ having run Room6 in the ‘Cove for nearly ten years~ Megan Curren tells us the story of A’hoy and what it takes to be successful in a community where Mother Nature is the real scene stealer. What sparked the idea to open A’hoy in Deep Cove? Jamie, Lyndon and I are friends and neighbours and we all live in and love Deep Cove. We’ve all wondered why Deep Cove retail hadn’t ever measured up to the natural beauty and cultural uniqueness that the Cove has to offer. When the space next door to Room6 opened up (with a patio and stunning view of the Cove), we decided to finally do something about it. We wanted to create something that would enhance everyone’s Deep Cove experience, be it locals or visitors. As locals we wanted something our neighbours could be proud of and feel a part of. We love this place and feel unbelievably lucky to live here so we wanted to be sure that it was an honest, insider representation of what is special about the Cove. Who shops at A’hoy? Do you have a target demographic? Between locals and people visiting from Vancouver and abroad, we get a pretty wide range of people through the store. Our focus is to deliver for our Deep Cove locals
first, most of whom are active and engaged families. Our customers value quality and good design. Beyond our locals, we believe that if we are delivering product that is relevant to the Deep Cove lifestyle, that authenticity will resonate with a larger group of people. How do you achieve balance between giving customers what they need and influencing what they want (function vs. fashion)? We all live here, and we all chose to live here. We love it and believe there are few other places like it in the world. People living in Deep Cove and visiting from Vancouver proper value the outdoors, be it on the water or in the mountains, so there are certain functional essentials one needs to really enjoy the area. But Vancouver is a world-class metropolitan city so design and fashion are also relevant. To truly serve our customers we have to span that range, but do it with a clear point of view, style and aesthetic. What do you think are the key ingredients necessary for a successful specialty boutique? Over the past 9 years running Room6, I’ve learned that you have to know what you love and have a clear point of view … but you also have to gauge what your local customers want and need. That includes introducing collections you know clients will love immediately, but also nudging them toward broader trends that may not be apparent yet. Over the years my clients have come to trust that I’ve sifted through nearly everything out there and the done painstaking editing and curating. Sweating the details and having a clear passion for what you do is also critical. You have to know the story
- 44 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
for each product, and people have to understand why you believe this is a worthy product. And finally you have to keep it fresh. I don’t know how many hundreds (or thousands!) of times I’ve rearranged Room6, and that also goes for the product mix. You have your staples but you have to have a constantly evolving and rotating supporting cast of products to retain interest. A’hoy is a new offering with a different clientele but these same rules apply. For example, at A’hoy we built custom fixtures that were modular, and we planned lighting so mixing things up would be easy. A’hoy’s aesthetic & brand list are very well edited. How do you choose your brands & what do you consider when seeking & choosing new labels? Our products reflect the inherent contradictions of this secluded beach community that’s just 20 minutes from a world-class city. It’s a Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket paired with handmade Ken Diamond moccasins. In short, our focus is always on our customers, giving them what they need, but through the lens of what we feel makes Deep Cove one of the most special places on earth. There’s nothing quite like it, so our offering needs to be unique in the same way. You’ve been open for nearly half a year now~ what’s done well? We’re stoked by the response to our house brand A’hoy Goods, and our tees were a huge seller over the summer. We have a great selection of Herschel Supply and that’s been a big seller for us as well. Any predictions for fall 2014~ must-haves, key trends, etc.? Being on-trend and knowing what’s going on is important, but we aren’t solely driven by trends. We want to be flexible
enough to react to trends with our own products, but the A’hoy brand is timeless and classic, not unlike Herschel Supply. What does the future of A’hoy look like? We’ll continue to hone the in-store experience so locals and visitors are finding just the right balance of products, but we’re also excited to expand our reach beyond Deep Cove. First stop is our online shop, but we’re also exploring the opportunities to open more shops and are developing our A’hoy brand to include a tight collection of essentials for Men, Women and Kids. It’s reasonable to expect big things from this dynamic ownership trio~ while they may have their hands in fashion, their hearts are in tune with their community~ a key ingredient to success for any small business. As A’hoy voyages into a new season this year, we’re confident that it will be blue skies and smooth sailing from here on out. A’hoy is located at 4391 Gallant Ave, Deep Cove, North Vancouver. Follow them on Instagram @ahoygoods or shop online at ahoygoods.com.
- 45 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
- 46 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
- 47 -
COMPANY PROFILE - FYI LABS
- 48 -
COMPANY PROFILE - FYI LABS
F When Tom Routh started snowboarding, every lift line was a 20 questions gauntlet where he had to explain what the hell he had strapped to his feet. He was a pioneer of the sport, one of the original pros in an era when there were two teams: Burton and Sims. In those days snowboard design made quantum leaps every six months, and Tom and his Sims teammates represented the leading edge in that progression. He rode before there was a “style,” and in the decades since he’s witnessed every single trend come, go, and sometimes come back again. Today Tom continues that spirit of progression through his technical apparel design company, FYi Labs. FYi is the culmination of a lengthy, largely self-driven education in outdoor apparel. Many of the innovations Tom and his team have invented arose from his own needs. Or, more often, his complaints. In 1991, at the age of 23, he began constructing backpacks in a quest for a functional bag to handle the big mountain backcountry he loved riding. Every bag available at that time, Tom says, “was a nightmare.” As his prototypes grew more advanced he started his first company to sell them, CirqueWorks. He ran Cirque for five years before Arc’teryx hired him to spearhead their new snowsports program. He had 18 months to learn how to build technical apparel (fit with a backpack is a simple matter of lumbar support, as opposed to a highly technical garment where, Tom points out, “You’re literally climbing into the thing.”), as well as run extensive r&d, develop a comprehensive collection of 37 products, and ship it. He kept a sleeping bag under his desk.
Y
Written by Grady Mitchell Arc’teryx shared Tom’s philosophy of design serving performance. In Tom’s mind aesthetics and function are intimately linked. “If you’ve really applied good solutions to functional problems,” he says, “it tends to look right already.” He draws inspiration from numerous places - architecture, furniture design, even aircraft - but his favourite analogy is automotive: “You can have the performance,” he says, “but the car still needs a beautiful body to become the whole package.” Every time he hits the drafting table, Tom seeks to create what he calls “functional art.” After five high-intensity years at Arc’teryx, Tom’s priorities shifted. He found a disconnect in designing backcountry gear from an office in Vancouver. Once he’d developed products to enable his outdoor lifestyle. Now he sacrificed that lifestyle to develop outdoor products. He needed a change, so he started FYi Labs. He chose the unlikely headquarters of Pemberton, BC. What it lacked in conveniences like garbage disposal and shipping, it made up in inspiration and proximity to nature’s unbounded product testing grounds. “I wanted to be where I wanted to be and make the business work from there,” Tom says. “Not the other way around.” Since launching FYi Tom has collaborated with Burton, Aether, New Balance, and Patagonia. He’s made bags, footwear, gloves, even an iPod sleeve for Apple. Although technical apparel is the cornerstone of his company, those offshoot projects introduced him to new materials, processes and techniques. FYi’s methodology is something Tom calls vertical design. His team
- 49 -
I preserves their vision by handling every step of the process themselves. Many companies simply send an Illustrator image and spec package to a factory and await the final product. FYi handles sketching, mockups, r&d, fit development, pattern making, and prototyping in-house. All the factory does is assemble the product precisely to FYi’s requirements. That means Tom gets exactly what he designed. A shared sense of vertical design is what makes FYi’s latest venture, a collaboration with Vancouver’s Endeavor Snowboards, such a natural fit. Together they’re building the ideal big mountain powder board. Endeavor, already a world-renowned board maker, is drawing on Tom’s lifetime of riding experience and letting him, as Tom happily says, “draw up a dream board for myself.” Like FYi, Endeavor prototypes and develops its designs in the Archetype Snowboard Lab, one of three prototype specific facilities in the world. The idea to prototype and produce in very limited quantities the FYi board was something that fit what Endeavor’s lab was created for. “I have a lot of respect for Tom and certainly his experience and passion for snowboarding is what Endeavor is all about”, says Max Jenke, creative director for Endeavor. Back in the 80s, when Tom ordered his first snowboard over the phone, he’d never even seen one before. A few weeks later his Burton Woody Performer arrived. It had no metal edges, laminate, or highbacks. The board he’s building today with Endeavor promises to be a little more advanced. It’s going to be a work of functional art.
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
- 50 -
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
TRIBUTE TURNS T E N Written by Paul Higgins Photo by Nick Diamond
“Years ago when the white man first arrived here the local Kootenai Shaman put a curse on the water so that once they drank from the lake they would not leave and spoil other areas...” - 51 -
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
Deep within the Southern Interior of BC and nestled in the extreme west arm of the Selkirk Mountains, lies the city of Nelson. At one time, it was the magical destination for miners, farmers, and loggers, then draft dodgers and hippies. Today, Nelson is a thriving community and a much sought after locale by heli-skiing and cat-boarding outfits, outdoor enthusiasts from all walks of life, and yes, more hippies. The Guardian reported that “Nelson was able to make the transition from a typical rural lumber town into a thriving arts and mountain sports hotbed, due in part to the wealth generated by marijuana growers. If one were to have spent the last three years in this idyllic mountain hamlet, the economic crisis would have been barely noticeable.” Seems like an optimal place to open a retail store, eh? Well, that’s exactly what Shane Johnsen did. Much like Julie Andrews, Shane was lured to Nelson by his love of music and the mountains. He quickly became involved with the Nelson economy (of the legal variety) and found himself managing a local board shop, as well as backcountry guiding, fronting his band, ‘The Automation’, and being one of the original scouts for mapping out the epic location of Baldface Lodge. Inspired by legend and friend Craig Kelly, Shane’s store TRIBUTE turns 10 this year and continues to contribute to the Kootenay community by his involvement with events like Travis Rice and RedBull’s Ultra Natural (formerly Super Natural) contest, which put a world-wide focus on Nelson as a destination for backcountry snowboarders and skiers alike.
- 52 -
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
Why Nelson? I first came out here for the music school. My snowboarding career came to a quick halt due to a spinal compression during one of the fabled Westbeach Classics and I figured it was time to elevate my punk rock guitar abilities a little and try my hand in the music industry. Then, of course, I fell in love with the mountain life here and it has basically been a balancing act of snowboarding and music ever since. Well, with a little hunting and road-tripping on the bikes too. The Kootenay area really offers everything you can think of. What is the connection between Craig Kelly and the shop? In 2000, I was already here helping manage Jason Draginda’s shop; this was around the time Jeff Pensiero (founder of Baldface Lodge) re-located to the area. We quickly became friends and I joined him on many of the early mapping and scouting missions up there and later worked as a guide for a few years. Craig was also getting settled here around then as he too was joining the original Baldface crew. Long story short, I was blessed to spend may hours in the field with Craig, in a guiding operational setting but also as bunkmates at the lodge. In 2000, there were only a small amount of us on splitboards and Craig was really pushing me to branch out from my existing retail position and start a true snowboard specific backcountry shop. It wasn’t until after he passed that I actually made these ideas a reality, a Tribute so to speak. There are definitely some reps and distributors that I owe a lot to for believing in us and taking the “risk” when we decided to start this shop. You guys know who you are and we can’t thank you enough. You recently achieved the completion of a long time project within your community, how does that feel? I tend to do a lot in the community, but by far my biggest endeavour was the over 11-year epic to get Nelson the outdoor skatepark it deserves. This was a real eye opener in regards to small town politics, but in the end I’m proud we stuck to it. If you get a chance this summer, come visit. It’s amazing; New Line killed it on this one! For the past few years, Baldface Lodge has been hosting the RedBull Supernatural contest. Having that big of an event in such a small city must be fun. What’s the reaction of the general public? Supernatural (now “Ultra-natural” thanks to the BC government’s threats to sue) is everything you’ve seen on
- 53 -
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
- 54 -
SHOP PROFILE - TRIBUTE
TV up at the lodge, but here in town I worked with Travis to add an evening for the public to stop by the shop for a meet and greet with all the pros that come to compete. It has been crazy both years with 300+ people turning out. Last year was extra amazing with appearances by Peter Line and Jamie Lynn chilling with the crowds- add that to having all twelve competitors lined up at the shop counter, the locals here go nuts. Unfortunately, they are taking this year off so as not to compete with Olympic coverage. Nelson is known for its historic look. Does TRIBUTE follow suit with the town vibe? Over the years we have done some minor renos, but lately we have been focused on projects using re-claimed wood. We are resurfacing the walls, building new shelving, fixtures, and board racks with wood that friends bring by from demolitions and renovations of heritage buildings around the city. Recently, the bowling alley was renovated and I was able to grab shiplap fir boards without a single knot in them. That’s very rare now, but was commonplace in the early 1900’s. Once complete, I think we will have a very unique vibe in the shop and will have spent very little on materials, while decreasing our environmental footprint at the same time.
least have its origins in that. I’m digging the resurgence in synth/new wave music, but my roots are in the first wave. What’s something about Nelson that people might not know?
Another great collaboration has been TRIBUTE and Altamont Clothing. How did that come about? The Altamont x Tribute collab was born from a conversation that Gman (Timebomb) and I were having about how long we’ve known each other and done business together. Realizing my 10-year was coming up, he suggested we do something rad for it. It was a no-brainer for me to team up with Altamont, it’ one of our “identity brands” at TRIBUTE. The tees turned out amazing and we rocked a great Instagram contest for them. Your feelings on synthesizers?
We do have a bylaw in Nelson stating that you cannot hacky sack in the downtown core. Follows suit with the ridiculous skateboarding bylaws we have here. Lastly, years ago when the white man first arrived here, the local Kootenai Shaman put a curse on the water so that once they drank from the lake they would not leave and spoil further areas…..might have worked on a few but I have a feeling it’s the pow not the water keeping everyone here! Ed Note: The KNOWSHOW wished to congratulate Shane and the crew at Tribute on 10 years of hard work. Here’s to 10 more!
Well, I’ve always been a huge Gary Numan fan so the synth is up there with guitar for me, but its gotta be analog or at
- 55 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
SETTING THE
NORTH STANDARD Undeniably cool products and a focused vision at North Standard Trading Post means a new shopping staple on Queen Street West. by Kendra Pugh Photos by Alex Lee Despite being new to the neighbourhood, North Standard Trading Post in Parkdale, Toronto, Ontario has been a long time coming. The owners, Pamela Hopson and Francesco Fiore, have both independently been planning to own and run a retail store for some time. A few years ago, when they met and started dating, they always talked about when they would have their own store one day. Finally, last summer, when driving the coast of California for a vacation, the two made the decision to start writing down all their ideas into a proper business plan. A few months later, they took the
leap and put in notice at their jobs and incorporated the business. With their combined experience of 15 years in the wholesale and retail fashion industry, the two were able to develop a concept that was unique and true to their passion. Both were interested in well-made goods with unique and individual stories or a long, proven history – those high quality “standards” that everyone wants in their closet and keeps coming back to, time after time. They were also both interested in Canadian history and industry, having
- 56 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
- 57 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
- 58 -
SHOP PROFILE - A’HOY
grown up living, travelling, and camping in Canada. With this focused vision, North Standard Trading Post quickly started to come together, and after several months of buying, building, and carefully constructing a solid visual brand, the store opened on a strip of Queen Street West that was thirsting for a fashion destination that exactly fit their aesthetic.
In addition to their in-house clothing line (which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and tank tops with a razor sharp graphic identity, as well as their iconic enamel mugs and cozy cotton and wool camp socks), their line up includes storied brands like the Hudson’s Bay Heritage line, Pendleton, Carhartt, Red Wing, Minnetonka, Hunter, Tellason, and Levi’s – those extremely well-made standards that have a consistent place in every well-dressed person’s wardrobe. They compliment these with some more recent and edgier lines like Mink Pink, Free People, and J Brand. Finally, their strong commitment to a Canadian aesthetic means that they make a concerted effort to carry Canadian- and Toronto-based designers and artists; all of their jewellery comes from Canadian artists, and their partnership with Toronto-based graphic designers Doublenaut means a healthy supply of cool and interesting graphic art and t-shirts. Canadiana-based books, a selection of knives from Opinel and Grohmann, and unique housewares like Canada-themed candles from Smells Like Canada round out the carefully curated environment. However, the best part of the store is definitely the warm and engaging energy that comes from Pamela and Francesco when you walk up the steps and through the door. Their knowledge of their products, as well as their genuine desire to help you find the perfect pair of jeans/boots/etc., is alone worth the trip to Parkdale. North Standard perfectly encapsulates their friendly and charming personas, and is a testament to the years of work that went into its creation.
- 59 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DON PENDLETON Interview by Dave Ackels
Trapped within the confines of their individual universes live Don Pendleton’s geometric, yet organic, creations. Insects, aliens, people, plants and animals co-exist and collide within the confines of the space separated by the stroke of a brush or pen tool. Often a statement of societal or cultural issues, Don’s imagery is easily recognizable as an intelligent message to be decoded. His cubist style has become as iconic as the countless brands that it has adorned, it’s no surprise that he has launched his own brand - Darkroom. Dave Ackels (DA): OK, let’s start with where you’re from.
DA: So what happened with skateboarding that you eventually found it in your teenage years?
Don Pendleton (DP) I’m from Ravenswood, West Virginia...a small town on the Ohio River between WV and OH. DA: What was it like growing up in a small town in West Virginia? DP: Kind of a typical small town where kids grow up and play high school sports and there isn’t much to do. There weren’t many social outlets so you had to make your own fun. There was about 3,000 people in the whole town so not a lot of opportunity to pass the time. I was lucky though...I had supportive parents so that makes things easier in a situation like that. DA: Is that how you got into art? Trying to figure out ways to pass the time in a smaller town? DP: That was part of it...my dad got laid off from work when I was about 7 years old and he spent a lot of time painting at the kitchen table. So I would sit there and watch him and eventually was painting myself and drawing. DA: OK, so this was way before you’d ever been introduced to skateboarding, right? DP: Yeah, I was just a little kid...I didn’t have any interests at that point except for typical kid stuff. My parents always had markers and crayons around so it was just what I did. Some of my first memories are from sitting around and drawing.
DP: I think I went through the typical progression of searching for something different and something that spoke to me. That was breakdancing at first and then BMX Freestyle. We went on a family vacation to Virginia Beach in 1984 and I was exposed to modern skateboarding...just seeing them try tricks and the clothing at the time. Yeah, it looked a little bit more fun than breakdancing and I’d grown up a bit by that point. DA: More of a challenge? DP: A little more painful but yeah, more of a challenge. DA: And you probably weren’t very serious about the breakdancing, like you weren’t meeting up with other crews and challenging them or anything, being in West Virginia. DP: Oh, yeah. We did that. We would go up to Parkersburg, which was a larger city about 40 minutes away and meet at the mall and have break offs with other crews. We were very serious about it. You never breakdanced when you were younger? DA: Oh, yeah...we breakdanced. I’m a couple years younger than you so we weren’t real serious about it. When I saw the movie, Breakin’, it was like in the 3rd grade. So nobody was taking our breaking serious enough to challenge us. It was like “Just stay in the basement,’ ya know?
- 60 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 61 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 62 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DP: So you were a closet breakdancer? DA: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I loved breakdancing, Breakin’ when I saw the commercial for it, I was freaking out. I think we saw it opening day. DP: That and “Beat Street” both. That’s how breakdancing made it to the small towns. And it was a good portrayal of breakdancing so you would see it and be like, ‘Oh my God, these people are making magic.’ (laughter) DA: But it was a total facade because it wasn’t going on at all. At least not in my life. It was definitely not happening. DP: Did you ever move into BMX or did you go straight from breakdancing to skateboarding? DA: When I was a kid, I had Schwinn BMX but it was clunky and heavy and not really a good one. When I was in first or third grade, I lived in TX so everybody was really into BMX down there. In our neighborhood people were making jumps and stuff and it was really serious. DP: It was gnarly...people got broke off on those jumps as kids. And it was popular too...it was everywhere. They had tracks near where I grew up. But it was an expensive sport. You had to have a lot of money to get involved in that. I had the same thing...I had a heavy bike. My bike weighed twice as much as everyone else’s so I couldn’t do certain tricks. I loved the idea of it, but it was too much. Too much money, like gnarly dangerous and just a lot involved to do it. DA: Yeah, like skateboarding was just a little bit more free. DP: It was cheaper too. And the graphics were better. DA: Yeah...I don’t know what it was but...something about riding a bike and doing tricks just seems like you’re asking for it. DP: You’re not locked onto a skateboard. A bike is dangerous because you’re almost locked onto it, there’s the extra weight and it just seems like a lethal combination. I mean the guys who were good at it were like full grown men.
- 63 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DA: Yeah...they were. The good guys were older and way gnarlier. I was in TX and then we moved to Michigan and it really wasn’t until “Back to the Future” came out that the wave hit where everyone was riding skateboards, which got me into it.
DP: Yeah, at the time you could probably get that in any small town and automatically get introduced to skateboarding right there. So that helped it creep into smaller towns in the midwest. At that point, it seemed like it was everywhere. That was the first really big wave of skateboarding.
DP: So that’s what it was for you? “Back to the Future”? DA: Pretty much. That had a lot to do with it. I feel like I would have eventually found it regardless just by the natural progression of things I was into. But I think it jump started it.
DA: But I feel like all those cultures kind of at the same time: hip hop, punk rock, skateboarding...that was all happening at the same time and all of those cross pollenated between each other. So all of that was visible in all parts of America by then.
DP: It’s weird because even in a place like Virginia Beach, about as far as you can get from the West Coast, it was really popular there early on. You had the surf shops and the surf culture and a lot of guys came from that east coast growth like Andy Howell and a lot of the guys from the Mount Trashmore area and some parks down in Florida. So you’ve got it on the coasts but not too much in the midwest in the early 80s. It wasn’t really on TV that much at the time...it eventually got some into movies but that was before “Thrashin’” and “Gleaming the Cube.”
DP: Yeah, I agree...you’d find one thing and that would open you up to something else and it all kinda happened around the same time. So getting introduced to skateboarding, then finding a copy of Thrasher Magazine and then hearing about bands I’d never heard...clothes, that whole culture was so tied together, you couldn’t remove one from the other.
DA: “Thrashin’ “ had a big effect on me. That was one of the ones you could get at the video store.
DP: Well, there was a while when I was the only skateboarder in my town. And then eventually there was two more. And at that point, those people were automatically my best friends. We would trade cassette tapes of new bands, lend each other issues of Transworld or Thrasher. I couldn’t relate to non-skaters at some point in my peer group. I really couldn’t. So you’ve got these few friends growing up that you skate with and those people become friends for life. They’re the most important friends you ever have in a way because in a small town, that’s what allows you to maintain some kind of sanity. Just being able to relate, even if it’s jut about not being able to relate to other people who didn’t ride a skateboard.
DA: OK, but many other you peers in small town, West Virginia were catching onto this culture? So it probably wasn’t that widespread at that point.
DA: At that point...breakdancing, BMX...everything else had faded away from you? And the music was still relevant... DP: Yeah because it was tied so closely to skateboarding. Remember that documentary, “Another State of Mind”... music and skateboarding just collided. It was presented together so often you couldn’t really separate them. So automatically we were into punk rock: JFA, Angry Samoans, Reagan Youth, Circle Jerks...you name it. DA: Yeah, Social Distortion, Youth Brigade and Minor Threat.... the best of the best at the time and they were featured in “Another State of Mind.” (At this point, we argue between the skating footage from ‘Another State of Mind’ and the INXS video for ‘Devil Inside.’)
- 64 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DP: So you did get a glimpse into punk rock through skateboarding where I might not have seen it otherwise where I was living. I think people have a hard time remembering what life was like before the internet because back then, when you were isolated...you were REALLY isolated. DA: What about art at that time? How was that fitting in? DP: The art stuff was mostly just there at that point because of school. After I found skateboarding though, that was it for me. There were no other extracurricular activities. It was just skating and hanging out with other people who rode a skateboard. I mean, I loved the graphics of my first boards and I was a huge Neil Blender fan and Mark Gonzales fan and so all that stuff I was connecting with art-wise but it was just skating. That’s all that mattered at the time to me for a while. DA: When you start taking skateboarding seriously and had sponsors...how did you get to that point? DP: Well my dad bought a video camera way back in the day and my friends and I would film ourselves skating. It wasn’t to get sponsored...it was just to watch the tricks. I made a video eventually, editing it with the camera and our VHS player. I put some Jimi Hendrix music on there and I think Steadham was the first person/company I ever sent a tape to and he put me on the team. I think he called me out of the blue and I couldn’t sleep that night. So that was the start. DA: Steve Steadham was sick. I had a Steadham. DP: Definitely. It started out slow, I think he would send me one deck per month and then that went up as I was sending in more footage. I remember him telling me, ‘I didn’t even know people in West Virginia rode skateboards!’ And the truth was that very few actually did at the time. I mean, comparatively speaking. But Steadham was rad. He had a car phone way back then and I just had this picture of him being a full on Miami Vice type dude. So skating for a company of an ex-Bones Brigader when I was still a teenager was pretty amazing. I mean, especially for still being in West Virginia. That was in about 1989. DA: What was next for you after Steadham sponsorship? DP: I moved to Huntington in 1989 after graduation and that became my support system for skating. There was a shop there called Iguana Sportgear and the owner (Ron Patrick) was organizing contests and demos and gave me a job at the shop. I became friends with John Drake (who eventually went pro for Alien Workshop) there and we were basically the whole team. But we got free shoes...grip tape, whatever we needed that we didn’t have sponsors for, Ron became
that sponsor. And he’d drive us around and film and shoot photos. So after being there, everything got a little easier. I got on Gouge Clothing through John and then Motobilt trucks. Eventually ended up on Acme (Jim Gray’s company) and San Diego Trucks. Huntington was great for skating but it was still WV so, you know...still very isolated from the west coast and the industry. Still hard to get noticed. DA: So what happened with all of that? The sponsors and everything. DP: Well, I think everyone at that point wanted to be a pro. The dream was to leave WV and go to California and be a part of the industry and do it for a living. But as I got older, it was pretty clear that I wasn’t really pro material. I had limited resources so I couldn’t just travel to CA. I tore ligaments in my ankle and decided it was time to focus on what I was going to eventually do for a living. I was in school for Graphic Design, not really knowing what I wanted to be so I spent more time working and taking classes and less time skating after the injury. Skating progressed really fast at the time so I was kind of lost. DA: What year was this? DP: Like 1993. The mold of skateboarding changed from the inside out. Wheels got super small, boards got smaller and it was tough to keep up not being in the middle of it like people were in California, even with videos. DA: I feel like it was almost a handicap for us after having grown up on those big boards...we had 3 inch noses, ya know, there was one direction of rolling, forward or backward. Switch stance was a really hard at first. It’s beautiful what happened at that point but we were going through that as people who grew up on a completely different kind of board and a different kind of skating. DP: Yeah, the first small board that I got when that became almost mandatory, it felt way to awkward and unstable. And the wheels kept getting smaller and I remember trying to find a certain size of wheel and I couldn’t get them. At that point, I was like, ‘OK....I’m not going to be a pro. What’s next.’ I was probably 23 at the time and had no idea what I was going to do. So it was just work and school first and skateboarding was kinda second for the first time since I’d started. But I was getting older. My ankle wasn’t very stable and I was kind of freaked out about the future. DA: What kind of work were you doing at this point? DP: I still worked at the skateshop but I also worked at the college newspaper doing paste up and graphics and illustrations. So two jobs and full time for classes and then skating. It was a lot for anyone.
- 65 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 66 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 67 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 68 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DA: So you were already focused on art though with your job? DP: Yeah, I just kind of slid into it...but I learned a lot about graphic reproduction and printing and even had access to computers there back in 1993, which was kind of rare. So even though i took the job because it was convenient, I learned things there that still come in handy today. But it was all very random. I didn’t have a plan. I just didn’t want to have to work at a fast food restaurant so anything was better than that in my mind. DA: So where do you go from there? Didn’t you used to be a bartender? DP: I got an internship in Connecticut, working at a newspaper...again, doing graphics and illustration and some design and copy editing. That was awesome because I was near NYC for the first time in my life and it was real experience. And I was getting paid. But internships are brief and I had to come back to school in West Virginia to graduate. I ended up getting a job as a bartender. Just another job that I kind of fell into and I did that for a few years. That got scary...there were a lot of fights and it’s a bad lifestyle really so I took a job at a newspaper a few hours away. DA: So was there still art going on during all of this? Skateboarding? DP: Yeah, this newspaper job was illustrations and design and layout. And again, I learned a lot about printing and output and production and computers. All that stuff helped me out with what I’m doing now still. I always still skated...I just didn’t have much time and nobody else skated in that town. It was horribly depressing. And then my apartment burned down. And I was having heart problems. I can’t tell you how depressing that part of my life was. But yeah, art and skateboarding were still important but life was kind of pushing me into being an adult and I had no plans, which is also depressing at that age. I was 26/27 years old at the time. Skateboarding was still there but it got less time out of necessity. I had to make a living and it wasn’t easy there. And skateboarding was going through that weird phase... like the tail end of the small wheels/big pants era, everything was hip hop and the boards were getting impossibly smaller. Nobody was really rolling. DA: So how did you end up at Alien Workshop from that point? DP: Well, it was 1998 and I did some editing for the online version of the newspaper and I was looking for jobs. ANY job. I just needed to get out of that town. So I came across an online ad for a skateboard company looking for an artist. That ended up being Alien Workshop. I think the next day
- 69 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 70 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 71 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
I sent some artwork to them. Within a week or so, they’d called me and offered to bring me in for an interview. And that whole thing was weird, you know. I lost everything I owned in a fire about 3 weeks before I got the job at AWS. I really couldn’t have fallen any lower so it couldn’t have come at a better time. I had nothing...I went to the interview wearing a shitty, old Shorty’s t-shirt and an old pair of Airwalk shoes from like 1992 or something. DA: Yeah, you’re lucky you got hired (laughter). DP: They had to be thinking ‘Who in the fuck is this dude?’ But (Chris) Carter (Alien Workshop owner) called me like a week later and said, ‘I think we’re going to make your dream come true.’ And I know I was probably on speaker phone but at the interview, I told Carter and Hill that it was my dream job...to be involved with art and skateboarding at the same time. So yeah...he probably won’t remember it but I got off the phone and even before really knowing Carter very well, I was like, ‘Was he fucking with me?’ And he probably was. But I got the job...he was like, ‘We’ll pay for you to move your stuff to Dayton’ but I didn’t have any stuff. Nothing. I threw some books and a bag of clothes into my car and that was it. And that first week was miserable. My apartment was $190 per month...it was tiny. I was sleeping on a blanket. No phone, no television...no friends in Dayton. No money. My parents had to wire me money so I could eat dinner one night. I would just lay there looking up at the ceiling thinking I had just made the worst mistake of my life. DA: Why? You should’ve been stoked! DP: Just being broke and not knowing anyone. Not having a bed. My apartment flooded. Eventually I met people in Dayton and it became easier. I got a phone and TV. The next year I got a better apartment. But for a time, nobody knew what was next for skateboarding. It was kind of dead at the time. I didn’t know if AWS would be around the next year. I had a lot of faith in Carter and (Mike) Hill (other Alien Workshop owner) but I was intimidated and just full of anxiety. DA: That’s so weird...when I walked into that place as an employee, I never thought of you as not being a part of it. I always felt like I was kind of an outsider there. It’s funny to think there was a time when you were feeling like that as well. DP: Oh, I was miserable but just that first week. There was a new office, it was all white with just a table and computer and I would sit in there by myself just drawing all day. I don’t think Hill knew exactly what to do with me so I just
- 72 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 73 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 74 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 75 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 76 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 77 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
drew pictures. Hill was used to doing everything himself so it probably took some time for him to figure out how to work me into the mix. DA: What about Neil Blender? DP: He was already gone by the time I got there and I think Blender was just kind of drawing things on napkins and handing them to Hill so it wasn’t the same dynamic of working with someone day to day like Hill and I eventually were doing. DA: Did any of that stuff ever get used from those first weeks of just drawing in your office?
Joe Castrucci got hired around the same time so we shared that office space eventually. Getting to know him was good. I didn’t know much about him at the time but we were kind of in the same boat. So we would sit in that office and be like, ‘Do you think this is weird?’ Just being in that empty, bright office and kind of isolated in there. I guess it was kind of weird. Hill was still separated from us and we were eventually all in the same room and that became kind of like home away from home. I spent most of my waking hours either there or drawing at home. Hill even bought me a computer. I didn’t have one obviously. But that was the nicest thing in the world, just to have internet access from home. DA: So you were there for a pretty long time...how did that end?
DP: Yeah, some of those ended up on a series for Conklin, Drake, Kalis, Gall and Dyrdek...it was a series of white boards. I just gave the art to Hill and he laid the boards out. I still think it’s one of my favorite series done while I was there. As I got more comfortable there, it got easier.
DP: I was there from 1998 to 2005. I mean, it was an amazing experience but like all things, it just changed. At one point, it did feel like a little family. Everyone was close, everyone got along. Eventually, I was changing, the company changed,
- 78 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
the people running it changed. The teams changed. Seek had gone out of business. Skateboarding was changing overall. Peoples’ tastes were changing. I don’t know...it’s just life, ya know? One day, Hill sit me down and said, ‘I don’t think this is working anymore’ and so I packed my stuff up and left. That day. There were no arguments, nothing. But it was a rough day. I had 7 years worth of stuff in that office that I had to walk out to my car through the warehouse and people were just like, ‘What in the fuck is going on?’ DA: I’ll be honest...I just worked there for the mini ramp. (laughter) DP: Well, for me it was a great job. I never had problems there really and Hill and Carter always supported me. I mean, I had become an important part of the company at that point. Maybe too important. I was doing everything from the websites to the little hang tags, the graphics, catalogs, designing things like wallets and clothing. So I think people had a hard time thinking that there would be a time where I wasn’t there. But there were no hard feelings. I felt it too...it’s the day to day of trying to get along with people in an environment where there are going to be disagreements, lack of communication. All that stuff. So I packed my stuff up and I left. And I’ve heard various versions of this story but the truth is I had no idea what was next for me at all. DA: But you walked out of there being a pretty well known, well respected artist. DP: Yeah, and it was only a matter of time until word got out. I got an email from the owner of Element asking me what my plans were. I even got an email from Andy Jenkins (from Girl Skateboards) kind of asking me what was next for me. I didn’t know. I knew I had to start making plans so that’s where the first version of Darkroom came from. I just wanted to make some products myself and that was my plan. DA: And then you did get hired on at Element. DP: Yeah, I agreed to fly out there and talk to (owner) Johnny (Schillereff) and (hard goods director) Jeff Dickson. I don’t think any of us had too much high hopes of it working out. They wanted me to move to California and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. So when I left, I pretty much figured it probably wouldn’t happen. Dickson talked Johnny into working something out where I could stay in Ohio and I was down to try. It was very formal...contract and that kind of thing. So Element was next. DA: And you were still doing Darkroom. That was a fun period of time for me. It seemed like Element bummed you out for a while but the Darkroom part was fun.
DP: Yeah, I loved Darkroom. It gave me the opportunity to do something on my own. I brought you in to help put the team together and it was a sick team: Kevin Terpening, Scott Pfaff (Dyrdek’s cousin) and you. And the video you did was sick. It was just fun to make something for myself and make the decisions. With Element, it was the first time where someone was telling me how to do stuff and what to do. You’ve got art directors, creative directors and they just want to get in there and screw things up, it seemed like. I mean, that was a huge corporation and it had the negative aspects that corporations have. I just wanted to design graphics but there was so much more involved. It was all about sales and demographics and following the leader and I couldn’t connect with that. It’s not in my nature. As long as Dickson was there, I could deal with it. I felt like he had my back and he did fight for me a lot because he was in charge of skateboarding but I knew he was pretty miserable too. Just to do something cool there, you had to convince a lot of people and I think Jeff had just hit the
- 79 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 80 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 81 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 82 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
wall. I mean, he’s a total skateboarder and we were working for a company where skateboards had become more of an afterthought so we were both probably miserable there. DA: And then Dickson left. DP: Yes, Dickson left and I was kind of on my own. He called me up before it all went down and was like, ‘I don’t want to bum you out but I don’t know what’s going to happen to you after I go so I just wanted to give you warning.’ As soon as my contract was up, I left. That was it. And it was a huge relief. DA: But then you went back, didn’t you? For a time? What was that about? DP: Yeah...we went through some negotiations where I was supposed to get signature products that were handsoff from the input of other people. So the idea was that I’d be designing graphics by myself again, without input or direction. And that kind of kept me happy for a little while but it didn’t last. I don’t mean to make it sound like Element was horrible...it’s just that all these super talented people came through there: Todd Francis, Craig Metzger, Matt Irving, Jeff Dickson, Ryan Kingman,..together it could’ve been the best company in skateboarding hands down. There was no way it couldn’t have been. But sprinkle in the corporate bullshit and the ego and the (in my opinion) greed and none of us had power to do anything. All of us just kind of watched and shook our heads. So eventually I get a call...Bam wasn’t popular anymore, the ship was sinking quickly and I was one of the first to get tossed. And the only reason it bummed me out is because corporations are very defensive in situations like that. They don’t call you up and say, ‘We can’t afford you anymore, nobody is buying our skateboards.’ They say, ‘We’ve been reviewing your work and you haven’t been submitting enough art and you’re in breach of your contract. Which was bullshit. And then they asked me to remain on as an advocate, which is a program they had at the time. I declined. But I was relieved. Even finding myself without a job again, the weight was lifted. I preferred to be unemployed than to keep working with Element so the feeling was mutual; I just didn’t like the way it went down. DA: It seemed like that was the approach for bigger companies at the time. They take something like skateboarding and they want to complicate it. And that’s a problem...the pie in skateboarding is only so big. So realistically when you start trying to grow your business, you’re really just trying to sell out the skateboarding so you can achieve financial goals. And it seems like that created a lot of watered down, boring companies.
DP: And at the time, nobody really knew where the ceiling was. Sales kept going up, PacSun was pushing skateboarding, Bam was popular, Jackass was popular...and when the bottom fell out, it fell out pretty hard. There was no real back up plans for most of these companies. They figured out how to grow, but they didn’t have any idea of how to decompress back into smaller companies. So people were getting thrown under the bus and tossed overboard left and right in the industry. And it’s still going on in some ways. DA: The best companies have always kept it simple...like Girl/ Chocolate and Real. They’re skateboarders over there. They just know what works and they don’t veer too far off. But at the same time, I don’t feel like those companies have really had too much competition so that’s why the industry seems so watered down and why there’s a resurgence of smaller companies coming up. It’s forcing companies to think twice about what they make and what they do. It forces companies to address skateboarding again and make it interesting and that’s good for skateboarding. By nature, the old companies are going to get pushed aside eventually unless they are staying true to skateboarding itself. DP: It was just a weird time for skateboarding altogether. It still is I guess. DA: Yeah, I remember a lot of all over prints and super skinny bootcut jeans and super tight, bright dyed jeans. All the different washes. It was so bad and it wasn’t even that long ago. It seemed like skateboarding just lost its identity again. DP: Oh it looked like a circus if you were driving by a group of skaters because of all the bright patterns and bright, skinny jeans. It was hilarious. DA: So then fast forward and you’re doing Darkroom again. How did that come around? DP: I just wanted to do something fun. And I wanted freedom again to do my own work, my own graphics without an art director. It was never supposed to be a legitimate “business.” It was and remains an outlet for me. It doesn’t take up a bunch of time, I don’t have any employees and it’s just kind of out there for people who want it. The products are made by Pennswood, made in America by skateboarders and I’m proud of that. And that’s what keeps it fun...just having it as an outlet without taking it too seriously. There isn’t a team or anything. But the boards are solid and if I want to do something, It’s there as an outlet for me to do it without having to worry too much about it. And I think that’s the allure of smaller companies. You can turn on a dime, there isn’t a huge investment. It’s not going to make you rich but you’re going to have some fun doing it.
- 83 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 84 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 85 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 86 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 87 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
I mean, you started a company (Absorb Skateboards)....so you know what kind of outlet that provides. What was your motivation for doing it? DA: I think it was a natural progression, ya know? It was a situation where I just always was trying to support the local skateboard scene in Dayton. It felt like it was one of those times where the local scene was ready for something new. It was about community to me in a lot of ways. I need something where I can feel connected to people and feel like a sense of that community. And skateboarding is the one thing that gives me that. It allows me to relate to other people... kind of keeps me sane. DP: Was it a big part of saying, ‘I want to make things they way I think they should be made’ as opposed to what other companies are doing? DA: I think of art as a collective and I have definitely seen other people and been inspired by that, videos or whatever else. I just saw things in the industry as fairly stale and boring and inflated. More about money and not about skateboarding. Also, I’m really over California skateboarding and the media outlets of how skateboarding gets portrayed in a lot of ways. If you’re doing something interesting in skateboarding but you’re just a nobody in the midwest, then nobody was going to see it. These days, everybody can see it. The internet leveled the playing field and it’s brought all these smaller companies out and given them an opportunity to let people outside the community see what’s going on within the community and I like that. And you’re either going to have to be interesting or you’ll become irrelevant and I think that makes for better skateboarding and better companies in the long run. Absorb is about midwest skateboarding. And a scene..not just necessarily a team. DP: The resurgence of the small companies has made skateboarding fun and exciting again. The pieces of the pie are getting smaller, skateboarding is more diverse than it’s been in a long time, we’re seeing all of these different influences and opinions and to me, that’s what skateboarding should be. Not follow the leader. No rules... there should never have been any rules within skateboarding but there ended up being rules and typical formulas. That stuff had to go. People are doing it for the right reasons again because you almost know starting out that you’re not going to get rich from it. You just do it because you love it. DA: Yeah, and it’s driven things in a more creative way...forced it to be more unique. With the last episode of Absorb, it was 9-minutes long and there wasn’t any skateboarding in the video at all. And you can’t do that when you’re a big company who is selling skateboarding all the time. But as a small company, it just becomes another creative piece of the puzzle. And there’s this thread of creativity again with a lot of smaller companies where they can do whatever they want and not everything is done specifically for profit or markets.
DP: Exactly...and I know a lot of companies may not survive the first year or two but they’re playing an important role in pushing other companies forward it seems. So you’ve got each state, each region, sometimes each city with their own small company doing things the way they think they should be done. And there’s no way that can be a bad thing because the smaller companies can afford to make mistakes and just have fun whereas the bigger companies are too afraid to risk creativity. And when you remove that element of ‘let’s say fuck it and just do something for fun’ because you’re afraid of losing a sale, then you see the whole idea of what skateboarding was born from being threatened almost at the very foundation in a lot of ways. DA: True...So what do you feel has been the highlights of your career outside of skateboarding? DP: I guess just being able to remain an artist. That’s challenging enough. But you know, art shows, openings. I never wanted to do that stuff and realized it was a necessary evil. And the more I did it, I just kind of got used to it and realized that if I relaxed, it could be fun. I love to paint...it lets me get away from the computer and logos and branding and I can do whatever I want. So just being able to sell paintings and prints to people...that’s a huge honor that someone would want something you’ve made hanging in their homes or whatever. DA: And you released a book of artwork recently? Let’s talk about ‘Limerence’ some. DP: Well, Limerence was always the title for a book I wanted to do back in 2003. I just never got around to doing it until this past year. I had talked to a publisher but I wanted the control to decide the contents and the specifics. I eventually realized I had to do it myself if I wanted it presented the right way. So I decided to do it but I did it in a very small run. 150 books, each one signed and numbered. And it was just something that I wanted to do to kind of mark 15 years of doing illustrations. They sold out as quickly as I could put them up on my site so I went back and I have another 150 in production right now. So that’s pretty rad that people want to see it. It’s not the typical scenario where you can get it on Amazon...it’s do-it-yourself from beginning to end. I worked with the printer to get things exactly how I wanted them and I deal personally with each sale, I pack and ship each one myself. And that’s exactly how I wanted it to be. Feels good to still be able to do things on that small of a level and have it work. DA: You have all of this stuff going on...you’ve got the book, you have prints, freelance projects. The Pearl Jam album artwork this year. Do you have any idea what’s next?
- 88 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
DP: I got to this point where I just knew I had to mix things up to keep staying productive. I can only do so much time in front of the computer so painting allows me to stay creative without getting bogged down. Or I’ll work on putting a print together, or putting together an art show or something like that. The key for me, if I want to stay creative and happy is just to balance all that stuff and juggle it as well as possible. I can’t imagine just sitting in front of a computer all day at this point. So I get up and I sketch. Or paint. Or take care of the business aspect of what I do. But one of the exciting (and frightening) things about being an artist is that you really don’t know what’s next. You want to hope to maintain that balance and you hope for good freelance projects to keep some money coming in but you never know. I guess it can drive you insane or it can motivate you to push things along and I’ve just learned not to sit back and wait for someone to decide they want to work with me. And in doing that, it seems like I have more fun overall. Because if I’m not having fun...none of this matters. Because I can’t make myself do it when it’s not fun and I kind of learned that the hard way.
- 89 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 90 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 91 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 92 -
ARTIST FEATURE - DON PENDLETON
- 93 -
Fashion Editor TANUS LEWIS tanuslewis.com Fashion Assistant KAYT QUINN
S M O K E Make-up and Hair JENNA KUCHERA @ nobasura.com Models Model MILIANA @ richardsmodels.com
S H O W Photography ANDRÉ PINCES pincesphoto.com
FJALLRAVEN hat CAMEO pants from ONE OF A FEW CHASER jacket
MINIMUM coat and sweater BB DAKOTA skirt BIRDS OF A FEATHER necklaces
- 96 -
- 97 -
CRIMINAL DAMAGE shirt FILIPPA K turtleneck from THE BLOCK CREATURES OF COMFORT skirt from ONE OF A FEW CHEAP MONDAY earrings from ZEBRA CLUB
GENTLE FAWN shirt and pants HAUTE HUMAN tank KOMONO sunglasses BIRDS OF A FEATHER necklaces
- 100 -
- 102 -
BB DAKOTA jacket GANNI skirt from ONE OF A FEW
- 103 -
FUNKTIONAL leather shirt from STILL LIFE BB DAKOTA shorts HERSCHEL fanny pack BIRDS OF A FEATHER necklaces
BOY LONDON t-shirt CHEAP MONDAY shirt and skirt from ZEBRA CLUB BIRDS OF A FEATHER necklaces
BOY LONDON hat MINIMUM jacket BIRDS OF A FEATHER necklaces
CHEAP MONDAY shirt and bracelets from ZEBRA CLUB CAMEO skirt from ONE OF A FEW DANIEL WELLINGTON watch
RHEK’S WELCOME TO JANKYTOWN
Everyone does art as a kid. It’s fun, it’s messy, it’s expressive and your Mom puts your silly drawing on the fridge. Then you get hair downstairs, zits on your face and you can’t draw a realistic looking girl so you decide you suck at art and you quit like a quitter. Guess what? Camera’s are way better realistic drawers than you and only robots can make straight lines. Welcome to Jankytown.
- 108 -
RHEK’S WELCOME TO JANKYTOWN
- 109 -
RHEK’S WELCOME TO JANKYTOWN
- 110 -
RHEK’S WELCOME TO JANKYTOWN
- 111 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
ISOLATED INCEDENTS Photos by Colin Adair
- 112 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 113 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 114 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 115 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 116 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 117 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 118 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 119 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 120 -
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - COLIN ADAIR
- 121 -
LOW MINIMUM // FULLY CUSTOM HEADWEAR & MOBILE CASES • HEADWEAR ORDER minimums stARt At 48-piEcEs (12-piEcEs pER cOLORWAY) • mOBiLE cAsE ORDER minimums stARt At 24-piEcEs (6-piEcEs pER stYLE AnD/OR cOLORWAY AnD cAsE Fit) • FREE FREiGHt AnD 30-DAY pRODuctiOn • nO ARtWORk sEtup FEEs
COME SEE CORDUROY LIFE AT KNOWSHOW FIND OUT MORE ABOUT #THEPROGRAM AT
Job board daily industry news interviews Product Preview