Striving for the ultimate balance by Yildiz Celie

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Skateboarders and hip hop tribes are negotiating with capitalism businessesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; A strive for the ultimate balance

Yildiz Celie, MA Fashion Design

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Consider it ‘mainstream’

3. 4.

• The Dandy • Licensing • Punk

11 12 13

From the streets

• Case study

Conclusion

Literature

Abstract This thesis will emphasize on collaboration between corporate business markets and skateboarding –and hip hop culture. I choose to research this subject because I noticed, it is necessary to coorporate with companies for two reasons: (1) As designers we need to earn a living and (2) to finance our own creative work. But how can you work with profit related companies, without forgetting your own values? The main question scrutinized is: ‘How can “sub cultures” cooperate with profit related companies without betraying their own principles?’ Furthermore an answer is sought for these sub questions: (1) How can you tell whether a company is right for you or not and where to draw the line, (2) How to monitor these limits, (3) Which values do you hold on to, (4) How do you reconcile with your conscience, (5) What is the alternative, and (6) what are the advantages and disadvantages?

1. Introduction When I was young, my brother introduced me to hip hop1. He taught me how to listen to it: he emphasized the importance of the message inside the rhymes. Around the age of 12 I started not only to listen to the beats, but also to the lyrics. In the beginning of the 90’s we watched the program “Yo! MTV raps2” and discussed most of the raps passing by. We became bored if they turned on some, in our opinion, meaningless hip hop, such as: Snoop Doggy Dog and 2Pac. We rather listened to MC Serch and BDP/ KRS one. Over the years, we noticed the quality of the program, in terms of meaningful hip hop, becoming worse, i.e. the meaningful hip hop which kept it value was reduced and in return the more shallow ‘mainstream’ rap, increased. Although we liked MTV paying attention to Hip hop music, it is however arguable one of the factors that caused the music scene to become more commercialized. Henceforth Hip hop merged into rap. In my opinion Hip hop was selling its soul: from the streets into the hands of the commercial record labels and producers. Not to say all producers delivered ‘mainstream’ rap, nevertheless the ones who did, earned considerably more money. “A record costs $16,99: fourteen dollar goes to the record label, if you are lucky, two dollar goes to you” [Street Prophetz: 2003]. In sum I suspect the commercialization is the reason that hip hop became, to a large extent, meaningless. When hip hop was selling its soul to the commercial record labels and producers, I could have said: Hip hop was ‘selling out’. Selling out means, commerce is taking over sub cultural styles in order to make money. For the same explanation Tobias Krasenberg used the term ‘Sell Out’ in his book ‘WHY NOT?’ IS THE NEW ‘NO WAY!’ [Krasenberg: 2007, 8] considered the term Sell-out “as anyone making good money for his own pocket” while not staying true to their or any sub culture.

1 “Hip Hop is cu� originated in the United States of American’s urban dwellings, however Hip Hop has no transcended its origins from the Bronx of New York and has become a inter� seemingly ignores the issues and beliefs of this minority group” [Wheeler, 2006, 5] 2 Yo! MTV raps was a two-hour American television music video program, which ran from August 1988 to August 1995 (source: www.mtv.com).

In my view this can be seen as companies using youth styles as a form of counter-bricolage. “Fashion designers and advertisers used counter-bricolage3 to repackage youth styles that use bricolage and resell those ideas to mainstream consumers” [Sturken: 2000, 224]. Bricolage is using an object in a different order, in example a safety pin in a punkers ear or the dandy4, who created a ‘style-crack’ by using sportswear in combination with the obligatory costume [Terreehorst: 1997, 49]. Counter-bricolage is making use of an already utilized form. In this thesis the dandy is regarded as the predecessor of sub cultural lifestyle. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary a subculture is “an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society”. This definition implies that the dandy can also be considered as a subculture, in particular through his ideologies and distinctions in his style of dress. Teunissen supports this vision and describes the dandy as: “To underline the distance of the generation before him – the pivot – and flaunt-sick nobility, the dandy chooses for a modest and more simple outfit: the suit” [Teunissen: 2006, 197]. But the sell-out is not a new phenomenon. Looking back in history three examples of sell-out can be distinguished, these are:

1. 2. 3.

During the industrialization, when the dandy became the pioneer of the costume. The ‘licensing system’ created by Christian Dior and Pierre Cardin. The licensing system is used to lend/ sell the name (and image) of a designer to commercial companies who use it as a marketing tool. When Vivienne Westwood used the punk in the 70’s, as a base for her collection.

After these three examples of Sell-Out another form occurred right after the brand crises in the 80’s. In the 20 years before this crisis, most branches lived from the purchasing power of the postwar generation. However as Klein mentions: “In the late 80’s the postwar generation started to purchase a smaller amount of consuming products” [Klein: 2001, 92]. This brand crisis arose for most companies after the producing sector and amusements branch detected they had been concentrating on the wrong target group. From this moment companies began focusing on youth culture instead of older generations. Among others these youth cultures contained hip hop -and skateboarding culture. In section three these two sub groups will be the main focus. Although I always had the idea skateboarding –and hip hop culture were being betrayed by multinational companies, these sub cultural lifestyles only began cooperating with these businesses for the past few years. In No Logo Naomi Klein mentioned this as ‘The Big Sellout’ [Klein: 2001, 332], when discussing an article from John Seabrook. Seabrook believes that the next generation artist knows intuitively how to produce artistic work and how to present it as their brand. This is exactly what happened inside the creative field of skateboarding and hip hop culture. This statement confirms the cooperation between the corporate market and the sub cultural lifestyle. To answer my main question I have interviewed several companies and designers: Sole Technology, Patta Store, Hanazuki shop/studio, Tobias Krasenberg a.k.a. Sopa000 and Eelco van den Berg. In these interviews I have put emphasize on the importance of authenticity within sub cultural lifestyles. In order to describe the interviewed companies I have created a model in which the companies can be placed on the bases of two opposing indicators. The first indicator is fundamentalisms5 (focused on values, i.e. anti-commercialization) and the second is Sell-Outs (strong focus on profit).

In section two these three early Sell-Outs will be discussed more in depth.

3 Bricolage (term) is French from ‘bricoler’, applying to ballgames and billiards, to hunting shooting and riding. It was however always used with reference � And in our time the ‘bricoleur’ is still someone who works with his hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman. There is no equivalent in English. (Source: Lévi-Strauss, Claude - The savage mind, Librairie Plon, 1962) “The ‘bricoleur’ re-locates the significant object in a different position � discourse is constituted, as different message conveyed” (Source: Hebdige: 1979, 104 – Clarke, 1976). 4 Dandy: “A man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop. Historically, especially in late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury Britain, a dandy often strove to imitate an aristocratic style of life despite being of middle-class background” (source: thefreedictionary.com as visited on 12-06-08).

5Fundamentali� promises with modern social and political life. The term is used to describe a wide range of political and religious phenomena, including Protestant denominati� www.globalpolicy.org visited on 04-08-08)

2. Consider it ‘mainstream’ Halfway through the 90’s many people wore look-a-like skate shoes from Puma. Being a skater myself it felt like these people captured our style and culture. However I realize now, these people could not be blamed. I should have blamed the brands, who started producing our style for the masses. People also started wearing shoes from Airwalk6. This used to be a hardcore skateboard brand, but when Airwalk was not adopting quickly enough for the skateboard market and losing their original custom base of skateboarders they decided to ‘go mainstream’ in the 90’s. The same time that Mann left the company. These skateboarders who would now tend to go for Sole Technology shoes, which is now a multi million pound profit a year company. This company will be discussed in section 3. But going mainstream or selling out is not something from the 21st century. As I mentioned earlier in the introduction, there were three earlier forms of sell-out. In this section I will discuss these examples more in depth. The first being the dandy which occurred during the industrialization. The second example is the licensing system of Cardin and Dior in the early 20’s. And the third Punk going mainstream in the 70’s.

The Dandy During the industrialization the Dandy preferred to be different in his tailored suit by adding stylized elements. He knew how to distant himself with his characteristic style in public life. Jose Teunissen describes: “To underline the distance of the generation before him – the pivot – and flaunt-sick nobility, the dandy chooses for a modest and more simple outfit: the suit” [Teunissen: 2006, 197]. Dandies established a way to create an authenticity and ideology, especially when remembering; he pursued ideologies of the enlightenment7, but also by re-styling his suit with the implementation of bricolage. The suit they worn, became a universal used style over the world. Valerie Steele underlines: “In the emerging world of capitalism and political democracy, men were increasingly assumed

6Airwalk was set up in 1986 by Bill Man and George Yohn, they only made skate shoes, t-shirts, snowboard boots, and accessories, and sponsored professional skaters including Jason Lee and Tony Hawk. (source: www.airwalk.com) 7Enlightenment: “Is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This im� guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] “Have courage to use your own understanding!”- that is the motto of enlightenment” (Source: Kant, An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? 1784. www.english.upenn.edu visited on 03-08-08). Paul Brians explains enlightenment as: “Although the intellectual movement called “The Enlightenment” is usually associated with the 18th century, its roots in fact go back much further. But before we explore those roots, we need to define the term. This is one of those rare historical movements which in fact� compatriots and set out to enlighten them. They believed that human reason could be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny and to build a better world. � aristocracy (Source: Brain, The Enlightenment 1998. www.wsu.edu visited on 03-08-08).

to be serious, hardworking, disciplined citizens, so bourgeois men adopted a civil uniform consisting of dark suits and starched white shirts. Workers and soldiers were perceived as being tough, brave and aggressive; they wore functional work clothes or uniforms” [Steele: 2000, 80]. Men with a high position in for example the finance, insurance, or ICT branch are still obligated to wear these dark suits. I suspect this universally used style of dress, suggestively taken over from the dandy, can be considered commercialized.

Licensing During the industrialization techniques developed in two different ways: “There was demand for bespoke tailoring and fine needle work that could only be done by hand and at the same time the mass production of cloth had began” [Wilson: 1985, 73]. Production work slowly took over manual labour, especially during the American Civil War where thousands of uniforms and cheap woman’s cloth where needed. Many of these companies kept producing in the twentieth century and clothing became available for masses. This democratization of fashion resulted in the 1920’s when the preconditions where met: “a competitive pricing system, advanced manufacturing technologies which produced goods that were well made and designed, and an effective distribution network” [English: 2007, 32]. Pierre Cardin (1922 - ) and Christian Dior (1905-1957) became aware of the many possibilities the mass production system had. They also noticed the possibility of making use of your (brand) name as a designer and took full advantage by creating the licensing system. This licensing system is also known as ‘brand stretching’ [Erner: 2007, 70]. Both terms stand for extending your collections, with a different range of products, especially accessories and perfume to finance the main collections. Cardin used his name on a broad range of products, from chocolate to bidets. This extension was the only way to finance his (prêt-a-porter) collections, but also the reason why he was excluded from the ‘Chambre Syndicale de La Couture’8. It was not accepted by Chambre Syndicale de La Couture that Cardin used his ‘haute couturier

8 In fashion history terms the organization has progressed and changed its name with the times, in an effort to promote French fashion and the French Haute Couture style. By 2004 only 9 formed the high ranking couture houses of Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Gaultier, Lacroix, Mori, Sirop, Scherrer and Torrente. Valentino not situated in France is a correspondent second ranking member. Then there are junior couturiers who make a lesser third g� sion that determin� promotes, ed� management, including great names of the Paris couture world. The Syndicale also deals with piracy of styles, foreign relations and organization and coordination of the fashion collection timetables. They also institute some collective international advertising for the French fashion industry (source: www.fashion-era.com)

name’ on such a wide range of licensed products. Dior stayed within the fashion field and sold his designer name to companies, which mass-produced i.e. tights. This made it possible for him to create his collections as well. Mark Tungate points this out in his book ‘Fashion Brands’ as: “Dior realized that luxury could be repackaged as a mass-product. Not only that, he considered it the key to the survival and profitability of a brand” [Tungate: 2004, 14]. Both designers used the licensing system in order to create their own collections and companies used the opportunity of their name as a marketing tool. It was not possible for these designers to create main collections without this system. This implies the necessity of money to subsidize creative work. Nowadays this ‘backing’ is also necessary for artists and/or designers. I will put more emphasize on this subject when discussing the coorporations between subcultures and multinational companies in section 3.

Punk In the late 60’s/ beginning of the 70’s, punk-culture was still underground and could not be labelled as a subculture yet. The term underground can be defined as natural expressions being still authentic, not followed by economic interests from producers, or designers. When it started to lose its pure form, through the commercialization by the market it can be considered a sub cultural lifestyle. I suggest this started to happen in 1975, when Vivienne Westwood created a collection inspired by the punk culture, which was called ‘anti-fashion’. Facing Westwood turned punk into a lifestyle; punk culture wore clothes created by themselves, through the usage of bricolage, by doing so they were opposing the regular system. Punk had its own norms and values i.e. anarchism, freedom, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-militarism etc. However these values where lost when Vivienne Westwo od presented her collection. In my opinion Westwood tried to make a statement: punks were anti-fashion, but through her statement punk style became (un)intentional available for the masses serving the capitalistic system. Henceforth the culture became detached from its values.

3. From the streets After the peak of the punk rock in the mid 70s, hip hop -and skateboarding culture became willing markets in the beginning of the 90’s. Companies were trying to connect too these cultures via ‘coolhunters’ and ‘trendwatchers’. These people where suppose to spot the latest trends within youth culture and by doing so they hoped to make the right associations with their marketing strategy. Klein underlines this with: “Companies had to build an identity which connected with this new culture” [Klein: 2001, 93]. Before the brand crises, these sub groups were anonymous, with the exception of punk. This subgroup was already commercialized halfway the 70’s. What happened to the punk culture is comparable with skateboarding and hip hop culture in the 90’s. Remarkable are the sub cultural values and/or statements, originated in the streets. Whereas punk stood for anarchism, anti-capitalism, anti –racism etc, skateboarding can be considered as a way of being and an outlet; a companionship you have with each other as a skateboarder, mutual respect and brotherhood, all being connected. And Hip Hop was a symbolic representation, through music, rap, dance, street art, etc. As a means of seeking refuge from a society that seemingly ignores the issues and beliefs of this minority group. Piero Scaruffi views the culture as: “Creations, to get respect, self fulfilling or as ‘Grandmaster Flash “messages” were frescoes of ghetto life, fusing socio-political commentary and senseless partying’ [source: www.scaruffi.com visited on 12-06-08]. These different values occur in a style of dress or natural expression on behalf of all street cultures.

Case study Since the 90’s companies have been focusing on youth culture. Nowadays, many people from these sub cultures have grown mature and are old enough to start working as a freelancer or take an ordinary job at a multinational company. It seems, it did not become a one-way traffic at all, especially not if we consider the fact, everybody needs to earn a living. It is clear skateboarding and hip hop culture choose to participate and anticipate on the market. If we head back to Klein’s statement: “companies had to build an identity which connected with the culture” [Klein: 2001, 93], I believe these companies succeed to identify with these sub cultural styles. In my opinion Nike, Inc. achieved this, by created Nike Skateboarding in 2002. “In 2007, after failing four times to enter the skateboard market, Nike SB had emerged as a successful skateboarding company by manipulating demand for the shoes by keeping numbers down and signing many well-known skateboarders” [Hampton/ Adbusters: 2006, issue 65], by paying these skateboarders large sums of money. Executives from Nike, Inc. discovered skaters had co-opted the Dunk 1985 basketball shoe and reissued this shoe with the same basic design, but with different color schemes and motifs designed in collaboration with celebrities, graffiti artists, skaters and storeowners. This shoe was only available in skate shops, in limited editions. Wilson, marketing chief of Vans skateboarding’s company in 2002 believes: “Skaters are much more open to the idea of Nike coming in. There is no such thing as selling out anymore” [Hampton/ Adbusters: 2006, issue 65]. And he is right; nowadays nobody is surprised anymore if you have collaboration with a big multinational. People rather push you to do it, than try to hold you back. It seems quite accepted, but how can “sub cultures” cooperate with profit related companies without betraying own principles? How can you tell whether a company is right for you or not and where to draw the line? How to monitor these limits? Which values do you hold on to and how do you reconcile with your conscience? I interviewed designers and artists containing their work conform their sub cultural style, considering chosen principles. I used the following questions in order to position these companies and designers in the introduction described model: Is this company/ brand or label corresponding with own values/principles? Is the company having another purpose then profit? Does it concern a freelance task or a fixed employment? Is it free (artistic) work that is practiced, or commercial? Is the company having an own vision or is it following the masses? I use the next three cases as the most diverge possibilities of the model mentioned. These contains examples of (1) the ‘perfect’ model, Sole Technology, Inc. (2) A commercial model: Patta and (3) an example of an alternative path: Tobias Krasenberg, in order to show the different possibilities inside the sub cultural field.

The ‘perfect’ model is Sole Technology, Inc. since 1986, owned by Pierre André Senizergues. Senizergues: “I love to see Sole grow. The people, the company, and the products - they all grow together” [Source: www.soletechnology.com, visited on 07-08-08]. With etnies, etnies Girl, etnies Plus, éS, Emerica, Altamont Apparel and ThirtyTwo consolidated under the name Sole Technology, Senizergues is staying true to the skateboarding roots, and also takes care of environmental issues: “Recently, Sole Technology added to its list the conversion to waterless urinals at its headquarters to promote water conservation. Other initiatives include the installation of 616 solar panels, the conversion to water-based cement manufacturing, company-wide recycling efforts, the addition of the first-ever environmental affairs manager and the launch of a sustainable footwear and apparel collection” [source: www.soletechnology.com]. Senizergues also took part in 11th Hour9 and was honored to receive the Global Green award. As a leader in sustainability within the action sports, and nobility towards its people, this company is the best example of a company staying true to its roots. But yet there are other possibilities. A commercial model within the sub cultural lifestyle is Patta store. Patta is selling sneakers and apparel. The brands they carry are e.g.: Nike, Asics, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, New Balance, Fila, Run Athletics and Vans. Some apparel brands they have are: Alife, Rockwell, Stüssy, aNYthing, Married to the Mob, Supreme, The Hundreds, J-Money, Triumvir, Rockers NYC, Red Clay etc. [source: www.patta.nl, visited on 07-08-08]. Their originality comes from the fact that Patta is more than shoes. Timoty Sabajo considers Patta as a movement with street credibility among DJ’s, graffiti artists and break dancers. Through coorporations abroad with the same kind of stores and knowing everybody in the scene anything is possible. “The root of this culture supposed to be available over the world, i.e. Delta (graffiti artist) is massive in America and Japan. Amsterdam is small, but eventually these are world projects”, implies Timoty. I suppose, Patta choose to commercialize the root of hip hop culture, in order to make it ‘a world project’. This company is accompanying with Asics and Nike and as Sabajo believes “if you can’t beat them, you should join them”. Patta is a corporation which intentionally works together with multinational companies. This companionship made it possible for them to set up Patta, not only as a sneaker store, but also as a brand. The most alternative path chosen is Tobias Krasenberg a.k.a. Sopa000, designer, especially graphic design and writer of the book: ‘WHY NOT’ IS THE NEW ‘NO WAY!’ [Krasenberg: 2007]. In this book he questioned the loss of sub cultural meaning through commercialization.

9The 11th Hour describes the last moment when change is possible. The film explores how humanity has arrived at this moment – how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. The film features dialogues with experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister, Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA, R. James Woolsey, and sustainable� facts and discuss the most important issues that face our planet.

Krasenberg chooses his design method and material on ground of the project and the concept he thinks of: “it is about the idea(s) I offer”. As a designer he works rather for good cases. “I am not born to re-package apple juice or help to sell stuff”. He is doing experiments with commercial work intentionally, but in his core spirit he rather works for cultural and social initiatives: “eventually I see a relevance there and importance”. By rather not taking any commercial jobs and keeping values of relevance and importance in mind, suggestively Krasenberg can be considered slightly as a fundamentalist. Of these three models, I consider Sole Technology as the dream, ‘middle’ model, by following strong values and principles and staying true to skateboarding lifestyle. When considering the fact there is a left and right side: Krasenberg choose to go to the ‘left’, by mostly doing social and cultural work and Patta choose the opposite, the ‘right’ by jumping into commerce. Nevertheless there are also designers and companies who achieved to find a method to pursue in the ‘middle’ of this regulation. I make use of the next two cases to enlighten this:

Hanazuki Hanneke Metselaar and Niko Stumpo, both from the advertising world, founded the HANAZUKi Company in 2005. This includes The HANAZUKi studio and the HANAZUKi store. Hanneke and Stumpo were both already freelancing for different companies and with the Hanazuki Company ‘free’ and ‘commercial’ work were able to come together. HANAZUKi is a place where artists can collaborate and where they are able to find support to produce their own ideas without any fixed boundaries. However it is not a choice for HANAZUKi to work with commercial companies: “To be able, to do what we want, we need to work for customers. But it is pleasant, we learn a lot and some things we are able to use for our own products and projects afterwards”, concludes Hanneke. Some of these unique, self produced –and designed items, can be find in the HANAZUKi store, created with passion and love by Hanazuki or other creative’s. HANAZUKi aspires to have direct contact with people who share their visions. Metselaar believes: “The work you do is about being ‘real’… Anyone sees whether an artist is ‘real’ or ‘fake’, because mostly when it is fake it is done, because it is ‘cool’. It is about the passion how you do it, this passion is making it ‘real’, because than it is done, because you believe in it!

Eelco van den Berg, graffiti artist and illustrator. Eelco van den Berg once started with covers and mix tapes for the hip hop scene. Nowadays he is doing little, to no work for the industry. It was different than: “In the past I sprayed on graffiti ‘jam’ sessions as well, but nowadays you have to spray with the sponsoring brands and these have a banner hanging either”. This is one of the reasons why van den Berg chose to start experiencing graffiti more from the inside. Eelco believes: “graffiti is something individualistic, a trademark, but nowadays that is gone, because it is filled in already”. Van den Berg did accomplish to set his trademark within the commercial field and says: “I developed my handwriting in the streets, but happily I am stubborn enough to do what I want and this is going well already for 10 years”. He did experience that it is hard to stick with your ‘style’ and not to be lead to much by the customer, but lately, he is enjoying more liberty: “This year I could say ‘no’ towards certain jobs and I could take jobs which did suit me more. This is a luxury and a hazard of course”, but van den Berg remarks: “it is necessary to be enthusiastic for a job and the briefing should be clear as well”. The companies and designers I have reviewed have a similarity symbiotic relationship with sub cultures in which they have grown and the vitality of those connections is part of their achievement. But the exemplary companies/ designers, like Sopa000 (Krasenberg), Hanazuki, Sole Technology and Eelco van den Berg are driving by willpower, and the will to create what they like, not driven by profit.

Conclusion In this thesis I have given three examples of early commercializations: The first being the dandy becoming the pioneer of the costume. These dark suits remained and can be considered ‘Sell-out’, since it is a standardized phenomenon. As I mentioned, Dandies also re-styled their suits with the implementation of bricolage by combining these suits with sportswear. Usage of bricolage was also remarkable in the style of dress by sub cultural lifestyles, like punk, my third example. But more important, I have applied this form as well in my collection: by using skateboard –and hip hop style in combination with the standardized suits. Hence I too am making usage of bricolage. The second example was the licensing system of Cardin and Dior in the early 20’s. This system shows it is necessary to have a simple base, to either create a collection or to simply earn a living. This occurred within the skateboarding –and hip hop scene, when Patta and Hanazuki use commercial brands for sales or commercial jobs but used as a base for their own collections. At this point, this company is making an ‘authentic’ collection, with the ‘funding’ from commercial brands. I want to strive for such a balance as well: Working freelance for commercial brands chosen by values, and use this as a living and a fund for my own collections. In my opinion this possibility enables you to become a sell-out, when keeping track on your own values and by creating your own ‘authentic’ collection. The focus on profit as big multinationals have is not required. Doing what is right, even when it does not seem profitable. A method which is equivalent with the ‘middle-road’ I am aiming at. This middle-road is created by pursuing chosen values. Before starting to cooperate and during working with commercial clients, it is necessary to monitor yourself: you need to maintain ‘soul -searching’ [Burlingham: 2005, 38]. This is possible by asking yourself questions resembling: Am I doing well? Do I feel fine with this? Is this what I need or want (to learn)? Does this company suit my principles? Is this the right track? Do I need to improve? This method also answers the main question. This is the point where ‘corporate business meets sub cultural lifestyle’ and by taking these steps, we can say fare-well to the sell-out and/ or fundamentalist, because a new road is formed. This main course contains a balance between commercialized and ‘free’ work chosen by values, by doing what you want, as much as possible, as far this is in reach: striving for the ultimate balance. But when it is not an option to coorporate with other commercial companies at all, there are alternatives. It is possible to decide to work with social -and cultural initiatives, like Krasenberg. And probably it is even possible to coorporate with a multibillion company, who is taking certain principles in account, e.g. Sole Technology which takes environmental issues very seriously. 20

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Crane, D. (2001). Fashion and its social agendas; Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing. Chigago: University Chigago Press. Hunter, J.(2006): ‘Flying-through-the-air Magic’: Skateboarders, Fashion and Social Identity . The University of Sheffield, Shef.ac.uk. Jones, V. (2007). Hip-hop, skateboarding cross cultural lines. Boston: NY Times news service p.16., published on taipeitimes.com. Lui, M. (2006). Berkeley group unites hip-hop, skateboarding. Oakland: Oakland Tribune. Findarticles.com. Palmaerts, T. (2005). Hedendaags beeld van jongerenculturen en subculturen – een mash-up van wandelende prototypes, Agora: jaargang 21 – nr. 5. Polhemus, T. (2006). The adorned ape. Koru2 International Contemporary Jewellery Symposium, klimt02.net. Ramirez, A. (1998). Hip hop culture out of WilliamsburgWarehouse.Neighborhood report – New York :nytime.com. Roberts, M. (2005). In defense of Marxism; the life blood of capitalism. Marxist.com. Scaruffi, P.(2005). The History of Rock Music: 1976-1989 - DJs, rappers, ravers; Rapmusic, 1979-87. Scaruffi. com. Simons N. (2006). Skater of faker? Een kwalitatieve casestudy naar de rol van de media in de subculturele identiteitsconstructie van skaters. Antwerpen University. Steele V. (2000) Material Man – masculinity sexuality style. Published by Harry N. Incorporated New York: Abrams, p.78-93 Sturken and Cartwright (2000). Consumer Culture and Manufacturing of Desire in Practices of Looking, p. 198235. Teunissen, J. (2006). Van dandy tot modeshow in: De Macht van Mode, over ontwerp en betekenis. Stad: Terra Lannoo & ArtezzPress, p 194-212. Wastyn, K.(2004-2005): underground is dead. Grondige studie van het filmmedium – M. Lauwaert, Rits – Essay. Wheeler, C. J. (2006): Globalisation & Sub-culture Identity, scribd.com. Weiss, E. (2004): A Reinvention of the Wheel - Annandale Teen’s Idea Brought Skateboarding Back to Life, washingtonpost.com. Wilbekin, E. (2008). Great aspirations – Hip-hop and fashion dress for excess and success in: Fashion Theory – A reader, Routledge Student Readers. P. 247-252.

Other sources: Tegenlicht, Branding und Markenkultur (1998). VPRO Documentary . Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) by Stacey Peralta. Street Prophetz - Some things you can only learn from the street (2003) Parental Advisory. 24