INTERVIEWS
How Keenan Milton’s Death Led to the Founding of HUF
Having a foundation in skate, what made you want to jump into retail?
I was living in LA from 1998 to 2001. Keenan Milton (fellow pro skater and close friend of Hufnagel since their DVS Shoes days) passed away and I was pretty bummed out. My wife and I at the time said, “Let’s get the fuck outta LA. Let’s just change it up.” We decided to move to San Francisco. I’d been traveling for a decade, seeing what was happening in Tokyo, New York, LA, London. I was hitting all these major cities and seeing this streetwear and sneaker culture happening. It was all over the place.
Around 2001, I was thinking about what’s going to happen after skate. What am I going to do? I know I can skate for a long time, but you don’t know how long you’ll be a professional for. I mean, some people do it for a long time, but I think I went in and out of being bored at times and when you go out and you try to film and get photos all day then sit in the car for six hours, it just becomes exhausting.
At that time I was talking with Anne [Freeman, my ex-wife] and she really wanted to do a women’s boutique brand. She did research on it and found that San Francisco was oversaturated by women’s apparel. So I was like, “Well, I’d like to do a streetwear concept store of what I see around the world.” And that was kind of how [HUF] got started. We didn’t have a business plan or anything. We just made it happen and had enough connections in the sneaker and streetwear worlds to carry the right products.
We were carrying brands from England and Australia like Perks and Mini, Stüssy and Supreme. Then we carried Nike, Vans and adidas. Back then, I always felt like San Francisco was missing this niche version of streetwear, so that’s what we wanted to bring out there. We filled a void in a city that really wanted it.
Read the entire interview here.
Image Via GOAT
INTERVIEWS
Kelly Bird Opens Up in Latest The Nine Club Episode
Nike SB Global Brand Manager Kelly Bird opens up about growing up in Houston, getting into skateboarding, becoming a pro, and eventually transitioning to the industry side of skateboarding.
Before he became the global brand manager of Nike SB, Kelly worked for DC Shoes and Lakai Footwear.
INTERVIEWS
Catch Up with Mariah Duran in the Latest Nine Club Episode
Pro skater Mariah Duran has always been into sports as a young kid, she revealed in the latest episode of The Nine Club.
The goofy-footed skater from Albuquerque, New Mexico got introduced to skateboarding when she was around 10. Initially, she would borrow his brother’s board, but her mom eventually bought her a board.
She was also into softball when she was younger and basketball when she was in high school. Later on, she shifted her focus to skateboarding.
Mariah won the USA Skateboarding National Championships Womens Street in 2019, and 2021. She placed 4th in the most recent competition.
She is also a two-time X Games gold medalist for Women’s Street Skateboarding.
INTERVIEWS
Nyjah Huston Talks About SOTY 2022
Nyjah Huston has only good things to say about his rivals for the 2022 SOTY.
In the ONSTIX Episode 108 streamed on Thrasher’s Twitch channel, Nyjah described the 2022 SOTY Tyshawn Jones as the “King of Pops” for “skating over anything and everything possible.”
He also said that Louie Lopez is just straight-up creative and had a good chance of getting SOTY for many years now.
He also commended TFunk’s latest video part.
Nyjah said in the interview that he watches almost every video that Thrasher posts, even those names he hadn’t heard of.
I love watching everyone’s skating because everyone skates differently and that’s what beautiful about what we do.
Nyjah huston
Tyshawn Jones eventually got the 2022 SOTY title. He is one of the three double-recipients of the title, the other two being Danny Way and Chris Cole. He earned his first SOTY in 2018.
Watch the full interview here.
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