Blader Digest: Those Skateboard Jeans Look Good On You

You’d have to be new or dumb to think the blading industry isn’t more broke than the average rollerblader.

But before you go investing in your sport, let me tell you the importance of always reading the labels.

Case in point: the “skate” in Bulletprufe Skate Denim is now meant for skateboarders.

That really sucks because they were stepping up the game in terms of blade denim durability and they were showcasing some good blading talent.

They were though, as most blading products typically are, not without their faults. I’ve bought three pairs and been extremely satisfied except for one large flaw I’ve never experienced before with jeans: the fly goes down on its own.

Not cool if you look like me and there’s a child around. People look around to see if you own one of these…

Again, not cool.

Despite that, I was a set to order a few pairs off their new line because while they are pricey, the money’s going into rollerblading and that’s more important than anything else.

That was last Tuesday—also payday, or I as I like to call it “hood rich day”—and I went to their site and was given a huge reminder…

Bulletprufe doesn’t do rollerblading.

(Which has since changed since last Tuesday. Rollerblading images are now featured with skateboarding and biking, as you can see in the screen grab below. Their Facebook page, however, is split between Bulletprufe Skate Denim [rollerblading] and Bulletprufe Skate Denim Worldwide [skateboarding])

Kind of sucks to realize that the limited money I have has been going to now promote skateboarding as well. It’s bad enough I’ll eagerly ride Eulogys, which do the same thing, but maybe there’s something to say about that formula.

So, last Tuesday night, I sent Will Fisher, owner and proprietor of Bulletprufe a few select questions…

No. 1: Am I wearing skateboarding jeans right now?
No. 2: If not, why is there no blading on your site an(Y) longer, nor why do you post such things on your site? The only photo I saw of a blader on  http://www.bulletprufe.com/ was Gripper and he was in a chair.
No. 3: If Bulletprufe is a skateboarding company now, what do you have to say to bladers who paid full price (including the problems that went with $80 jeans with zippers you wouldn’t dare go commando in) so you could test your products on a poor industry to run to a richer one?
No. 4: No one doubts money is an issue in our industry, but why? Really, why?
No. 5: How do you plan to make money in skateboarding when your brand can so quickly be associated as a blading brand?
No. 6: How many times do you walk by Black Sheep Skate Shop in your home turf of Charlotte, see your jeans there, and not fall over laughing thinking of the old Mindgame ads where skateboarders were all the white sheep and blading was the… the uh… You know, I can’t think for the life of me what the rollerblader was right now. Do you remember, Will?
No. 7: What’s the hardest part about rollerblading?

I should make a very important note about my line of questions to Will, who has never been anything but a nice person to me, came as a customer and on the same night two of my friends were hospitalized by a group of skateboarders.

Also Last Tuesday…

That Tuesday night, two of my friends—Omar Ontiveros and Rob Antaki—went to a skate park in Walnut Creek, Calif. I used to be fond of that park because that’s where regular Tuesday Night Skates occurred when I moved NorCal four years ago. Went there, met tons of homies, always had a good sesh.

What’s worse, is that in preparing for the Oakland Blade Jam and then hanging out after the Valo V premiere, I spent extra time with these guys. Real funny dudes. Hella hard workers.

For fun, here’s his entry for AMall’s Cash Clip contest…

So, when I received texts that they were jumped by a truck full of skateboarders who specifically who came to the park to blader bash, well, I didn’t like what I saw.

You already know the words they said to get shit started.

You know those fucks used their boards as weapons. And you know they had the numbers.


Good thing Rob already had steel in his head.

Last Tuesday wasn’t one of those nights where we hit Walnut Creek en masse. Rob and Omar were the only two bladers at the park. This Tuesday, you can sure as hell know they won’t be.

I don’t give a fuck what anyone says, you show up somewhere specifically to beat people, for whatever reason, that’s a fucking hate crime. Pure and simple and should be viewed with the same tolerance as bigotry.

What happened to Rob and Omar was simply nothing more than a continuation of bullshit defensive mockery from a sect of people who’ve been told one too many times that they’re the kings of counterculture.

Seriously. Think about the realities of life in American culture—skate parks aren’t where the bad kids hang out anymore. It’s where negligent parents leave their four-year-olds unsupervised usually without incident because no matter how much we adults think we’re fucking bad asses, when a little kid rolls in, we all have to work to keep the little thing out of the hospital.

It’s a shame we haven’t quite figured out how to do that to other adults.

We’re too busy endlessly talking shit (guilty as fuck right here) to the point where anyone thinks it’s even reasonable to mob up on people. That’s how far it’s been going—because I know of enough stories to know this shit isn’t isolated—and it fucking disgusts me.

Why do that shit? To teach someone a lesson?

Here’s the lesson: that shit ain’t going to fly very far.

It’s hard to stomach the possibility that someday a group of guys may jump out of a truck looking to hurt my friends and they may be wearing the clothing that got its beginning from the very sport they’re bashing.

That would be too much sweet fucking poetic irony for me to bear.

Just thinking of it makes me fart.

But neither the blader bashing or Bulletprufe have anything in common, right? Nah.

Edit: No, no, no, and no. If anyone thought it was possible for the two to be related, other than what was stated repeatedly through this column, then we apologize for the confusion and respectfully request you read it more carefully.

These two events happened last Tuesday when I was looking to buy some skate jeans.

That’s why my questions to Will were more loaded than Paco Ass Dre and The Steel Seagull on a Sunday.

Will had sent the following response by the next morning…

Brian, it’s purely a business decision. There were two options: 1) close the doors or 2) start fishing in deeper waters.  Bulletprufe, or any company for that matter, is not a hobby; it’s a business and has to be run as such.
Running a denim company is not like selling t-shirts; you can’t just get five or ten pairs printed up whenever you need them. You have to order months in advance and there’s real money at stake.  Nor am I a single 22 year old anymore; I have a wife and three kids to support and I can’t spend my time, or risk my family’s money and security, on a project (a small niche blading company) that not only does not make a profit but rather loses money.
So, if you were me, what would you do?  Pack it in and look back fondly on the times you lost tens of thousands of dollars trying to run a blade company or buckle down and do what needs to be done to make your company successful?  Yea, it sucks that the sport is not the size it once was but there were two options and I chose not to go the way of the dinosaur, like so many other blade companies before us.
I understand people’s concern and I am more than happy to discuss this in further detail via email, over the phone, etc. any time.
Thanks – Will Fisher

In all reality, I feel like a dick for passing judgement on Will’s decisions to promote his brand to skateboarding because were I in Will’s shoes, I may have come to the conclusion and I know Will didn’t make it without seriously considering personal longevity.

That’s smart because he has a family and I don’t, but what from I’ve learned from parents my age is that “you won’t understand until you’re a father.”

I’ve been fortunate enough to pad myself away from as much responsibility as I need to mainly because I’ve stuck to my guns. I don’t believe in many things in life, but those causes I feel like are worth fighting for, I’ll sacrifice more than I should for them.

I’m probably just too overprotective of my sport, my friends, and the people who I genuinely believe that if we continue to stick together, we’ll be better off at the finish line.

No matter what, I still stand by the statement I made on this site that Bulletprufe uses on theirs…

I know I can be an overzealous idealistic at times, so take all this in after you filter it through your own reasonable thinking skills. And don’t neglect the power of your gut instinct.

At least from now on if I’m going to buy skateboarder jeans, instead of shelling out $80 for a pair that could get me an indecent exposure ticket, I’ll walk down the street to the sporting goods store and pick up a pair of clearance Volcoms for $45.

I do have to be smart with my money, after all.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans

P.S. — Want to make me sound like a complete hypocrite? Buy my books. Will has already been nice enough to do it.

18 Comments

  • Brian, while I appreciate your article, I am very offended that you insinuated that we had anything whatsoever to do with what happened to your friend; I’m 3,000 miles away in NC. Those punks should be arrested and prosecuted. Disclaimer notwithstanding, it’s like putting a picture of Tide Detergent and then one of a bunch of dead baby seals and telling people to draw their own conclusion; the association, false as it may be, is made. I normally try to avoid rising to the bait but when you associate us with people and actions like that, we have to draw the line.

  • Bulletprufe was a proud sponsor of the 2013 Pow-wow Pro/Am, and were in attendance with a retail booth…

    Not a single item was purchased from them by those in attendance. So they lost money.

    This article was petty and juvenile, and the incidents are not related.

    Besides, how do you know Will didn’t take that “Skateboard money,” and reinvest it back into Blading? He had to get the money for a retail booth from somewhere?

    You’d be a dumbass to think that “blading” alone can support a business. I for one support connecting with other sports for financial gain. Don’t be suprised to see the Pow-wow including new diciplines to the event.

  • So I’ve been snowboarding for 17 years. Snowboarding shares certain brands with skateboarding. Are you implying that by wearing clothing that is worn by participants of multiple sports (that happens to include skateboarding) that I am supporting violence towards rollerbladers? Or the abandonment of our industry? Maybe I should beat the crap out of myself in my “skateboarding” pants to teach myself a lesson. Even with the semi-repentant self-reflection at the end, doing a whole piece calling out a company like Bulletprufe is incredibly bad form. Insisting that a company’s inability to compartmentalize their business to your standards is laughable, & connecting them, even in the slightest way, with ignorant violence committed 3,000 miles & a ton of character away from their headquarters is absurd. I don’t own any Bulletprufe products, but perhaps I’ll purchase some to support a legit company in the midst of the fallout your blog is bound to produce. Calling out BP, causing even a few rollerbladers not to buy their product, causing BP to rely even more on skateboarders to survive. It’s a great plan to support rollerblading, really. Because we all know success is only found in black & white.

  • theoriginalnestor wrote:

    If BMX’s ,Scooter Punks, Skateboarders and Rollerbladers can’t get along. What makes you think Humanity will? Next time you see someone punk someone else just because they’re preference in sport. Step up and speak up. I always do. No matter what they ride.

  • under the circumstances bp was in they had to do what they are doing, hard to admit but im cool wit it as long as they showcase blading equally. at least one or two blade companys in the blade industry should do this because it will expose rollerblading and blading needs exposure its the one way to draw more kids into our world that is wayyy gnarlier then skateboarding and kids would wanna buy blades and well grow in numbers again and company like pepsi or what not will come back at us again. if i start to see this company grow and be in zumiez i hope they make a ad wit alex broskow or some pro kids should see. BLADING NEEDS EXPOSURE we need to get kids into blading boarders bash cause we pose a threat to there industry

  • Just thinking of it makes me fart.

    Amazing article.

  • I think you shot the gun a little early on this one krans(in concern with bulletproofe jeans that is.)

  • DADCHUK wrote:

    Real men suck dick. HOO-RAH.

  • Fuck the Bulletprufe part of this, is something being pursued legally for Rob? Those fucks need to be jailed for this. Seriously, It might even fall under attempted manslaughter. I don’t give a fuck about drama, the bottom line is a homie was assaulted with a weapon. Is there someone I can contact to make sure this is carried through with?

  • Jeff Belzeski wrote:

    First off, right on Will for bettering the life of his family. Children are our message to a place in time that we will never see.

    Second, you need to ask this question and only this question.
    Q1- Will what makes you get out of bed every morning?
    My answer–to build a legacy that can and will be passed to my children. If Will has a similar answer than who gives a shit where he sells his jeans… His mission is not your business! In fact, if you want to protest then just do what every other human does and don’t buy their jeans.

    Third and final statement, I’m sorry for your friends and their unfortunate encounter with assholes. But that has little to do with skateboarding and absolutely nothing to do with Will. My guess is you are against guns because they kill people!?!? Right? Or are you able to see that some jackass makes their own choice regardless of their cause. I’ve never in my 35 years had an enemy that skateboards… But I’ve also never written a ridiculous article blaming a sport or a company for all my misfortunes. If I were Will… I’d sue you for slander. But something tells me Will cares more about green and growing than ripe and rotting.

  • If you are going to link a skate jean maker widening their sales audience with assault, maybe you are the one who should have got his ass kicked?

    Bulletproof had been sponsoring other sports from the beginning and everyone that they either sponsored or gave freebies to knows that.
    The fact you went out your way to use your friends assault to get people to this pathetic site, well in one way it worked, in another it pretty paints what a piece of shit you are.

    Your skill at drawing a long bow on your blog should have you working for Fox news in a few months.

  • Mike Bennett wrote:

    Brian,

    Your ignorance is unbelievable. Best of Luck to you Will in your endeavors. Make money from the streamline groups and continue to support the inline community when it shows no positive ROI.

  • clockwork wrote:

    I think all this guy want it to know is were this company stood on. I know is not all skateboarders doing this crap but believe me one person does shit and everybody who follows pays for it. I don’t want to support an industry that doesn’t show any support for my cause.

  • gregory prestön wrote:

    Geeeeeze chill out, pretty obvious/clear bp had nothing to do with the beating. Brian said he felt like a dick already in the article, so why go this far? Personally I dont support anything that has to do with skateboarding so with that I understand Brian. Either way selling to all markets is the best business decision and we get it.

  • Alan Hughes wrote:

    Reading these comments, it doesn’t seem like many of you finished reading the entire article.

  • I finished the article. After much insinuation, Brian sort of kind of maybe relents from unfairly targeting BP…and then says he won’t support them as a company anymore. That’s an interesting conclusion to come to if you have nothing against the company.

    For those of you who don’t want to “support anything that has to do with skateboarding” you should probably avoid skateparks, bearings, Eulogy, Chris Haffey, Dave Lang or anyone else riding a mega-ramp, Powerslide, etc. It’ll be a good day when rollerblading’s collective butt finally stops hurting from being so unfairly bullied & picked on by those mean skateboarders.

    You want to support rollerblading companies? Buy from things like Bulletprufe so they don’t have to market elsewhere. In the meantime, show some support for a man doing his best in lean times.

  • charles dunkle wrote:

    Not supporting skate boarding, biking or rollerblading gets nothing done. We all use the same skate parks. There are punks in all walks of life but some guy making good jeans and making money a couple thousand miles a way has nothing to do with some redneck skateboarders in your town. Also Brian Krans has been making mountains out of mole hills ever since he got a degree and couldn’t find a job.

  • Nathan Cornell wrote:

    Wills a cool dude, I remember him coming out to a few sessions when I was in qc skating with Casey and Simon.

    The guy is taking a risk investing money in blading, not a huge turn around there. Not sure I can agree with you there.

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