As of right now, the Jin Joint team consists solely of Brandon Wiese. This means that he doesn’t pay to travel, doesn’t pay to compete, and definitely doesn’t pay for product. I would like to expand the team over the next year, but I obviously can’t afford to hook up a ton of kids the way I hook Brandon up. I get e-mails from kids saying that they just “Have the desire to rep something; anything.” Kids want to feel a certain level of respect from the companies that they support. There aren’t any companies in this industry bringing in as much money as they need to be in order to act as exclusive as they do. It’s becoming a joke. With that said, how can a clothing company give out flow positions; By giving kids free shirts? Do you have any idea how many free shirts I’ve given out over the last year? Does that mean that everyone I’ve given a shirt to should be considered flow? I think, yea, Why not? I also think kids should stop skating for the sole purpose of being sponsored which is why I am willing to acknowledge random kids as flow because it might take that monkey off their backs. THIS MEANS YOU CAN FINALLY SKATE FOR THE FUN OF IT. If you buy a shirt, and are proud to support Jin Joint you can make me an edit and I will post it no matter the level of skating because I am proud of the fact that I motivated you to go skating instead of standing in a room taking a picture of yourself.
Every New Year’s I am reminded of when I was in 5th grade and everyone was worried about the world ending because the millennium was turning. Those people were almost as confused as the critics Jin Joint faced at the beginning of this year. Jin Joint’s year started with approximately 850 negative comments on everyone’s favorite message board, and wound down with an award in Los Angeles. The people stocking up on soup and bread at the end of 1999 remind me of the same clueless people that said Jin Joint would be out of business within 3 months. My favorite accusation was that Jin Joint would simply be another clothing company draining money from the industry…$100 lines anyone?
I have one question for the people on message boards and the people with too much soup and bread; How’s that working out for you?
Jin Joint is still here and it’s stronger than ever. Expect more than T-shirts in 2009.
THIS IS FOR FUN! Keep in mind that you don’t HAVE TO make an edit if you buy a shirt. You can send a picture if you feel more comfortable, but know that no matter the level of skating, no negative comments will be tolerated. And then again, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t feel like it. Send me an e-mail if you decide to make an edit and I will put it on the site no matter what. I’ll be writing reviews about each edit I receive, but if you don’t want me to, I won’t. Just let me know.
*You will not receive anything except a place on the site for your edit.
GO SKATE.
P.S. Sorry about how low my voice is. I’m just getting over a cold from coming back to New York for the holidays and I’m just getting my voice back.
I really liked this edit Killian. You showed really good use of both you soul feet. The 720 followed by the truespin soul was pretty cool. Nice camera work too. I would like to see you use more of the park though. Good job;Keep skating.
You know the feeling you get when you wait all day to go to a party and your friends call and say they’re running late? Imagine how I felt after a surprise stop in Denver, a 2 hour layover on top of a 3 hour delay. This was all before a voice came over the intercom and said “The plane you’ll be taking to New York just left St. Louis and will be here shortly.” -Not good news when you’re sitting in Chicago. These delays and layovers turned out to be a good thing though. It gave me time to think about skating and about things that people are doing to make the industry better. Since today was Thursday, I was especially bummed out because I was missing Revolution’s Thursday Night Skate. Those sessions are the main reason that I moved to Arizona in the first place. I remember how I always used to have to skate alone after the majority of my friends quit. This post is basically just a message to all the kids at the skate park that are the only ones with skates on their feet. YOU run the industry. YOU deal with being called a fruitbooter; YOU deal with the hate on message boards that unfortunately comes from other skaters, therefore YOU are a bad ass. Making videos about how “cool” the industry “used” to be will not help anything. Even if you skate alone in the worst park in the world, you’re still representing what you love to do, and no matter what the popular belief is, nobody can deny what YOU are capable of. Skating is the only thing that will save skating. Get off your ass and make it happen.
I’d like to thank Tracy and Carlos for giving me the L.A. all day KING PIN award. Throughout the year Jin Joint has been paying for a few kids to skate in the contests as well as providing free product and of course, the 100$ best lines. (almost all of the product behind us was provided by rat-tail)
This was the first L.A. all day event that I have been to at the Santa Monica boys and girls club skate park. It was great to see a park like that be skated to it’s full potential. L.A. local Sean Cowen won the Jin Joint 100 dollar line. A few of the Razors pros were in attendance as well as Rachard Johnson, Jen Kirby, and Justin Eisinger.
Cowen getting his money.
Carlos used a Casey McFarland photo for the back cover of the L.A. all day catalogue.
TOMMY BOY!!!
SDSF owner Geoff Acers showed the young guns what was up by making the finals.
We went out today to shoot some photo’s for the site. Casey’s been really busy lately between school and the Nimh tour, but he’s always down for getting a picture or a clip.
Az local Sergio threw a real street contest in Prescott Arizona earlier today. We hit about 5 spots before the winners were announced. Brandon took third.
