Trying to make 14-year-olds support your company through exposing them to footage of a bunch of 20-somethings who can’t see straight could easily be understood as somewhat ethically questionable. The balance between advertisement and art is what makes skateboarding as an industry so singular but one cannot help but wonder if it’s somewhat cynical for a group of recovered drug addicts and now teetotallers to cash in on a young man’s fall into the very same mistakes they made, only he has gone as far as making all these mistakes while having a skull and cross-bones on his nose and “fuck cops” scrawled at various points around his body.
Perhaps it is unfair to do nought but cry shame on Baker and Deathwish, ultimately Dixon is his own man and his decisions are his alone and as his dependencies grew more and more serious his pro model boards were removed from Deathwish catalogues, he is one of the biggest most recognisable names in skateboarding but hasn’t has a board on the market for about a year now clearly as a punishment of sorts for neglecting to do what is expected of him, skateboard. This of course raises questions concerning the cynicism of the brand that are now supporting Dixon, Life Extension. L.E is a relatively new company set up by former Toy Machine pro Nick Trapasso and his longtime friend Pat Pasquale and their motivations for starting the brand and the art direction so far is certainly reminiscent of the early days of Baker. The decision to welcome Dixon aboard leaves a bad taste in the mouth though.
This is perhaps the first time a “professional skateboarder” that doesn’t skateboard has been welcomed aboard a brand with the knowledge that he will sell boards based on image and image alone. The industry is going to have to take a long hard look at itself and decide if there is space for that kind of mentality within skateboarding because if there is this could well be the first sign of a dangerous precedent being set.
