The "Sell-Out Socks" Incident of 1989

I forget the exact year…circa 1989 or so. I had a small, wooden ¼ pipe in my driveway. After school one day, my friend Chris came over to skate. We had both just recently seen something that neither of us had ever seen before: branded skateboard socks. I don’t remember what company made them. Santa Cruz? Powell? Dogtown? No idea.

What I do remember, is what Chris said to me. “You see those dumb socks? WTF. What a lame money grab. Like, just make actual skate stuff. We don’t need stupid advertisements to wear on our feet.” I agreed with him, but didn’t quite take the same offense. For some reason his comment has stuck with me all these years.

In 2026? Damn. Yeah. The two of us never could have imagined Thrasher branded footballs (actually, I still can’t believe that one). Not to mentions air fresheners, rugs, beach towels / balls / umbrellas, plushies, coolers, “collectible stamp sets,” earrings, stress balls, cooking aprons, dog bowls, playing cards, sunglasses, sharpie markers, tiki mugs, camp chairs, game dice, license plate frames, shot glasses, etc., and yes, socks, too. And I’m not even going to touch on the nostalgia-market (e.g. reissues).

I really wonder how many of these companies could survive without all these side-quest cash-grabs. It also gives me greater respect and appreciation for those who, for whatever reason, still mainly produce only “hard” skate goods.

Julien Stranger once made a post on Instagram which read, “Please let’s not let skateboarding become just another selfish capitalism cheerleader product etc…it isn’t. It’s a bastion of skepticism and Stoke. For us. By us. Believe that. Defend that.”

Despite the fact that Anti-Hero has fallen prey to some of that very “cheerleading” (Nike, Supreme, Yeti, etc. collaborations), those words still ring true…at least to me. I bet my old friend Chris, from way back in 1989, would certainly agree, too. I can almost hear him muttering under his breath, “WTF. We don’t need no damn cheerleading socks!”

Chris, I don’t know where you are these days, but I think of you often, and hope you are doing well.