Why Skateboarding and Porn have a lot in common

The porn industry has hit hard times. Like many other industries the global recession hasn't helped the porn industry at all. But lets not ignore facts. They were hurting before and the common numbers of it being a gigantic billion dollar industry are overblown. Technology which many attribute to the proliferation of pornography have also hurt the business. Who pays for it anymore? You can go on any number of sites and watch as much as you want for free. Compound the fact that you anyone can put video online and the line between what constitutes a professional and an amateur is getting even blurrier.

Oh, does that sound familiar?

-Small amount of pros who are kind of locked in as industry giants and are on contracts. They don't have to work every day and they have a paycheck no matter what. Lots of amateurs fighting for recognition and the payday.


-I don't pretend to know the numbers (because I don't) but by and large (I'm using some data and a lot of speculation) skateboard videos being produced by companies are treated like a retail store uses loss leaders. A loss leader is when a store sells something at cost or below cost in hopes that more sales are generated overall. To put it simply, that computer at Best Buy you purchase is priced so cheaply in hopes that they can stack more crap on top of the purchase like a printer, usb cables, service plans, and geek squad installation. Or why stores on the day after Thanksgiving have crazy good deals on some items in hope that you continue your frenzied shopping and purchase more goods at closer to regular store prices.

So you have a skateboard video like Fully Flared which was obviously heavily pirated/thrown up on Youtube pretty much immediately which leads me to believe that a multi-year project probably didn't turn any sort of profit. In fact he [Evans] may have even mentioned that but I didn't really feel like looking this up.

The Loss Leader mumbo jumbo I was spouting a second ago leads me back to the fact that the video is pretty much treated as a gateway for promotion of those on the video which pretty much leads to board sales, shoe sales, and the all important cultural commodification. This isn't really news though.

PORN CONNECTION: Porn videos don't sell...seriously, who buys them? Who buys magazines? If a recent rolling stone article is to be believed the big money for porn stars now (unless you're a top contract star of which there are about 12 or so) you make money in appearances. That means you either show up at a strip club or you become a high priced escort. Accessibility is the name of the game. Much like a skateboard video becomes a loss leader to everything else under the sun, the video for the porn star is basically the buy in to them. You can be their myspace friend, follow them on twitter, and even get to see them IN REAL LIFE if you so choose.

-Let's use The Berrics as a frame of reference. Absolutely genius in execution and building on the steam rolling success of 'The Battle' the sites individual unique page hits is freakishly high and if the Wall Street Journal is to be believed then it gets the most uniques of any skateboard related site and probably has grown since they reported that over a year ago.

Allegedly its essentially become a license to print money. By hosting unique content that is created on location (and occasionally off) and with the backing of one Mr. Berra and on Mr. Koston (who in my mind is the smartest dude ever especially in the fact that he seems to be pretty hands off when it comes to a lot of the more audacious plans that The Berrics has devised [see: Berrics Unified]) there is a unique (i'm using that word a lot) voice that was being shouted out and a lot of people have and continue to buy in to it. I'm not implying their up to anything insidious by any means. Its clear that through the Berrics Unified, Younited Nations, Canteen, and all the other clever word play that a legitimate community has sprung up around this one website. Also Buttery Ass Mondays is funny.

Porn Connection: Pretty much the same as the previous porn connection. Creating an entire online persona so the connection to the people is immediate.

I've got more on my mind but it will probably end up being a loose rant that is barely coherent. To be Continued.