Zaturdays: Rodney Mullen is our Yoda

If Luke Skywalker, C3Po, Han Solo and Chewbacca decided to start a skateboard company, would you buy what they were selling? The Rebel Alliance Skate Co. with its random crew of misfit rippers would be pretty legendary. OR, would you prefer a vibe more along the lines of what the Galactic Empire puts out, with Darth Vader leading a team of Storm Trooper super pros, destroying spots like they did Alderaan. If you think about it, companies like Flip, Baker, Almost and Birdhouse could be considered the closest living relatives to the Rebels. They’re all over the shop, with dudes from everywhere, young and old, including bowl trolls, Mega Rampers, rail chompers, ledge dancers, etc. On the other side of the coin are the companies like Plan B and DGK, Imperial Forces to the core, with relatively homogenous teams made up mostly of skaters that seem to fit a certain mold. Now don’t give me too much credit for this concept, I straight plagiarized the entire line of thought from the following article on Copyblogger.com, the main difference being that while they tied it to “creating a visual brand” via your website, I’m taking it to skateboarding. And even though these are totally different worlds, the underlying theory is the same: if you ever plan on launching a skateboard brand, you might want to give it a read before you start putting your team together. - Paul Zitzer