Monday, February 4, 2008

You Are Not What You Own



I remember seeing this Nike Skateboard flyer on the world wide web back in 2005 and thought, wow this will piss people off. Nike had ripped off DC punk/hardcore band Minor Threat's 1981 debut cover art, this shit happens regularly, but when an underground relic like Minor Threat is mimicked by a company like Nike the shit hits the fan.

Here is a recent interview with Minor Threat/Fugazi front man Ian Mackaye about his perspective on the Nike debacle.

"It was out of my control, it was a phenomenon that really had nothing to do with me.

But, I do think that Nike is an unyielding behemoth of a company, even though the people that work there may well be very reasonable people and they probably do care about things, but these big corporations have no ethics at all, they are essentially soulless

At the end of the day, the people that own that company don't give a fuck about shoes, they give a fuck about sports, and they don't give a fuck about content or product or whatever you want to call."

full interview here

9 comments:

Casey Brewer said...

Fuck Nike.

R. Falch said...

Yeah, but how am I supposed to connect with the culture that I identify with, without rocking my limited edition Dunks?

Casey Brewer said...

The last pair Nike's I owned was in 3rd grade. Black and Silver Dunks. I'll never buy another pair again.

R. Falch said...

That's too bad.

Casey Brewer said...

Fuck Nike.

R. Falch said...

Yeah, but what about those limited edition Dunks that are so fucking rad?

Jake Lancaster said...

It's just plain hard to wear shoes these days. They're like little size 10 landmines. Would Mr. McKay have been any less disgusted if Adidas had appropriated a Minor Threat image to promote a skateboarding tour? They're an "unyielding behemoth of a company." What if Vans had used that image? They're old school and core and everything if you don't take into account that you can buy them at Macy's, Foot Locker, JC Penney, et al., and they've forged very serious and very lucrative corporate sponsorships with Gillette and Ford and NBC to name just a few.

I guess the point should be don't knick someone else's shit.

R. Falch said...

Nike blows for knicking it.

Ian M is a grumpy douche.

In On the Kill Taker is great.

The Evens are underrated.

Casey Brewer said...

Fuck Nike.