You and I both know that skateboarding is huge. It’s a huge sport, it’s a huge industry but is it still able to progress? Despite many people thinking that skateboarding hit its peak about 10(ish) years ago, there are still millions of you out there. That being said, the number is still dwindling and some people in the industry are already panicking that this might be the beginning of the end. I don’t know how much I agree with this but this video from the Financial Times is kind of interesting.

I think it was a no-brainer to realise that the most amount of money in the industry is made on clothing and shoes. There are only so many skate decks you can sell each year! With this type of income, from selling clothing, you’re catering for an audience that isn’t just the core of the sport, it’s a fashion thing and that will appeal to anyone. But then hey, if that’s going to fund our sport then can you really complain? I think with every sport there’s a slight panic when it becomes insanely popular. As the video says, skateboarding hit its peak around 2002 but it’s still incredibly popular. If it wasn’t then this site probably wouldn’t be around! Every sport will hit a high point then decline to a certain extent but there’s not a massive need for panic. With the economy the way it is I’d go so far as to say that the industry isn’t doing too badly at the moment. There may have been a few brands needing to close doors but we could be seeing something much, much worse.

What do you think though? Are we staring down the barrel of the beginning of the end? Or is this just the mainstream reporting a story that comes with every sport?