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This past weekend as we were people watching and taking streets shots we noticed the amount of young people who had embraced skateboarding on the streets of New York. It’s a phenomenon that has taken off here in New York the past few years.

Interestingly the New York Times reported on the noticeable trend in this week’s Fashion & Style section.

More and more minority kids are skateboarding, a domain that used to belong mainly to suburban white youth. According the article:

“From the ’street surfers’ of the 1960s to the shaggy-haired Southern Californians who sailed up empty swimming pools in the 1970s, the earliest skaters were usually white kids. During a surge of popularity in late 1980s, the sport was celebrated for possessing a rebellious punk-rock edge (even as the skaters’ flannel shirts and bandannas had origins in Latino style).”

The popularity of urban youth embracing skateboarding also blurs the lines between the different demographics. Skateboarding is no longer associated just within the punk-rock music genre, but more increasingly with hip hop which is blurring the lines.

“By infiltrating hip-hop music and urban fashion, the sport has found new popularity among a black demographic that traditionally regarded skating with apprehension, if not scorn.”

Even the cult appeal of streetwear and streetwear brands crosses the spectrum of various youth groups. Streetwear and urban brands are increasingly being associated with the skateboarding movement.

Streetwear apparel is sought out by hip youth from major cities to suburbs across the nation appealing to a broad range of youth.

“Overlap between hip-hop and skateboarding fashion is also increasingly common. Just as Run-DMC lauded Adidas and Nelly praised the Nike Air Force 1, the Berkeley-based quartet the Pack gave Vans a new legitimacy when they named a 2006 song after the venerable sneaker brand. ‘I’m walking through some of the grimiest parts of Oakland and I’m seeing kids on skateboards, that’s something you would never see before ‘Vans’ came out,’ said Keith (Stunna) Jenkins, 19, a rapper from the Pack. ‘I used to wear Vans and people used to tell me I looked like Mr. Miyagi with those karate shoes’.”

Whether or not older people agree with the crazy clash of prints and colors being seen in streetwear now, there’s no denying it is force that’s popular amongst more and more youth.

Skateboarding Rolls Out of the Suburbs [NYT]

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