It’s an honor to bring the “video crew-to-brand analysis” to a close with Shane Heyl. You know the resume and you know why we’re here. As much as skate videos are “promotion,” they’re history. The choices tell a story and when they’re amplified by a group of people with personality, the feeling on the tape lasts longer than the makes.
Normally I overthink my prep and come to the call armed with sheets of questions and handwritten notes that become harder to read once you hit “record.” If I have the opportunity to speak to someone with decades of blood and sweat in skateboarding, honoring their time by being ready is the least you can do.
And sometimes, you get a text and it’s on. After getting linked up via Mitch Hartman (thank you Mitch), Shane was down to move, so with a mental list of “must haves,” we fired it up. Skateboarding can be an incredible thing. You have ideas, you get analytical, and it’s always on your brain, and when things line up, “Here we are now on the phone, talking about skateboarding.”
ARTLESS: When I think about first getting into skating, the magazines were a roadmap, but those first videos I saw–and even rented from Video Expo behind my house–got me hooked. As cool as it was seeing a photo of Christian Hosoi or some larger-than-life pro, I really feel that seeing a team together was the hook. When I saw an H-Street video or a Powell Peralta video in the late-80s, I wanted that.
SHANE HEYL: Absolutely, because once you find your crew in skateboarding, that’s everything, right? It’s your family outside of your real family. You and your friends, you’re bleeding this thing. All you talk about, all you care about is that skateboard, and then you go to see this skate video of a certain team that you might like, and you see how they interact
For me, when I saw the Plan B Questionable video, they looked like they hung out and really skated together. It was like what we were already doing—we want to do that as a crew.
We got the homie who likes to film, and then we got the other homie who has the car, and then we got the cool kids’ parents that let us all crash there and eat their whole refrigerator. That’s why I love skateboarding. Obviously, there’s learning tricks and all that, but it was about the brotherhood bonded by it–the crews within those videos. There were individuals I liked later on, but it was the teams that I loved. I wanna buy their product now; I want to represent that. Oh, you like Daewon (Song) or Jovontae (Turner)? They’re all riding under the same umbrella. (Steve) Rocco put them all together. World Industries, Blind, 101… it was the best. The graphics, the videos, everything.
World Industries not only hit at the right time, but they gave you different flavors, too. The fuckin’ Baskin-Robbins of skateboarding.
Imagine being a fly on the wall at the World Park and just seeing Kareem (Campbell), Daewon, and Guy (Mariano) doing it? These are the best, coolest skateboarders ever. Whatever they’re doing is the next move in culture, right? They cut their shoes down, that’s the next thing. They cut their pants at the bottom. That’s the next thing. White tees only. Whatever they did was it and you didn’t know until you got that video. And because videos were so infrequent in the early ‘90s, you’d not only study them, you’d watch any video over and over.
It might be cool, it might not, but you paid for it; you might as well play the tape. But I think it’s the families we build within skateboarding that continue. Here we are now on the phone, talking about skateboarding.
This is a huge jump ahead, but I think about this a lot. In this era, it feels like the “solo part” is how you come up in skateboarding and there’s something lost in that. I wanna see everyone’s level together—I want a snapshot of that time period or trip and see who shows up. Do you think that’s lost to an entire generation?
Social media killed that. Now you have a sponsor-me tape in your pocket–at your fingertips. You don’t have to get nervous and edit this little sponsor-me tape and give it to the team manager—the powers that be that can give you free boards or get you on the team. You don’t have to pick up the phone and call a photographer you’ve never met and be like, “Hey, would you be willing to go shoot me do this trick at this spot?” If they say “yes” and you get there, you better not fuck it up. You gotta get that trick. That’s all taken away now.
It’s crazy, but here we are. Still, it’s “What skateboard team do you ride for?” and that all goes back to the video. We’re still here pushing out full-length videos–even if they’re montage videos—showcasing the team. I still believe the board company is the foundation of your sponsors.
I think it’s more important than ever because anyone can start a company, but if you go from flow to a legacy company, you made it.
Absolutely, I think the big corporate shoe companies might even look at that too. You know, “What board company do you ride for?” I feel like it matters. The individual superstar is a thing; you can do it. Then you got the YouTube sensation kids out there that are like so talented at skateboarding trick-wise, but they want to try to do it on their own and not follow the foundation we built. You get on the board company, maybe get a shoe sponsor, wheel company, truck company, and you travel and put out great video parts. That’s how it’s done, right?
But if you’re like, “Oh, I got my own YouTube channel. I’ll just monetize it—put out my own things and talk to the camera. I’ll skate, do all this stuff and get followers!” I believe that’s short-lived. I could be wrong, though.
I feel like those YouTube sensations burn out faster than people who go the traditional route. People need support. You need people to be around. A camera can’t be your best friend; everyone needs a family.
Yeah, it’s a thing. To get on a company–even if you’re flow or shop flow, whatever—it’s so exciting. It’s what you dream about.
So where does it go wrong? You know, get five amazing skateboarders, put them on a team, but it never hits.
I can only talk about my scenario, right? I don’t know about others, but back to what we were talking about: the brotherhood–the family outside of the family. You can take that and turn it into a brand, right? This is my best friend over here. This guy’s really good, we all get along, so let’s see if we can wrangle this together. A lot of people do this. Let’s make a video. “Yay, the homie video, we made a video,” if that has some stardom to it, if some of your friends with a name give you some clips, that can shine a light on that video.
That’s all that was at the beginning. We (Shake Junt) made a video. Then it was like, wait, we’re really representing this thing we’re doing. It’s like a gang. We’re spray painting it on our grip, we’re putting stickers on our board, we have pride in this. Everybody has that. We all have a crew, whether it’s a shop, Piss Drunx or Shake Junt. Then it’s like, do you wanna take it to the next level? Do you want to tie product to it? Then it’s a little bit of step and repeat.
You start putting more people on and you start building crews within crews. Take Florida for example. When I met Jamie Foy, I thought, “OK, you’re something else, do you wanna ride for Shake Junt?” He’s like, “Yeah, of course and I got my friend Zion (Wright). OK, let’s meet him. Oh my god, he’s amazing too. And he’s got this other guy, Nikolai Piombo and this other guy, John Di Lorenzo, and the list kept going–they kept coming. Now this is sick–this is what I’m talking about. This is where you put your entire family of friends into one company, because that’s what Shake Junt is. It can be a hub. Before it started, it was just my crew of friends from Arizona and Reno, Nevada. I wanted to make a video for them. Because I was connected to Baker and they were my family, I had them involved, too. Then it became Baker only and that crew, Deathwish only and that crew, Florida and the whole crew; then it became a bunch of posses within Shake Junt.
That’s what I still run to this day. You most likely don’t get on Shake Junt unless someone co-signs you. Someone recommends it, you meet the team, and they think you’re the shit. Some of them aren’t the next Jamie Foy, but you’re adding something to the team. Maybe it’s hypeness or morale. You’re bringing something that’s needed. If you nice with it, truly love Shake Junt and aren’t just looking for a hand out or to use us as a steeping stool. If this fits as a family, let’s go to the next level.
This is just me projecting, but it looks like you have a lot of fun making Shake Junt videos. That energy really comes through. Is it all fun and games or is it a process?
Yes and no. When the project begins, it’s got to come from pure excitement. We’re doing this, we’re making a full-length, this is the idea behind it, these are the people I think are gonna flourish, and then it becomes its own beast. Nowadays, Beagle and I will talk and get excited. You know, “Is it time? It’s been five or six years, let’s do this.” When you first start (making a video), it gets really exciting because you see the crew come together–you see who really wants to put forth the energy to have a full part. Then you get into the music choices and that gets really fun.
Shrimp Blunt was the last big project that we did, and that had a little bit of backing and some outside editing that was able to fulfill the dreams we couldn’t in prior videos. We had some skits, some cartoons–the stuff we never had the money to pull off in the past. I’m hoping we can do more of that in the future.
We do have a lot of fun. And no, we’re not looking at other companies and how they edit their videos or use this camera or whatever. No. We’re gonna keep it 100% Shake Junt. And it gets scary because the culture of skateboarding is really about what Bill Strobeck has done–and that’s a nod to him because he’s done a great job. But everybody started to be like, “Oh, I’m gonna make my video like him.” I bet that’s flattering, but we want to make sure our videos are who we are. We didn’t know if Shrimp Blunt was going to be received well. We love it, but if time’s up, time’s up. We’ll keep being who we are.
How does that translate into making the products for Shake Junt?
The biggest thing I like to do is to make a signature product. That’s a way of giving back to the team. You get a little bit of royalties from it; you can design it or work with an artist. That is the best. In the first five years, it was just so many ideas. You’re in the streets, catching a phrase and you think, “Let’s put that on a shirt.” That would be so fuckin’ funny, let’s do it.
We were wild. Make it bigger, put “Get Buck” huge on that shirt. People are hating? OK, let’s make a shirt that says “Wassup Haters!” Keep using that tagline on everything. In the beginning it’s so fun, because you don’t know what’s gonna work. Then you’re not chasing dollars, but you wanna stay in the game. You start to understand your lane, but then you gotta keep it fresh. That’s the videos and that brings us back to who we are. The original Shake Junt video, Chicken Bone Nowison, Skate Tank, Shrimp Blunt… I’m so proud that a company like mine has four full-lengths under our belt. I’m proud of that.
OK, this brings up something I really wanted to ask you. We–meaning anyone watching a skate video–expect it for free. Now, you have a company, you have your expenses, but you have to make videos and that should be factored into the prices we pay, but it doesn’t really work like that, right? It used to be that the hard copies of that video covered the trips and filmers etc.
No, most people get outside investors: you get a shoe company, your drink companies, get outside money to make that full-length. Get a budget going so we can travel. Shrimp Blunt was the first video that really had some outside help, shout out Mike Hubert and HiJinx Net for fulfilling the dream on that one. Even that though, that was only for the introduction skits. Shake Junt’s never had money to go on big skate trips to film. We’ve always done it on our own dollar. We don’t take trips out of the country to film for a video. It’s literally, get there while you can, hustle as hard as you can–it’s Beagle out there gathering as much footage as possible, contacting so many people for a trick. It’s very old school. That’s how we put our videos together. A lot of outside filmers are willing to contribute clips. We never had a budget or increased prices to cover a video… ever. It’s all off the strength of our dollar and the love of it.
When or have you hit a point where you could chill–where the brand felt sustainable?
I’ve been grinding since day one. I’ve never taken a break. Maybe that’s why it’s still going. I’ve also never gotten to a level where I have a bunch of employees. I have a distribution who are my friends and Beagle… day one. Me and Beagle.
Aside from the grip stencil design, where did the first logo come from?
The box logo? That one, which a lot of people thought was crazy, I went to a friend who had some Photoshop skills and asked him to make a logo that looked like a Las Vegas sign or a liquor store. I want lights and shit. He came back with this really flat image of my idea and I was like, “Yes, that’s it. That’s perfect.” I just ran with it. I made another and another, but the “box” logo has been around.
When I first started, I was printing paper stickers on my printer. Doing iron-on T-Shirts. All DIY shit, but we were just making it for us.
After I made my first run of videos, I sat in my living room and cold-called shops and tried to sell a baker’s dozen. Doing pop-up premieres. It was all out of the trunk of my car. Later on, people were like, “That logo’s too intricate, you gotta simplify it, man.” I was like, “No, I don’t. This is skateboarding, man. This is why it’s gonna work.”
Shake Junt was a gang: we bled green and yellow. We rocked it. It was my way to give back to my good friends that I believed in. They needed a platform to put their footage out. That’s what I still try to do. You need a video part to help you get more sponsors; maybe that will help you. Nikolai was not the star of that Florida crew at the beginning, but we all saw it. He’s sick. Watch, you’ll see. He kept grinding and doing his thing. We’ve seen this happen a lot, and wow, Shake Junt is their first “real” sponsor. That’s what keeps us going.
To tie it back to videos, if you had to pick a Skate Mount Rushmore, what four videos are making the rock?
That’s a fun one. You know what’s weird? I started in an era that kind of bothers me. I wish I started one year before, you know? I just missed H-Street Hokus Pokus. I started around ‘90 and everything had changed from the ‘80s. You know, boards and shoes–everything changed in what felt like six months, and I got into it right after that. I go back and listen to that Hokus Pokus soundtrack… I love it. I want more of that. It seemed like they had homies playing in a garage and they were like, “You’re in it.” It was so authentic to the editing, the skating, the filming; it’s gold. I didn’t skate in that era, but that’s a great video.
Damn, I got 10 videos in my head. It’s a hard one. The biggest one is Plan B Questionable. That’s the one that changed everything. I was skating long enough to know what’s going on, but the soundtrack, the clothing, that’s big on Mount Rushmore for me. Then you got all the World Industries videos: Love Child, New World Order, and 20 Shot Sequence. But Love Child was fuckin’ huge for me. Shit, then you got Tim and Henry’s Pack of Lies (Blind), which was just gangster. Two parts. Sanch to Black Sabbath, that’s stained in my brain. It’s so powerful.
Stereo A Visual Sound, I still watch that to this day. I love that video. I respect it more now than I did back then. It was so different and unique. It made you want to surf on your board and appreciate simple tricks done right. Then came Eastern Exposure 3 and that changed everything. That goes on the Mount Rushmore. You’re living on the West Coast, you see that and instantly you wanna ride bigger wheels. You wanna do front-180 to fakie 50-50 on ledges. You wanna go faster. God, that Metallica song to Ricky Oyola… amazing! Tim O’Connor with the Artifacts song. Dan Wolfe fucking nailed it; just a beautiful video that changed the world for us.
OK, we got Questionable and Eastern Exposure 3. Two game changers, for sure. Then Welcome To Hell (Toy Machine), Jamie Thomas how he edited that video, quick clips, super close fish eye shots, also some unheard of names that became household names after that video. That’s a great one. Shit, this is impossible. Just four? Fuck. Even if I didn’t grow up in that era, H-Street Hokus Pokus. It’s such a necessity. I also was a big fan of FTC Finally. I wanted to go to FTC, I wanted to go to EMB. That was a huge one too. If shop video is done right in the right era, that’s everything. FTC… Sub Zero… you don’t get cooler than them.
I love it man; I love going down the wormhole. That era–the mid-90s… 1996 had so many classics. Now… I know I watch videos every single day; I watch this part and that part, but I can’t retain it. 365 days a year. There’s a video part coming out on the top of social media. That’s a lot to consume when you love this shit. Man, it’s tough. When a video comes out that’s really good, you’re like, “That’s great. What’s next?” What’s the last video you watched twice? It’s one and done. That sucks. It’s terrible.
OK, I’m going with Plan B Questionable, Dan Wolfe Eastern Exposure 3: Underachievers, Stereo A Visual Sound, and H-Street Hokus Pokus.
Amazing. That list is required viewing. Going back to something you just said, even the big videos that have a moment… it feels like that moment is so much shorter now. We can’t go back, but I’d love to see less.
That’s awesome. That should be a T-Shirt. I’d buy it. That goes to Shake Junt too. That’s why we wait for the right time to make a full-length. Beagle and I were talking the other day. I think it’s go time.