JEFF GROSSO EXPLORES CHINA’S SHORT, COMPLICATED HISTORY IN VANS’ ‘LOVELETTERS TO SKATEBOARDING’
Vans’ latest “Loveletters To Skateboarding” takes a deep dive into China’s history in skateboarding. Surprisingly, it’s actually pretty brief: Powell-Peralta‘s George Powell takes credit for introducing the sport in 1989 (the number, another summer), having taken a trip to Beijing.
China was transforming from a closed market Communist society to an open global super power. Powell’s goal was to bring skateboarding to the biggest country in the world. The only problem was that there were no skaters or skateboards anywhere in the country. Even Grosso admits that he’s surprised by the outcome!
This is a must-watch for the younger generations of skaters who have grown up believing that we, as skateboarders, are one global brother/sisterhood—it wasn’t always that way.
