WHY CLICHÉ WENT OUT OF BUSINESS

Courtesy of Dave Chami

Jérémie Daclin sat down for a candid interview with Free Skate Mag in which he talks about the factors that led to the demise of Cliché. He pinpoints a generational cycle that exists in skateboarding, and a shift in media consumption as being major parts of the brand’s undoing. Daclin’s insights are poignant in that they speak to the overall shift in the industry that has been going on for the latter half of this decade, and is currently driving skateboarding’s direction in terms of products.

Twenty years, that’s a generation. If it was cool for the dad, and he wears Cliché shirts; it’s going to be hard for it to remain relevant and cool enough for the son to want to wear them. That’s why Mike Carroll talks about the 20-year curse for skate companies, that’s when Gino left Chocolate. And with this constant flow of skateboard content, new brands, etc., the life span of big brands is only going to get shorter. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have strong magazines and media outlets that filter through all this and reinstate the relevance of the brands that are playing the game properly. It’s the danger with sites like HellaClips that puts a video of some random dude filmed in his backyard on the same level as videos brands put lots of thought, money, and energy into creating. Kids are completely lost!

Head over to the Free site to read the entire piece.