GET TO KNOW ROB GONZALEZ ON ‘THE NINE CLUB’
Back in the day, Rob Gonzalez used to get boards from Steve Saiz—a Powell-Peralta miniramp god—and, in the grand tradition of kids who used to get flow from Pros, he ended up with his own company. ‘The Nine Club‘ delves deep into everything that happened in between in the latest episode of skateboarding’s biggest podcast.
Gonzalez (or “Rob G,” if you will) belongs to a particular generation of entrepreneurial skaters—the “hustle harder” type who is not only making moves and building brand awareness but also innovating and putting in work on his board. In some ways, Gonzalez is the blueprint for the current era of social media-driven skate brands. The key difference is that he had to be way more hands-on, training himself to essentially be a professional brand guru.
He sheds a little light about this learn-as-you-go dynamic at 44:36, as he talks about the genesis of Listen Skateboards:
One thing that I got from skateboarding, if I could say that I “learned something from skateboarding, is: doing your own company and having to do your own graphics, ads… I feel like Listen was my college education.
Rob G is living proof that you really can have it all! Check out his Boulevard Skateboards here.
