“If you are representing skateboarding in a positive light, you are doing it right and if you’re using someone else’s marketing dollars to do so, more power to you” – Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk is hands down the most influential skateboarder. He threw skateboarding into the mainstream with the help of corporations such as McDonalds, receiving a lot of criticism for it. He was labeled a sellout.

But, who are you calling a sellout? Hawk explains, “McDonalds committed a large amount of money to the organization” [The Tony Hawk Foundation] and “through my association with them, through my endorsement with McDonalds, I was able to build more skateparks.

I was able to promote skating through marketing money that we would have never seen in the skating industry.” Hear it from Hawk himself starting from 3:00.

Sellout or not, the controversial deal did push skateboarding into the spotlight. Who knows how many people started skating because of it.

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