Image via Supra
It's pretty hard to have grown up with an interest in skateboarding and not have heard of Erik Ellington. The man co-founded one of the most talked about distribution companies in the game, Baker Boys, founded Deathwish Skateboards, and started SUPRA. You can't really get bigger than that, but that's just the kind of guy that Ellington is, and always has been. Talking to him, you get a sense that when he says something, he means it; when he jokingly refers to starting an architecture company, there's something about the way he says it that makes you think he probably would—and could—actually do it.
When talking about his work, and what he puts into the boards, shoes, and clothes that bear his name, there's no doubting how seriously he takes it. He knows every detail about everything he touches, and is immensely proud of it all, and that's hella admirable for someone who is running companies, still skating as brilliantly as earlier in his career, and designing everything he puts his name to. Could you handle such a busy life?
Ahead of the drop of Ellington's latest shoe, the Ellington Vulc, we sat down with him to talk about everything from setting up companies, going sober, and architecture. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
Erik Ellington's latest shoe, the SUPRA Ellington Vulc, is available now from all good skateshops and the SUPRA webstore.
First things first; America or Europe?
Umm… I like to visit Europe, but I’m born and raised in America, I've got to say America.
The Ellington is a great shoe, a good-looking shoe. The new version has the vulc sole. What made you decide you wanted to switch up the sole unit?
Well, the way that the first Ellington started was I came out with a shoe called the Avenger, which was the model right before, and it was a different upper on the same sole, so we kind of updated that and turned it into the Ellington, the mid-top with the clean toe. That was out for a few years, it was received really well and I was really stoked on it, but a few years after that I was skating in vulcanised shoes a lot, and was leaning more towards that board feel. So I pretty much frankensteined two shoes and I sent them a photo of my upper on a vulcanised sole and asked if we could make that. So we slimmed down the padding a little bit, and lowered it a tad bit, basically not doing too much to it—we left the upper the same.
It sounds like you’re quite into the design process?
Yeah, yeah.
What is it you like about designing your own shoe?
Well, it’s a huge honour to be able to do that, you know? So when you’re asked to design a shoe with your name on it, I think it’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. For me, ever since I designed my first shoe it’s been a big deal for me. My board graphics, my shoes, things with my name on them—I feel like it’s an honour to be able to do that so I take pride in it, I’m interested in designing it.
Right now, skating is enjoying the biggest surge in popularity that I can remember, what do you think it is about right now that’s making that happen?
In the United States I see there are a lot of skateparks that are popping up, and I think skating on a large scale is becoming more acceptable. The parents with kids that are ten or twelve years old, starting skating, their parents actually skated or still skate. So for the first time theres a whole generation of kids who’s parents either skated or skate now, I think it could be attributed to that. I think that skating, to me, is at a level where there’s a lot of positive aspects to it, there’s a lot more positivity to it than there used to be, maybe in the early ‘90s. If I show up to a skate spot and I’m just being myself or being nice to the locals, more than likely they’re gonna be friendly to me and show me around. I think for the most part it’s just positive, and I think it’s something that looks attractive and interesting for people, so yeah there’s gonna be a resurgence in doing it.
What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t skating?
I’d probably be an architect of some sort.
Why architecture?
I was always interested in it. I like all kinds of things; buildings, design, structures in general. I’ve always been interested in that sort of thing, I remember taking some classes in school and I think it’s funny because as a skateboarder you have an eye on architecture at all times. When I look at a building, I look at it for its significance as far as what I can skate and then the aesthetic of the whole building itself. I think as a skateboarder you can appreciate those qualities more than the average person can, I think that about myself. I think I probably would have gone to school for architecture or something like that but I bet if you were to remove skateboarding from every single person that skates, there’d be more architects than any other field. I don’t think as many soccer players or football players would be architects as skateboarders.
I've never really thought about that
Yeah, I didn’t really think about it much until now. [Laughs]
Life as a pro skater means a lot of travel, a lot of touring, and I know you have a family at home. How do you find balancing that?
It used to be a difficult juggle. For me it’s about not drinking. I keep saying this in interviews and stuff and I don’t mean to be a preacher or anything about this, but I was always battling with having that in the mix. It made everything more difficult in my life, so once I’d taken that out and worked on myself a little bit more, it made everything else easier. I’m more creative, I’m a better father, I’m a better friend, and I’m more present—I’m here, I’m present with whatever I’m doing.
You founded Deathwish and co-founded Baker Boys, what drew you towards the business side of skating?
I started a company when I was about sixteen in Arizona called Balance Skateboards, I started it with some of my friends and it went out of business. There’s always been some sense of wanting to do, not necessarily just my own thing, but something new. I’ve always thought there’s room for improvement in almost everything, and I’d rather involve everybody as a group, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I want to skate and I want to create stuff that has to do with skating, and I want to create clothing, and shoes, and board graphics and stuff. And I don’t know if I want to work for anybody, I don’t really like people telling me what to do. I guess everybody is kinda like that. I don’t want to go to prison, I don’t like being under anybody’s regime, and I think that when I have something that’s maybe part mine, or mine, I like to include everybody and I like to be more democratic. Maybe I’m not the best boss in the world or whatever, but I try and make everybody feel like they’re valuable.
I think what drew me to it is that I knew eventually I probably wouldn’t be able to earn money from skating at a certain level that people expect, so I always thought ‘shit, what am I going to do?’ So I started a board company, and then we started distribution where we can involve our friends—if they want to start companies they can get them distributed out of Baker Boys, and we ask cool companies whether they want to come through Baker Boys, and then I wanted to start a shoe company, because I thought there was improvement needed in shoes. I don’t know what’s next, but it’s something. Maybe I’ll go to school to be an architect. [Laughs]