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Rookie Skateboards-A New York Skate of Mind
By Kathleen Gasperini
Photos by Tom Wallace
Rookie's been written about in W.i.g. three times. This is the 4th. The reasons we like them is that they are a women-owned business from New York City who love to skateboard, and they make great decks. Actually, their decks are usable art pieces with a lot of attitude. Designs range from Japanese prints, to "red-dot" logos, to this year's extremely ballsy "girl-smoker" sunk into a sky blue background. Owner Catharine Lyons admits this last move, in the era of The Truth anti-smoking campaign, was bold: "We don't know how this one will go over, but we liked it, so we did it anyway."
Reviewing the Rookie line at the SoCal-based Action Sports Retailer show every year is always a bit of an oxymoron. Just the across the showroom floor, down from the isles of brightly colored surf booths and babes in butt thongs, is Rookie's booth-black and camouflaged--adorned with street trinkets like little Statues of Liberties lined up like toy soldiers on shelves. They think "Cali is just so…Cali" and barely notice when Kelly Slater or some other surf god walks by. They don't really care if your show badge says "Press." With Rookie, they want to know what you want before they give you their time. God, they're refreshing.
Surprisingly, Rookie was more comfortable talking about the whole "girl thing" this year than in years previous. "More people are getting into the girl-skateboarding idea and we were definitely there from the start, but had always made decks-skateboards-so that was our objective." Now, with the influx of more women skateboarding and manufacturers making urban-skate-inspired clothing for women and girls, Rookie's owning up to their original good idea.
Rookie also decided to expand more into clothing with Rookie jeans, belt buckles, red and black "Dickie-like" pants. "But these are far more comfy than Dickies," says Lyons. The must-have item in this year's Rookie line is the scarf: Blue, wool, logo-ed, with the NYC skyline complete with standing Twin Towers, which makes it a collector's item even before it hits the stores this winter.
Coming soon look for Rookie dresses, slimfit men's pants, and of course, more thought-provoking deck graphics.
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