Beautiful resistance: Gonz, Daewon and the Next Generation
There’s something surreal about sitting in a room with the people who shaped your idea of skateboarding. At the adidas Skateboarding Product Summit in Portland, I got to spend time with some of the most influential skaters of all time, including Mark Gonzales, Daewon Song, and Karl Watson.
The week was a blur in the best way: product previews, conversations, laughter, strange moments, late nights, new ideas. But it was Gonz’s interview that stood out, off-the-cuff, poetic, and unmistakably him..
He spoke about how skating has always been a way for him to move through both the positive and the negative, not avoid them. He talked about how he used to skate in the middle of the night in Los Angeles, drawn to the quiet and the freedom of being alone in the streets. There was a feeling in the way he described it, not nostalgic, but still connected. Still part of him.
When asked what he thought about the future of skateboarding, he paused and said he’s seeing young people go offline, skating in secret, keeping it off social, getting punk again. Not for the likes, but for themselves. Reactionary skating, he called it, a kind of beautiful resistance.
We also got the chance to make custom adidas t-shirts using Gonz’s original artwork, hand-cut transfers, layered and heat-pressed by everyone there. It was chaotic, creative, and somehow exactly in the spirit of Gonz himself.
Meeting Karl Watson was another unexpected highlight. There was something calm and present about him, like he was fully tuned in while the rest of us were still buffering. The kind of energy that makes you slow down a bit and listen differently. I’d admired him for years, but in person, it was clear he was operating on a frequency that didn’t need to be explained.
And the skate quiz night? Whole different vibe. It went down at Thunderbird, Mickey Reyes’ bar; loud, packed, buzzing. Mickey bumped into me like we were old friends, and it honestly felt like that. He has that kind of presence; welcoming, dialed in, and clearly someone who’s been at the heart of skateboarding culture for decades. From co-founding DLX to helping shape some of the most influential brands in skating, you could feel his impact just by being in the room.
Daewon Song was on my quiz team, casual, sharp, and completely down to earth. One minute he’s breaking down skate trivia, the next he’s telling me where to find the best cashews. Later, when a question came up about Daewon and they ran some of his iconic video parts on the screen, it hit me how surreal it all was. These were the clips I’d grown up watching, and here he was, just chatting and laughing next to me. I even bumped into him again on the flight out of Portland.
There’ll be more to come from this trip, and from adidas. Product, stories, and community events are in the works for summer, and we’re excited to be part of it. For now, just grateful to have shared time with the people and ideas that keep skateboarding moving.
