Forgotten Sponsors Pt. II

Bam Margera on Nike

If you weren't around for it, this one seems hard to believe. Yet in 1998, Bam was a rising star and Nike was a newcomer to the skate shoe market. This sponsorship situation was short lived, but there remain a few pieces of evidence of Bam skating in the pre-SB, 'What if we treated all athletes the way we treat skateboarders?'-era Nikes, although we still haven't found any photos of him skating in the VP Favorite Choad.

Everyone in eEtnies Hi-5

We're too young to have been around for this one, but who knew that Josh Kalis, Eric Koston, Chad Muska, Jamie Thomas and Peter Smolik were all in an Etnies video? Check out this video's entire cast on Skate.ly, it's predominantly skaters we had no idea ever rode for Etnies.

 

Rob Welsh on Santa Cruz

After Aesthetics was home to badass East Coast tech skaters and before Expedition One played a similar role, Rob Welsh was briefly sponsored by Santa Cruz. In his 2011 interview with The Chromeball Incident, Welsh explains that the sponsorship seemed extremely brief, even to him.

 

Dustin Dollin on Stereo

Although he's synonymous with Baker, the post-Tincan Folklore era Stereo gave a (very) young DD his start in the States. Minnesota readers: high five if you remember him ripping the original 3rd Lair on a Deluxe tour in 1998 while on the then DLX distributed Stereo.

 

Ali Boulala on Osiris

Speaking of Piss Drunks, Ali Boulala on Osiris was a pretty weird fit. After The Storm the brand seemed to be in the middle of an identity crisis (their shift in art direction in Subject to Change is a good indicator of this), and perhaps it was thought that the air bubbles needed to be ditched for a creeper-inspired soles.

 

Caswell Berry on Toy Machine

Caswell was on Toy Machine briefly. So briefly, in fact, that he never had an ad for them (that we know of). We barely remember this, but we found a Transworld interview from 2004 that confirms it. 

Village Psychic