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‘Flying-through-the-air Magic’: Skateboarders, Fashion and Social
Identity.
Janine Hunter
Abstract
Understanding fashion better adds to our understanding of the complex
relationship between the individual and society. Fashion encapsulates many
of the tensions characteristic of modern life experience, and, in particular,
highlights the role of consumerism in that experience. At an individual level,
fashion offers social obedience alongside individual differentiation (Miles,
1998). An individual can get from fashion what he or she pleases - a sense of
individuality alongside a feeling of belonging - while from a broader
perspective fashion reflects the underlying workings of a mobile society. In
this respect, the needs of the individual and of society mesh together in
fashion. This article reports on research that explores the relationship
between self, fashion and identity in one small corner of the modern world,
that of the skateboarder.
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Setting the scene
Imagine: you are walking into the city centre on a sunny Saturday afternoon
when you come across a large rectangular pedestrian area, surrounded by
roads heaving with traffic. Looking around, you see that half of the square is
open space and the other consists of a variety of features. To the side of the
area you notice a statue with steps leading down from it, which seems ideal
as a meeting place. Within this section of the area there are a collection of
fountains all of which are enclosed by slightly raised ledges to make four
larger pools of water. You note that the white noise from the fountains hides
the sound of the passing cars and, as you move closer, you also observe
some much higher raised marble platforms, which you understand to be
seating. You take a pew.
You notice a group of people. Some are sitting around the statue talking.
Others are standing around, flipping their skateboards up. After a few
moments of watching you notice that their conversation dwindles and all but
one get up and grab their skateboards. They move off in their own directions,
the one remaining appearing to be fixing the wheels of a skateboard.
Recognise the scenario? Take a closer look. At times the skaters will huddle
together to discuss something that seems to be of the utmost importance.
They appear to be talking technique and strategy as they describe, through
their body movements, the manoeuvres they are presently working on with
their skateboard. You can spot different degrees of ability and notice that
some of the younger boys don’t have the same air of grace and confidence as
some of the older boys. They look on, in what could be awe or envy, at the
older boys moving quite elegantly on the deck.
Members of the group are dressed in a very relaxed and informal style. Baggy
jeans, T-shirts, maybe a hooded top and a key chain hanging from the side of
a leg. Some have a favourite band or rock legend printed on their T-shirt,
whilst others have a logo. You notice some of the skaters wearing cut off
shorts or rolled up jeans to three-quarter length, showing off their socks and
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trainers. As much as each skater is dressed individually, it all seems to be
part of the same style: these people dress alike.
Or do they? This research reported here answers this question, and the
answer is not as simple as one might suppose. The dress style of street
skateboarders is, in fact, the result of complex social processes that articulate
different aspects of the skateboarding scene, including age, length of time
skating, style of skating, skating heroes, and music. These subtleties, which
are lost to the outsider, are intrinsic to the world of the skateboarder and are
communicated through their style of dress. The seemingly simple act of
dressing the body represents something much more powerful to the skater.
What this article aims to do is to examine how complex the fashion world of
the skater is, and to place this within a wider theoretical context of social
identity. Although what draws skaters into their collective world is the act of
skating, dress or ‘uniform’ symbolises this and is a visual sign of this particular
collectivity.
This article details a small-scale, qualitative investigation into fashion and
social identity amongst skateboarders in Cardiff’s city centre. The examination
of literature concerning the nature of fashion as a social and individual
fulfilment provides a background context for the study. The choice of methods
will also be reviewed followed by the substantial findings of the research, and
an extended discussion and analysis of these. This analysis is summarised
and areas of further possible enquiry are identified in a concluding, final
section.
Fashion, the self and social identity
This section draws on three theorists whose work dates to the beginning,
middle and close of the twentieth century: Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman,
and Richard Jenkins, respectively. Each is concerned with the individual
(self), society and identity, and the relationship between these. An
understanding of this relationship is fundamental to the sociological project
and has been the subject of considerable, empirical and theoretical work. The
focus will then move, to concentrate on work on culture and cultural studies,
4
youth and subculture. A brief review of the history of cultural studies is
essential to place specific texts into context. In the following section I will
discuss work on consumerism and its relation to youth, before progressing to
more specific writings on subcultures.
Simmel was not a systematic social theorist (Smith, 1980). The following
comes from his celebrated essay Fashion, which allows for an examination of
the individual, yet simultaneously social, function of fashion:
'The whole history of society is reflected in the striking conflicts, the compromises,slowly won and quickly lost, between socialistic adaptation to society andindividual departure from its demands… Each in its sphere attempts to combinethe interest in duration, unity, and similarity with that in change, specialisation,and peculiarity' (Simmel [1904] 1971: 294-5).
This quote captures a fundamental characteristic of human society and of the
individuals comprising it. Simmel sees society in the same way as he does
fashion: in a dualistic manner. He points to two antagonistic principles that are
manifest within the human condition: the need for unity and the need for
isolation. The social embodiments of such contrasts can be illustrated through
the examination of fashion, for if fashion is to become established there are
two tendencies that must exist, namely; the need for union and the need for
isolation. As Simmel has written on imitation,
'[It] requires no great personal and creative application, but is displayed easilyand smoothly, because its content is a given quantity' (Simmel [1904] 1971: 295).
In addition to the above, Simmel argues that imitation allows for the
satisfaction of the need not to stand alone in action: there is transference of
not only the demand for creative activity, but also the responsibility for the
action, from the self to another. Thus, in appearance the individual looks to be
a member of the group, without putting forth a conscious effort. Simmel
argues that where imitation is a productive factor, it represents one of the
fundamental dispositions of the human character. Imitation is productive
where the human character is content with similarity, moving from the specific
to the general. In contrast to this, imitation has a negative essence where
5
individual difference, independence and the alleviation of generality are
sought.
Fashion, Simmel argues, is the imitation of a given example, which furnishes
a general condition, while simultaneously satisfying the need for
differentiation. In fashion the human character combines the tendency
towards social equalisation with the desire for individual differentiation and
change. The fashion of today is marked with an individual stamp, which the
fashions of yesterday and tomorrow do not possess. Visually, fashion is:
' … revolving within a given circle and at the same time emphasising it asseparate from others' ([1904] 1971: 297).
For Simmel, fashion signifies union with those in the same class, the
uniformity of a circle characterised by it, yet also, simultaneously and
inseparable from inclusion, the exclusion of all other groups. He was writing
about a society based on class, where all lower classes were striving for the
fashions of the upper class, who created new ones as soon as the old were
imitated. This is an early articulation of what later became known as the
‘trickle-down’ theory of fashion diffusion (Corrigan, 1997). This theory can no
longer be limited to class imitation; there is no longer a…
' … hierarchically organised, symbolically consensual prestige structure insociety, one in which all groups, classes and coteries looked...in the samedirection for cues for what was thought to be beautiful, acceptable andfashionable...students of fashion diffusion in today’s world claim that a conditionof polycentrism prevails’ (Davis, quoted in Corrigan, 1997: 171).
Simmel was, after all, writing in the early 1900s. However the symbolic use of
fashion described by Simmel, and the signifying affect of inclusion and
exclusion, still applies. This is a fundamental aspect of the human condition,
which fashion accommodates and gives social effect to; a condition that has
an almost paradoxical essence, the human need both to belong to and to
stand out from the crowd.
Having examined fashion and its relationship to the individual and society, it is
6
worth considering, with the ‘self’ in mind, how this actually manifests itself.
Simmel and Goffman stand either side of one of sociology’s early institutional
achievements, the Chicago School (see Hannerz, 1980). Simmel’s work
influenced Robert Park (Park and Burgess, 1984), and Goffman belonging to
the later generation of Chicago scholars. Goffman’s The Presentation of Self
in Everyday Life (1959) examined the social self and interaction. This classic
work implied that social interaction is dependent on the wider social structures
of society, which in turn are dependent upon the social interaction of
individuals who must share a stock of social knowledge for successful
interaction to occur. Individuals of a collectivity must share the same reality, a
reality that arises from a shared knowledge of meanings. For Goffman, social
interaction is as much to do with presenting oneself to others, about giving
and receiving impressions, as it is to do with holding conversations. His
analogy of theatre and drama is a central contribution to our understanding of
the complexities of social life. He saw individuals as actualising social
characters, which depend upon socially shared roles and rules to make
themselves intelligible. Goffman focuses on the performances involved. To
bring a role to life involves, consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or
unintentionally, displaying oneself as a particular kind of person or social actor
and so the art of impression management is used by individuals to manipulate
their presentation of self.
Goffman’s Frame Analysis (1974) suggests that everyday life can be seen as
a series of frames, through which individuals move in the course of the day.
These frames act to organise experience that would otherwise be an
overwhelming chaos of facts and events. Social acts make sense through the
socially defined reality that constitutes a frame, which transforms the more
basic reality of the physical world and its pre-existing primary reality.
In Goffman's later work, The Interaction Order (1983), one of the main points
he emphasised, which is central to this article, is the capacity to create
meaning. The give and take of social encounters involves interpretive work by
the participants who construct understandings and agreements about the
meaning of objects and events around which the encounter revolves. These
7
meanings only exist within the workings of the encounter. They reside in the
response of those who are experiencing the encounter and the emergent
definitions and understandings that arise between them. Due to this factor, the
interaction order is unfinished, in that:
'individuals are constantly at work, not only promoting, reinforcing, repairing orrestoring social order, but creating, recreating and rearranging it' (Burns, 1992:82).
Goffman saw the self as not so much as a private, individual attribution, as a
public reality, created by and having its existence in public interaction.
Interaction creates identity just as the particular identities of participants will
affect the shape of interaction (referred to by Jenkins as the internal-external
dialectic of identity, see below). For Goffman, individuals negotiate their
identities within the interaction order as they move through framed routines.
But how does the interaction order, and, in that, social order, come about?
For interaction to work there is a world of systemised, patterned, symbolically
templated way of doing things: a socially constructed reality (Berger and
Luckmann, 1966). All social groups are institutions, established patterns of
identifying individuals in a local context. Decisions are made and behaviour
orientated with reference to these established ways of doing things:
institutionalisation (Jenkins, 1997). Institutions have a history, in that each is a
pattern of behaviour that persists over time. This institutionalised world is
experienced as an objective reality, which individuals move through. By
experiencing the reality of the institution, individuals also create it through and
in their reflective consciousness. Institutions require legitimisation, to be learnt
by new generations and to ‘hang together’ (Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 81),
and it is through socialisation that meanings are passed down through
generations. Thus, for Goffman, order and the predetermined frames which
individuals enter into are institutionalised and legitimised through the
production and reproduction of knowledge, symbolic universes from which
individuals draw on the same supplies of meanings.
This account of Goffman’s work, and the mention of Berger and Luckmann,
8
sets the scene for an examination of skateboard subcultures. It suggests how
a collectivity can come about and persist over time as a subculture. It is in the
nature of social reality that all subcultures become institutionalised if they exist
over time. Through the symbolic universes available to skateboard subculture,
the meanings within it become internalised and transmitted to co-members
and it is this that creates the subculture, a culture that is within, but separate
from, the main culture.
Having examined how, as a collectivity, a subculture can exist and how
meanings are transmitted, how do processes of social identity fit in? Through
a consideration of Social Identity (Jenkins, 1996), the focus can now be
shifted to the individual social actors of which the subculture consists. Jenkins
is interested in the process of identity formation, in how identity works or is
worked, in process and reflexivity, and in the social construction of identity in
interaction and institutionality. Drawing on the work of Goffman, among
others, he concerns himself with the interactional constitution of social
identity. For Jenkins, social identity refers to the ways in which individuals and
collectivities are distinguished in their social relations with other individuals
and collectivities. Subsequently, identity is as necessary a pre-requisite for
social life, as the reverse is true. Jenkins uses a model of an internal-external
dialectic of identity to explain both individual and collective identities. He
emphasises two significant differences between the construction of individual
identities and collective identities, the former stressing difference and the
latter similarity.
Individual identity, which is embodied in the self, is meaningful only within the
social world of other people; it is socially constructed. It is the ongoing and
simultaneous synthesis of self-definition (the internal moment) and definitions
of oneself offered by others (the external moment). What people think about
us is as important as what we think of ourselves. Those to whom the identity
is asserted, must also validate the asserted identity. Individuals present an
image of themselves for acceptance by others (the internal moment of the
dialectic process of identification) as a public image. The external moment of
the dialectical process is the reception by others of that presentation: the
9
acceptance (or not) of the identity.
The fundamental principles in the working of this are similarity and difference.
For individual identity, the emphasis is placed upon difference to others, yet
what makes a collective identity is similarity to those whom belong. Collective
identities can be separated into groups and categories. A collectivity that
identifies and defines itself can be characterised as a group for itself, while a
collectivity that is identified and defined by others can be characterised as a
category in itself.
Youth, consumption and identity
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary approach to analysing culture. This
variety and mix of disciplines and techniques has brought creativity in its
approach, but it has also created some ambiguity as to what cultural studies
actually is (it also raises the questions of how it differs from the traditional
anthropological concept of culture). There are some basic concerns and
concepts that identify a cultural studies approach (Crosset and Beal, 1997:
74). Although there is a burgeoning field of American cultural studies, the
work of the Birmingham University Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
(CCCS) led the way in the development of the distinct British cultural studies
approach. There was a strong political and ideological content within this
school, rooted in the proposition that societies are unequally structured and all
individuals do not have equal opportunities.
Cultural studies in Britain has moved through a number of distinct phases
(Bounds, 1999: 18). Between 1956 and 1969, cultural studies emerged largely
due to the efforts of the three ‘founding fathers’ - Raymond Williams, Richard
Hoggart and E. P. Thompson - and effectively became an independent
subject in 1964, when Hoggart established the CCCS at Birmingham
University1. All three were strongly influenced by their membership of the New
Left group of intellectuals, students and political activists who aimed to
develop a new form of socialist politics. The themes emerging from the New
Left helped to set the agenda for early cultural studies, based in the belief that
the existing forms of socialism were excessively authoritarian, with political
10
power concentrated in the hands of the elite. The underlying idea was that
socialism could only work effectively if ordinary people ran it for themselves.
The cultural aspect of this was in the drive to restore a cultural dimension to
radical politics. Socialists had become preoccupied with issues of economic
and political reform and the main task facing the post-war left was to create a
new cultural settlement in Britain in which working-class ways of life would be
more highly valued.
Towards the end of the 1960s cultural studies entered a new phase, heavily
influenced by Marxist ideas, notably Gramsci (1971), lasting until the early
1980s. The political characteristic of this cultural studies was opposition to
capitalism, as opposed to the former reformist characteristic of the New Left.
More fundamental, however, was that Marxism provided cultural theorists with
a distinct analysis of the role of culture in modern societies, relating cultural
processes to economic developments by understanding how culture is used
to legitimise the existing system, or - crucially - how it can be used to subvert
and undermine it. Finally, the rise of Thatcherism and the New Right
convinced many of the subject’s leading figures that the socialist movement
had run its course. Western societies were believed to be entering New
Times, (Hall and Jacques, 1990) characterised by ‘post-Fordist’ economics
and ‘post-modern’ culture.
Central to the ‘culturalist’ position within the CCCS during its heyday was the
analysis of youth subcultures (see Hebdige, 1979; Willis, 1977; Hall et al.,
1993), underlying which was the belief that popular culture is often the site of
resistance or opposition. In a brief summary of Hall, Jefferson, Willis and
Hebdige, Bounds writes:
'Most subcultures involve an attempt by working-class youths to employ style,ritual and other forms of personal behaviour to express ‘symbolic resistance’ toaspects of their class experience' (1999: 56).
Consumption is cultural (Slater, 1997). It always involves meanings that are
necessarily shared meanings. Individual preferences which are born within a
culture draw on languages, values, rituals, habits and so on that are social in
11
nature, even when individually contested, rejected or reinterpreted.
Consumption is culturally specific, articulated within or in relation to specific
meaningful ways of life. One of the ways culture is produced and reproduced
is through consumption, as are social relations and, indeed, society. A way of
life or a culture in the anthropological sense - as opposed to merely staying
alive - involves knowing the local codes of needs and things and it is through
the demonstration of this knowledge that the culture is reproduced and the
membership of a particular social order demonstrated. Slater argues that the
meaningful structure behind these social actions represents the enactment of
the membership of a culture. Social relationships themselves, as well as
identity, are reproduced through culturally specific consumption and changing
or rejecting the consumption codes of the culture negotiates both identity and
aspects of the culture.
As O’Flinn (1990) has pointed out, clothing represents, along with food and
shelter, one of the basic requirements of human survival, but an
understanding of clothing does not stop there. Allied to this is the whole
question of clothing as an aspect of culture. The way in which we cover our
bodies sends out a multitude of signals to other people about our identity, who
we are and whom we would like to be seen as (and whom we would not). In
the modern western world, advertising and its cultural permeation restructured
and realised our relation to clothing and to the significance of fashion during
the first quarter of the 20th century (Martin, 1995: 235). Fashion assumed new
roles and forms represented and disseminated through advertising. Martin
notes that the relative intimacy of fashion and cosmetics - 'both cleaving to
moral prohibitions as well as oppositionally to a strong sense of modern well-
being and self-image' (Martin, 1995: 236) - only made the consumer more
responsive and more vulnerable to advertising’s projection of product and
desire.
Hebdige (1988) proposes that youth is present in society only when its
presence is, or is regarded as, a problem. The consuming image of youth
however, from the 1950s brought a different face to youth: youth at its leisure,
youth as fun. The invention of the ‘teenager’ as a category is bound up with
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the creation of the youth market. A new range of commodities and commercial
leisure facilities absorbed the surplus cash, which working class youth had at
their disposal for the first time. It provided a space within which youth could
construct its own identities untouched by the parent culture. In the 1950s this,
then, changed the categories the ‘respectable’ and ‘criminal’ classes to
‘conformist’ and ‘non-conformist’ youth. Seabrook argues that the whole
experience of growing up in contemporary society has been transformed, from
an experience based on the culture of the working class communities to one
based on the culture of the shopping precinct (cited in Miles et al., 1998).
Therefore, Seabrook suggests, the market has a fundamental influence on the
everyday life of young people, and whilst class community and allegiance may
have broken down in recent years, young people have come to look for self-
fulfilment in the ‘arms’ of consumer goods. So Seabrook sees traditional forms
of identity transmission as having been diluted, to the extent that
manufacturers now have the power to guarantee the passage of children
through to adulthood.
Subcultures
Subcultures can be considered as arenas of activity and meaning that
negotiate between the personal world of the actor and the dynamics of larger
patterns of social interaction. As a concept 'subculture' has much to offer the
sociological understanding of human interaction seen against a cultural and
symbolic background (Gelder and Thornton, 1997). It takes role-play and
reconstructs it as an active ingredient in a dialectical relation between
structure and action (Brake, 1980). For Gordon, subculture 'is a world within a
world, so to speak, but it is a world' (1947: 41).
Yinger discusses attempts to define subculture, applying the term to illuminate
the normative systems by which smaller groups differ by 'language, values,
religion, diet and style of life from the larger society of which they are part'
(1960: 626). Brake (1985) argues that subcultures are based upon the
dominant system, but what makes them a subculture is the fact that they are
unique. He writes that it is the degree of opposition that signifies the
distinction between a 'counterculture' and a subculture. A subculture is not
13
completely oppositional to the norms and values of the broader culture from
which it departs, unlike a counterculture; a more appropriate description might
be indifferent (see, for example, Yinger, 1960).
The collective identity of youth subcultures also offers a platform from which
an individual identity can develop, ‘freed from the ascribed roles of home,
school and work’ (Brake, 1980: 166). The cognitive material provided allows
for a development of an alternative career, free from control and authority of
the adult world and with freedom amongst one’s peers. This separation is a
dramaturgical statement about identity difference from imposed expectations,
and allows for freedom to explore and develop social and personal identities.
An analysis of youth subcultures has been a focus of scholars influenced by
the CCCS. Dick Hedbige’s (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style is an
analysis of youth subculture which describes subculture as an area in which
groups of people challenge the dominant meanings assigned to cultural
products, through the style and imagery used. The ways in which
commodities are used in subcultures mark the subculture off from more
orthodox cultural formations. The intentional communication of subculture
through style is ‘a visible construction, a loaded choice. It directs attention to
itself; it gives itself to be read’ (1979: 101). Hebdige argues that this
distinguishes the visual ensembles of a subculture from those favoured in the
surrounding culture(s). This intentional communication is what stands apart
from a mainstream culture, whose defining characteristic, according to
Barthes, is the tendency to naturalise social phenomena and to assume that
what it is, must be. Here the world presents itself as if composed according to
‘the evident laws of the natural order’ (Barthes 1972, quoted in Hebdige,
1979: 102). Subcultures recontextualise and reposition commodities,
subverting their conventional use and inventing new ones. This opens up the
world of objects to new and oppositional readings. Therefore the point behind
a subcultural style is its communication of a significant difference, and the
parallel communication of a group identity.
Willis exemplifies this point in Common Culture, suggesting that:
14
‘young people are very adept at the symbolic work of… "reading off" anddecoding the dress styles of others and relating them to musical, political andsocial orientations’ (1990: 88).
Brake gives an account of the levels in which a subculture exists. Firstly, on a
structural level, it indicates how ‘culture is mediated to and generated by a
collectivity of social actors’ (1980: 9). On the existential level, it indicates how
meanings are taken from a subculture, and used to project an image and
therefore an identity (see Goffman, 1959 and Jenkins, 1996). This effects the
internal labelling element of identity: external symbols are used to develop a
self-image, which has a cultural and existential reality to the actor and to all
those observing.
The cultural studies approach has done much to overcome the narrow and
ahistorical view of subcultures within interactionism. However, the cultural
analysis of writers such as John Fiske and Paul Willis has been accused of a
‘populist’ approach. The combination of an uncritical celebration of popular
culture with an indifferent attitude towards serious arts has been described as
the direct result of the abandonment of Marxism. The cultural populist, it is
argued, seems to be compensating for political disappointment by conceiving
of ‘common’ culture as the site of vigorous radicalism (McGuigan, 1992).
What is more, defining and describing subculture in terms of conflicts within
the broader culture, risks overlooking the unique experiences of, for example,
sports subcultural practices (Albert, quoted in Crosset and Beal, 1997). It
would be all too easy to lose the lived experience of those belonging to a
sport subculture by becoming lost within politics. What can also be ignored in
analysing subcultures purely within a conflict perspective, is how they draw
from the existing culture from which the subculture descends. More important
to this article, this approach often neglects the tensions that can exist within a
subculture, treating it as a definite, concrete and authentic entity (McGuigan,
1992). This neglects the tensions that can surface within the subculture itself.
The research on which this article reports documents the complex processes
15
of style as communication between those participating within skateboarding
subculture. Communications between skateboarders and the broader society
will be touched upon, but the intention here is to challenge the assumption
that a subculture is solid within itself, illustrating, through the interconnection
and the workings of the subculture, the many divisions within skateboarding
subculture. I use the concept of ‘social worlds’ as a tool for examining
skateboarding subculture. This has its roots in the focus of Chicago School
ethnographers on overlapping 'social worlds' within modern urban life. Unruh
(1983) describes social worlds as permeable, amorphous and spatially
transcendent forms of social organisation made up of people sharing common
interests and common channels of communication. They are not defined in
relation to the dominant culture, but by the production of a social object.
Social worlds are often segmented into 'subworlds', inviting the researcher to
discover these subworlds within a social world. This approach encourages an
exploration of culture on its own terms, focusing on a sphere of
communication around a social object. Subworlds can also be subcultures if
they ‘exaggerate or ignore specific norms, values and practices of the broader
culture to such an extreme that those within mainstream society define the
subworld as repulsive, oppositional or marginal’ (Crosset and Beal, 1997).
This article describes, through the example of fashion, the complexities of the
skateboard subculture, with all it entails. As Beal has noted (1995: 255), there
is not a ubiquitous skateboard culture. It seems that there are a variety of
subgroups that skateboard. Beal’s focus was the social resistance of the
skateboard culture, a continuum of hegemonic to counter-hegemonic
behaviour ranging from those who embraced the corporate bureaucratic form
of activity to those who resisted it. The focus here, however, is on influences
on the fashion of skateboarding, which include commercially produced
paraphernalia but are not exclusive to it. The varying effect that identity has
on fashion, and the effects that fashion has on identity, will provide a platform
on which to investigate this domain. Skateboarding has many external
influences from which it draws, yet, at the same time, within skateboarding
there are many tensions, or decisions which skaters face. Whether a skater is
fashion conscious, or resists the image, is irrelevant here: what is of central
16
concern is the relationship a skateboarder has with clothing in communicating
social identity.
Inquiring into skateboarding: methods
Social identity and fashion have been linked as aspects of the presentation
the self as a particular type of person, having a particular role to play in the
social sphere. An early group interview with skaters served as a pilot study for
this research, and drew out themes that were likely to arise. It soon became
apparent that fashion was a key to the examination of skateboarding as a
subculture. The clothes that skateboarders wear communicate many different
aspects of what it actually means to be a skater, and, far from being simple,
the fashions convey an intricate web of influences. For the first ten minutes
the group of skaters was asked about fashion within the realm of
skateboarding and this then proceeded to the examination of a photographic
book of skaters, skateboards, art, adverts of logos, magazines, and clothing
(Rose, 1999). The discussion was then encouraged to find its own path,
based on the skaters’ thoughts on the content of the book. This allowed
insights into the themes of clothing and some of the history of the culture and
its corporate elements. It gave insights into the differentiation of music, and
the difference between 'old skool' skateboarding, in the 1970s, and now. The
book was an initial sensitising tool that gave a feel for the ground that would
be covered in future conversations. However, I decided only to use it during
that initial interview, since the topic under discussion was the skateboarders
themselves, rather than more general themes and history.
Skaters were interviewed in situ to achieve a broadly ethnographic,
unstructured, and exploratory interview (Spradley, 1979) that would enable a
flexible approach to the skateboarders. This made space for the improvisation
needed to grasp the unexpected and to learn through observation in context.
It also encouraged me to take ‘a stance which emphasised seeing things from
a perspective of those being studied’ (Fielding, quoted in Gilbert, 1993: 156),
being a stranger to the culture myself.
Due to the lack of formal organisation of skateboarders as a group, there were
17
no key figures or gatekeepers to approach about access. Neither is there an
official location in which to find skaters: skaters are on the streets. Therefore
access was negotiated with each new skateboarder approached throughout
the research. Bute Square, situated just outside Cardiff city centre, is a
regular meeting place for skaters, and it was here and in the surrounding
areas that this research was carried out. This also encouraged observation as
a research tool. All the interviews were recorded with a dictaphone, and all
participants were aware that they were being recorded and were asked
permission before hand.
As mentioned above, the approach taken was a broad 'ethnographic
interview' technique (Spradley, 1979), supported by observation. Choosing
this approach allowed for the exploration of many concepts that were still
unknown to the researcher. With the emphasis on social identity, dress, and
skateboard fashion seen as a form of communication, this allowed for an
insight into the skaters’ own accounts of their meanings and behaviour. By
sharing conversations with skaters which had a purpose, but also an open-
endedness, it was possible to obtain more of a feel for the experience of the
skaters and the underlying social rules that were being followed. If
interviewees elaborated on other concerns not directly significant to this
research, this provided a feel for the backdrop which is the context of this
subculture, giving an insight into the symbolic universe which all participants
share, yet all experience as unique. The interviews were conducted not as a
'free-for-all', but with themes in mind. If the conversation moved away for too
long, it was steered back by introducing a new question. Because interviewing
took place in situ, a flexible approach was needed in order to absorb as much
of the subculture as possible.
It was impossible and unnecessary to predict or control which, and how many,
skateboarders were to be interviewed. This depended on who was in the field
and who would give permission to be interviewed. Because of the nature of
the skating subculture, the majority of interviews that took place were group
interviews, allowing for group dynamics to become an integral part of the
procedure. The discussions were relaxed, often comical, and rich in data,
18
enabling me to see the negotiations between different meanings for different
individuals. As MacLeod also found in his use of ethnographic interviewing,
although hard to keep track of, it is incredibly rich in the data produced (1995:
287). The lack of consistency of opinions, confusing at first, provided a
valuable insight into the tensions that underlie the fashions of the
skateboarder. Nine interviews took place in total during the summer of 2001,
three individual interviews and six group interviews, In total, eighteen
skateboarders were interviewed.
Observation allowed me to absorb the more general backdrop of the
skateboarding scene. The interaction, the clothing and the performative
aspect of the sport itself could be observed and other people’s reactions to
skaters, either in location or elsewhere, gave a feel for the kinds of reactions
skateboarders have to deal with whilst participating in their sport. It also was
possible to observe the kind of space that skaters use in and around Cardiff
City centre, and the common features of this space. The observational data
rounded out the discussions and therefore allowed for richer insights.
Although this research was not of a sensitive nature, it is important to consider
the ethical dimension, as in all research. Barnes has defined the ethical
decisions in research as those which:
'arise when we try to decide between one course of action and another not interms of expediency or efficiency but by reference to standards of what is morallyright or wrong' (Barnes, 1979: 16).
This makes explicit the point that ethical decisions are not made in terms of
what is advantageous to the researcher or the project itself, but what is right
and just, in the interests of all those that are participating in the research.
Ethical considerations were ongoing throughout the research process. I took a
'situational relativist' approach, in which the ethical dilemmas of the social
scientist are not seen as special, but as:
'co-terminous with everyday life,...there can be no absolute guide lines; ethicshave to be produced creatively in the concrete situation at hand' (Plummer, 1983:141).
19
Under the Ethical Guidelines of the British Sociological Association (1993),
researchers have a responsibility to ensure that the physical, social and
psychological well being of research participants is not adversely affected by
the research. Researchers enter into personal and moral relationships with
those they research. The issues surrounding covert research are not relevant
to this research, as the methods used necessarily involved the consent of
those taking part. However, data provided by the informants must nonetheless
be used ethically.
Observation, as the least obtrusive of all data gathering techniques, can also
be ‘liable to abuse in the invasion of privacy’ (Adler and Adler, quoted in
Denzin and Lincoln, 1988). However, taking on board the performative and
public performances of the skateboarders in the practice of their sport, the
observations were not deemed to be an invasion of privacy, nor did those
involved in the interview procedure find this to be the case.
The age of the sample was also an important ethical consideration. The only
boundary placed upon the sample was that those approached should belong
to the skateboard subculture. This meant that age would be varied and
uncontrolled. The age range of my sample varied from 13 to 28, and so there
were participants who would be deemed to be children. The most obvious
ethical issue, therefore, concerned researching with children. This research is
a contribution to 'a sociology which attempts to take children seriously as they
experience their lives in the here and now as children' (Morrow and Richards,
1996: 92). I therefore saw the exclusion of some of the skateboarders, due to
their age, as a disadvantage. The study is interested in youth and youth
subcultures and would be limited in the thoroughness of the research process
if it were to exclude a proportion of those that were accessible.
I explained clearly the purpose and nature of the research when asking for the
skaters’ consent, and I regarded all the children involved as competent to
consent (or not) to talking to me. They were in Cardiff City centre,
unsupervised by an adult, and the information required was directly related to
20
their activities within the centre. They were free to leave the discussions at
any time due to the nature of the setting. All respondents agreed to me
approaching them again with further questions and I took this as an indication
that none were socially, psychologically or physically harmed by the research
process. Indeed, the involvement of the children in the decision making
process about whether to take part could itself be seen as a useful
experience, giving the children a sense of control over their own individuality,
autonomy and privacy (Morrow and Richards, 1996). To further talk about
themselves, their thoughts, beliefs, ideas, passions and resentments of
skating and dress only seemed to add to this experience.
Skateboarding subculture
Any individual who participated in this project may have belonged to other
subcultures simultaneously or since the time of this research. There are
different between the members of the skateboard subculture interviewed in
the intensity of their participation and attachment. Although these issues need
to be acknowledged, they will not be addressed: ‘trying to use all-or-none
membership in a single subculture can never result in more than partial
success’ (Arnold, 1970: 87).
One thing made immediately apparent to me on my first pilot interview was
how many influences permeated the skateboard fashion scene. For a
newcomer who is first learning the basic tricks of the skateboard this could
only be fairly daunting. Nonetheless, I was amazed at how much some of the
newest skaters to the scene had already picked up about fashion, considering
that it is secondary to the act of skating itself. I was curious about this
because it illustrated the importance of the ‘presentation’ of the public self,
particularly considering how exposed skaters are to each other and the
general public. Skateboarders participate in their sport on the street and there
is a sure street credibility that is part of the skaters’ social consciousness.
Skateboarding is a very performative sport and those who partake in it are
aware that it draws attention. It is, perhaps, a performance that doesn’t have
the back stage in which to prepare the performance away from observation
until a sufficient skill has been achieved; the rehearsal and the performance
21
seem very much inseparable (Goffman, 1959). Skaters also lack an allocated
frame of space in which to partake of their sport. They use the streets,
rehearsing their skills on the available features of the urban landscape.
Although there are some skate parks in different localities, they usually
required a fee, and it appeared that those in and around Cardiff, if they were
still open for use, were badly maintained.
Perhaps because of the attention they draw, particularly from each other, the
image-consciousness of the skaters points to the need to feel comfortable in
how and to whom they are presenting themselves. For this to be the case, a
shared knowledge of meanings among the skateboard collective is required,
to draw from and through which to communicate. I was interested in what
means were used to transmit the stock of social knowledge and meanings
from one 'generation' of skaters to the next.
Lewis: Em, I mean …//…, I think it’s mainly just the fact that everything,
the transference of like culture and fashion from the States, is a lot
faster now and I think although the skateboarding comes across
really fast because it’s like, that’s where it is, that’s where
everyone’s looking, everyone’s getting the American magazines,
everything like that and so there’s a scene here, but everyone
here’s not looking really at what’s… you know it’s not like it’s
dislocated from what’s going on in the States, but it’s… everything
that ever happens here is totally straight from there.
Lewis first picks up on influence from the States, where skateboarding had its
genesis: a trans-national, perhaps even a global, web of subcultural influence
manifests itself in Cardiff city centre. But there is also communication via local
knowledge, as well. Many of the new skaters can use the local ‘old boys’ as a
resource for much of the shared knowledge required.
22
Janine:
Josh:
Kirk:
Janine:
Kirk:
So how do you find out about all the history about it? Is it just
talking about it with your mates?
Through the old boys
Yeah, it’s just through the old boys really. Like him, he’s been
skate boarding for years, he’s still skateboarding now.
It’s a very inspiring culture isn’t it? Very expressive.
Yeah it is. And the best bit about it is, is that a lot of the older
skaters are still skating so you still...our generation still gets to
hear what it was like, what’s… what was the olden days, kinda
thing.
There are various media through which to discover the culture of
skateboarding. Videos and the internet, for example, were also mentioned as
giving access to a vast array of information. The culture of skateboarding
draws upon its stock of social knowledge both globally and locally. The
collective identity draws upon the social environment of people, through
interaction, through chat rooms and web sites on the internet, and through
commodities such as videos and magazines. This is a means of transmitting
the significant social constructions of meanings attached to the culture, which
the skateboarders draw on in their construction of identity.
There are many divergences within skateboarding; subgroups within the
collectivity. Although many different factors influence where someone locates
him or herself within these subdivisions, there appears to be a common
thread of why people are where they are. Music, style of skating, and
appearance all go hand in hand with one another. All affect and are affected
by, each other, so there is no one singular discrete entity.
Lewis: Yeah, well, like, there’s the whole different kinds of skateboarding
I suppose… You know coz like, there’s the punk skaters and then
there are the rap hip-hop skaters and then.. there are the people
that are just, I dunno, whatever. Erm, basically you belong to one
of those groups, you know, and it’s the punk skaters that tend to
be the ones that just throw themselves down the steps and do
hand rails and stuff like that and hip hop skaters tend to be like all
techy, flippy crap and stuff like that so…
23
be the ones that just throw themselves down the steps and do
hand rails and stuff like that and hip hop skaters tend to be like all
techy, flippy crap and stuff like that so…
It is already possible to see how music and skate style are being linked
together in a quite direct relationship. This quote illustrates one division within
skateboarding - in music - and how this affects skate style and image. This is
not to say that a skater can only like one or the other musical form, but these
general divisions seem to go a long way in explaining further boundaries
down the line, as will become apparent. The split into ‘sub sub’ cultures
signifies an ongoing discussion within the subculture as a whole, and the
different themes running through it.
What is of particular interest here is how these divergences manifest
themselves visibly, and so communicate themselves to those who understand
the symbolic world of skaters. These splits signify a social group within a
social group, with members recognising themselves as belonging to a sub-
collectivity as well as the whole. To an outsider, however, skateboarders are
categorised as one whole collectivity. Drawing on aspects of Jenkins work
(1996), a social category is defined externally, and its members may be
unaware of their collective identity. In the case of skateboarders, they are
aware of their collective identity, thus making them a social group for
themselves. The detail that is missed by those who categorise those
belonging to the subculture, and who are external to it, is the sub-grouping
and how central this is to the subculture of skateboarding.
An important aspect of the skateboarding fashion scene is the distinction
between 'old skool' and 'nu skool'. Ben and Sam make a general
differentiation:
24
Ben: I'd say that generally old skool is associated with the rougher
round the edges, freestyle style, which can be related to all dress,
music, logos, and that. I dunno...Shell-toe Adidas? 70's basketball
tops? Nu skool I would say is a bit slicker in production and
style… generally more well polished and refined.
Sam: That sounds about right....not sure about nu skool, it can either be
them punk ass brats that are into like nu metal. Or nu skool as in
more chilled skaters, rebelling against the attitudey bullshit. Or nu
skool as in more arsey, who can be the most mental and meanest
to each other. Or nu skool as in the tricks are getting more mental,
too many flips and shit. There was never any of that way back
when. It's getting way more tech now. Some crazy people out
there are really pushing the boundaries. Or nu skool as in all the
big companies have taken over, making money out of the kids and
it's got more about the style and big labels than actually skating to
have a laugh with your mates.
Nu skool is the now. The style of nu skool can be anything that is happening
within the skateboard culture that is not inspired by what was last year, or
even last month. The latter, more specific, description of nu skool by Sam
seems to be confirmed by Jimmy who takes on a very nostalgic view of old
skool, as one of the older skaters to be interviewed for this project.
Jimmy: Old skool is that underground sport feel that dominated the late
eighties, because… this is its background, its history, this is the
old. Money, fame, arrogance and perfect boards are the new. I
mean, I suppose that can be said about every sport that
eventually breaks free and goes mainstream. In the battle
between old versus new, nu might be flashier, but old is the
faithful… the fun, but most importantly it is the true character
builder.
So old skool refers to how things used to be. It concerns itself with the skate
scene in the beginning, before everything came 'down to corporations'. The
25
corporations contaminated the scene, in some eyes, by 'the good companies
getting the good skaters, therefore you buy their clothing and it supposedly
makes you know what's good in skateboarding. It’s a whole lot of bullshit'.
Both old skool and nu skool are important contemporary influences on
skateboard fashion. The divisions can be found in music, skate style, fashion,
and logos, and there are also differences in the board, with the newer
versions becoming smaller.
Danny:
Janine:
Kirk:
Like you can tell with the boards as well that they’re old skool coz
they’re usually a lot wider.
The old skool is wider?
Yeah say my board's 7.5 inches then like old skool boards could
be 8 inches, 8 and a quarter, something like that.
Jimmy sees this change in board size as going to the heart of the old skool-nu
skool divide:
Jimmy: With smaller wheels and like weaker, lighter, and more fragile
trucks2, you’re already buying replacement parts for your board
even before you’ve even left the shop. It’s like skateboarding has
become less of a hobby, less of a sport, less of a culture and more
of a billion dollar industry.
Many of the corporations that are putting skateboard goods out on the market
are owned by skaters themselves: skaters who were successful in gaining
sponsorship from other skateboard companies. They are either praised and
held up as skating heroes, who have managed to ‘make it’ by turning their
passion, their hobby and their lifestyle into a living, or, alternatively, they are
regarded as the ‘rat’ who sold out to the whole corporate game: yet another
ongoing discussion between skateboarders seeking to locate themselves
within the myriad identities at stake within this subcultural scene.
26
The never-changing face of skateboard fashion
Steven Miles (1998) writes that fashion illustrates a mobile society, constantly
changing and updating itself in order to reap the concurrent economic
benefits. However, the fashions of the skateboarder, much as these do
change, also hold to some unchanging laws of their own. These unchanging,
continuing fashions are strongly connected to the actual sport itself and its
practicalities. The typical baggy jeans or trousers worn by skateboarders, for
example, have obvious implications for the ease of movement needed for the
'flying-through-the-air magic', as one skater eloquently named it.
Frankie: Everyone wears baggy jeans and everyone wears the skate
shoes. Some things will never change.
The skating shoe has strong emphasis placed upon it by skaters. There are
again some obvious practicalities, which are attached to the sport and of
crucial consideration of the skater when purchasing a shoe. The design of the
shoe has safety implications for the prevention of ankle injuries. Wear is
another factor: if skaters are out everyday skateboarding, then even a shoe
designed specifically for skateboarding will last only a couple of months, at the
most. There are also considerations of how easy shoes are to skate in, with
material being an important factor here:
Lewis: It’s to do with the sole because you want them to just… it’s
probably really bad for your feet, but you just want them to just
drop out if you know what I mean. So you’ve just… here’s a bit of
rubber and then your foot so you’ve got a bit more feel if you know
what I mean. Whereas when you get Nikes there’s like that much
foam [indicating 1 inch with his fingers] like foam and stuff like that
and there are certain… Like it’s like the Puma States and the
Gazelles and things like that, they were good because they were
just basically plimsoll shoes you know?
This said, there are also other aspects of skating footwear, less immediately
practical, which act as a communication between skateboarders. A technical
27
looking shoe gives the impression of being a technical skater, whereas the
plainer shoes are more desirable to the hand rail skater. So there is a
relationship between the kind of shoe a skater would wear and the style a
skater skates in. The concept of old skool-nu skool also enters into the
equation:
Janine:
Kirk:
Josh:
Kirk:
That’s old skool is it?
Yeah
Old skool shoes
Yeah really simple old skool and then you’ve got sommit like that
and really technical. See the difference?
The distinction between old and nu skool has already been discussed, but it is
possible to see how it enters into the design of the shoe and, therefore,
communicates something of the self and the relationship with skateboarding.
Whatever the durability of the shoe, with skaters being a fairly image-
conscious street-styled group of individuals, there will always be the question
of aesthetics:
Lewis: Well there’s always like the toss up between getting something
durable, which doesn’t look quite as nice as other stuff but that’s
gonna last like a month longer, or just getting some crazy shoes
that look good but fucking them in like 2 weeks or something.
Lewis highlights another of the tensions that exist within the skateboarding
world, having spoken earlier in the interview of the importance of the practical
shoe and the benefits these have for the act of skating. He is making clear the
choices on offer, between the practical, more durable shoe and the more
stylish, aesthetically pleasing shoe. It is, as ever, a question of priorities, then:
between durability and practicality, on the one hand, or street image, on the
other.
Frankie elaborates on this, talking of the kind of shoe used by certain skaters.
There is also the communicative role of the shoe, which becomes apparent
28
from the image, which allows for an insight into what style the skater has on
his (or her) deck:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
So what makes you want a particular pair?
Er, the style of the shoe generally.
Right.
And also it’s generally the image…the image of the shoe as well. I
mean if you had lots of air soles and it’s a very like technical
looking shoe, that would be for a more technical skater.
Right.
And a plain shoe that would be more sort of like for a hand rail
skater.
I know that you can get, well I’ve been told you can get
distinctions in the shoe, for example in old skool nu skool style.
That’s a signature model [pointing to own shoes]. That’s an old
skool [pointing to Jonny’s shoes], and that’s more a modern one
[pointing to own shoes].
Coz it’s more technical looking?
Yeah. It's got sort of lumps in it, an…
Right. So does style actually come into, sort of, what kinda shoe
you’d...?
Yeah it, well, it depends how you skate. If you skated more old
skool style skating then you’d probably buy that kinda brand.
So would you actually use as…I mean, for example, I wouldn’t
have a clue… [of the distinctions]
Yeah. It’s part of your identity, it's who you are, what you wear.
Are you saying something of yourself to other skaters?
Yeah to other skaters and to other people on the street as well.
29
This extract further illustrates one of the central themes of the analysis: that
nothing within skateboard culture is a separate entity, everything has a
relationship with all the other themes within this culture. It shows how the style
and image of the skater influences the choice of shoe worn. However, this is
not a closed circuit of influence: the music the skater listens to has a
relationship to the style of the skater, and so indirectly has an effect upon the
style of shoe worn.
Jonny: The people who are like doing the biggest steps and the biggest
handrails tend to be into more heavier music, and the attitude is
different to people who are into doing the latest flip tricks, latest
flipping your board to slide and flipping it back out again.
Music is an important part of the skateboarding culture and is reflected in the
dress of skateboarders. Style of dress is strongly influenced by musical
tastes. There appear to be two main musical themes running through this
subculture: punk and hip-hop.
Frankie: It’s all to do with the kind of music you listen to as well and if
someone listens to punk, they tend to wear more sort of like
ripped jeans and more scabby clothing and like they don’t care if
they have holes in their shoes. Then if someone listens to hip-hop
they’d have the baggier jeans and their more sort of like well-
known brands.
The music listened to has considerable influence on, and resonance with,
clothes worn and the style of skating technique. It is a significant element in
the private image and the public image of the skateboarder, put to work in
their identity construction:
Dave: Punk’s the more ragged side of it and hip-hop’s clean and
polished and that, really.
30
So far, it is possible to see that music, old-nu skool, skate style, and fashion
are all intimately connected. All influence how a skater will present him/herself
to the world of skaters and to anyone who looks in on this world. As
mentioned earlier, many of the skaters I spoke to suggested that there is a
direct relationship between music and skating style. The mindset which goes
with punk music also goes with the kind of skaters who ‘are throwing
themselves down handrails’, while the more technical skater finds hip-hop
more appealing. What creates these widespread divisions in skateboarding
culture is unclear. However, it is apparent that these distinctions exist and
seem to be widespread through the skateboard scene (albeit that there may
be a few skaters who cross these social boundaries).
Contrasting old skool and nu skool styles, and questions about the
incorporation of the skating scene into the market, are also played out in the
choice of music affiliation, as The G articulates, below. He encapsulates how
these forms of self-expression became so intricately tied up together, and the
changing nature of their relationship since the early days of skateboarding. He
was the oldest of those who took part in this research, and seems to have
been in a position to have seen many of the changes. He effectively
summarises how the market has changed the relationship between skating
and music.
The G: The strongest link between skateboarding and music is in the
creation of the two themselves as joint entities. I mean during the
80s, San Francisco skate bands emerged… Black Flag, Flipper,
Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, and that… well what’s interesting about
this era of music and street culture is that the bands themselves
were participant in that culture rather than just making music
about it. I mean these bands were never famous in the true sense
of the word and they were always as diverse in their music as they
were varied in the skating subculture. I mean skating is itself
splintered and underground known only really to its members. The
music industry brought these people to the public's attention by
making their music widely available in bigger outlets, and when
these bands were eventually interviewed they all talked about their
experience as geeks, as being outsiders… you know on the edge
of society, and skateboarding, that was what they did
recreationally. Music was something else they did together.
31
Janine:
The G:
making their music widely available in bigger outlets, and when
these bands were eventually interviewed they all talked about their
experience as geeks, as being outsiders… you know on the edge
of society, and skateboarding, that was what they did
recreationally. Music was something else they did together.
So UK skaters don't listen to that sort of punk. They’re into…
what? More accessible …?
That’s my point. The industry manufacture stuff that passes itself
off as authentic and coz it sounds a bit authentic it’s used by the
masses… The real thing is left behind where it belongs on the
street.
Again, there is a distinction between old skool and nu skool here, in reference
to (punk) music. The G discusses a crucial distinction between the more
authentic style music being created because of and within the skate
subculture experience, and the imitation of it through the commercialisation of
the subculture in the pursuit of profit.
The skateboarders spoke of logos when I probed, but as much as the logo is
inescapable in terms of the board and the shoes, there seems to be much
less symbolic importance attached to these than to music, for example.
Having said this, however, whatever the skateboarder’s opinion is of the logo,
or lack of one, they do have a relationship with it.
Jonny You can’t really not get into logos, coz if you want a really good
deck then the logos are the best, coz you can’t really buy a decent
deck unless it’s actually made by a skate company and once you
start getting the decks you start getting into the clothes then.
There seems to be a fairly ambiguous relationship between logos and the
skateboard collective, which has more of an individualist nature than anything
else. However, all skaters know the logos, and agree what their meanings
32
are. There are companies that represent different aspects of the skateboard
culture and the choice of logo depends on a skateboarder’s own allegiance.
Dave:
Kirk:
Dave:
Janine:
Dave:
Kirk:
Dave
Janine:
Dave
That, that T-shirt it’s like an S T-shirt.
It’s pointless, init?
It’s not old skool or nu skool. If someone was just wearing that it
would be, like ya know...
It’s not making a statement either way?
No.
But some companies do.
Like you must have heard of the company Vans?
Yeah.
That’s definitely old skool.
One factor that was emphasised by many of the skaters I interviewed was that
the logo worn by a skater would be associated with a certain skate hero. This
seems dependent upon which favourite skater rides for which company. Lewis
sums up the decision process of choosing a logo as follows:
Lewis:
Janine:
Lewis:
I think it’s generally personal taste and what skaters you like or
whatever, who rides for who and all that crap. So I mean at the
end of the day just about everything’s exactly the same.
Right. And it’s just your own personal influences?
Yeah, coz it’s the same like, it doesn’t matter what T-shirt you buy,
they’re all the same, so it’s just a question of what logo you want
on it, and then how do you decide what logo you want? You go for
whoever your favourite skateboarder rides for, or whatever, and
like that, and it’s the same with shoes, and it’s the same with
everything else, you know?
This opinion was reinforced by Jonny, who explains how he chooses what
logo to wear by a process of disassociation, avoiding those logos that would
link him to a skating style he disclaims:
33
Jonny:
Janine:
Jonny:
Certain brands within skateboarding I wouldn’t buy to wear
because that would associate me with a type of skateboarder that
I’m not.
So you would deliberately avoid certain brands?
Yeah I’d avoid certain brands because the team that they sponsor
don’t skate in a style similar to what I skate in.
The use (or not) of logos and brands is as deliberate as other aspects of the
skateboard fashion scene. The logo itself is not worn because it is seen as
‘cool’ in itself, but is used to signify an aspect of the skateboarder's influences
and chosen identity. It is communicative of old skool or nu skool preference,
skating heroes, and can also make overt statements about equipment used.
For example, to a naïve observer the logo Independent on a T-shirt might
seem a statement about a personal characteristic. However, within the
symbolic world of the skater, the purpose is, ‘Just to say that you use
Independent trucks, y’know’3. There seemed little doubt in Aaron’s mind, here,
about what was being communicated and what was being read within the
collective.
Thus, in addition to skating style, old skool-nu skool, and music, logos are
also an element of skateboarder fashion. However, there are ambiguous
opinions about logos within the realm of skating. Many skateboarders reject
the importance of logos, rooting for the ‘mix and match’ style of dress, where
the style will be similar to commercially produced clothing, but brands are not
consumed. An example of this is the purchase of trousers that are overly large
from an army surplus store. These trousers seem to offer the same to the
skateboarder in terms of style, but are a cheap alternative to what is being
offered in skateboard shops by the brands. This didn’t seem to be a response
to the corporations' infection of the skateboard scene, however, but more to
do with the fact that it isn’t of the utmost importance, at least not to Josh: 'I
don’t go out and buy all the expensive stuff because nobody notices anyway'.
It is clear here that the main concern is imitating the general style and looking
the part, rather than the conspicuous consumption of commercial logos.
34
It was actually very difficult to find a skateboarder who would admit to liking
the logo fad. The older skaters believed it was younger skaters who were
embracing the logos:
Lewis: I think when you’re younger you want brand name boards and
stuff like that, but when you get older you realise that actually it’s
cool just to get a cheap blank board, because it’s cheaper and
they’re exactly the same. And you look…you look like, I dunno,
whatever. You know it looks more cool because you’ve just got
like a couple of stickers, or whatever.
The younger skaters believed it was the newer skaters:
Josh: It’s like people who have just started skating, they’ll like go out and
buy everything. I mean, they’ll go out and buy a pair of the new,
the newest pair of shoes out, and they’re like 90 quid. They’ll go
out and buy them, their parents will go out and buy them for them.
I like started off with a cheap pair of, like, 10 quid Vans, and I just
work my way up. But, like, people just go out and they get, they
throw all their old wardrobe away and buy all the, buy loads of
these really expensive stuff and they can’t even do anything on a
deck. It just really annoys me.
The newcomers insisted that their style of dress hadn’t changed since they
became a skater, reasoning that they dressed that way for the music. Where
were these skaters who embraced the logo? And if it is not skaters who are
buying these skate products, then who is?
Image, imitation and age
Skaters are a very image-conscious collective, and offer an intentional
presentation to those around them. This impression management offers the
skater a certain amount of control, due to the deliberate and thoughtful image
presented: it is created in the knowledge that it will be noticed. The
performative aspects of skateboarding as a sport, in the public eye and very
35
much in each other’s eyes, combined with a shared stock of knowledge
concerning style, leads to a very image-conscious identity. Skaters may lack
control over their performance - at least until they become skilful - but one
thing they can control is the impression they give. Once a skater becomes
more adept at the sport, the need to find identity within the stylish codes of
skateboard culture lessens. This may be due to age, but it could also reflect
greater confidence in their performance, a stronger identity as an authentic
skateboarder and thus less need for paraphernalia.
So far I have focused on the shared meanings which combine to structure the
collective social world and the branching subgroups within. Collectivities are,
of course, comprised of individual social actors, all of whom have individual
identities. Referring back to Simmel, ([1904] 1971) fashion acts as a cohesion
between people, whilst excluding others. Its opposite social function, however,
is to mark out the individual as different, as special.
Jonny:
Janine:
Jonny:
Frankie:
Janine:
Because styles change quickly in skateboarding so people,
because people, you are, you’re wearing out your clothes so
quickly, shoes and trainers especially, you go though a pair a
month quite easily. So you’re always getting the latest pair, you
always want the freshest, the newest style to look different to
everyone else.
Why is it important to look different?
Coz it’s your identity. And your identity, most skateboarders don’t
feel like they’re the same as the average people around.
If you feel like it’s not like erm…I mean you go to a Max car rally
and everyone’s wearing the same, like, trainers, and in
skateboarding everyone wants to be their own, y’know, be
themselves, and they wanna stand out in a crowd really.
So you want to stand out away from the actual skateboarding…?
Yeah, within skateboarding, but you wanna stand out within
certain groups of skateboarders.
You want to be within but without.
36
Jonny:
Frankie:
Jenkins (1996) describes individual identity as emphasising difference. The
above quote illustrates how this can be accomplished with clothing. Through
dress, skaters stand outside ‘normal’ people, feeling that they are different
from everyone else. Inclusion and exclusion are inseparable, and the
symbolic use of clothing signifies the exclusion of other people, in order for
the skateboard collective to stand together within their own circle. And, by
purchasing the freshest and newest style, individual skaters also have the
means of ‘standing out’ within their own group.
Simmel ([1904] 1971) also argues that fashion should belong to only a portion
of the group at any one time, the great majority being merely on the road to
adopting it. The spread of skateboard fashion, and skateboarding as a
fashion, into the mainstream, produces a range of responses from skaters. As
Lewis says:
Lewis: A lot of the thing at the moment is…people complain that it’s
mainstream and stuff like that and it's that whole, erm… oh they
say, ‘Oh all these kids are into skateboarding now aren’t into it,
they’re just into it for the image, they’re not into it for the
skateboarding’, ra ra ra...And then you get that side of it, but then
if they’re people who are, like, ‘Oh I don’t really like skateboarding
anymore because of all the posers’, and stuff like that, well then
you're only saying that you don’t like skateboarding coz it’s not
cool because no-one does it ,coz now it’s popular… it’s not cool
anymore and that’s why you don’t do it. So you’re only doing it in
the first place because to be cool, so you weren’t into it for the
right reasons, either. You just have to say… ‘If you’re in it for the
skating, you shouldn’t be complaining that there are people who
aren’t in it for the skating’, you know?
37
aren’t in it for the skating’, you know?
This illustrates many of the different perspectives within skating. There are
those that take it as a lifestyle, as Lewis does here. But, drawing on what
people are saying to him, Lewis has theorised the different reasons why
people are attracted to skating. There seems to be a certain romanticised
image of the skater as being focused, streetwise, someone who has street
credibility: ‘cool’ in Lewis’s words. Or there are those who have sacrificed their
passion because it is no longer distinct, it no longer has that ‘underground’
feel. Again, referring to Simmel, the distinctiveness of a fashion, which
assures for it a certain distribution, is destroyed as the fashion spreads. As
this element wanes, the fashion is also bound to die.
This project focused on skateboarding fashion as a representation of social
identity. The general experience of skateboarding social identity appears to
differ with age. This may be because the majority who decide to take the sport
up are, typically, in their early teens, with some beginning a lot younger.
Social identity is always a moving story, always changing, always being
updated. It is a process pushed along by reflexivity. With skateboarders it is
possible to observe this process at work over time. Although the identification
with a skateboard collective may remain, the position that an individual
occupies within this evolves, and it’s possible to see this difference in their
dress, and their attitude towards it. Skaters who, through time, become
comfortable with their identity seem less concerned with the rules that were
once so consequential for their identity and dress.
Lewis: So, when you’re starting, when you’re a kid, you’re looking at
magazines and you wanna do everything that it is to do. You know
it’s like peer pressure but it’s not it’s just like that… What this is I
wanna do and I wanna look like everyone else that does it, so you
do it like that.
Lewis refers to a very conscious process of fitting in to a group, and indicates
the reflexivity needed to absorb the self into a given collectivity. This is not
38
only affected by the state of skateboarding, and where the influences are from
on a collective level, but also by individual points of view. The magazines are
a good resource for the feel of the culture of skating, and also to see what, as
an individual skater, you should be striving for - in the paraphernalia - in terms
of an identity to project to other skaters.
Janine:
Frankie:
So what was the fashion like five years ago?
I was a lot younger so I was a lot more obsessive. He’s a lot older
so…
It appears that Frankie is passing the conversation over to his older friend,
who has a more distanced and objective relationship to the fashion scene of
the skateboarder's five years earlier, possibly due to his age. Perhaps having
been so immersed within it, to the point of being ‘obsessive’, doesn’t allow
Frankie to feel that he can articulate reasonably what the fashion was, or feels
somewhat embarrassed by his then relationship with the fashion of the time.
As time moves on, and the skater feels more confident and comfortable with
his/her identity, the need for such external symbols of belonging to the
collective weaken, highlighting how identity is a moving process. As Frankie
explains, the relationship to fashion changes once you get older.
Frankie:
Janine:
Frankie:
Er, young kids, they tend to go for all the big brand skateboarding.
Erm, the older skaters they don’t seem to mind much anymore. I
guess you get older you get more money, so...
Yeah. So, so what does the money factor have to do with it?
You get more clothes, spend more on your boards, it’s pretty
much like fashion when you’re younger, you can’t always afford to
buy the trainers you want, but when you’re older you can always
afford to buy the trainers.
There are contradictions here, but the gist of Frankie’s comments is that, as
you get older and have access to more money, the desire for the branded
commodities lessens. By the time they hit their early twenties the majority of
skaters have distanced themselves from the logo, as they move out to
39
experience different roles in their lives. Some skaters drop the skate scene,
before returning to it after a respite. Some never go back. Those that never
leave it, or return to it, tend to see skateboarding as more than a hobby; they
see it as a way of life and so brands are not as important to them. The
marketing ploys used by corporations to give a feeling of ‘belonging’ to this
collective, by submerging it with logos, appear to be ‘seen through’.
Frankie:
Jonny:
Frankie:
Jonny:
Frankie:
Jonny:
Frankie:
Mainly it’s about your attitude towards skating.
For me definitely.
Most people tend to be quite relaxed towards it, and you do get
some people who are very…get very agitated with things.
Especially with better skateboarders, that is what is true. I dunno
about people that aren’t so good and don’t care so much about
skateboarding, init. I doubt it makes so much difference to them.
But I’m skateboarding everyday. It’s what I do mostly.
If it does become a lifestyle to you and...
It is a total lifestyle.
It’s like a job to them. So if it’s your job, then you always have to
push yourself to be the best. If you can’t be the best, then
otherwise you’re gonna get stressed out with it. Always try to do
your best, that’s the main thing.
Those that do not continue with skateboarding ‘as a way of life’ seem to adopt
skateboarding in their teens, as a means of exploring their identity away from
the constraints of their early childhood lifestyle and identity. Once near the
end of the teenage years, this may not be essential any more, perhaps, as
they find different roles to ‘perform’ away from the skateboard scene.
Those that remain with skateboarding culture, or return to it after a break, as
many of the older skaters do, seem to take to it on a much deeper level; as a
means of expression in itself. The fashions that come and go within the realm
of skateboarding are kept at a distance, and the fashions of yesteryear, which
were followed much more closely, are now dismissed. A new meaning in
skateboarding has been found by these older skaters, and the need to be
40
conspicuously recognised as belonging to a skateboarding collective has
waned. It seems enough to have a private relationship with the sport itself; the
need to advertise it has ended.
The public vs skateboarders
Having explored the diversity of style within the subculture of skateboarding, I
will now take the focus back out, to view the subculture in the eyes of those
who are external to it.
Ed:
Janine
Ed:
Stephen:
That’s one thing we dislike.
What?
Authority. Security guards always bust us for skating on the
concrete.
Coz there’s no where to skate in Cardiff and this is a nice indoor
place4, you know, for many, and like they’re moved on so much
and you’ll see police just deliberately torture us, if we’re shit coz of
the way you actually dress. I find that coz most skateboarders, if
you’re caught skateboarding, and you’re all in your Nike and
Adidas gear, the Police just tend to say to you ‘oh move along
move along’. But when you're all in this, they come up to you and
they’ll just say to you, ‘So where’s your drugs? What have you
been smoking?’ And it’s all, ‘Oh I haven’t smoked anything.’5
It can only be presumed that these skaters were stopped because they were
skating. However, their subsequent treatment, according to this interviewee,
was directly related to their dress that is, in turn, directly related to music. This
kind of treatment, therefore, is presumably not limited to skaters alone, and
may include people who dress in a similar style. But what is unique to skaters
is the reason police use to stop them on the street. Throughout my interviews
and talks with skateboarders, the police and prejudice came up many times.
One of the youngest skaters to whom I spoke told me of an occasion when
there were roughly 30 skateboarders skating in one particular area. From the
police’s perspective, they have to ask the skateboarders to ‘move on’ which,
41
from a ‘job's worth’ point of view, could be understandable. However, it is
something else, perhaps reflecting the stereotypes upon which the police may
draw, that it is justifiable to the police to ask this thirty strong group to stand in
a row against the wall and then search them all for drugs.
Because of the power play in this situation, skateboarders are not here a
group for itself, but more a social categorisation in the eyes of those who hold
the power, those whose opinions count. Here the external dimension of
identity is of central importance. The police’s definition of the situation is the
one that counts. It is those in authority who can decide the identity of these
individuals and make their definition count.
Moving away from the police, it could be argued that the emergence of skate
parks is, in some way, an attempt by authority to ‘officially’ institutionalise the
culture of skating, in the process removing some of the authenticity of the
street culture itself. Skaters seek public space and streets to practice their
sport and the experience of skating has emerged from this. The valid
argument for skate parks is, of course, that they allow people to partake in
their sport without the hindrance of external authority or obstructing the public.
However, it should also be taken into account that skating as an art form
includes improvising and constructing moves around street objects such as
curbs, platforms, railings, benches and other seating areas. The skate park
can allow for aspects of improvisation, but essentially it takes the art of
skating and places it out of context, thereby changing the fundamental
character of the culture. If the style of a subculture includes taking everyday
objects and giving them new meaning (see Hebdige, 1991), then by removing
the objects, the style of the subculture is fundamentally changed.
Self-presentation and social identity
The self-presentation of the skateboarder is a complex process, incorporating
varied elements of the skating culture. Two threads run through the above
analysis. The first is found in the dialectic relationship between skateboard
fashion and the market. All the influences upon a skater’s social identity are
drawn from a social/structural level, but the 'drawing from', and the
42
combination of all the influential factors, makes their communication a very
personal and individual expression. If the style is pre-given, then it is taken by
individuals and re-modified and updated. For each skater interviewed there
are collective ‘objects’ to draw from, that enable them to represent an image
of themselves to others who can understand the cultural symbols.
Skateboard culture, as an authentic, experiential culture, has a dialectical
relationship to the market. On the one hand, skateboarders use commodities
as a means of cultural transference. It is due to the resources of the market
that skateboard culture is no longer a local affair, but more trans-national, and
even global. The market informs many of the styles that are found within the
skateboard scene, and skaters deliver it to the streets. The concept of nu
skool is an articulation of the omnipresence of commercialism within the
skating subculture, affecting the symbols which skaters use in their
construction of social identity. It is a dialectical relationship, which has now
become a choice, something within which to choose a style.
On the other hand, skaters inform the market about what can be sold on the
street, what is the authentic ‘in’ style. As skaters try to distance themselves
from the commercialisation of their culture by rapidly inventing new styles of
authenticity, capitalism adopts these applications of stylistic innovation and
reproduces them in the market (Klein, 2000). Many of the stylistic features are
then adopted back by skate culture as a tool with which to construct their
identity. After all, the advertising industry has long understood that ‘selling
things to people often means selling them an identity too’ (Jenkins, 1996: 7-8).
The skater is thus caught in the contradiction that Simmel saw as lying at the
heart of fashion: on the one hand, the need for unity, to be in tune with
contemporary developments and, therefore, to be alike to everyone else
(collective identity), but, on the other hand, the aspiration to be different, to be
special, and therefore unlike everyone else (individual identity).
There is, then, a multi-level identity process occurring within the skateboard
scene. The experiential aspect of the sporting subculture, on an embodied
level, appears innovative, original, and creative, giving skaters a feeling of
43
‘being different’. Yet, simultaneously, through commercialisation, the
subcultural style has become popularised, finding its way into mainstream
youth culture. The subculture style no longer belongs to the authentic skater
as a means of inclusion and exclusion; anyone can access it. Therefore the
objects symbolising the culture of skateboarding are continually contested,
and their worth and meaning negotiated. On top of this, there are ongoing
arguments within skateboarding culture itself. These debates have emerged
throughout the analysis, about music, logos, old skool and nu skool, skate
style, imitation, and age. All affect the public identity of the skater because the
skaters' reaction to them feeds back. This is a process in which we are all
continually involved. Day to day life is bound up with the reproduction of social
identities, groups, and social institutions. Human agency and social structure
are in a relationship with each other, and it is the repetition of the acts of
individual agents that reproduces the structure, but also causes the structure
to change when social actors ignore, replace or reproduce them differently
(see Giddens, 1984).
This leads to the second thread that runs through the varied conversations
quoted in this chapter: the relationship that the subculture has with aspects of
wider society. Skateboard subculture is not a simplistic unit or block, with
definite boundaries, which stands within, but is separate from, mainstream
culture. It bleeds into other aspects of wider society. It, therefore, serves as a
valuable reminder that subcultures are by no means separate from a larger
social whole.
Subcultures take particular objects from wider society, which are available to
wider society, and use them in a particular stylistic manner that demonstrates
their belonging to the subculture. External information is never just received, it
is processed by social actors who also become the architects of their social
environment (Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995). It is the style in which they do
this that signals their belonging, not the object itself:
'every group that is at all functional must have a culture of its own that issomewhat similar to the cultures of other groups with whom it interacts. Such a
44
group culture is not partial or miniature, it is a complete, full blown set of beliefs,knowledges, and ways for adjustment to the physical and social environment'(Lasswell, quoted in Arnold, 1970: 4).
At the same time as subcultures are externally promiscuous in this way,
simplistic notions of subcultural purity are further compromised by the internal
complexities of subcultural style. The common ‘taken for granted’ view of
subcultural style as a tidy unit, with all elements seemingly hanging together -
the view with which this dissertation opened - is a gross simplification. Taking
the example of skateboarding subculture, this article has explored and
illustrated the reality of subcultural diversity. In the process, social identity has
been shown to combine both the need for similarity (the basis for collectivity)
and the need for individual distinctiveness. In short: all skaters look alike, and
all skaters dress different. It is this tension between similarity and difference
that is at the heart of the skateboarding subculture.
Fashion and identity
This article has illustrated how fundamental aspects of skateboarders' public
selves are communicated to those around them through clothing, signifying
both difference and similarity. The strong association between clothing and
social identity goes well beyond the subculture of skateboarding. It is not only
skateboarders who seek to construct meaningful identities, and these
identities can be communicated, in part, by how the body is dressed. This can
be true for any actor during interaction in the social world. What we wear
sends signals to other people about ourselves and who we are. We all read
signals from others, looking at what they wear in order to decide who we think
they are. There are a variety of different signals or markers within the
symbolic world of meanings and signs on which a social actor can draw to
communicate a desired impression. This can be an individual identity:
'We are all offshoots of our society; but it is possible, especially in a complexinteractional world like our modern one, for us to be individualised andidiosyncratic offshoots' (Collins, 1988: 46).
Alternatively, clothing can be used to signify belonging to a collectivity:
45
'The physical and mental world, in short, becomes populated with objects thatsymbolise society. Internalised and carried around in the minds of individuals,these symbols become the steering mechanisms by which people recognise co-members' (Collins, 1998: 45).
Clothing can be used to communicate closeness to, or distance from other
social actors; both purposes have been illustrated here.
This article has focused on clothing. There are, of course, a number of
crucially important aspects of social identity that are less transitory than what
we choose to wear, namely gender, ethnicity, and class. Each of these is a
major aspect of personal and social identity, and, for information, Cardiff’s
skateboarding subculture is predominantly white and male. While,
undoubtedly, this influenced the dress and style of the skateboarders that I
interviewed, gender and ethnicity were beyond the scope of this limited study.
The subculture of skateboarding is not well documented within sociology. It is
an extraordinarily rich social and stylistic arena, which is constantly shifting
and re-defining itself, drawing on new forces of influence and distinction. This
study is located within a particular time and a specific locality, and by no
means exhausts the potential of skateboarding subculture as an object of
sociological enquiry. Relationships between skaters and the public and public
authorities, for example, are fraught with significant theoretical and policy
issues and an investigation of these on a future occasion would be opportune.
More broadly, the examination of fashion and its relationship to the social
actor encapsulates many of modern society’s tensions concerning social
identity and consumerism. That the clothes which claim to express you - that
make a statement about your identity - at the same time force you to bow to
the market (O’Flinn, 1990) is an insight that, while adding to our
understanding of the complex relationships between structure and agency,
could further be developed. Consumerism and social identity are not only
linked by clothing. Consumer goods, as a cultural resource, can be used as a
form of expression in most areas of life, if not all. The opportunities to explore
questions of social identity - not least those relating to gender, ethnicity and
class - in connection with cultural consumption are virtually limitless. And this
is to be welcomed.
46
47
Notes
1. The three founding texts being Culture and Society (Williams, 1958), The Making of theEnglish Working Class (Thompson, 1963) and The Uses of Literacy (Hoggart, 1957). Thevery disappointing, and very sudden, closure of the Birmingham University Centre for CulturalStudies in the summer of 2002 should also be noted here.
2. Trucks are the metal axles that attach the wheels of the skateboard to the deck.
3. This refers to buying trucks for his board made by a particular company, Independent.
4. The ‘indoor place’ referred to is a civic building on the outskirts of Cardiff centre.The building is designed with a large rim constructed around the edge on the first floor. Onthe outside, shelter can be taken underneath this rim.
5. The two respondents were dressed from the 'heavier' music scene and neither had beenskating for longer than a year. Music influenced their own dress more so than skateboarding,and many times they stated that they dressed the way they did before they started skating.The mentioned Nike and Adidas are a reference to the hip-hop style skater.
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Janine Hunter studied Sociology as an undergraduate at the University ofSheffield, and postgraduate Social Science Research Methods at theUniversity of Wales, Cardiff (the study of skateboarding upon which this articleis based was her dissertation). Janine is currently a Research Assistant on anESRC-funded project, about young people, consumerism and social identity, atthe University of Birmingham.