Sound and Vision – ASICS in Berlin and Barcelona
Victor Campillo, frontside nosegrind transfer, Berlin.
Since Habitat catches a stray early on in this, and Joseph Castrucci’s work on Mosaic and the company as a whole at that time is still one of the greatest examples of the power of good creative/art direction in skateboarding, let’s start there.
For the sake of argument, what would the impact of that video and the careers of its main protagonists have looked like if Joe’s vision and the hundreds of micro- decisions he was taking behind the scenes had been taken out of the equation? If instead of all that now iconic world building that connected the graphics to the ads, to the editing, to the team riders’ distinctive styles and personalities, we just got something that was put together like Progression VM #3, and the marketing around it and the boards they were skating felt like a cross between Darkstar and Termite? Do you really think we would have spent all those sticky summers sweating our tits off in brown cords? Or that Janoski would be rolling around in swoosh money? Look at what stop motion and questionable music did to Flip for fuck’s sake!
It’s with all this in mind that we decided to use ASICS’ latest European jaunt as an excuse to pick Jake Gascoyne’s brain about his incredible work as the skateboarding division’s creative director. I don’t think Emile Laurent and Brent Atchley playing squash with giant hands and rackets was on anyone’s bingo card for the program’s first print ad in a skate mag, but three years on, as the bigger picture of this reality/rule bending playfulness slowly comes into focus, it’s hard not to be in awe of what Jake and the gang have achieved. How does actually spending time in the field (like Mr Castrucci did) inform his work? What else feeds into his vision, and how does he trust it? How did he arrive in this position, and does he worry about some of the more left-field stuff going over people’s heads?
Interview by Arthur Derrien.
Photography by Alex Papke.
Simon Bannerot, ollie then wallride early grab out, Pineda de Mar.
Okay, let’s just get the more general stuff out of the way here. What was the purpose of this trip, and where exactly did you guys go?
Jake Gascoyne: We went to Barcelona and Berlin. It was part of a series of trips this year, basically to shoot ads and chip away at the next video. We were also there because ASICS was finally launching in most of Europe for the first time, which is kind of crazy… It feels like we’ve been doing it for quite a while, but actually the shoes haven’t been available until now in those places.
So we did some events to celebrate that with our good skate shop friends, Rufus and Civilist. A lot of our team is from Europe, and we all just love European skateboarding, so we were happy to be out there.
Yeah, I guess the rollout of the brand was quite unusual in that respect. Most of the time, new brands tend to just be like, “Fuck, how can we sell stuff in this particular region?” and get a rider or put together a subcategory of the team specifically for that purpose. It’s nice to see that the days of people starting fully separate Euro teams are kind of behind us…
Yeah, I don’t think it ever even occurred to us, honestly, like a separation of regions, or only putting on people from places where shoes were being sold. That was just our crew.
Which is great.
Habitat Canada Welcomes… (laughs). But yeah, credit to Davis [Torgerson] and Kaspar [van Lierop] for always thinking about it this way.
Kyonosuke Yamashita, backside 5-0 frontside 180 transfer, Barcelona.
We’ve seen you pop up in various Portland videos over the years (Editor’s note: watch Jake’s part in LAND by Cal’s Pharmacy if you’re not familiar with his skating), so you’re clearly no stranger to all this, but had you been on many international filming trips of this scale before the ASICS stuff?
Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of my life in the streets, but I was never sponsored enough to be
invited on trips for my skating, or whatever. And prior to ASICS, my big team trip experience was more photo shoot or campaign specific, some of which were fairly similar to typical trips, but with a particular goal… But yeah, it’s only since I started with ASICS that I’ve found myself going on a lot of long filming trips, which has been a bit of a late-in-life, unexpected gift; it’s been incredible to be able to travel with everyone like this. Plus, before we started ASICS, I was pretty satisfied with working outside of skateboarding, and you know, just having my friends and life associated with skating, it wasn’t like I was hell-bent on forcing work in skateboarding to happen. But obviously, when it’s good, it’s the best.
And so what exactly is your role on them?
Because we’re a very small team, a filming trip is also always an opportunity to shoot creative stuff and shoot ads… It’s all pretty blended.
Emile Laurent, frontside 180 fakie nosegrind, Berlin.
How exactly does that work? Do you go into these trips with a bunch of ideas you want to execute, and you adapt them accordingly? Or is it more spontaneous?
It’s funny, it’s a very unique mix of preparation and spontaneity. So on these trips, it’s everything from making sure a bunch of shoes are being shot, often in, you know, very specific ways… To the creative scenes that Jake Harris and I are working on together, whether for the next video or for little commercial bits on the internet. And then there are the print ads, some of which are orchestrated in advance and take a lot of planning (giant hands and things like that), and others that really come from a loose idea that we’re waiting to find the perfect moment for, and eventually, on a trip, it presents itself.
Skating is obviously so rooted in the unplanned and real things that are happening… So it’s been a very unique project, ASICS, in comparison to other things I’ve done. It’s been a lot of learning how to orchestrate things while also letting go entirely and trusting that the right moment is gonna come around. But then how do you plan and be prepared for when those moments do come around? So that it’s natural and real to an extent… Except when it’s totally not, haha.
I guess that’s why the ads and stuff work really well; they fully keep you guessing. One can just be a classic, banging skate photo, and the next will be a weird idea you guys just decided to take veeeeery far. It’s like you’ve found this sweet spot where you, Jake and the crew can create the conditions for both of those things to happen semi-naturally. Kind of like when a skater/filmer duo is so compatible that they know what the right trick or line is for a certain spot almost telepathically.
Totally! I’d say that’s part of what’s made it easier to not take ourselves too seriously with it too – why sometimes it feels appropriate to get really bizarre and esoteric with it. But then also why there are times it feels right for something to just be what it is: the skating. But figuring out how to not default to one or the other end of that spectrum is a fun, tricky thing. And yeah, I would say the time on the road together is super important for that.
Yeah, I mean it makes complete sense. If the person thinking up and laying out the ads is actually on the ground with the team skating and hanging out, it’s obviously going to be easier for the final product to be a decent reflection of their energy, values, etc.
Yeah. ASICS is a shoe brand, but I’d love it if it felt more like a board company. I think that’s really important. Sometimes there’s a lot of very specific things I’m working on; sometimes there’s a lot of longer-term intangible things I’m working on, but either way there’s always going to be camera bags to carry…
So you might as well all be in the trenches together! What was your favourite thing about being out there with the crew on this trip?
Probably just watching Simon and Emile, those damn hippies (laughs). The first word that comes to mind when thinking of those two is just “radical”. It’s just pure shredding, haha. They’re what a non-skater would picture skateboarding to be like if they had only been exposed to it through the Ninja Turtles. They’re just so pure, and when they get going, it’s so fun to watch. They don’t stop. They’re not really trying tricks; it’s always just sessioning. They’re on some Z-Boys shit. The only way to film them really is to have the camera out at all times and capture everything.
Jaakko Ojanen, backside 180 fakie 5-0, Barcelona.
So we’ve touched on how your role as creative director lands you on these trips, but more generally, what does the job consist of on a day- to-day basis?
I do graphic design and art direction, I write copy, and I develop ideas for how all these things work together. Ultimately, I do this so the brand or a specific project I’m working on feels a certain way. I guess I’m responsible for both the long-term creative vision, the way that the brand should look and feel, as well as all the daily steps to make it all add up to that. So everything from collaborating on the video concept stuff, to designing ads, to making posters or window displays for skate shops.
And you’d been in this line of work for a while, often working for clients outside of skateboarding, before starting on ASICS and it becoming your main focus, correct?
Yeah, I’ve been doing this generally for probably eight years.
I work as an independent creative director, but ASICS is my most significant ongoing project. I do work on other stuff as well, but yeah, this is definitely the one that I’m the most passionate about.
And have you been with ASICS from the skateboarding program’s inception?
Yes.
Secret Lynn, kickflip backside. 50-50, Barcelona.
How did the program even come about?
So it all happened thanks to Kaspar. In 2023, he heard that ASICS was interested in getting into skating. They were starting to dabble, but in Japan only, and he just reached out to them proactively and was like, “Hey, I see you guys are trying to do this. What I do is help brands get into skateboarding authentically. I’d be happy to talk if you’re interested…” That’s something that he’s really good at and does a lot of, and yeah, they were receptive and interested in expanding it beyond Japan.
So at that point, he brought me in, and we started wrapping our heads around the idea of another shoe company entering skating, and if we were going to do it, what would we want it to be and what would we not want it to be?
And how did those first conversations go? Like, what did you really not want it to be?
I just really wanted it to be a breath of fresh air, in one way or another. Not to say that I was pessimistic about yet another shoe company getting into skating, but it felt like, okay, if we’re gonna do something, then it has to be completely different, almost just out of respect. Like to come in and do something similar, or just a slightly different take on something someone else was doing, what’s the point? Why would skateboarding need that? The next stage was basically developing a document that articulated my vision of all that to our colleagues at ASICS in Japan, who really trusted us from the beginning, which was amazing.
Simon Bannerot, frontside halfcab kickflip, Berlin.
Okay, interesting. I was going to ask about that, because the tone of what you guys do is definitely quite different to what is done by ASICS outside of skateboarding…
Well, we wanted to create something that was mysterious, a bit funny, esoteric at times, and weird in the way that I associate with my favourite parts of skateboarding. And voluntarily leaving things unexplained… Putting out interesting stuff that people can interpret in their own ways is important to me. But also, I was definitely looking for links to ASICS and what they do. So, trying to create something that felt real and true to skating, but also specific to ASICS. So it’s not just taking a company and putting wallpaper on it that looks like an authentic skate brand. Because obviously it’s not that, but it is many other things. It’s a heritage Japanese sportswear brand from the late 1940s. There’s a lot of cool stuff to be played with there. And obviously, “sport” has been done really awkwardly in skating in the past, but I think a lot of us are also interested in it. There are things about that that I thought could be cool if done in a way that was fun, weird and tasteful.
I think the fact that you guys left a lot of the lore purposely unexplained was a good way to draw people in. It’s healthy to have to work for it a bit… That’s how skateboarding culture has always worked; that’s partly why it’s so addictive. The last thing you want is some big statement from a sports shoe brand on why they are coming for your skate shoe money.
Yeah, I felt very awkward about doing something that was loud and obnoxious in any way. And the people we work with in Japan, they’re also quite humble and cautious about doing right by skating. They’re also comfortable just being quiet to an extent, and letting what we do speak for itself, knowing that people interpret it as they will. We’re not trying to “crush the competition”; we’re just trying to do our own thing, and if someone likes it and connects with it, then awesome, we probably have similar things that we like in skating, and if it’s not for them, then that’s totally fine too. All of my favourite companies over the years have been exactly like that.
Kyonosuke Yamashita, frontside 180 kickflip, Berlin.
What are some of the projects you’ve enjoyed working on the most since you started?
A Guided Tour, definitely… I know it’s the most recent thing that we’ve done, but I was proud of how that came together and of everyone’s work on it: Jacob, Davis, and the team. I love those guys so much. The culmination of their efforts made me really proud.
The skits were genius on that one. Plus it’s a good one to bring up in the context of what you were saying before about enjoying finding interesting/funny takes on “sport” with the SPAing/sparing, the Victor/Jaakko ping-pong rivalry…
Thanks, man. Victor and Jaakko are great ping-pong sportsmen. When he was doing that, Jaakko was slamming in the way that he slams in real life; it was hilarious. He was just running and diving across that gym, just self-slamming, basically.
I’m also quite partial to that Emile and Brent squash ad we did, the first one…
Ah, yeah, it was sick that one. It made zero sense at the time, but looking back on it now, it was such a nice way to open the floodgates to this whole universe you’ve been building and the language around it.
I was in Oregon when that came out, and I’m glad I was a little removed from everything when it did, because I honestly didn’t get a lot of feedback on it. So it was cool to not be too confused by thinking about how people were interpreting it, and just keep going.
Simon Bannerot, frontside slash, Berlin.
Do you do anything in particular to get yourself in the zone to come up with these weird ideas? And then once you have them, how do you go from that to “yep, giant hands and rackets, that’s 100% what we need here!”?
I wake up every day with ideas for projects being the very first thing in my brain, sometimes annoyingly so. So I would say that I am always kind of marinating on this stuff. I also write every day, and I do in-depth breakdowns for myself of ideas and why I like them and what I would hope that they would do. But also there is this huge part of it that is just, like, “Fuck it, I don’t know, for some reason this is resonating, it feels right.” There’s a lot of gut-trusting. I definitely call friends and have stressed-out brain dumps of the “I know I like this, but I’m starting to hate this,” kind.
What I would say, though, is that a lot of those ideas have pretty clear creative intent behind them, and if that creative intent doesn’t show super overtly, that’s often okay. I want it to feel more like something that, a few years from now, adds up to something that makes sense in hindsight.
But then there are also things like that Shay [Sandiford] ad with the inflated padding, for example, where… That was, in a literal sense, just making an ad about comfortable shoes. But doing it in a way that was the opposite of listing out technical features.
Toa Kanazawa, slappy backside Smith grind, Barcelona.
It’s so good that you have the freedom to be playful like that. Do they ever try to steer you in a certain direction with taglines or make you do stuff you’re not necessarily down for?
I don’t think that there’s anything specific, honestly. Some of our colleagues in Japan have been at ASICS for 25 years. They have good underlying values of craft and of putting a lot of care into things, so I feel like there’s an understanding between us about trusting one another’s expertise, which is rare. And I really respect what they do; getting to go to the design archives in Kobe is fascinating. So it goes both ways.
They’ve never pushed any sort of corporate agenda or anything, but they have their “Sound Mind, Sound Body” tagline, which is actually something that I was intrigued by and voluntarily incorporated. I thought it was a cool thing to build a little world around – just the idea of it, which probably comes down to them being a Japanese company too, and having a bit more class than some big American companies that are ultimately about winning at all costs, you know? Enjoying life and feeling good, mentally and physically, that was a cool jump-off point. And there are good humour opportunities with it too.
Yeah, and I mean, after years and years of our culture glorifying the party all night, skate all day, burn the candles at both ends, kind of lifestyle, it’s refreshing to see a brand gently lean into a tagline like that.
Yeah. At the very least, it gives us a reason to visit spas and volcanoes on skate trips.
