It seems to be that skateboarding is on the search for Animal Chin again. Essentially the industry moves in 10 year cycles of ups and downs and the culture re-creates itself through new ideas, new generations and new directions. Over the last 10 years, skateboarding has enjoyed a peak in popularity and has reached more homes than certain traditional sports and hobbies. However, like Christopher Wallace said “Mo’ money. mo’ problems” and as a result the creative and independent mind set of the community was set aside by standards and greed. Today there is a divide building up between the companies taking the more corporate line with the goal of achieving maximum market share; and the small independent companies trying to redefine what a skate company should be with more focus on the fun than the funds.
Isle is one of these small independent brands looking to burn new trails for skateboarding primarily through aesthetic beliefs. To put Isle quickly into context, the main men behind the company, Paul Shier and Nick Jensen, were both key figures of the late and great British skateboard company Blueprint Skateboards. Unfortunately, Blueprint went through a tough phase of being bought and sold during the economic downturn only to wash up overseas in Canada with identity amnesia. As a result the entire team abandoned ship and went their separate ways.
Isle is still a very small operation but their clean and composed visual identity has been picked up on people’s radars and notably those outside of the skateboard community. Dazed approached Isle to compose short videos that would promote British visionaries.