Skateboarding is marketable. If you need proof take a look at Nike. Nike became a skate shoe heavyweight around 5-6 years ago and sponsored/sponsors some of the best in skateboarding today - Paul Rodriguez, Stefan Janoski, Chet Childress and now Eric Koston - to name a few. Nike already made its long lasting imprint in basketball. The Air Jordan series is the top selling basketball shoe line of all-time, appealing to basketballers and the urban shoe collector market. Twenty-one years after the Jordans were released Nike put out its first pro shoe from skateboarder Paul Rodriguez, who was around 20 years old at the time (2005). Imagine the paycheck! A pro skateboarder making multi millions off shoe royalties for Nike. This year pro skateboarder Stefan Janoski received a pro model shoe, making him the second skater to have a shoe for Nike. Strangely enough professional skateboarders are getting shoes at a higher rate than any other athletes in other sports with exceptions to basketball, which Nike sponsors several players like Lebron, Carmello, Kobe and so on. Maybe the next person to have a pro shoe should be Tiger Woods. I can tell you right now it wont be. Word on the street is that skateboarder Omar Salazar is next to get a pro model shoe. Can anyone that doesn't skate tell me who Omar Salazar is? A talented skateboarder, yes, maybe even pro model worthy for a company like eS, Emerica, Vans, or whatever, but not Nike. I feel that this is a mistake by Nike. There have been people in sports that are endorsed by Nike and achieved legendary status and never gotten any pro shoe, so why Omar Salazar? Something to think about.
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