Nike’s prestigious SB department has been ever-present in the world of skateboarding for almost two decades. So it was only natural that the Nike SB team put on their own international Go Skateboarding Day on the 21st of June 2014, taking place in countless cities from London to Paris to Darwin.
Photographer Andrew Kass went down to the Coleman LES Park in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to capture the day’s activities, including the Nike SB Best Trick contest. Later in the day, the crew headed off in to the NYC streets for an all-star demo.
Skateboarders are often treated as outcasts in society, persecuted due to the age-old stereotype that it’s skate kids who vandalise cities, which most people know isn’t entirely true. Skating is banned in many areas of NYC, so Go Skateboarding Day acts as the perfect platform to honour the sport within the community, attracting people from all walks of skateboarding life. Needless to say, New Yorker Andrew Kass captured this essence perfectly.
This is an extract from the Autumn/Winter14 Issue of Viper Magazine. Read more from the magazine here. Buy physical and digital copies here.
Words by Ali Arrowsmith
Photography by Andrew Kass