GREATEST: Jimmy Gorecki
Former pro-skateboarder, Jimmy Gorecki, shares how his early love for sneakers and skating have led to careers in both. Now Gorecki seeks to push the industry forward with his roles at No.One, Standard Issue and JSP.
The Philadelphia native shares how the influence of skateboarding sparked a sponsorship from Pharrell, an interest for sneakers and clothing, and ultimately how it helped define his place in streetwear.
Growing up in Philly, how did you start skateboarding?
I grew up in a neighborhood filled with kids who shared the same interests as me. As I got older, around my teens, Philadelphia became a budding skateboarding scene. There was a growing skate community. Some of the best skaters in the world were moving to Philly. Being a California-based industry, at the time, Philadelphia was king. Growing up 15 miles from this epicenter, I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. I had some pros take me under their wings. They [helped me] get sponsored and got me involved with a really respectable company at the time. I also had a super hard work ethic. I always tried to keep my head down and grind. That opened up some doors for me.
Can you talk about Love Park? It was known to be the skate spot of the century.
If you look at the chronological order of the different scenes in skateboarding, there’s the Embarcadero in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Banks in New York, and during the late 90s and early 2000s, Love Park in Philly was the spot. Pros were flying from all over the world to skate there. It was the perfect place to skate because it had ledges, stairs and gaps. Anything you wanted to do, you could do it there. And just like any community, when there’s a bunch of people wanting to push the envelope to better one another, you’re naturally going to strive. It worked for me. I was there every single day and on the weekends, from 7AM to 1AM, until I couldn’t walk anymore. I had no real money at the time and I was just living off of Wawa Iced Tea.
In 2000, UBIQ moved into a mall called The Gallery in Downtown. They ushered in a lot of product and had a look to their boutique that I hadn’t seen before. From a product standpoint, they were bringing in stuff you could only find in Japan. Cats from New York would come down and people from D.C. would come up. They eventually expanded and opened a beautiful spot in Rittenhouse Row, Philadelphia. It was next level. I was growing in the skateboard community all while hanging around this new sneaker community. You had to know your shit and be up on it. Back then, there was no internet.
Eventually, that segued into meeting Nino Scalia, Ice Cream Brand Manager. Did Nino get you on Pharrell’s Ice Cream skate team?
Nino actually got me the job at UBIQ. He’s really involved in the skate scene, too. Nino was working at Zoo York at the time. I think Nino and Pharrell connected, and Terry Kennedy already had a one-off endorsement deal with Ice Cream. Nino presented the idea to Pharrell to make this a big thing and expand the team. Nino asked me to join, but I was still skating for Aesthetics [Skateboards] and I didn’t see the bigger picture. But with time, I saw what the vision really was and what they wanted to do. I’m lucky I took the opportunity because it opened a lot of doors for me.
That was around the time I started skateboarding. I had never seen anything like these guys. Jamie Thomas and a lot of the skinny-pants-long-haired Corey Duffels of the world. It was a shock to me.
It was cool because Pharrell starting the Ice Cream skate team helped open the door for skaters at that time to wear whatever they wanted.
I felt like it was a polarizing thing because when we started [Ice Cream skate team], it was scaled to be a real true skate program. The ads, videos and footwear were all supposed to look and be presented in a certain way. Every day we got further and further away from that. In hindsight, this was way bigger than skateboarding itself. The core skateboarding community is very near and dear to me. It’s something I still, to this day, care so much about. Pharrell is an A-list celebrity, so anything he does will be on a much grander scale. So accepting and being a part of that keeps you focused on the bigger picture.
Did you have any input on how the Reebok Ice Cream Board Flip would look and skate at the time? I know that shoe was crazy.
No, the initial idea was supposed to be a boutique shoe. I remember working at UBIQ when it came out and it went over people’s heads. At that time, Reebok was refiguring out their deal with Pharrell. I don’t know if you remember the ad with Terry Kennedy skating down a rail and there were a bunch of photographers in the background? I remember seeing that shoe for the first time, being heartbroken because it wasn’t skate-able. God bless Terry’s soul, because I don’t know how he did that trick in that shoe. In retrospect, kids now always come up and tell me that it was the coolest fuckin’ shoe. If only they knew.
I assume that having skated for Ice Cream, being with Pharrell, Terry Kennedy and those guys, did that push you in the direction of working in fashion?
Maybe, subjectively. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about. I think we all care about what we wear. You gravitate towards brands and products you like. That’s all it really is. Especially footwear, there are so many aspects to consider. Coming from the skate industry, the people I’ve skated with are some of the most influential people in the fashion industry today.
At the time, there was a lack of a skateboard sneaker, that’s why Lance [Mountain] was skating in Jordan 1s.
eŚ was the first company that took all of these outside influences such as the athletic industry and put it into skate. I think later on, we saw DC doing it, but eŚ really started it. The eŚ skate shoe is basic, but because Sal [Barbier] put a “23” on it, it made it that much bigger than skateboarding. “23” resonates with people outside of skate.
Sal Barbier is my mentor. Nobody knows footwear like Sal. [Eric] Koston’s first eŚ shoe, to me, was the coolest thing. The air bubble and gum sole were influences from the athletic world that we never saw before in skate.
I remember reading about Eric Koston putting that shoe together. He was a huge fan of the Air Max 1 and the eŚ Koston 1 was the first skate shoe to feature an air bubble. eŚ even had to wait for the patent, but because Koston wanted it, they made it happen.
Everyone in skate knows that Koston was one of the first sneaker guys. That shoe goes hand in hand, because he was a pioneer in many aspects of skateboarding. He took outside influences and put it into the eŚ Koston 1, which segued into the eŚ Koston 2 Laker colorway inspiration. It’s subtle inspiration that elevated the bar.
Is there any sneaker now that you feel can have the same inspiration as an Air Max 1 to the Koston 1?
I don’t know. From a lifestyle standpoint, there are so many things going on. adidas is very much out in the lead right now. I think there are parts of Nike that people are tapping back into. It’s fair game. That’s what I like about it.
A lot of skateboarding design inspiration stems from the athletic world, but more specifically basketball. At the time, people’s minds were exploding with the shit that was coming out. Especially the eŚ Muska signature shoe. This was the first $100 skate shoe, and it even had a stash pocket inside the tongue. Do you know why it was the first $100 skate shoe?
It’s a crazy looking shoe and it probably cost a lot to make. It's funny, but I remember when Nike SB launched the second time around. They didn’t even have shoes to ship to the skate shops, so they sent gray Jordan 1s and navy Jordan 1s instead. I remember going to Hot Rod during my first or second trip to L.A. The staff was saying that Nike started their skateboarding line again and they sent these Jordan 1s. I remember trading mad boards for them. None of the Dunks were released yet at the time.
Why do you think the Jordan 1 was sent to the shops over any other model?
It’s the most skateable shoe. Guys like Mark Gonzales skated in them back in the day. I probably traded two boxes of boards for two pairs of the all gray and all navy Jordan 1s. Even three of four years later, I was still skating in them. Jordan 1 hadn’t caught hype yet in the mid 2000s.
That makes sense. It's a similar sole to the Nike SB Dunk, right?
It’s essentially just like the Nike Dunk High.
Is that why you now skate in Jordans?
I think skateboarding footwear has lost its way for some time now. It goes hand in hand. You’re seeing the smaller independent brands get pushed to the side. They can’t compete with Nike or adidas. It’s tough. Now, they sponsor the skateboarding industry the same way they do with the NBA. The whole league can get down.
Can you tell us a more about your involvement at No.One?
I do Sales and Marketing for the company. The gentleman who oversees No.One was actually the Art Director at Gourmet Footwear. He’s one of the best designers – from packaging to branding and even product.
The fact that you're able to see people handcraft the shoes, from start to finish in one place, is special. It’s about providing a new experience similar to the Menthol 10s that Ari [Saal Forman] made. It was something new and different. Although both brands aren’t on the resell market, each are staples in today’s sneaker landscape.
You’re also involved with Standard Issue? Are you also working on anything else?
I’m the Marketing Director at Standard Issue. Also, I’m the Founder and Creative Director at JSP, a judge for Street League Skateboarding and I do freelance consulting for a handful of brands in footwear, clothing and skate.
Fast forward to now, where do you see skate footwear in regards to everyday sneakers?
I enjoy the fact that kids nowadays embrace a lot of different worlds. I enjoy that kids aren’t afraid to dibble and dabble. On the flip side, I hate where skateboarding shoes are now. It’s so uniform and boring. I sound like a bitter old man, but we used to be the ones that pushed the envelope for this stuff. Growing up, that was the beauty of my generation of skating. You could be chilling with five different kinds of kids. I could be with the hip-hop, punk, the grunge kid, the emo kid – you embraced that individuality.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIANE ABAPO AND INTERVIEW BY RANDY NAKAJIMA