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Color 8.4 Editor's Letter Buy This Issue Now

art

  1. Tobias Spichtig

    The artist’s journey from Las Vegas to Marfa, TX, provided him with plenty of vacation style photos to use as the basis for his latest...
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  2. Pop Life: Art in a Material…

    Not the regular fare at the National Gallery of Canada. Pop Life: Art in a Material World explores the history of Pop Art.
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  3. DONNY MILLER

    Donny Miller dishes with Mike Billington on conceptual art and Mexican orphans. He also lets slip some tasty little details about upcoming...
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skate

  1. CAMEO WILSON

    He appeared in Vancouver on Go Skate Day and made everyone wonder just who he was and where he was from. Sandro Grison finds out what...
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  2. Elephant Direct film…

    If you don’t want skaters to turn into gremlins, don’t watch Girls Gone Wild before noon. And don’t feed them pizza three times...
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  3. THE BEAST OF GEVAUDEN

    Chris Haslam set up a dark and dangerous meeting where he acted as translator for Mike Christie on his first encounter with the Beast...
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music

  1. Ariel Pink

    Ariel Pink has moved from making bedroom recordings to producing full-length albums for a major indie label. Saelan Twerdy caught up...
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  2. Salem

    Wrap yourself in a wooly blanket and burrow down under some crunchy fall leaves to hear about Salem’s new offering.
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  3. How To Dress Well

    Does he, in fact, live up to his name? Find out what makes Tom Krell’s aesthetic tic.
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life

  1. LEO ROMERO

    Canada’s border services agency runs a tight ship. And while it does provide a certain comfort for those lucky enough to call it...
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  2. Behind The Scars

    Ever wondered what the story is behind Keegan Sauder, Bobby Worrest, Dustin Dollin, Ryan Smith, and Nick Trapasso’s tattoos? Skateboarders...
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  3. COPENHAGEN

    Denmark
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  4. Nestor Judkins

    Being a man of style and travel, Mr. Judkins has always had to keep many things in mind when out skating on trips in Paris with Adidas...
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fashion

  1. DREAMS CATCHER

    A collection of photos presented in a most accessible way make up this issue’s fashion story. dreamscatcher.colormagazine.ca
    ...

Editor's Letter

It looks good not to care. That’s probably why the style of skateboarders is one most mimicked and talked about. There’s not a lot of room to think about much else when you’re practicing one of—if not the—most challenging things ever. This isn’t one of those self-important rants about how we as skaters can do no wrong and are due credited for everything right in the world. We’re not all totally innocent, that’s for sure, I mean come on, even rappers aren’t wearing those ridiculously oversized pants anymore. The very reason some skaters even consider how they’re dressing today is due to the 90s and the horrible mistakes made then. But if it wasn’t for the negative attention, perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are today.

This is a skateboard magazine in the two thousand tens. We’re comfortable with the fact that skateboarding is neither sport nor art. That in its purest form it’s an activity that spawns a way of life entirely different and okay, better than of those who don’t. We took the style of rock & roll, did away with the flair (after much deliberation) and made it functional. But we’re a diverse bunch with no need for uniforms (other than a good flannel and beanie of course). Just as fashion looks to places like Great Britain, France, and Italy, skateboarding will continue to look at the United States as its benchmark. So when

an American skater says to another skater, “You look Canadian,” and doesn’t mean it as a compliment, alarms begin to sound.

The last time I saw skateboard photographer Allen Ying, he told me he was on a new tip of trying not to fall back on wearing black all the time, adding that it’s too safe and obvious. Meanwhile, I was totally wearing black, but that’s New Yorkers for you—they tell it like it is. It must have been interesting to say the least for Ying to tour around a van full of Canadians as they finished up their filming for the much anticipated video entitled Elephant Direct.

But let’s face it, you know exactly what you’re doing when you get dressed in the morning. Call it fashion sense, good style, or OCD, but there’s certainly some thought put into those kits that get paraded around the skate park. We’re not in logo land anymore and thank goodness for that! So keep working on that “I don’t give a fuck” look you’re going for, but don’t be afraid to reach outside yourself, just as we did for this issue, and listen to what the fashion world is saying for a change. And don’t worry, the last thing anyone wants to do is distract from what’s really important, and this issue has got a lot of it. Heavily considered, manicured, refined, and freshly pressed.

Skateboarding.

—Sandro Grison
co-founder/creative director