By Summer Xia, Lisa Li

Although a very small community in China, Skaters have been among the coolest in the eyes of Chinese youth. China Youthology is keen to understand 1) the status quo of SB community in China, and 2) the meanings of SB culture to a much wider group of the young fans/ followers of SB culture or broaderly street culture. Before CNY, we interviewed Jeff in a Japanese noodle shop across the street of the first FLY store on Chang Le road, Shanghai. During the interview, he talked about:

• The current SB scene in China; drivers and barriers of growth of the local SB community/ culture
• Prospect of the local SB culture
• Characteristics of local SB culture as compared with the west or with Japan
• Brands that the local SB community heart and why

Jeff Han (Han Minjie), Shanghai SB stockist ‘Fly Streetwear’ honcho.
He and his FLY Skateboard Shop has been one of the focal points in the development of China’s domestic skate scene for the past decades.

Jeff worked for a SH milk company 20 years ago. In 1999, he quit his job and founded FLY, the first Shanghai SB stockist. Now it’s one of the best in China and the only authorized distributor of Nike SB in China mainland. Fly has just opened a store in Beijing as well.
More than just running a store, Jeff and his Fly are also leading Gift Skateboards (a company which releases SB products and cultivates professional skaters), Cart Wheels (board brand), Skatehere.com (the largest online platform for SB players) and Union the net shop.
Besides, Jeff is a first-class SB player himself. Nike launched a limited edition sneaker called ‘NIKE SB Fly Milk Blazer’ as ‘a ‘hats off’ to Jeff for consistently delivering the freshness to China’s skate scene’

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: We ran into some really trendy looking young boys shopping in FLY just now. Are they real SB players or street fashion lovers?

JEFF HAN: Currently about 30% of our consumers are real skaters while the rest are street fashion or sneaker lovers. A few years ago, skater only accounted about 10% of our consumers; most of the buyers don’t ever play SB.

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: This is an interesting change in China SB market… what are the other changes in the market according to your observation?

JEFF HAN: A decade ago, one piece of board cost RMB700 – 800 on average. Now it’s a lot cheaper. With RMB280, you can have a nice board. Affordability is no longer a big barrier. On the other hand, street culture and the sport itself are becoming more and more popular in China, more and more youth are involved in the SB community.

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Can you estimate how big the China SB community is?

JEFF HAN: Uh… I think there’re about 40k to 50k active skaters around China now. And I believe there would be a steady but slow growth in the coming years.

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Can you talk about the driving force and barriers of development or growth of Chinese SB community?

JEFF HAN: Big brands and mainstream media have been the main driving forces. Big SB brands did a lot of marketing activities in China market to sell their SB products. Brands (both SB and non-SB brands) have hosted events on street culture and SB as well. What’s more, the self-expression and boldness in street culture fits well with the value of Chinese youth of today…

Speaking of the barriers, we need to talk about the difference between China and other countries first.
In US, SB culture is deeply rooted in street culture and well connected with urban youth lifestyle and values. SB culture is more than sports, it is also fashion, music and other cool stuff. SB started to be one of the biggest sports/activities among US teens in US when parents were too busy to take kids to any team activities, and kids have to choose sports that they can enjoy on their own. SB has become a choice for self-expression, individualism and adventure-seeking. At the same time, SB is highly related with underground culture… Skaters are usually associated with rebellious values, indulgence… For example, in the classic movies of US SB culture(such as <Ken Park>, <Kids>), a lot of dark side of the urban scenes about sex, drugs, and suicide were captured.

China has no heritage of street culture. There is little public space for the youth to play freely. And the perception of SB as being too ‘underground’ (rebellious, individual, dangerous) has been a big barrier for the development of the sports in China.

In the recent years, the ‘image’ of SB starts to be more ‘healthy’, ‘sunny’ and ‘stylish’. As a matter of fact, SB culture in Japan is largely different from the west. Japanese skaters hardly ware as baggy, ‘dirty’ and ‘washed’ as US skaters. They prefer a look and style that is neater, sunny, and premium…

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Is there any geographic difference in China?

JEFF HAN: Let’s take a look at Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The skaters and even the street cultures are quite different in these three cities.
Shanghai and Beijing youth are sophisticated, they understand brands well. Take the FLY stores in SH and BJ as an example, sales clerk hardly talk a lot with the consumers, sometimes they know more than the salespersons. There’re more foreign youth in SH, this is good to SH street culture. SH skaters get to learn more from these foreign friends. That’s a lot more and updated information than those you can find from the Internet. Speaking of Guangzhou…there’s another kind of street culture there. SB players are not cool at all in my opinion; they ware dirty clothes of counterfeited brands and use low-quality boards. SB market there is profit-oriented which is not healthy for culture development. Situations are quite the same in tier 2 and smaller cities: street culture is not well developed and the market potential for high price products is currently limited.

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Now let’s talk about brands… what brands are most loved by the Chinese SB community?

JEFF HAN: Vans is the No.1, followed by Nike SB, DC. Adidas is the new comer in China. I still remember that on the first opening day of Vans at Fly, we sold RMB50, 000 of Vans. As a matter of fact, before Vans’ official launch in China, it was already superbly popular in Beijing. Converse was replaced by Vans as the symbol of cool. Nike successfully launched some limited editions that are more expensive…

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Which SB brand do you think is most successful in their marketing in China?

JEFF HAN: I am more familiar with the stories of Nike.
In skaters’ share of mind, Nike was not a SB brand although a big sports brand several years ago. However they achieved great success in China, and most Chinese skaters recognize Nike SB as a skater brand now.
In my opinion, the key of success is that they hire genuine skaters who are worth admiring as marketing people and they cleverly and closely cooperate with local communities.
My cooperation with Nike is a good example. If Nike just sent some ordinary salesman to me instead of some genuine SB players, we would never be well connected. I had great communication with those skater marketing people and we could really understand each other… Then there was the ‘NIKE SB Fly Milk Blazer’ and the distribution authorization of Nike SB to FLY. And recently, Nike SB x FLY x Triumvir Dunk Mid “Beijing”, the brand new sneaker co-created by Nike, Fly and Triumvir, is about to launch in FLY Beijing. Welcome to the launch party!

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Thanks for your invitation. We’d be happy to attend the launch party…As an active advocator of SB and street culture in China, how do you see the future of SB in China?

JEFF HAN: The game of SB is good for commercialization. The spirit of bold self-expression and individuality shall be inherited and enhanced while a healthier image would better fit into Chinese culture. Not all skaters do drug abuse. Plus I think the SB culture in China shall be premium and stylish, young and handsome skaters in neat and decent garments making stunning moves in the sunshine. I can imagine girls screaming with his every move…

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Can you talk about your personal plans on SB enterprise?

JEFF HAN: Definitely. I have found my own way of advocating SB in China through all these years.
I founded the professional skater team several years ago and succeeded on bringing up the best skaters in China. It takes about 6 to 7 years to train a top skater. When I met them, they were about 14, very naughty boys and quitted school after primary school; some of them were in single parent family… Now most of them are signed up by big brands with a salary of RMB 5k – 10k per month and they get to skate for a living. It’s a dream come true.
A larger number of professional skaters with really perfect moves are the key to healthy SB culture. There’re too few of them now. I was there in the recent game hold by Anta; there were barely any girls watching…

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: Girls again?

JEFF HAN: Yes, girl fans are an important motivator.
In my opinion, the core of the SB community is made up of the professional skaters. A very important part in community is made up of great number of followers or SB culture lovers. Then could there be proper expanding and developing of culture including music and dancing, movies and other forms of arts.

CHINA YOUTHOLOGY: That’s great. Any other plans?

JEFF HAN: I am dreaming of shooting a decent movie on skaters someday.
I believe this movie will make great impact on the growth of SB culture in China if it is well commercialized to reach enough audience… Most of the current skaters in China have been influenced by western movies, actually most of the earliest skaters in China learned SB after watching <Gleaming The Cube> .

My movie should be about true and touching story in Chinese SB community. A movie about how the Chinese skaters look at life and world… The existing successful SB movies are mostly stories of other cultures and are mostly illustrating the dazzling moves, but these movies are really underground, not the right tone for current China. I am collecting the right story for my movie and looking for a talented scriptwriter. This scriptwriter should live and play with us skaters for some months before he or she can really understand the community and culture.

Do you have any recommendation for the scriptwriter, seriously?

(End of Interview)

Links (mostly in Chinese though):

• Skatehere.com - could be called the No.1 site in Chinese SB community
• The People’s Skateboards － local SB brand with designs featuring a very unique style combining Chinese and Western characteristics
• <Skate or Die> - (in English) something about Shanghai skaters
• Skateboarding with Chinese characteristics - (in English) an overview of SB development in China
• Chinaskateboards.cn
• SB group in DOUBAN - the largest SB/skater group in Douban.com

Filed under: So What?, Sports, Chinese SB community, Fly, Fly Streetwear, Han Minjie, interview, Jeff Han, Lisa Li, Nike SB, Nike SB Fly Milk Blazer, skateboarding, Summer Xia, Vans