The Tim Sedo interview:

Word on the street is that you’re a doctor and heavily involved in academia. Can you explain your history in academia and where you are now?

Word on the street is right. I started my undergraduate studies in 1996 and 15 years later, I somehow ended up having a PhD in Chinese history. It’s been a great ride and I have met a lot of incredible people along the way. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of Chinese History at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, where I focus on the environmental history of late imperial China along with the history of youth culture and creative industries in post-Mao China. I decided to switch it up however, and will be moving to Hong Kong in early 2016 to pursue a new career The North Face, where I will serve as their Asia Pacific Marketing Manager. Huge changes. Super excited.

Where did/does skateboarding fit into your life?

Skateboarding has made me the person that I am today. I started skating in 1985 and haven’t looked back since. I’m getting older now and am starting to suck, but I’ve learned to adjust my expectations and to just enjoy a mellow mini-ramp session with rad friends and cold beers. Nothing beats it! It’s harder to get out and skate now with my work and travel schedule, but I still try to have a good old man session at least twice a week. It’s an important part of my week not just for the skating itself, but also for touching base with all the dudes.

Most kids and teenagers wouldn’t choose Chinese to start learning as a language. What drew you into learning the language, culture and history?

People ask me all the time why I started studying Chinese history and language and I really don’t have a good answer for this question. All I can say is that it just sort of happened. I had a really inspiring Chinese history professor in my first year of University who sort of got the ball rolling. I then went on an academic exchange to Taiwan in 1999 and this experience sealed the deal. Rad people, amazing food, beautiful scenery – I was hooked. A few years later I went to Mainland China for the first time and fell in place with the local skate scene. Over the years, we all kind of grew up together and the generosity that all of these dudes have shown me over the years has meant a lot to me.   Languages never came easy for me, but Mandarin just sort of clicked. Learning the language on a skateboard with locals helped a lot in this regard. On the other side of things, during my graduate school years I was also surrounded by an amazing group of colleagues and mentors. They helped to nurture and sustain my more academic interest in China and the Chinese language. I’ve been super lucky to have this dual skate and academic life in China. I think I might be the only one.

The whole concept of this collaboration highlighting traditional Chinese street culture is awesome, how did this Vans x FLY collaboration come about?

My long time friend and collaborator, Jeff Han from Fly Streetwear mentioned the idea to me and asked if I wanted to have a crack at it. I am currently finishing a monograph about the history of locust infestations and locust culture in Chinese history and knew a good amount about bugs and historical entomology in Chinese culture; so it was a natural fit. I’m kind of a nerd and just went back to the archival sources to find the roots of cricket fighting culture in Chinese history along with the major accompanying texts. Once I worked out the conceptual direction for the project, I asked my friend Yanick Nolet, to help flush out the design concept. I think we came up with something pretty cool and unique in the end. Once I worked out the conceptual direction for the project, I asked my friend Yanick Nolet, to help flush out the design concept. I think we came up with something pretty cool and unique in the end. It’s always a pleasure collaborating with Yanick, and his design work really helped elevate this concept, especially the cricket-grass camo pattern. Super talented dude full of good ideas. Don’t sleep – www.noly.ca.

What’s the cultural history of cricket fighting in China?

While crickets appear in some of China’s earliest historical records, cricket fighting only started in the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD). Raising and fighting crickets started as an elite pastime of emperors and the literati, but soon filtered down to the masses. By the end of the 12^th century, cricket fighting was a common part of the urban landscape. Crowds in every city and town gathered to watch prized crickets fight and often placed bets on the outcomes. It was a loud and noisy affair. A whole material culture emerged around cricket fighting including: manuals describing how to best raise and fight crickets; new types of foods to raise stronger crickets; boxes and tubes to house prize fighters; and basins to fight crickets in. Cricket fighting happened outside on the streets and is an early and lasting form of “street culture” in Chinese history. People still fight crickets to this day and most Chinese cities have markets devoted to selling crickets and cricket paraphernalia. However, with the dramatic transformation of China’s cities in recent years, many of these markets have been destroyed to make way for new developments. Cricket fighting in China is a dying art.

Companies tend to alter a shoe’s original design and concept, which characteristics of the shoe did you insist were essential?

Designing shoes is always a process. Aim high and see what happens. Working with Vans Syndicate was pretty amazing and they were on board with most of our ideas from the jump start. A few things were altered here and there, but I am very happy with the final product. The few design elements that I absolutely insisted on however, were: the round leather lace on the authentic to mimic cricket’s antennae, and the chop seal logo on the bottom of the slip-on to tie in with the characteristic marks found on the bottom on cricket fighting basins. There were some initial worries about how the clear sole would yellow over time, but the discoloration actually works better with the historical concept of the shoe.

How did you get into designing, and who are some designers outside of the skateboarding realm that you take inspiration from?

To be honest, I would never call myself a “designer”. I have some good ideas and work well with more talented people than myself to help realize them. Perhaps the various shoe projects that I have been involved with over the years are a bit over-designed, but I honestly think there is no point of making just another collaboration shoe if there is no story or concept behind it. Anybody can change a color-way, so when given the latitude by companies like Syndicate, why not go nuts. The result might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but at least the final product has a story and stands out. I am a very collaborative worker and draw my inspiration from all the incredibly talented artists, designers, illustrators, photographers, filmers, and writers that I am proud to call my friends. I am just a glorified middleman, but am happy to play that role.

Who would you like to collaborate with the most?

I’d like to do more photo-based collaborations in the future. I’ve been a long time fan of Anthony Acosta’s work and think it would be fun to work on something with him in the future. Toronto based creative, Allister Lee (ALIST / STUDIO BIB) also consistently amazes me with his more gritty marker work. I’d love to mash up some strong photographic imagery with rougher text/font work reminiscent of the 90s golden era of the east coast skate companies like Zoo York, First Division, Illuminati and Rookie. This is still my favorite era in skate design.

What other products have you designed or contributed to that a lot of skaters may not know of?

I’ve had my fingers in a lot of different China related skate projects ranging from decks to shoes to apparel to videos and ads. Perhaps the most well known project that I have worked on was the Fly Milk Blazer that was released in 2007 in honor of China’s skate milkman, Jeff Han. This shoe came out right at the apex of the sneaker craze and was the collaborative efforts of Matt Irving (now at Juice Design), Runyo Chen (Nike China), and myself (History/Skate Nerd). I sort of miss the sneaker craze of the early 2000s; lots of latitude to do wild and conceptual projects. I also helped curate the Adidas Skate Hype events back in the day. The second one in 2008 was really a highpoint in my involvement in the skate industry and all the dudes that we invited out to the event still talk about it to this day.

What’s the plan for the future? Any more projects or collaborations we can expect from you soon?

Currently wrapping up the second season of FLY/SW apparel and then I will dive head first into my new position at The North Face Asia in Hong Kong. We have lots of new projects bubbling up and I can’t wait to bring some of my skate and streetwear background to this already amazing brand. Stay tuned…

Interview: Edan Qian

Photo: Jing

Thanks to Vans China, FLY streetwear and Edan Qian

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The Jeff Han interview:

The Nike SB “Milk” Blazer was dedicated to you; can you explain your story of working as a milkman and then starting China’s first skateshop, FLY?

Well, my earliest line of work was manufacturing airplanes. I would learn how to put together airplane engines. My formal education is low, after graduating middle school I never went to high school. Instead, I went and directly learned how to engineer, like making computer parts and other industrial abrasives for airplanes. Eventually it got boring. After about a year working at the airplane manufacturing company, I didn’t have interest anymore. Every day I would climb over the factory’s walls and go out to skate and make it back before work was over to punch in. So for a whole year it was like that; I would go to work in the morning and finish everything in an hour, and then sneak away to go skate. After a while I realized this couldn’t continue and that I was wasting time. So then I got a job at one of Shanghai’s biggest milk companies. I think that a lot of people thought that I personally sold milk, for the record, I was never a door-to-door kind of milkman; I was just working at the sales department of the milk company. So shit, actually…I guess you could say I sold milk. However, everyday I wore a black suit with a black tie to work. Cause you know, you had to act professional; I had to go talk to a lot of huge supermarkets and see if they would distribute our milk. Every day at work I would do this, and then fill out order forms and customer paperwork; there would be actual milkmen to send the milk there, but I was just in charge of the sales. Looking back, working at the milk company helped me a lot; before working there, you could say I was a pretty shy person, someone who didn’t talk a lot and kind of just lived in his own world, which revolved around skateboarding. But the position at the milk company forced me to break out of that shell; I had to go and talk to a bunch of people that were completely different than me. Later in 2007, Nike SB and Matt Irving helped design the Milk Blazer as a tribute to my time spent working at the milk company which I was really thankful of. Altogether, I worked at the milk company for about 3 years. But then I wanted to start a skateshop. I think my desire to start a skateshop was a result of me just wanting to be able to skate more—when I worked at the milk company, I had absolutely no time to go out and skate. Honestly, I had no idea whether or not it would make money, I just wanted an excuse to go out and skate more. The story of how I got started is interesting—I remember a friend of mine brought me to Guangzhou, where I found a bunch of extremely cheap skate shoes straight from the factory. And so I brought a bunch back to Shanghai and just sold them to friends in the skate scene. It sold out fast, so I thought, maybe opening a skateshop could work out, plus I’d get to skate every day. So I started FLY skateshop in 1999. Those times weren’t easy. I would take a 27-hour disgusting train with no AC packed with Chinese farmers to Guangzhou. I’d bring a huge over the shoulder bag and pack it with shoes directly from the factory—I was foolish back then, I didn’t know that you could just ship them up to Shanghai, so instead I brought them back myself. I remember that was around the end of ’99, close to the Chinese New Year, and I brought it back to the Shanghai store to sell to the public. I brought back Duffs, Axion, NSS, Airwalks, Vans, and DVS, sold them for super cheap, probably around 280 to 300 kuai (40-50 dollars), and they sold out fast.

How is the skateboarding scene different now, from when you started?

Hmm…that feeling I had when I first started skating…actually, I think I originally started skating cause I thought it would attract the ladies, yes, I remember and I admit it. I actually think if you ask a majority of the skaters why they started skating, it probably has something to do with picking up girls. However as you skate more and more, you find that the most interesting thing about skating lies within the process of starting from “can’t” and accomplishing “can”. This is what makes us different than animals. Animals fuck and eat, fuck, and then eat, that’s what’s most important to them. For humans, fucking and eating are important, but so is creating something, and the process of creating something out of nothing is truly addictive. Back then, we were all pretty inexperienced, but skated out of raw passion; there were probably only 30 skaters altogether in Shanghai. When we all skated together it was good times only, we never had any dreams of becoming pro skaters. The happiest times skating was after learning a hard trick for so long and being able to do it in front of them, and the friends showing their support with high fives and cheering. I mean, it was almost kind of gay; a bunch of shirtless dudes hanging around each other hugging and high fiving after a skater landed a trick… but even so, these times were truly the happiest just because of that raw passion. Nowadays in China, skateboarding has developed pretty fast over the years and the pro skaters now don’t skate as much with raw passion as before. Money certainly plays a factor in this as well. So from my eyes, I feel like that’s the biggest difference.

What do you think is the most important thing in running a successful skate company in China?

Whether or not a skateboard company is successful is entirely subjective. Truthfully, skate companies don’t make much money. From the perspective of profit, you couldn’t really call it a successful company. What I think makes a successful company is when a company can financially support a bunch of workers who share the same passion and mentality towards skateboarding—like a family. I don’t think you can judge whether a skate company is successful just based on profit. Instead, it’s more of the ability to bond people together.

What direction do you think skateboarding in China will go in the next ten years?

Skateboarding itself is very global. No matter where you go in the world, skaters will have similar outlooks, methodologies and customs. So in the next ten years, China will also bride closer to western skateboarding’s trends, whichever direction skateboarding takes itself, China’s scene will follow. But to elaborate more, I think it will be more corporate. A lot of skateboarding’s original pleasures may slowly disappear, but this is unstoppable, it’s still progression. Skateboarding itself may become more of a commercial sport, but I still hope the core of skateboarding will remain.

 I know that all the designs are hand drawn by you, but did you ever take art design lessons or classes?

I’ve actually never taken design classes or had any formal instruction. I started pretty early, mainly because I wanted to learn how to design my own t-shirts and skateboards. When I started, I used CorelDRAW, which was way before Illustrator. The way I learned how to use the software was silly, everything learnt was either from online or friends. I would just call a friend up and ask them how to fix the resolution or edit a graphic; and then I would write it down step-by-step in a little notebook that I still have and use now. Everything I learned was self-taught, from editing videos on iMovie then onto Premiere, to making designs and logos on Illustrator. And it doesn’t stop, I’m still learning to this day. Truthfully I’ve used a Mac ever since I started, not because I had money, but because I thought the PC was way too hard to learn and use. When I first saw people typing away on the keyboard I knew I wanted to be able to type as fast and literate as them. When I started, I didn’t know how to use anything, keyboard included, everything was self-taught.

Which companies do you draw inspiration from?

Truthfully there isn’t one company I especially like. That’s because I watch, follow and take from everything. However, there’s no doubt skateboarding culture has had the largest influence on me. This generation now is the most globalized yet, there is so much information to see and learn on the Internet, Facebook, and instagram, despite needing a VPN in China to access it. As for drawing inspiration from design, I like everyand all kinds, not just skateboarding related. It’s kind of like music. When I first started skating, I remember all I listened to in 1999 was hip-hop. That was stupid of me. Now I realize, as long as the music is good, I should embrace it. No matter if it is jazz, punk or rock, you should embrace it all and not just blindly follow one type of music. Design is the same. I also take a lot of inspiration from architectural, industrial, technological and interior design as well, since that was what I learned before anything.

Many US skate and fashion brands are extremely successful in China; do you think a Chinese brand could be successful in America?

I would hope so, but I know it will be difficult. First off skateboarding itself is a western creation, an American creation. It’s like an exotic import in China, so to have a Chinese skate company become well known and liked internationally, would be more difficult. You could think of it in terms of Chinese martial arts. If a foreigner came to China to practice and teach martial arts it would be extremely difficult. But I still hope and think that it is possible. I think it would take the Chinese company to have a pretty Chinese cultural style, something different to bring to the table. It’s a matter of bridging Chinese culture with western culture; if it’s done correctly, there’s hope for a company to be successful in the US.

What other collaborations have you done, and which companies would you like to collaborate with in the future?

We’ve done a lot of projects with many different companies. With Nike, we had the SB Milk Blazer, the Beijing SB dunk, the Chinese New Year SB Dunk, a Nike SB barbershop dunk, and a bruin collab. With Vans, we’ve released the Rabbit Era’s, and the most recent two different pairs of the Cricket Syndicate pack, altogether 3. We’ve also collaborated with Jansport to make a skateboarding backpack, as well as the Japanese street fashion company Kistoyo, whom we’ve done a shirt and board collaboration with. I’m always looking to do collaborations with larger companies. We’ve also gotten graphic design work done by designers such as Stussy designer Allister Lee, RVCA’s and Heroin Skateboards contributor Andrew Pommier, and also Yanick Nolet who did some of Girl Skateboard’s designs. In the future, I haven’t actually thought about it, but would definitely like to link up with skate companies such as Girl since they have a lot of energy and also have a strong family vibe.

What can we expect from FLY soon?

We have a lot of advertisements already filmed and edited that will slowly come out but is a secret for now. As for products, we have new beanies, coach jackets, lighters, and skateboards all recently released in our winter look book. The hope is that next year we will hit it off and release more and more products, and that people all around the world are down to support a Chinese OG skate company.

Interview: Edan Qian

Photo: Jing

Part 2 coming soon (with detailed pictures of the Vans x FLY models)

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