I turned pro for World! And it was an honor skating for them. And the fact of how much skateboard history they have, is amazing! Being able to grow up in the era of the old world days and to ride for them all them years later. Good times!
Ronson ! I was a skate rat growing up . Your part in the "- forecast " changed My child hood . Also your part in "time to shine " I'm 30 years old an don't skate any more but you gave me the best memories of my life watching your parts an go skating for hours . Your a legend in my eyes. I cam garentee iv spent atleast 40 hours watching your parts younger
@Corey Gonzo It better be . I just told my entire family an friends that me and him had a conversation. Everybody thinks I'm friends with a professional skateboarder so this better be his acount fuck
"Steve Rocco is credited with inventing the frontside pop shuvit, and has had a number of death threats over the years." What a fucking rollercoaster of information!
I remember back in elementary, around '01, every kid was wearing World Industries gear. I always wanted something, but tbh my parents couldn’t afford it. Eventually my dad, not knowing, bought me a bootleg hoodie with the Flame Boy and Wet Willy “yingyang” logo in front. Rocked that almost every fucking day throughout 3rd grade. In retrospect, love my dad for doing what he could back then to see me happy. Great video, made me reminisce some great days!
Dude, skateboarding clothes were and still are expensive. To be fair, nowadays the clothes are at least pretty good quality, especially brands like Volcom.
I never skated world, but I had a lot of their clothing and had an obsession with drawing Flameboy and Wet Willy all over my notebooks in school. Their brand was so damn iconic at the time! This channel has been making me nostalgic for my middle school/HS days. Thank you for covering these topics!
lmao i did the same, I skated alot of Black Label and suffled brands alot but actually never owned a World, yet you find doodles of the their graphics all over my stuff.
Fuck yeah dude. Thumbnail triggered me to fuck. Literally did the same thing, was obsessed. Had them as finger skates, the rubber characters, shirts, pants. Only thing i didn't have as far as i knew was the board since i already had a few haha. Was hoping to fuck my board up and then have a reason to get one, but i take pride in things i own. So that never happened. Wondered what happened to the brand.
as a 90s kid, world industries, darkstar, and blind were my favorite companies growing up skating. looking forward to deep diving back into the past with this video!
My first pro deck was a world industries. We were not a family with money but on Christmas my mom made it happen. She didn’t know anything about sizes so it was a 9 and I was a 10 year old girl but I learned to ollie on that heavy @ss board and I was so proud to ride it every single day. The memories are priceless. Thanks mom! ❤️🔥
bro exact same shit, I had this 8.5" i was 10, checker devil, slugging round that heavy ass board, having to use so much effort just to get that shit off the ground. Loved it so much though
I’ll never forget going to my local skate shop for the very first time when I was 8, and the shop owner giving me and my brother two jumbo world stickers of the ice and fire flame dudes, such an influential company back in the day. Man I miss the early 2000’s :(
I did my internship for World Industries under Mark Mckee in 2000ish. It was when they moved from Huntington to Redondo. It was surreal working there and being a part of the culture I had spend my teens in. Still, 20 some years later, I've never been in a more rad art room.
My first non Walmart board was a world industries, way back in 02. When I bought tech decks I bought world. This company will always have a spot in my heart
Same bro, started out with a toys r us board and then my first legit setup a world deck, grind king trucks, spitfire wheels and speed demon bearings. I remember my first reactions was enjoying how smooth and fast the ride was after skating a toys r us board for so long
this brings me back to the mid 90's, a lifetime ago. There was nothing like getting a new deck or even a whole new board and getting home and putting it together and that first skate on it. Getting home from school and seeing the new ccs catalog in the mail. I miss those days.
Could never skate but was obsessed with those characters for awhile. Got a bunch of little toys and all. And didn't know this history. Thanks for the vid.
Having worked at World/Dwindle Dist. in 97/98 I can confirm this is an accurate story, however there's much more to the story and you could make 10 videos like this about the various phases of the brand. The team was fantastic, including Steve, Scott and Franck. Anyhow, great video, keep them coming.
Jerome do you have any idea what happened to Mike Smith and Liberty boards? Smith was a friend of a friend and really hooked me up back in the day, I even got to go Rocco's house when Rodney lived with him and got hooked up with a couple boards and stickers. it was real ego booster meeting the cool older dudes. I gifted most the stuff away over the years but still have a old madrid smith duck board he rode in contest possibly the one in the acid drop photo
@@damionmarkham9835 liberty had gone belly up years before. So unfortunately I can’t help you with that. You could however ask Marc McKee (he’s on FB) as he drew the Liberty logos and graphics. Take care.
The devilman and wet willy boards really hits the nostalgia hard. It truly was lightning in a bottle with everything from the time in which skateboarding was getting really popular and alot of attention.
I remember seeing world industries decks and gear being sold at Big 5 sporting goods around 2005 and thinking yeah this company has definitely died and now feels lame. However they really were big in the 90’s and 2000, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a kid wearing a wet Willy or flame boy tshirt with cargo pants lol
It was the same in Canada but I remember seeing their boards at Canadian Tire, an automotive/sporting goods store. I knew they had gone way down hill. They were still better than the regular box store boards but not by much.
Same here in Vegas. I remember loving them, a couple of my first early pro decks were World Industries boards. & had only ever seen them being sold at skate shops at first..then seen them being sold inside Dicks Sporting goods, in a section of the store that they set up to look like mini skate shop!..I remember initially getting excited seeing them, bc it had become a rare occurrence to find them in skate shops. There were A LOT of them too & I remember thinking “yooo, it’s gunna be hard picking one!”bc there were sooo many of them. Then I picked one up, & was thoroughly confused..it felt NOTHING like an ACTUAL pro board & came with shitty grip tape already on it ..thinking I must have grabbed a dud, I picked up a couple more & that’s when I realized the company was no longer what it had been before. The boards felt like Walmart boards :( just shaped a little better..then got curious of the parts they were selling separately (trucks/wheels/etc) & realized that they were barely a step above Walmart quality as well. I would always go back inside dicks in hopes that they would start selling LEGIT boards/parts, just to get even more disappointed as they had eventually removed the entire “skate shop” from the store & started only selling complete boards. Who’s quality only seemed to be getting shitier🙁RIP World Industries.
I remember being in third grade and sitting with my friend drawing flame boy and wet Willie. We would sneak thrasher and Big brother magazines in and just stare at the boards learning how to draw the characters. We even came up with our own characters marshmallow boy and peanut boy and made comics. Man the nostalgia. Lol
“Steve Rocco is credited with inventing the frontside pop shove it, and has had a number of death threats over the years.” I mean they’re not the steeziest trick but damn, chill guys
Cool video. I used to skate back around 86-99. It was fun learning what happened to World Industries. It would be interesting to see similar videos with the stories of the other popular skate brands from the 90s (Hook-ups, Creature, Alien Workshop, etc.).
@Nedd Flanders I follow Nate on his other channel and I thought it would be cool to support his new endeavor which I genuinely like, I hope other people aren't as cruel to you as you are to them. Have a great day!
Thanks so much for this incredible video! World industries was a huge part of my childhood. I was so inspired by Rodney Mullen and Steve Rocco when I was little. Devil man, flame boy and wet willy were literally scribbled everywhere. Tech decks & tech deck dudes were the only toys I couldn't part with when I sold my old stuff! Good memories
I was in that target demographic when they made those characters. I remember wanting one of those boards so badly. I never did get one, but always had their stickers and drew them in my notebooks at school. Skateboarding was a big part of my childhood all the way through highschool. I look back at all these names and brands very fondly. Thank you for the recap of an interesting slice of history
World Industries always had a place in the skateboard world. From their release until recently Its become obscure. Its crazy to think how many brands were influential to skaters, but also to non-skaters as well. Art & the expression of it in the skateboard world is something truly special. Very thankful to have been apart of it growing up.
I was a bmxer growing up and I loved world industries clothing it was sick as fuck and my skate buddies had the decks I never got into skateboarding could never figure out how to Ollie LOL
My mom passed away in 2020, and when I cleaned out my childhood room at her house, I found an inflatable toy of the flame droplet. It doesn’t have any holes or anything. I’m stoked I found it.
If y’all want vids on skate companies, well... then y’all are my dream audience. I’ll definitely still cover a range of companies, but I’m gonna do lots of skate companies and skate-adjacent stuff as well.
I don’t know anything about skating or any of the culture surrounding it but you my dude do a great job covering it and make it super interesting for someone who doesn’t know anything about it keep up the good work love the content!
I'm 34 and when I was a teen if you had a Birdhouse Falcon board (any kind) or a World deck, you were somebody. Their graphics were, and still to this day, some killer designs that have not been transcended. The stuff was so hard to find and so premium and expensive back then, here in Australia at least. Then randomly at some point a few years later, it was available at K-Mart for cheap as chips and the quality dropped massively. I'd assume that's when the corporates came in. But it became a kind of lame brand to be rocking considering you didn't even need to go to a skate shop to buy it, AND being in K-Mart for cheap, you'd have all manner of kids wearing it who weren't even skaters at all or didn't know what it represented. It'll never be back, but we can remember the glory days. Like most of these old companies - they should consider reprinting their classic designs on new quality boards, as people like me would certainly buy them - mostly just to hang as wall art.
Im a 41 year old Aussie who was only able to get a World deck (The famous Uncle Sam one) When my Dad took me and my sister to the States in the very early 90s and I bought it in a Santa Monica Skate Shop You couldnt get World ANYTHING in Australia back then and I felt like I was the King of the Skate Park with that deck as we'd only ever seen World Industries in Thrasher, TransWorld or in 411VM on VHS, I was the ONLY one with a World deck wherever I went. I remeber MANY years later walking into Big W and seeing World shirts there and shacking my head at how lame it had become
I’m 33. My first deck was World Industries Foolio. And now as my wall art, I’ve bought a Falcon 3 and Muska Red Silhouette. Those two decks basically sum up skate culture during the glory days of THPS1
in the early 2000's I got my first board, a world industries board. Started drawing their logos too, my buddies and I went to school and shared our drawings. Was so much fun haha
Amazing documentary. Being a big GIRL fan in my skate days, I didn't know most of that team came from World Industries. I think, if you grew up in the 90's, World Industries has always seemed like a 'Wal-Mart' brand, but their roots show proof they were actually counterculture. Makes you think... Thanks for the brain food. And great filmmaking.
Watch photosynthesis by Alien workshop and habitat, video is a staple in street skating OG love park clips for days and rob dyrdek before he got corny that and baker 3 are must for any skater old or new
I remember in the early 2000s my older brother loving World Industries from their clothes to the tech deck models. They had such a stronghold on the skating community.
I was obsessed with World Industries as a kid, my first board when I was 7 was a WI board 20yrs later and they completely slipped my mind Thank you for reminding me and doing such a deep dive into the company ❤️
I've been skating for nearly 17 years and didn't know all this. I remember in the 2000s World and Blind were everywhere and dominated the local shop deck wall. It's honestly super rad Rocco was able to do what he set out to even if the company didn't last past his hand off. World def died off for me when they started popping up in walmart. Sad to say the same seems to be happening with (or has already happened in recent years) with DarkStar. That's business tho I suppose! Side note, loving the video essay movement over to this channel Nate. Really dig the authenticity and personal feel of the car vlogs but the way you explain things in these videos is amazing (and obv past vid essays on mate). Really hope you are enjoying doing both channels! 🙏💞 Sorry for the long ass comments!
I think I started skating somewhere around 2006/7 and my first (non-generic Walmart) board was a blind complete. Man, I loved that thing. The trucks even had the little blind dude under the axle. At that time though, Blind was still everywhere but World had already fallen off in scene I was in. I had one world board when I was 14 and still remember it being a terrible board. Granted, the dude I got it from was sketchy to say the least so it was probably one of their walmart runs.
This really took me back to my childhood. Currently I have an old world industry’s deck as a swing in my yard and was thinking about some of this the other day. Great video
My first board was a flameboy deck. That thing got me into skating, sadly I moved onto Alien Workshop and mained them until my accident. What a time it was to be 8 years old in 98 and skating after school the homies.
Crazy, World was my favorite brand as a kid. I loved the graphics and now seeing that Rodney Mullen (my favorite skater) and Mike Valley just a complete badass were part of the making of World is sick. I remember when we played tech decks i'd trade everyone for their World decks. They were basically the only ones I had in my collection, still have like 15+ of them somewhere.
Definitely brought back some memories. The point where I realized World was done was when their branded merch started appearing in Wal-Mart. The scene was changing a bit in general though, skaters were going more hip-hop instead of the skater-punk that dominated the previous era.
As a skater through the 90’s and early 00’s, I remember the rise and fall of World very well. The marketing never gelled with me though and always felt ‘big business’ - which is interesting given the story told here. Perhaps it was simply in the name; World Industries. A name that always portrayed the wrong message to me. I then remember seeing the brand appear in the kids section of a no-brand department store in the late 00’s and being shocked, while also acknowledging they were no longer a skate brand but rather a brand grabbing the last few dollars they could. Building a brand is hard. Maintaining a brand is even harder.
I saw Rodney Mullen skate at a demo at Diskworld in Ohio, early 2000’s.(I think he was skating for A-team at the time) The things he could do were incredible.
@@milojohnson6068 I’d never seen anyone skate so cleanly before, and haven’t since. He was just nailing everything, handstand manuals to flip tricks. He was just on his own level, absolutely mind blowing. He really deserves so much recognition with all the tricks he invented etc. I think he’s the most important skater in history honestly.
I met Steve Rocco on Lanai, HI back in 2007. He started a Land Rover rental business there because most of the roads on this island are 4x4 red dirt roads. The name of the company was "Red Rover". I was living in someones garage at the time and needed work so he paid me to drive the Defender 90 he used in his brochure. I just moved there and didn't have any board shorts so he drops his cammo Stussy shorts right there and hands them to me. I was a twig so I could barely keep them from falling off! And of course I got the Defender stuck in a deep rut but he was pretty cool about it and used the shot of getting it out in the brochure! I was a skater back in the 80's so I was pretty stoked to meet one of my heroes! Super cool guy!
This used to be one of my favorite companies, wet Willy and flame boy were two of my favorite characters to draw when I was in middle school and I miss that damn…
Your on to something great with these videos. The vibe is right all the way through, your tapping into an audience of people that all can connect to the content at hand because we either lives through it, had these companies and logos and graphics around us as kids or some find it interesting from business angle. I grew up with flame boy and world was once cool as shit, than world seemed to be known as that pre built deck brand that someone new skating would ride. It lost its mass appeal the more it became watered down in the minds of us skaters. But I’ll still always have love for the graphics and idea of world being one of my first boards over 20 years ago. Looking forward to the next video.
I remember my first board being a Slogo World board. Back in 99. I watch a lot of your videos and this has been my favorite. As it sent me down memory after memory from a forgotten time. Very well done sir!
when i was 6 my dad got me a world industries tech deck that came with a bench. i didnt really know how to use it however that sparked my interest in skateboarding
World Industries was such an awesome company back in the early 2000's that my late brother had most of his stuff covered in their brand. It's an unfortunate tale regarding their company. Here in South Africa skating has basically faded away, hardly ever see anyone skating street anymore and it was such a good time back in those days, I've shelved my deck, gone back into scouts/prepping but world industries will always have an important part in my history. Flame Boy and Wet Willy specifically. Very well made video. Keep well all, God I miss skating sometimes...
@@bingbong1758they sell tech decks with their branding at Walmart and Canadian Tire in Canada. I bought a complete World Industries board at Canadian Tire as well
I remember being in 5th grad in 1995 and world industries was everything! The tech decks were awesome at the time. About 2 yrs ago I purchased a vintage world industries tech deck for a heft price.
I used to have the little devil with the pitchfork as a little rubber toy, never knew where I got it or where it came from till now. Thank you for unlocking a deep memory for me
Classic brand. I was working at the local shop in the late 90’s when world was blowing up again. I remember seeing their snowboard ad with a 13 year old Ryan Sheckler throwing down and thinking damn maybe I could do this for a living. But then they started pumping out the “Monster Mold” with Blind and DarkStar and the quality started falling off. Great story! I remember my boss hating Rocco for selling out but they’re still around and they are iconic so hopefully as long as skateboarding lasts people will know the brand. I miss ipath and Shortys…
@@modernbusinesschannel Your coverage style is perfect for this topic imo, and does it justice by being accurate and bringing the skate vibes. Good work with these videos.
My first deck was world industries as well. Also, does anyone remember their website in the early 2000s? It was super cool and had a great chat room that I remember talking to other skaters from around the world on. Good times and great nostalgic content with this video!
Good documentary, that’s where I got my handle. To this day I still use Wetwilly, and most people think it’s either a sexual innuendo or the act of giving someone a Wet Willy in their ear, I just smile and say to them, “It’s a skateboard thing”.
I'm not a skater or into skater culture, but this video came up on auto-play and I thought it was really well presented and organized. Nice job! Definitely interested in seeing more content. ☢
I’ll never forget my first wet will deck! I use to draw wet Willy on all my papers at school. Shit was dope for sure. Rodney Mullen has always been my idol!
I found out were Rodney would practice above the redondo pier and i would go there to watch and skate. he asked me to stop skating when he was their because I sucked so bad it was really distracting him. dude is supper cool it was obvious he did not want to ask me but needed his space to practice.
My first proper skateboard was a World Industries deck with the Big Willie Style graphic, back in 2001. It's a shame to hear of their decline, but they're now back in the hands of skaters via Anthony Shetler who is doing an amazing job keeping the brand alive.
They literally used to be my go to for everything skate until I got older and people thought of them as an “introductory” brand as many of my peers did. Still some great memories form the 2000s. Hope they come back!
World industries was so big for my brother and i when we were younger so much so that we have matching flame boy and wet willie tattoos. He’s got flameboy i have wet willie!
I've always been under the assumption that they killed themselves by kicking off their team several times. I know they got bought out and everything, but they stopped catering to the actual skaters. If they would have left a team and looked at things in the long term, they would have a similar level of success to blind
To be honest, as a kid I had a ton of world industries cloths and boards, but never really knew anything about the company, I just liked the logos. Very interesting dive, thanks.
What is this your school report project? You just recycled The Man Who Souled The World and just retold the story, narrating the same story over the same footage. What’s up Biter 👎
Sorry if it came across that way, I really do love that documentary and made sure to credit it in the description. My hope with this video is to bring even more people over to see the documentary. Because it only has 160k views and is age restricted. I was hoping with this I could possibly bring it to a larger audience. But I understand your perspective and appreciate your comment
Seeing a World industries deck at the sk8 park brought me here. I was that younger demographic that loved the graphics and characters. Us being in our 30's now will always love them. Big ups to ppl in their 30's still skating.
Growing up world industries was dope but then somewhere around grade 5-6 they started selling all their stuff at big w and Kmart and nobody wanted to wear it anymore it wasn’t “cool” cus it wasn’t sold at the skate shops
Hi, im from Belgium and my first board was World. Its good to hear again about the brand. Do you kow if it still possible to by items in Europe ? cheers
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I turned pro for World! And it was an honor skating for them. And the fact of how much skateboard history they have, is amazing! Being able to grow up in the era of the old world days and to ride for them all them years later. Good times!
I remember seeing ads for you in skateboard mag
Ronson ! I was a skate rat growing up . Your part in the "- forecast " changed My child hood . Also your part in "time to shine " I'm 30 years old an don't skate any more but you gave me the best memories of my life watching your parts an go skating for hours . Your a legend in my eyes. I cam garentee iv spent atleast 40 hours watching your parts younger
Loved your transworld part
@Corey Gonzo It better be . I just told my entire family an friends that me and him had a conversation. Everybody thinks I'm friends with a professional skateboarder so this better be his acount fuck
@Corey Gonzo you don't even known him
"Steve Rocco is credited with inventing the frontside pop shuvit, and has had a number of death threats over the years."
What a fucking rollercoaster of information!
To be fair, inventing the front shuv is worthy of a death threat
@@danielyeary148 fucking true
@@WuvPain y’all don’t like front shuvs? I think it’s one of the most fun and stylish tricks
@@wild4509 only if they’re switch
😂😂 i was thinking the same !
I remember back in elementary, around '01, every kid was wearing World Industries gear. I always wanted something, but tbh my parents couldn’t afford it. Eventually my dad, not knowing, bought me a bootleg hoodie with the Flame Boy and Wet Willy “yingyang” logo in front. Rocked that almost every fucking day throughout 3rd grade. In retrospect, love my dad for doing what he could back then to see me happy. Great video, made me reminisce some great days!
I can totally relate to this.
Dude, skateboarding clothes were and still are expensive. To be fair, nowadays the clothes are at least pretty good quality, especially brands like Volcom.
@@sandhanitizer15 the quality has only gone down since then, not gotten better.
@@Joshuajames310 this is true
Thats soo cool back then those hoodies or the ones with just wet willy or flame boy were sooo based
I never skated world, but I had a lot of their clothing and had an obsession with drawing Flameboy and Wet Willy all over my notebooks in school. Their brand was so damn iconic at the time! This channel has been making me nostalgic for my middle school/HS days. Thank you for covering these topics!
Spitfire too!
haha. Same, bro. Didn't ride World, I but was obsessed with their art work and was always doodling Wet Willy and Flameboy in school notebooks!
@@nelsonhoffman5922 hell yeah! Their shirts had really cool designs also
lmao i did the same, I skated alot of Black Label and suffled brands alot but actually never owned a World, yet you find doodles of the their graphics all over my stuff.
Fuck yeah dude.
Thumbnail triggered me to fuck.
Literally did the same thing, was obsessed. Had them as finger skates, the rubber characters, shirts, pants.
Only thing i didn't have as far as i knew was the board since i already had a few haha.
Was hoping to fuck my board up and then have a reason to get one, but i take pride in things i own.
So that never happened.
Wondered what happened to the brand.
as a 90s kid, world industries, darkstar, and blind were my favorite companies growing up skating. looking forward to deep diving back into the past with this video!
How about Consolidated? That was a great board company.
Alien Workshop 👽 & Toy Machine too
spitfire with bones bearings?
@@mervunit Nah...Black Panther bearings with Venture trucks bro
Anti-hero boards and thunder trucks were my jam. First boards were a hand me down world and my first new to me was a blind. Man those were the days.
My first pro deck was a world industries. We were not a family with money but on Christmas my mom made it happen. She didn’t know anything about sizes so it was a 9 and I was a 10 year old girl but I learned to ollie on that heavy @ss board and I was so proud to ride it every single day. The memories are priceless. Thanks mom! ❤️🔥
Got stronger faster. Thanks mom
bro exact same shit, I had this 8.5" i was 10, checker devil, slugging round that heavy ass board, having to use so much effort just to get that shit off the ground. Loved it so much though
😢 It was precious
I’ll never forget going to my local skate shop for the very first time when I was 8, and the shop owner giving me and my brother two jumbo world stickers of the ice and fire flame dudes, such an influential company back in the day. Man I miss the early 2000’s :(
Flame boy and wet willie!
Facts
Ice and fire?!?!?!? It's flame boy and wet willy
I did my internship for World Industries under Mark Mckee in 2000ish. It was when they moved from Huntington to Redondo. It was surreal working there and being a part of the culture I had spend my teens in. Still, 20 some years later, I've never been in a more rad art room.
My first non Walmart board was a world industries, way back in 02. When I bought tech decks I bought world. This company will always have a spot in my heart
Same
Probably not even real World Industries from Wally
@@CANControlGRAFFITI who said anything about buying the deck from Walmart?
Hell yeah World tech decks all day!!!
Same bro, started out with a toys r us board and then my first legit setup a world deck, grind king trucks, spitfire wheels and speed demon bearings. I remember my first reactions was enjoying how smooth and fast the ride was after skating a toys r us board for so long
They had some of the sickest deck designs! Them, Blind, and Toy Machine were my go tos in the early 2000s
Those and Shorty's were the best
I loved the blind logos and forgot about toy machine. I had a lucky deck
Don't forget about the hook-ups boards with the honies on them.
Powell blanks are the only thing I ever skated
Whatchu know about ZERO
this brings me back to the mid 90's, a lifetime ago. There was nothing like getting a new deck or even a whole new board and getting home and putting it together and that first skate on it. Getting home from school and seeing the new ccs catalog in the mail.
I miss those days.
Yes!!! CCS!! When I ordered they still had C.O.D..loved getting new clothes or boards/wheels ect via CCS ....Definitely the good ol days
and taking the ccs to school and thumbing thru with your friends talkin about all the gear you wanted lol yeah those were the days alright
Wow ccs 😆 that's old school
CCS was great like a Powell or shuv it blank just plain and straightforward
can't forget about active
Could never skate but was obsessed with those characters for awhile. Got a bunch of little toys and all. And didn't know this history. Thanks for the vid.
Having worked at World/Dwindle Dist. in 97/98 I can confirm this is an accurate story, however there's much more to the story and you could make 10 videos like this about the various phases of the brand. The team was fantastic, including Steve, Scott and Franck. Anyhow, great video, keep them coming.
Any way of getting some of the old original boards still?
Please write your own experience
You should upload some videos about it
Jerome do you have any idea what happened to Mike Smith and Liberty boards? Smith was a friend of a friend and really hooked me up back in the day, I even got to go Rocco's house when Rodney lived with him and got hooked up with a couple boards and stickers. it was real ego booster meeting the cool older dudes. I gifted most the stuff away over the years but still have a old madrid smith duck board he rode in contest possibly the one in the acid drop photo
@@damionmarkham9835 liberty had gone belly up years before. So unfortunately I can’t help you with that. You could however ask Marc McKee (he’s on FB) as he drew the Liberty logos and graphics. Take care.
The devilman and wet willy boards really hits the nostalgia hard. It truly was lightning in a bottle with everything from the time in which skateboarding was getting really popular and alot of attention.
Flame
Boy and wet Willy lol bought my first one at mr rags
@@Jhayes14590The devilman was iconic as hell.
I remember seeing world industries decks and gear being sold at Big 5 sporting goods around 2005 and thinking yeah this company has definitely died and now feels lame. However they really were big in the 90’s and 2000, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a kid wearing a wet Willy or flame boy tshirt with cargo pants lol
It was the same in Canada but I remember seeing their boards at Canadian Tire, an automotive/sporting goods store. I knew they had gone way down hill. They were still better than the regular box store boards but not by much.
Same here in Vegas. I remember loving them, a couple of my first early pro decks were World Industries boards. & had only ever seen them being sold at skate shops at first..then seen them being sold inside Dicks Sporting goods, in a section of the store that they set up to look like mini skate shop!..I remember initially getting excited seeing them, bc it had become a rare occurrence to find them in skate shops. There were A LOT of them too & I remember thinking “yooo, it’s gunna be hard picking one!”bc there were sooo many of them. Then I picked one up, & was thoroughly confused..it felt NOTHING like an ACTUAL pro board & came with shitty grip tape already on it ..thinking I must have grabbed a dud, I picked up a couple more & that’s when I realized the company was no longer what it had been before. The boards felt like Walmart boards :( just shaped a little better..then got curious of the parts they were selling separately (trucks/wheels/etc) & realized that they were barely a step above Walmart quality as well. I would always go back inside dicks in hopes that they would start selling LEGIT boards/parts, just to get even more disappointed as they had eventually removed the entire “skate shop” from the store & started only selling complete boards. Who’s quality only seemed to be getting shitier🙁RIP World Industries.
I miss my flame boy shirts
Once I seen them at Walmart I know that was a wrap
Bro you are right 💯
I remember being in third grade and sitting with my friend drawing flame boy and wet Willie. We would sneak thrasher and Big brother magazines in and just stare at the boards learning how to draw the characters. We even came up with our own characters marshmallow boy and peanut boy and made comics. Man the nostalgia. Lol
“Steve Rocco is credited with inventing the frontside pop shove it, and has had a number of death threats over the years.”
I mean they’re not the steeziest trick but damn, chill guys
lol, that's good man.
FS 3 shuv on the other hand....
And I bet the inventor of pressure flips got away scot free. Where is the justice in the world 😅
Cool video. I used to skate back around 86-99. It was fun learning what happened to World Industries. It would be interesting to see similar videos with the stories of the other popular skate brands from the 90s (Hook-ups, Creature, Alien Workshop, etc.).
This company had slipped my mind, so cool to watch this. Awesome job and good luck with the new channel mate
Appreciate you my mate
@@modernbusinesschannel bro what was your previous channel? Thanks for the content I appreciate it
@@dutchybag it’s called Nate the Mate. I make videos over there similar to this, in a video essay format, but about music. And I still do it :)
Damn I knew you sounded familiar.
I didn’t even know about this channel. Just found this video randomly on the home page.
Nice content mate.
@Nedd Flanders I follow Nate on his other channel and I thought it would be cool to support his new endeavor which I genuinely like, I hope other people aren't as cruel to you as you are to them. Have a great day!
Thanks so much for this incredible video! World industries was a huge part of my childhood. I was so inspired by Rodney Mullen and Steve Rocco when I was little. Devil man, flame boy and wet willy were literally scribbled everywhere. Tech decks & tech deck dudes were the only toys I couldn't part with when I sold my old stuff! Good memories
Ed Templeton, don't sleep on Ed please!
I started skating in 1999. I remember world industries being every where! Definitely a big part of my childhood. Good times.
I was in that target demographic when they made those characters. I remember wanting one of those boards so badly. I never did get one, but always had their stickers and drew them in my notebooks at school. Skateboarding was a big part of my childhood all the way through highschool. I look back at all these names and brands very fondly. Thank you for the recap of an interesting slice of history
Nostalgia... Was drawing the logos in all my school books with my bleached tips spiked hair listening to Americana on my yellow Walkman
World Industries always had a place in the skateboard world. From their release until recently Its become obscure.
Its crazy to think how many brands were influential to skaters, but also to non-skaters as well. Art & the expression of it in the skateboard world is something truly special. Very thankful to have been apart of it growing up.
I was a bmxer growing up and I loved world industries clothing it was sick as fuck and my skate buddies had the decks I never got into skateboarding could never figure out how to Ollie LOL
My mom passed away in 2020, and when I cleaned out my childhood room at her house, I found an inflatable toy of the flame droplet. It doesn’t have any holes or anything. I’m stoked I found it.
Sorry for u r loss
these were so awesome and fun!!! I was curious wat had happened. they even had those figurines that rose skateboards
Plz keep up the skate company vids
If y’all want vids on skate companies, well... then y’all are my dream audience. I’ll definitely still cover a range of companies, but I’m gonna do lots of skate companies and skate-adjacent stuff as well.
@@modernbusinesschannel dude pls keep them up fr fr
@@modernbusinesschannel ive subscribed looking forward to watching all your videos
I don’t know anything about skating or any of the culture surrounding it but you my dude do a great job covering it and make it super interesting for someone who doesn’t know anything about it keep up the good work love the content!
I'm 34 and when I was a teen if you had a Birdhouse Falcon board (any kind) or a World deck, you were somebody. Their graphics were, and still to this day, some killer designs that have not been transcended. The stuff was so hard to find and so premium and expensive back then, here in Australia at least. Then randomly at some point a few years later, it was available at K-Mart for cheap as chips and the quality dropped massively. I'd assume that's when the corporates came in. But it became a kind of lame brand to be rocking considering you didn't even need to go to a skate shop to buy it, AND being in K-Mart for cheap, you'd have all manner of kids wearing it who weren't even skaters at all or didn't know what it represented. It'll never be back, but we can remember the glory days. Like most of these old companies - they should consider reprinting their classic designs on new quality boards, as people like me would certainly buy them - mostly just to hang as wall art.
Im a 41 year old Aussie who was only able to get a World deck (The famous Uncle Sam one) When my Dad took me and my sister to the States in the very early 90s and I bought it in a Santa Monica Skate Shop
You couldnt get World ANYTHING in Australia back then and I felt like I was the King of the Skate Park with that deck as we'd only ever seen World Industries in Thrasher, TransWorld or in 411VM on VHS, I was the ONLY one with a World deck wherever I went.
I remeber MANY years later walking into Big W and seeing World shirts there and shacking my head at how lame it had become
Came looking for this comment. world became a brand like bad boy, mambo, piping hot and all them kinda brands.
I’m 33. My first deck was World Industries Foolio. And now as my wall art, I’ve bought a Falcon 3 and Muska Red Silhouette. Those two decks basically sum up skate culture during the glory days of THPS1
My first board was a world industries complete when I was 6 or 7 in 2005-2007 red trucks shit was fire
in the early 2000's I got my first board, a world industries board. Started drawing their logos too, my buddies and I went to school and shared our drawings. Was so much fun haha
bro. this video was awesome!
Amazing documentary. Being a big GIRL fan in my skate days, I didn't know most of that team came from World Industries. I think, if you grew up in the 90's, World Industries has always seemed like a 'Wal-Mart' brand, but their roots show proof they were actually counterculture. Makes you think... Thanks for the brain food. And great filmmaking.
You should check out”The Man who Souled the World”, the documentary that this video was based off of. That’s killer.
Wow that graphic at 0:50 i had this exact deck w grindking trucks swiss bearings bought in edmonton garage sale
I'm new to skating and love hearing about all this history. Can't wait for more no matter what you make!
I love being a skate nerd
Watch the battle at the berrics
Skate competition of all skaters
Watch photosynthesis by Alien workshop and habitat, video is a staple in street skating OG love park clips for days and rob dyrdek before he got corny that and baker 3 are must for any skater old or new
Watch the documentary on here called "the man who souled the World"
I learned all my heel tricks on a world industries deck
I remember in the early 2000s my older brother loving World Industries from their clothes to the tech deck models. They had such a stronghold on the skating community.
I was obsessed with World Industries as a kid, my first board when I was 7 was a WI board
20yrs later and they completely slipped my mind
Thank you for reminding me and doing such a deep dive into the company ❤️
I've been skating for nearly 17 years and didn't know all this. I remember in the 2000s World and Blind were everywhere and dominated the local shop deck wall. It's honestly super rad Rocco was able to do what he set out to even if the company didn't last past his hand off. World def died off for me when they started popping up in walmart. Sad to say the same seems to be happening with (or has already happened in recent years) with DarkStar. That's business tho I suppose!
Side note, loving the video essay movement over to this channel Nate. Really dig the authenticity and personal feel of the car vlogs but the way you explain things in these videos is amazing (and obv past vid essays on mate). Really hope you are enjoying doing both channels! 🙏💞 Sorry for the long ass comments!
Now Blind is a company I forgot about.
I think I started skating somewhere around 2006/7 and my first (non-generic Walmart) board was a blind complete. Man, I loved that thing. The trucks even had the little blind dude under the axle. At that time though, Blind was still everywhere but World had already fallen off in scene I was in. I had one world board when I was 14 and still remember it being a terrible board. Granted, the dude I got it from was sketchy to say the least so it was probably one of their walmart runs.
90’s bro... since the 90’s
Say it with me kids. Vah lay lee.
Dude, good video and you’re taking me waaaaay back.
This really took me back to my childhood. Currently I have an old world industry’s deck as a swing in my yard and was thinking about some of this the other day. Great video
My first board was a flameboy deck. That thing got me into skating, sadly I moved onto Alien Workshop and mained them until my accident. What a time it was to be 8 years old in 98 and skating after school the homies.
Crazy, World was my favorite brand as a kid. I loved the graphics and now seeing that Rodney Mullen (my favorite skater) and Mike Valley just a complete badass were part of the making of World is sick. I remember when we played tech decks i'd trade everyone for their World decks. They were basically the only ones I had in my collection, still have like 15+ of them somewhere.
Vallely
I have a World Industries tech deck home here somewhere, had it for years. It’s the only one I have lol
Dude you deserve more subs
Great video m8! Loved the back story and history!
Thanks Hayden! I appreciate you
Definitely brought back some memories. The point where I realized World was done was when their branded merch started appearing in Wal-Mart. The scene was changing a bit in general though, skaters were going more hip-hop instead of the skater-punk that dominated the previous era.
I remember starting to see their stuff at Olympia Sports and overnight the charm was gone.
As a skater through the 90’s and early 00’s, I remember the rise and fall of World very well. The marketing never gelled with me though and always felt ‘big business’ - which is interesting given the story told here. Perhaps it was simply in the name; World Industries. A name that always portrayed the wrong message to me. I then remember seeing the brand appear in the kids section of a no-brand department store in the late 00’s and being shocked, while also acknowledging they were no longer a skate brand but rather a brand grabbing the last few dollars they could.
Building a brand is hard. Maintaining a brand is even harder.
They banked off of skating but never branched out like DC did.
I saw Rodney Mullen skate at a demo at Diskworld in Ohio, early 2000’s.(I think he was skating for A-team at the time) The things he could do were incredible.
Mullen invented skateboarding in my opinion. I saw him in the mid 80s at a demo in Daytona Beach. Absolutely incredible!
@@milojohnson6068 I’d never seen anyone skate so cleanly before, and haven’t since. He was just nailing everything, handstand manuals to flip tricks. He was just on his own level, absolutely mind blowing.
He really deserves so much recognition with all the tricks he invented etc. I think he’s the most important skater in history honestly.
I always wanted a wet willy deck. I miss the way skating used to be.
Such a dope logo and characters.
Keep this content up dude. I love this kind of shit
I met Steve Rocco on Lanai, HI back in 2007. He started a Land Rover rental business there because most of the roads on this island are 4x4 red dirt roads. The name of the company was "Red Rover".
I was living in someones garage at the time and needed work so he paid me to drive the Defender 90 he used in his brochure. I just moved there and didn't have any board shorts so he drops his cammo Stussy shorts right there and hands them to me. I was a twig so I could barely keep them from falling off! And of course I got the Defender stuck in a deep rut but he was pretty cool about it and used the shot of getting it out in the brochure!
I was a skater back in the 80's so I was pretty stoked to meet one of my heroes! Super cool guy!
The nostalgia in just seeing the logo. Holy cow I’m getting old. Very first skateboard was a World. Great times
This used to be one of my favorite companies, wet Willy and flame boy were two of my favorite characters to draw when I was in middle school and I miss that damn…
Your on to something great with these videos. The vibe is right all the way through, your tapping into an audience of people that all can connect to the content at hand because we either lives through it, had these companies and logos and graphics around us as kids or some find it interesting from business angle. I grew up with flame boy and world was once cool as shit, than world seemed to be known as that pre built deck brand that someone new skating would ride. It lost its mass appeal the more it became watered down in the minds of us skaters. But I’ll still always have love for the graphics and idea of world being one of my first boards over 20 years ago. Looking forward to the next video.
I remember if you liked World Industries you were a “poser” in my group of skater friends. I didn’t feel that way though. Wet Willie and Flameboy FTW!
I wanna see a Skullcandy video! Great job man
Oooh good idea!
Glad I grew up skating back in what I would describe as skateboarding golden era. The 90s and early 2000s
My brother had a world industries backpack in the mid 2000’s that was so sick
I remember my first board being a Slogo World board. Back in 99. I watch a lot of your videos and this has been my favorite. As it sent me down memory after memory from a forgotten time. Very well done sir!
*Sluggo
when i was 6 my dad got me a world industries tech deck that came with a bench. i didnt really know how to use it however that sparked my interest in skateboarding
World Industries was such an awesome company back in the early 2000's that my late brother had most of his stuff covered in their brand. It's an unfortunate tale regarding their company. Here in South Africa skating has basically faded away, hardly ever see anyone skating street anymore and it was such a good time back in those days, I've shelved my deck, gone back into scouts/prepping but world industries will always have an important part in my history. Flame Boy and Wet Willy specifically. Very well made video. Keep well all, God I miss skating sometimes...
Wet Willy !!! Spitfire was coo
Nutjob
I still buy world decks today I just love those graphics. I think Anthony Shetler is doing a great job at trying to keep the company alive
Where do you get their stuff? The website doesnt seem to really worm
@@bingbong1758they sell tech decks with their branding at Walmart and Canadian Tire in Canada. I bought a complete World Industries board at Canadian Tire as well
what a great episode. i remember drawing flame boy and wet willy on all my school stuff lol
I remember being in 5th grad in 1995 and world industries was everything!
The tech decks were awesome at the time. About 2 yrs ago I purchased a vintage world industries tech deck for a heft price.
Why?
@@BAGAKOOS Why what?
I used to have the little devil with the pitchfork as a little rubber toy, never knew where I got it or where it came from till now. Thank you for unlocking a deep memory for me
I remember seeing those rain droplet and fireball everywhere around 2000-2007
Spot on
This video was awesome man!! Please please more of this stuff! So many hazey memories and scuffed knees lol
Classic brand. I was working at the local shop in the late 90’s when world was blowing up again. I remember seeing their snowboard ad with a 13 year old Ryan Sheckler throwing down and thinking damn maybe I could do this for a living. But then they started pumping out the “Monster Mold” with Blind and DarkStar and the quality started falling off. Great story! I remember my boss hating Rocco for selling out but they’re still around and they are iconic so hopefully as long as skateboarding lasts people will know the brand. I miss ipath and Shortys…
Shorty's relaunched. They have a website.
Bro this is Insane! Love these Video Essays. I grew up Skating. World Industries is Baked in my Memory Forever
Thanks Carl!
Keep up the skate videos !!!
Gotchuuu
@@modernbusinesschannel w creator 😤💪
@@modernbusinesschannel Your coverage style is perfect for this topic imo, and does it justice by being accurate and bringing the skate vibes. Good work with these videos.
I still, to this day, sleep in a grey World Industries hoody. I've had it for 20 years and plan to keep it for 20 more
My first deck was world industries as well. Also, does anyone remember their website in the early 2000s? It was super cool and had a great chat room that I remember talking to other skaters from around the world on. Good times and great nostalgic content with this video!
Good documentary, that’s where I got my handle. To this day I still use Wetwilly, and most people think it’s either a sexual innuendo or the act of giving someone a Wet Willy in their ear, I just smile and say to them, “It’s a skateboard thing”.
I'm not a skater or into skater culture, but this video came up on auto-play and I thought it was really well presented and organized. Nice job! Definitely interested in seeing more content. ☢
Yep, good little documentary, good enough to retain interest when not even into the topic.
Man im so pumped to see you move into some content that isnt music. I love natethemate and hope that channel doesnt die but this is just great content
I’ll never forget my first wet will deck! I use to draw wet Willy on all my papers at school. Shit was dope for sure. Rodney Mullen has always been my idol!
I found out were Rodney would practice above the redondo pier and i would go there to watch and skate. he asked me to stop skating when he was their because I sucked so bad it was really distracting him. dude is supper cool it was obvious he did not want to ask me but needed his space to practice.
loved Blind/World around '92-'94. Some of my favorited boards for quite that period.
My first proper skateboard was a World Industries deck with the Big Willie Style graphic, back in 2001. It's a shame to hear of their decline, but they're now back in the hands of skaters via Anthony Shetler who is doing an amazing job keeping the brand alive.
I didn’t even think it was still a company! But man I loved World when I was as young and this brought back a lot of nostalgia!
“Steve Rocco is credited with inventing the frontside pop shove it, and has had many death threats”……….
Wait,,,what lmao
This was a very well put together video
They literally used to be my go to for everything skate until I got older and people thought of them as an “introductory” brand as many of my peers did. Still some great memories form the 2000s. Hope they come back!
World industries was so big for my brother and i when we were younger so much so that we have matching flame boy and wet willie tattoos. He’s got flameboy i have wet willie!
I've always been under the assumption that they killed themselves by kicking off their team several times. I know they got bought out and everything, but they stopped catering to the actual skaters. If they would have left a team and looked at things in the long term, they would have a similar level of success to blind
To be honest, as a kid I had a ton of world industries cloths and boards, but never really knew anything about the company, I just liked the logos. Very interesting dive, thanks.
What is this your school report project?
You just recycled The Man Who Souled The World and just retold the story, narrating the same story over the same footage. What’s up Biter
👎
Sorry if it came across that way, I really do love that documentary and made sure to credit it in the description. My hope with this video is to bring even more people over to see the documentary. Because it only has 160k views and is age restricted. I was hoping with this I could possibly bring it to a larger audience. But I understand your perspective and appreciate your comment
Doesn't anyone give a damn about the rules anymore!?! 😉👍
Grew up on these in the 90s loved em
Seeing a World industries deck at the sk8 park brought me here. I was that younger demographic that loved the graphics and characters. Us being in our 30's now will always love them. Big ups to ppl in their 30's still skating.
Loved this, adds so much to my skate world building
Great vid! You should do one about Metal Mulisha!!
World’s gone. It had a huge chapter in skate history tho, thanks for the memories Steve & Company.
Growing up world industries was dope but then somewhere around grade 5-6 they started selling all their stuff at big w and Kmart and nobody wanted to wear it anymore it wasn’t “cool” cus it wasn’t sold at the skate shops
Talk about a blast from the past. Ty for this.
awesome video bro. that was cool to watch
My first ever skateboard was a world Indies waterboy deck, destructo trucks and blind wheels. Much love for the industries!
I still have a World Industries tech deck from the 90s. I'm happy thats the one that survived.
90’s skater here, this brought back so many memories!!
Hi, im from Belgium and my first board was World. Its good to hear again about the brand. Do you kow if it still possible to by items in Europe ? cheers
gotta love all these video essays 17year olds are making these days.