Ken block dirt 45/17/2023 ![]() At the time, rally racing was a sport with scarcely a cult following in North America. In 2004, after he and Way sold the company to Quiksilver for $87 million, Block began to chase a long-abandoned dream. They sold what made those sports special. ![]() At DC, his revolutionary videos and ad campaigns didn't sell skateboarding, BMX or motocross. He helped to make those athletes household names and earned a reputation as a marketing maverick and creative genius.īut beyond his creativity and vision, Block had the unique ability to capture what the core community loved about its sport - and package that joy in a way that connected with the mainstream. ![]() He sponsored motocross riders in the Nitro Circus and snowboarders who competed in the Olympics. Over the years, he expanded the company into BMX, motocross and snowboarding, sports for which he also held a passion. He'd designed a tool for skateboarders, but his campaigns spoke to kids who'd never done a kickflip. Within a year, DC was generating millions in revenue and the company's shoes were skatepark staples and objects of fashion. "That broke ground in defining what is today a huge market in skate footwear." "Ken was the first person to use beautiful shots of shoes and black-and-white photos of skaters in campaigns," Dyrdek told me a few years ago. Then he created stunning ad campaigns featuring his friends - pros Danny Way, Colin McKay and Rob Dyrdek - wearing those shoes. He asked skateboarders for their input and used it to design the first DC skate shoe. But skateboarders themselves, they knew what was missing from the market: a technical shoe that held up to the rigors of their sport and had style beyond looking like repurposed basketball kicks. When Block and his college friend, Damon Way, started DC Shoes in 1994, neither had a business degree. He wasn't content to find the secret passage. He was a visionary who didn't just choose the road less traveled he discovered routes invisible to others, then figured out a way to draw the masses to them. That last sentiment was true for many, whether Block was their boss, sponsor, competitor, collaborator, athlete or friend. He showed me the way." Photographer Larry Chen believes that this image of Block, taken in 2016, is the best he'll ever shoot. The way he lived his life was inspirational. The more family support he had as his family grew, the more he excelled in competition. "Then I met Ken when he started rally racing. "I went through my career believing that to be committed to being great in motorsports, you had to give up personal relationships and put aside having a family," says rally driver and TV host Tanner Foust, Block's friend, X Games teammate and longtime competitor. Not the loud, exuberant exhibitionist in the viral videos who became one of the most famous drivers in motorsports, but the person he was when the cameras turned off and the crowds went home. In the two days since the DC Shoes and Hoonigan co-founder was killed in an accident while snowmobiling near his home in Utah at age 55, those who knew him best are remembering him as much for the impact he had on them individually as for the way he transformed their industries.Īnd they want to talk about Ken Block the man. "And now he'll never be able to top it," Chen says. That's because Block was everything the photograph embodies: A calculated risk-taker, a marketing genius and a man who always had something better coming just around the next corner. "But I always assumed Ken would top what he'd done before," Chen says. He knew he took his best photo that day in Colorado. "My easy answer is always, 'I haven't shot it yet,'" Chen says.īut since 2016, he has known that wasn't true. For years, he says, people have asked him to share the best photo he has ever taken. Larry Chen, who photographed Block and his family for more than a decade, was perched at the next turn and took the shot in 2016.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |