Vans Doc Captures Beijing's Growing Skateboarding Scene

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The "first-ever" skateboarder in China, an American international student, is said to have placed deck, trucks, and wheels on the Middle Kingdom's virgin soil in 1986. Since then, skating has become popular enough that, like in the US, footwear company Vans can rely on its customer base to maintain its brand association with the sport through aggressive gatekeeping. Every once in a while, however, the company will step in to do their own marketing and shed light on fledgling scenes.

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Take for example one of the latest videos released on the official Vans YouTube channel, titled Skateboarding in Beijing (click 'Read more' at the bottom of this post to watch). Shot largely in emulation of '80s home video, complete with glitchy graphics and blown-out colors, and through the all-seeing fisheye lens, the short film is roundly nostalgic, but it also asks questions about the future of skating in China.

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From interviews with skaters who first picked up a board in the early '90s to featuring a 12-year-old boy who has been skating since he was four years old, the video leaves viewers with the feeling that, after a challenging start, the torch of skateboarding will be in good hands with the next generation.

A young skateboarder takes to the flat in Sanlitun Soho

Iconic Beijing sights form the backdrop throughout the film, like the China Zun towering over the city or the lower level of Sanlitun Soho, which is often teeming with young skateboarders mastering their ollies on account of the impeccably smooth surface and indifferent guards. Couple that with the bizarre effects and trippy music, and you have a video the makes Beijing seem, like, pretty gnarly, dude.

It's skaters all the way down

Even though it’s basically a five-minute commercial, the making of this mini-doc is telling of the capital's growing weight on the global skateboarding scene. And while Beijing's skateboarding culture still has a long way to go when compared to almost anywhere in the world, we're at a pivotal moment, when those who first took up the sport 30 years ago are introducing their passion in the city's newest admirers.

Images: Vans (via YouTube)

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