Skateboarding Clothes
Skateboarding clothes are some of the most diverse and eclectic clothing worn. Several companies all fight it out to be popular and noteworthy remaining cutting edge to the constantly shifting demographic. The modern variants of the common skateboarding clothes will be covered here.
Skateboarding is a male dominated sport. The adrenaline and punk atmosphere pervades many backyard ramps and driveway rails. The clothing that is commonly attributed to these enthusiasts also defies both gravity and your common expectation. Typical male jeans for a skater ride very low if at all on the waist. They have small pockets and are typically one color. The jeans are thin in the legs and even skinnier towards the heel and the bottom of the ankle. For that restrictive reason, the jeans are common split up the side of the leg about one to four inches along the inner and outer seam. This lets the jeans splash over the shoes and emphasizes the shoe in comparison to the jeans. Colors span the usual gauntlet: all shades of blue, faded 80s to dark modern, black jeans, corduroy, tan, and several shades of grey are all common. Although not the only form of clothing, these forms of skateboarding clothes are predominant.
All forms of clothing are indicative of an individual’s sense of style. The clothing chosen by the skateboarding companies are intentionally obscure and different. Major contenders offer shirts in the full button-up shirt, t-shirt button-up, the regular t-shirt, and the tank. The variations can be seen in different boarders. Those looking for a more refined style will wear straight Dickies shorts and a button up t-shirt to indicate a new age punk feel. Those looking for something more rebellious will wear a pair of skinny tight jeans and a tank top. The style of these forms of skateboarding clothes is what is most interesting. Like other forms of clothing they rely on horizontal stripes at times. They differ in that the stripes are not always uniform and the colors chosen can be rather eclectic at times. The pattern and variation is dependent on the company but vintage colors from the 80s have gained some popularity as of late. Still popular are the “busy” themes where a shirt has a massive variety of graphics and slightly undernoted symbols that are abundant in one region of the shirt. The modern form of shirt also places emphasis on the style being reserved to a single area of the shirt. Top right, bottom right, simple left versus right are all common compositions. Faded and other color combinations are prevalent and the overall symbol of the manufacturer is typically applied to all the shirts in a way that alters their symbol slightly without losing the reference.
Skateboarding clothes are a continually developing stylistic endeavor. Several small scale shops are set up across the United States and attempt to cater to the local skating scene. Depending on their entrepreneurial nature, they could even offer some customized forms of clothing. Farmers markets and other venues provide this independent untargeted variation of clothing, and it is increasingly popular that skaters customize their own clothing.
Girls’ skateboarding clothes is slightly similar with some important areas of differentiation. Common are the skinny jeans which are meant to be ridden low on the waist and are cut, similar to men’s jeans at the bottom to allow some movement. Girls’ colors are slightly less grayscale and include shorts of the same colors. Some skirts are included, although it is generally downplayed in relevance, since it is inhibits to skating. T-shirts are generally low V cut. The styles are more colorful and the symbols are similarly vague and obscure. The regular T shirts are typically U cut and are low in the front and long around the hips and lack don’t cover much of the arms as well. The eclectic color and pattern schemes are intentionally unidentifiable in most situations, although some simple protocol does allow for single color formats as long as they’re still advertising the common logo of the company.
Most all of the skateboarding clothes are skinny in the jeans and loose in the shirts. Color and patterns are random and excessively confusing, although, as with all trends, this is likely to change.