Vegetarianism in skateboarding, Part II (from 2016 onwards)

Updated 8 October 2024

The previous years - 1978 to 2015 - can be found here.

"Vegetarianism in skateboarding" attempts to document anything vegan / vegetarian / animal rights/ anti- or pro-meat / dairy / leather / hunting-related from the skateboard scene, with a heavy emphasis on the very visible US-American skate industry, especially skateboard graphics, skateboard company ads, vegan skate shoes, skateboard pros that are/were vegans or vegetarians, openly anti-vegetarian statements, etc. It is not intended to be judgemental but rather documentary.

 

2016

(A probably vegetarian or near-vegetarian) Don Brown presenting a vegan éS shoe

The shoe in the photo is the "Sesla" - not sure if this colourway ever came out. The Sesla came out in 2017, and all colourways were vegan but later éS also made non-vegan versions of the Sesla shoe.

In a pro-hunting video published on Youtube in 2016 - Pro skateboarder Geoff Rowley turned hunter (published by YouTube channel "goHUNT") - Geoff Rowley describes how he had followed a meat and dairy free lifestyle for many years, and that after many skateboard injuries, at an age of about 27 or 28 years old (this would have been around 2003/2004 - and I suspect his memory is wrong and that this was later, around 2007 maybe) and he "wasn't recovering from slams" [1]. He reports that after he started to eat fish he felt, within two or three weeks, that his muscles were "moving better" and "recovering better from fatigue" and that he "was able to retain my muscle mass". Then he also started eating red meat again, and then white meat. And now the more he eats - he stresses "game meat and fish, fresh fish" - "the better I feel". He has since become a passionate hunter and he reports that this outdoor activity has made him feel great. "I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. I skate better than I've ever skated. I feel like I learn stuff, and I feel strong." He also describes that whenever he is out hunting "I just get so much from it."
File this under #youngmillionaireshobbies or maybe #lackofsciencebasedvegannutritioneducation
For info on vegan nutrition information, see here. Eating enough calories and protein is important for muscle and bone recovery, maintenance and building. Getting enough omega-3s is important for their anti-inflammatory effects (among other things), and avoiding micronutrient deficiencies - first of all vitamin B12 - is important for all vegans, too, of course. 
For a post on Rowley's earlier hunting adventures see here.

In an interview with Geoff Rowley conducted by Steve Olson (the older one) for Juice Magazine (published on 22 January 2016) Rowley, too, mentions hunting: "I always liked hunting and I grew up with a friend that is a Game Warden. Instead of going into the gym, I go hunting in the mountains twice a week, pretty much year round. I’m in high elevation up in the hills with a big pack on my back. I’ve found that’s the best way to build mental and physical strength that’s sustainable. [...] There have been times where I have been at 10,000 feet elevation in snow up to my chest walking for ten yards and then stopping and letting my friend go past and doing that for hours, so that we can get to the particular animal. You can’t build that kind of core strength in the gym. That’s how I stay in shape now. I go hunt. I’m happy doing it. I get to spend time away from the smog in Southern California and I get to look across at L.A. from the highest mountain in Southern California when people are just getting out of their beds and I’m already two hours away from the highway. It keeps me sane and it keeps me happy. More importantly, it keeps me healthy." [2]

From a 2016 (December 15) interview with Spencer Hamilton in Jenkem Magazine:
"[Alexis Castro:] As a vegetarian, do you take more shits as a result of your diet?
[Spencer Hamilton:] Well of course. If you think of your body as a giant juicer, it only makes sense. If you throw an 8 oz. steak down that juicer every day, it’s probably going to get clogged up. It’s not some sort of rocket science. Obviously, if you eat vegetarian it’s going to pass a whole lot faster through you, especially if you eat stuff like sauerkraut and kimchi that’ll help your gut and your digestion. I think if you want to lose weight, obviously that should be the first thing you do, go vegan. Shitting is way easier when you’re more hydrated and eating foods that are more easily digestible.
People tend to just drink coffee and eat a bunch of meat in the morning and then your body is just set up for disaster. Making the switch from coffee to green tea is painfully boring, but over time you’re like, “Oh, this is actually much better. I don’t feel weird or jittery or dehydrated.”" [3]

Interesting to see these two graphics come out on Alien Workshop.

Alien Workshop COM MOD I TY

                                                                 Alien Workshop Piggy 

Seems like this graphic already came out in 2015, and was desgined by a chap named Philip Valois - check out his website. 
Says Monsieur Valois (I emailed him and asked): "The Piggy graphic was a comment on American’s obsession with bacon and bacon laden products. Partly making fun of the fad (like bacon flavored toothpaste) and also a jab at the meat industry in general. The green grass in the field is the USDA logo." [4]

In the International Year of Pulses: a legume themed graphic
Baker Boyardee

    Baker Dustin Dollin

 

In an interview with Rémy Taveira in Free Skateboard Magazine (published December 2016), referring to Dustin Dolin, Rémy Taveira says: " I guess he’s like the last of the Mohicans, but of the Piss Drunks. I kind of respect that. All the others became vegan, straight edge and are living the super healthy Californian lifestyle… He’s the only one to have stayed exactly the same. And he still skates!" [62]

An unfortunate choice of graphics in a Chocolate series called "Tradiciones" depicting typically Latin American traditions.

Chocolate Vincent Alvarez (who judging by his Nine Club interview nevertheless seems like the nicest guy ever) [5]

Darkstar Cameo Wilson

Male sexual fantasies of dominance mixed with fantasies of hunting and violence against women

Something like "Hostel" maybe

JART Totally Vegan
Jart have never really demonstrated great style. With this graphic I'm not sure about the style but the thought process behind it evades me. A vagina, a carrot, Bugs Bunny and the word "vegan" was a good starting point, but then ... ?!? It's not that the joke is not easily understood or offensive but ...

Real Donald Trump eating colon tacos.

Real Hillary Clinton swinging blue eyed white kittens. Interesting that she seems to be portrayed as more demonic than Trump.

Warriors Skateboards (from Switzerland) Frankenstein's monster - who in the story was, like the author of the boook (Mary Shelley, whose husband was the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley), a vegetarian

 Zero Jamie Thomas Alter Ego
A good looking gorilla on a death themed Christian ex-vegan man's skateboard - not really vegan themed

Organika Karl Watson

Food themed, pretzel themed, ex-vegan-themed, I think

Santa Cruz Tom Asta ("Lucky shot")

Santa Cruz displaying which side of the political spectrum they seem to inhabit. The same as Chocolate maybe.

In 2015 Mike Vallely decided to become vegan again (I don't think he "came out" with that until around 2016) - together with the the rest of his family. They've reissued the "Please Don't Eat My Friends - Animal Farm (aka Barnyard)" graphic on their company Street Plant. They've started a vegan T-shirt company called "Please don't eat my friends". And the Vallely women (Mike V's wife Emily Vallely and their two daughters) have a vegan blog called The Vintage Vegans.

And Bigfoot - co-owner of I-Path and a vegan, too - has been doing some graphics for Street Plant.

From the Please Don't Eat My Friends Facebook page:
"The artist Bigfoot One, became a Vegetarian and later a Vegan inspired by Mike Vallely's Barnyard Skateboard in 1989. In 1994 he began writing “Bigfoot” and his art has always depicted the conflict between respect for nature and the destructive agenda of humans. A frequent traveler to Japan, in 2013 he used a card with the words featured on this T-Shirt in Japanese to help communicate his dietary restrictions while visiting Japan. Later, he made this collage as a social media image and then did a small run of T-Shirts. It quickly became Mike’s favorite T-Shirt to wear (as he is a huge fan of Bigfoot’s art) and he felt strongly about it being a part of our first line of T-Shirts. It’s a true honor for us to work with Bigfoot." [6]

From the Mike Vallely Facebook page:
"Besides his work for Street Plant, Bigfoot has also contributed Art to our Vegan T-Shirt Company Please Don't Eat My Friends.
The Art on this shirt (modeled by the beautiful and inspirational Emily Vallely) comes from a design that Bigfoot One created and previously issued on T-Shirts of his own. When I saw the shirts that Bigfoot made I immediately bought one — I couldn’t NOT buy one — My favorite Artist with a Vegan Message shirt — Too good!
The Art for this shirt comes from a card with the words featured on this T-Shirt in Japanese to help communicate Bigfoot’s dietary restrictions while traveling in Japan. He later made this collage as a social media image before doing a small T-Shirt run. The idea here is that these words are intended to interact kindly with people while traveling who may have no previous understanding of the Vegan Lifestyle, such as waitresses and cooks:
“I’m vegan. I can’t eat meat, poultry or fish including dashi, eggs or dairy. Thank you for your understanding.”
I have first hand seen Bigfoot share these words at an Indian Restaurant in Japan to at first have them tell us that there is nothing on their menu that we could eat. Then seeing our disappointment and appreciating the politeness of these words, the cook agreed to make something special for our party that was inline with the dietary restrictions communicated. It was a really cool and meaningful moment, the kind we should be having everywhere we go.
We are truly Soul-Satisfied to use this great Art and to share it as part of the first offering from Please Don’t Eat My Friends. Thank You Bigfoot!"

From the Mike Vallely Facebook page:
"In early 1987, I saw a television program about the plight of African Elephants, it awoke a sensitivity in me that a working class life in a small town had all but stamped out. I was sixteen years old, but it was as if I was seeing the world with new eyes. How could people kill Elephants for their tusks and how could people be at odds with Elephants over land use? I didn’t understand how the world could stand by and let any of this happen. I was saddened and angered by what I saw and learned, and the disgust that I felt was the catalyst for my journey into the idea of Animal Rights. I decided right then in that moment that I wanted to put an African Elephant on what would be my first Pro Model Skateboard and later that year I became a Vegetarian.

When I released the Barnyard Board in 1989, I had been a Vegetarian for well over a year and I had taken a lot of abuse for it along the way. Everyone around me thought that it was unnatural to not eat animals, that I was going through some teenage phase and that I’d grow out of it. Others were harsher, questioning my manliness and sanity. People were always trying to give me or make me eat meat. They didn’t understand that all that I saw in their hamburgers and hotdogs was the death of an innocent animal who was entitled to the possession of its own life and happiness. People scoffed at me. They told me to grow up. They wrote me off. I may have made a name for myself in skateboarding but my personal life had become increasingly isolated and I was without any kind of support system for my feelings and beliefs, other than my girlfriend (now wife) Ann, I didn’t know any other Vegetarians. But the Barnyard, with its Vegetarian Message of “Please Don’t Eat My Friends”, changed all of that. While it further enraged some people, for many others it was their introduction to the idea of Animal Rights and before I knew it, several of my friends had become Vegetarians and as I traveled around the world from skate shop to skate shop and from health food restaurant to health food restaurant, I would meet kids who were skating that board and who would tell me their lives had been changed by its message. This made me very happy.
After being a Vegan and Vegetarian throughout the 90’s, somewhere in 1999 I lost my way. There’s no excuse or valid reason at all for any of it, believe me, I made up plenty of excuses, all of them completely repulsive to me now. I somehow had buried that sensitivity in myself deep down beneath layers of self-loathing and self-denial and tried to live a lie. I had become my own suppressor. Then in 2014 while walking through Louisville, Kentucky, I accidentally came upon a Pig Processing Plant just outside of town. As I was walking along the retaining wall outside of the plant I heard screams of sheer terror As a meat eater, these screams may have been easy to dismiss if they all sounded the same, but they didn’t. I heard distinct individual voices screaming out in fear, and it was these screams that re-awoken a part of myself I had long subdued. As I came around the corner and I saw the pigs being corralled towards their death, screaming for their lives, my journey into Animal Right began again.
In 2015, my wife Ann and our daughters Emily and Lucy all became Vegans. Shortly after, the girls started their own Vegan Cooking Blog, The Vintage Vegans, and as a family we have grown closer and more focused and we have never been happier or healthier in our lives. And in this spirit and our desire to share the Vegan Lifestyle with people all around the world, “Please Don’t Eat My Friends” is born.
-- Mike Vallely" [7]

éS Sesla

All three colorways vegan. I don't think there are/were any non-vegan colorways. [Update: There were non-vegan éS Sesla later: ~2018.]

                              

Vans AV Rapidweld Pro LITE (exactly that name, including the "LITE")

Anti Hero series by Todd Francis

Element "End the Hunt" (endangered species) series by Todd Francis

"Six Pack" by Todd Francis

Anti Hero John Cardiel

Evan Smith is also rumoured to be vegan even though his shoe on DC is made with leather except for the canvas ("TX") versions (as of May 2018 all are still made with an all suede upper except for the canvas versions). As already reported on Vegan Skate Blog this topic was a addressed in a Thrasher interview:

"What goes through your head when thinking about your own shoe?
I’m just stoked that I have a shoe. Having the opportunity to sell something that you like with your name on it is humongous, you know what I mean? Obviously with DC’s technical support and my idea for sort of a classic hightop mixed with a boat shoe type of thing, we’ve combined some really cool technology with some really relaxed features. Those were the things that were going through my head, like, “How can I like make a comfy shoe that lasts a long time that skates great?” You know what I mean? It’s, like, I want kids to be stoked on skating, regardless. If I can add to that in any way this is an opportunity for me. I was all, “Yeah, let’s make a shoe!” I already had a hundred ideas ready to go. Let’s just say I had a couple ideas because my brain works way too quick when it comes to creating. So I’m lucky. That’s how I feel at this moment. That’s how I feel at this exact moment—I feel extremely lucky to be able to contribute to our skateboarding industry.
[...]

I understand that you had a little bit of a crisis of conscience thinking about all the leather that was going to be used for you shoe. What were you tripping on?
Yeah, this is a great fucking question. Actually, originally I declined using Super Suede completely on my shoe just due to the fact that animal hides are being used and because of the leather trade. They manufacture out of China, but the treated leather comes from Southeast Asia or India. So I was over it. I didn’t want the idea of hide on my shoe even though it’s the best and it lasts longest. It freaked me out completely. And then, through all the ups and downs as far as durability testing, I couldn’t find anything else that would work. And I’m still searching right now. So if I do revise the model at all in the future, I’m gonna continue to research with the goal of making it completely suede free. But I ended up, unfortunately, using bits of suede for the toe and we came up with this rubber-backed canvas, which is my secondary material, so any spot that doesn’t have to be suede for durability, we can use the canvas and it’s rubber backed so it’s not just gonna rip right away. It lasts at least four times as long as canvas normally lasts. You know canvas, how easy it is to rip. So with that trade off and all that stuff it’s, like, really, really hard. I don’t want to support the slaughtering of any animal for anything that has to do with anything like that. I’m not interested in being one to benefit off the slaughtering of animals. I think it’s complete bullshit and garbage. I mean, I’m pretty bummed on myself for even using suede in the first place. I am. I’m actually bummed on myself and everyone who’s reading this should be super bummed on me for using suede. And you should put that in the fuckin’ interview.

How would it feel to see Danny Way in a pair of your shoes?

Dude, I would be stoked. I would love to see him fuckin’ triple flip indy 900 over the mini gap and then into a double flip front blunt on a soccer goal to take out Bob Burnquist in the new Evan Smiths. I would be so stoked.

[...]

That’s awesome. Your great revelation was that you should hang with your bros. That’s really nice. For some reason I thought you’re supposed to get out there and half starve and get loopy and see a spirit animal or something or have some sort of extra-sensory experience.
Well, there’s definitely the kind of quest where people go fasting for 12 days straight in the woods. That’s a dehydration visual, what you’re talking about. At the moment I just wanted to make a fire by myself and catch a fish and cook it, you know, that was my goal.
Did you catch the fish?
No, I didn’t. Well, I didn’t have anything to catch it with so I was trying to find a snare trap. You hook a piece of twine to a tree and you put bait on this thing and you can catch fish out of the water by doing it with these traps, but I’m not as skilled as I would like to be, especially in that moment. And it was a huge lake so I couldn’t spear anything. So I settled for raw pine nuts from pine cones which you can find all over King’s Canyon. So I harvested a pile of those and I just ate those for dinner." [8]

Large quote by Evan Smith as it appears in the Thrasher article online [8].

Picture from the article [8].

In a 2016 interview with skateboard artist Ron Cameron, conducted by Anthony Pappalardo, Ron Cameron refers to the time when he worked for Steve Rocco (mid to late 1990s?) and describes it this way: "But still, it didn’t pan out, and I ended up feeling like I wasn’t doing anything but jumping on the trampoline and eating vegetarian food that Orb made in the World kitchen, goofing off with all of the [soon to be] Jackass guys." [9] (Also check out Ed Templeton's ~1996 painting of Ron Cameron eating vegetarian food.)

This is a Brian Lotti guest board on almost and a reference to his 1992 "Caring Consumer" graphic on Blind. This board seems to be from around 2016. Note that while the original 1992 top graphic said "This product required no use of animal testing and does not contain any animal-derived ingredients" (Lotti seems to have been vegan at the time), this new graphic says "The creation of this product required human, animal, plant, mineral, and petroleum contributions. *May endow user with certain animal powers."

Vegetarian since at least around the mid-1990s: Rick McCrank on the "Nine Club" (episode 24) [113]

2017

Etnies is coming out with a new vegan shoe for vegan skater Ryan Lay: the Jameson HT.

  See the post on the Thrasher website [10], and on the Ripped Laces website [11].

Thrasher writes: "Gathering inspiration from Ryan Lay’s personal life choice and his performance needs in skateboarding footwear, etnies set out to create a durable, high-performance skate shoe for all vegan skaters." [10] Funny how non-vegans often stress that veganism is a personal choice, rather than a political/ethical choice, i.e. a matter of justice (of whether killing animals for skate shoes is acceptable) rather than a matter of fabric choice (what fabric one personally prefers, like a choice of colour or board width).

Ryan Lay

From the Etnies brochure about "inspired by the Ryan Lay" shoe

éS Sesla DGK (éS x Dirty Ghetto Kids collaboration), vegan

éS Accel Slim Everstitch, vegan

                       

éS Swift Everstitch black, vegan

éS Swift Everstitch blue, vegan

Blind Kevin Romar Tirbute Chicken R7 board grahic - this graphic is quite clever in two ways, but you might not understand the historical significance (despite the terrible message of eating chicken) of this graphic. Check out the World Industries' anti-vegetarian Jason Lee burger graphic from 1991 and Lee Pheidias's 1993 pro-vegetarian burger ad by Blind here.

In a Feedback NY article that seems to be from 2017 Kenny Anderson says that he's been vegan for around "almost three years" which would be from around 2014 [12]. He also mentions that Brian Lotti was a vegetarian.  

In 2017 Converse also came out with a limited edition vegan all canvas and animal-free glue (and organic cotton laces [13]) Kenny Anderson Converse and Chocolate collaboration shoe named Coverse x Chocolate CTAS. Note that only the "x Chocolate" models are vegan and that other "Converse CTAS" are made with leather.

In a Villager commercial video/interview published by The Berrics on YouTube [14] Kenny Anderson says: "Digging deeper and deeper into environmentalism lead me straight to veganism. [...] Whether we like it or not we are role models. [...] I chose to have a vegan diet. I chose to grow my own food. I chose to design more sustainably."

In a post on the Berrics website, titled "RICK MCCRANK — KROOKED GUEST PRO", from 20 April 2017 [15], it says: "Rick McCrank has been busy. [...] [Rick McCrank] did an insightful interview with Mike Anderson in which he breaks down exactly why he’s vegetarian.

“Why? Well I was 18 when I became a vegetarian. My girlfriend at the time was a vegetarian so that’s how we were eating. And then I got like a rash of food poisoning from bad meat and I just kind of went towards vegetarian eating, it just felt right. No political reasons, I’m sure there’s going to be studies about it being a really good environmental thing to do, because of the impact of livestock on the climate. But no, I just feel comfortable being a vegetarian. It’s kind of like just feels normal. I was considering eating meat recently though just because I thought my health needed it. But I got all kinds of tests and everything was normal in a good place so I was like cool, I don’t gotta eat no flesh.”"

The last point is quite interesting and confirms my assumptions that a lot of vegetarians and vegans are not well informed about nutrition. Make sure you are getting enough vitamin B12, and it can be quite helpful to know some other bits of info (check out my recommendations here) - and don't get your nutrition info from random non-nutrition scientists. Generally you do not need a nutrition consultation, but if you like get in touch with someone who knows what they're talking about - like Matt Ruscigno.

The above-mentioned Rick McCrank interview (conducted by Mike Anderson) does exist on the Krooked website, typed in a barely visible almost-white on white. Here are the vegetarian-related sections: 

"[Mike:] Well on the next question, are you a vegetarian or a vegan?
[Rick:] I am a vegetarian, I’ve never been a vegan.
[Mike:] And why are you…
[Rick:] Why? Well I was 18 when I became a vegetarian. My girlfriend at the time was a vegetarian so that’s how we were eating. And then I got like a rash of food poisoning from bad meat and I just kind of went towards vegetarian eating, it just felt right. No political reasons, I’m sure there’s going to be studies about it being a really good environmental thing to do, because of the impact of livestock on the climate. But no, I just feel comfortable being a vegetarian. It’s kind of like just feels normal. I was considering eating meat recently though just because I thought my health needed it. But I got all kinds of tests and everything was normal in a good place so I was like cool, I don’t gotta eat no flesh.
[Mike:] Well your vitamin D was up and your B’s were up?
[Rick:] The B’s and D’s were up, the iron was good, which was crucial. And yeah no problems, I’m just- I think my only problem is I’m just getting old.
[Mike:] Ah, nah.
[Rick:] I don’t think any burger is going to fix that. I’ll tell you this though, there is a meat that I will eat. That’s being developed right now, it’s lab grown meat.
[Mike:] Oh I saw that.
[Rick:] I’m actually totally down to do that.
[Mike:] And then also there’s this burger coming out that has hemoglobin that they figured out how to get from plants so like a burger, you get it and it’s pink, then you cook it…
[Rick:] Oh, I think I heard about that and it has like an iron-y bloody taste to it that tastes like a burger.
[Mike:] There’s this one called the Beyond Burger that we get, they only sell it at freakin’ Whole Foods, but then there’s the Impossible Burger. We’re pretty much vegans in our household at this point.
[Rick:] Oh really? How long has that been going?
[Mike:] A little over a year. Or like I just recently over the last few months cut out fish and all that stuff.
[Rick:] Cool, yeah I never went vegan because cake, basically. Like and that’s not even a joke. Maybe it’s better these days, but whatever 23 years ago it was pretty sandy dessert for vegans.
[Mike:] And you don’t drink, so.
[Rick:] I gotta get my something.
[Mike:] Yeah you gotta have some kind of vice.
[Rick:] I guess so. I’m better with it though now, I don’t need as much sugar as I used to but god I love that stuff.
[...]
[Mike:] How about what are the top five reasons to live in Vancouver?
[Rick:] Number one is just nature. You’re basically, you’re surrounded by raw nature which is amazing. Giant mountains, fuckin’ ocean, rivers, lakes, all that is right at your fingertips, that’s one. Two is the opposite, that’s like a fuckin’ whatever, like a booming cosmopolitan city so there’s always things going on. Three would definitely be the food, especially if you’re a vegetarian there’s just like abundant options. And if you’re not a vegetarian there’s amazing food everywhere. Four, I’m gonna say there’s a lot of skate parks and those are fun, because this is for skaters." [15]

On 10 May 2017 Transworld posted an article about a Nike SB Project 58 tour [16]. The tour included Cory Kennedy, Blake Carpenter, Grant Taylor, Bobby Worrest, Ishod Wair, Donovon Piscopo, Youness Amrani, Ryan Flynn, Andrew Wilson, Max Palmer, Scuba ..., Sinclair ..., and possibly no one else. The article (written by Ryan Flynn) includes the following info: 

"First stop Whole Foods for lunch, snacks for the van, and a damn bird. This stop set the tone a lot more than any of us would have thought. Health food, plant-based diets, dates, Scuba's almond butter and jelly sandwiches, and a damn bird. Everyone had their Whole Foods bags of lunch and snacks for the day, which would be repeated every single day until the last stop in Atlanta.
[...]
Word got to the Wrecking Bar where we were having our dinner that a lot of people on the trip were vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based so they graciously made veggie options for us too"
[...]
We spent our last day of the trip there in Atlanta, skating a few spots, having a sick ramp jam at Stratosphere, which included skating Nick P's car, Donovon smacking his knee violently on the ground, and then plant-based (no cheese) pizza in the parking lot. Scuba was taking this sober, plant-based life very serious." [16]

Vegan Converse x Chocolate BBQ on 29 August 2017:

An article posted by Transworld on 31 August 2017 [17] about a Cons x Chocolate Skate Jam reported: "Nothing but good times at the Cons X Chocolate Skate Jam that went down in the Furnace skate shop parking lot [...]. [...] we all celebrated the rad new collab shoe between Cons and Chocolate [see Kenny Anderson CONS shoes above]. Crailtap OGs [including Kenny Anderson, Rick Howard, and Chris Roberts] were there indulging in Vegan BBQ and a bevy of the CONS squad and locals were skating all the classic parking lot obstacles." [17]

An article on Transworld from the day before [18] had already stated: "A classic parking lot skate jam, free vegan BBQ, all the Villager coconut waters you could ask for [...]. [...] the Converse x Chocolate skate jam at Furnace Skate Shop went off yesterday, all in celebration of Kenny Anderson’s new CONS shoe collab with Chocolate." The food was provided by Plant Food for People ("Plant Food for People is good eats!") [18]

Kenny Anderson

Kenny Anderson and Chris Roberts

Plant Food For People

In an interview with Tyshawn Jones on the website New York Skateboarding (from 6 September 2017) [19], Tyshaw mentions considering vegan-ish eating. From the interview:

"I don’t know if you’ve seen Neen Williams’ video about staying sober and healthy to extend his time skating on a high level at his age of 31. What do you foresee in the years to come for your own career? Do you stretch and take the athlete mentality towards skateboarding?
Hell yeah I’m on that shit. Epsom salt, Ice… I just ordered a gun that’s like $600 but I’m not gonna give y’all my secrets cuz y’all gonna wonder how I’m doing this shit…nah I’m just playing [laughs]. I get chirotherapy, massages. I don’t really drink a lot of soda. I was gonna try to go vegan but I don’t know…chicken, steak all that shit’s too good. I feel like I’m from the south or something, I don’t know why I like chicken and macaroni and all these crazy things. I don’t necessarily think that’s the only way to stay young but…I just say drink a lot of water, stretch, eat fruits. You know, play both sides." [19]

From a 2017 (October 2016) interview [20] with Spencer Hamilton in French skate mag À propos: 

"[Florian Debray:] I’ve seen that you are really self-conscious [he means "conscious" - see the original French: "J’ai vu que tu étais assez conscient vis-à-vis de certains sujets comme le climat, l’éducation, la politique et même la nourriture."] about some topics in life, such as climate, education, politics and food. Do you remember at what point of your life you started to apply principles in your daily life, such as being vegetarian?

[Spencer Hamilton:] Well I’m not vegetarian right now … I eat meat sometimes when I’m home. I was a vegetarian for a number of years but now I have access to such a crazy community of farmers that produce a bunch of food all year round.
[...] Sometimes I’m waking up earlier to prepare food so I can bring stuff skating, like a little bowl of quinoa salad, hummus… It saves money and I feel better because I know what I like. After so many years on tour, traveling around you start to think : « Alright so I really like this food, I don’t really like that food », so it kinda make your choices. And if I can make it better than I can buy it, I’d rather just make it." [20]

Tufty, the vegan: on 9 November 2017, Transworld posted an article [21] about some Nike SB project. It includes a man named Tufty ("Nike SB's Tufty) and the photo subtitle:

"Tufty manning the grill. He’s a vegan but he can grill up a mean steak!" [21]

A Jenkem (magazine) article [22] from 2017 mentions that Kevin Coakley (who skates for Ricky Oyola's Traffic board company) is a (lacto-)vegetarian:
"Do you have a diet that goes along with your practices?
Yeah, I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat meat, fish, eggs or anything. The only thing that I do eat that is a product of animals is a little bit of cheese. I’m not vegan yet, but I’m trying to cut that out gradually. The first principle of yoga is ahimsa, which is living a non-violent life. There are a lot of principles of yoga and meditation that help not reacting to certain things and remaining present. Shaucha is another principle that is cleansing, so not letting shit into your body. It keeps my body in shape to go skate and my mind present when I’m doing anything." [22]

Kevin Coakley, 2017

Another article [23] on the Jenkem Mag website mentions the following interesting story about Ed Templeton: "Where Hawk has toed the line regarding corporate sponsorships, and Grosso has never been considered a sell-out, Templeton is still saying no to companies that do not align with his morals. Templeton was recently offered an opportunity to sell out his vegan beliefs in a big way and initially signed on happily. He was offered a photography gig with Gucci and as he puts it, “The money was insanity.”

“I was like, “Dude, That’s so much money, I’ll do it.” Then I took a pause and within one hour of looking on the Internet and realizing that Gucci uses all this crazy animal stuff and do this snakeskin boot where you have to skin the snake alive… all this crazy shit and I was just like, “What am I doing?” I just called the lady back and said I was not doing it. It caused kind of an uproar because first, you say yes, then you say no, so it’s fucked up, but I had to pull out.

In my head I just imagined the first Internet comment or something, ‘Oh, Ed the vegan is working for some lame company that uses animals in a fucked way.’” Ed adds, “The line for me was there because it was purely for money and I didn’t really care or need to do that to live.”" [23]

In an interview [24] with Mark Kendrick of Piilgrim Clothing on the Free Skateboard Magazine website (posted on 20 November 2017), Mark Kendrick states: "I also became vegan a couple of years ago now so this is another aspect, it couldn’t be any other way. No cruelty to animals or humans in the production process as we work with factories that have excellent working conditions for all employees, and I provide the eco fabrics. Same goes for packaging where I’m using a variety of recyclable and bio-degradable materials. It’s all fairly new stuff on the market so it’s a bit of a minefield but it’s worth it!" [24]

In the Nine Club Experience #4 show (December 2017), Kenny Anderson responds to a question from a caller ("Kevin from Pittsburgh").

Kevin asks: "[...] I wondered why his new shoes that came out, the Converse x Chocolate collabs, were made in canvas and if he could kind of elaborate on why he chose those materials and what his thoughts are on that."

Kenny Anderson: "Ah ... It was really important to me to not have my [..] name attached to any animal products ... ahm ... but also using sus... now we're getting all serious but ... and also using, kind of, sustainable materials. So when we talk about doing a Chuck, my dream as a kid was to do the classic canvas Chuck. So I definitely wanna do that. And then, being able to have access to recycled canvas was even more amazing. Then, organic cotton laces, and obviously no animal glues. And then, that's why I added that little ollie bumper on there. So the canvas will actually last longer."

Kevin: "More durable."

Kenny: "Yeah, more durable 'cause canvas usually rips ... but I love skating in canvas, and like I said, for me to finally get a Chuck was kind of going back to me skating in the most classic Chucks, which were canvas. So I really wanna do that."

Kevin: "What were you saying about them being recycled canvas? Is that repurposed, or ...?"

Kenny: "Yeah, repurposed from leftover canvases ... and, I mean, we can check ... I don't know exactly. It probably comes from other places as well." [104]

... Chris Roberts and Kelly Hart mentioning synthetic suede ...

Kenny: "Yeah, there's definitely synthetic materials. I'm gonna start messing with ... ah ... these different kind of leathers that are made from plants but ..."

... Chris Roberts laughing ...

Kenny: "Like I said, the beginning ..."

Chris: "What kind of plants are they made out of? Potatoes?"

[...]

Kenny: "Pineapple leather, man. ... Google 'pineapple leather' after this. And it's really cool. But anyway, that's more of a concept shoe. But like I said, I could have done synthetic anything but like I said, I really wanna do the canvas Chuck to start and then ... and the One Star, and then from there start messin' with the synthetics and like ... ah ... yeah ... and versions like that ... and you know, it's important for that to just ... not only be a ... you know, 'cause a lot of companies have vegan shoes, if you wanna label it, by default ... But ... I'm not a vegan by default, you know. So it's like, it's better to have more meaning behind ... product that comes out." [104] 

Kenny Anderson, Nine Club Experience, December 2017

Some skate video:

• The 2017 Krooked video "Krooked LSD - Let's Skate Dude" has a video part by Mike Anderson - who appears to have been vegan since around 2017 (or a little later). In this video part, he seems to be wearing mostly Converse shoes that look like they're canvas.

2018

On the Thrasher website, there is a 60-seconds-long video of Sergei Trudnowski (posted in April 2018). The post is titled: "Sergei Trudnowski's "15th & JFK" Video" and the blurb reads: "Sergei talks about what it was like skating Philadelphia in the early '90s with LOVE park, City Hall and Municipal all next to one another." [70]

Still from the video, Sergei Trudnowski, 2018

In a 2018 interview with Sergei Trudnowski on The City Wide Show podcast, Sergei mentions that a clip from his video part in the 1996 Sheep video "Life of Leasure" was used in a video commerical for the 2017 vegan Etnies Ryan Lay shoe (see 2017 above) [115]. In the same interview, Sergei also mentions that he used to work at Angelica's Kitchen, a vegan restaurant in New York City (where he served, among others Madonna, Q-Tip, and the Beastie Boys) [115].

Still from the City Wide Show interview (2018): Sergei Trudnowski (with glasses)

The Spanish skate company Jart has come out with a board graphic that, for a change, is quite smart, though not intentionally.

Jart, hemp seed graphic

Skate Mental with a particularly orange, meat-based graphic

Ed Templeton has a new (and vegan) shoe on Emerica, not a skate shoe, but a waxed canvas desert boot - the Emerica Ed Templeton Reserve Vegan Desert Boot

                                                           

  

And also the Emerica Ed Templeton Reserve Wino (vegan)

Deathwish Neen Williams, Neen Teen-Ager board graphic

In the Alex Olson episode (episode 81; January 2018) [25] of "The Nine Club with Chris Roberts" Alex Olson says that he is vegan and has been vegan for one and a half years.

In the Nyjah Huston episode (episode 86) of "The Nine Club with Chris Roberts" [26] Nyjah Huston describes his current dietary pattern as "I don't eat red meat. I try to not eat too much cheese, no normal milk, I hate eggs [...] aside from not being vegan I am still a really healthy person".

A new website named Salad Grinds and Bean Plants is posting vegan recipes with skateboard industry/culture inspired names.

Deathwish 

Neen Williams "You are what you eat"

If you look at Neen Williams' Instagram it seems that he isn't a vegetarian but does eat a lot of plant-based foods. And he confirms this in his Nine Club episode (episode 63; September 2017): "I eat everything." [a diet including meat] [27]

Deathwish 

Neen Williams "Happy place"

I'm not sure if this Villager Atiba Jefferson commercial video [28] is from 2018 but it's currently (June 2018) up on the Villager website. Below the video the first sentence is: "Atiba Jefferson has been a vegetarian for twenty six year [!] and has always been aware of products he consumes."

The video starts with Atiba saying: "I've been a vegetarian since I was fourteen. So that's twenty-six years of being a vegetarian. I'm a very health conscious person." [28]

In a Villager commercial video [29] about Miles Silvas he says: "Just randomly me and my girlfriend were like: Let's try to just be vegetarian and not eat meat for a little bit. Just blindly jumped into it. And if you blindly jump usually into anything, without little previous knowledge of it, it's not usually gonna last very long, so we did that [and they started eating meat again]. [...] [A] couple [of] months went by and I was on a trip. She sent me this documentary, and that's when I really got into it. Just the health reasons and all the stuff I didn't realize cause certain things to happen. That just kinda curbed my whole thought process on how I wanted to eat. I rather eat and feel good than eat have things happen to me in the long run or feel pretty bad, so you know ever since then - it's probably been about three years - I try to eat good so I can skate good. Since I've changed my diet I feel lighter and, like, have more energy and stuff like that. But when I get to go on a trip and say I get to cook or something or, like, make a vegan meal or vegetarian meal, like, 90% of people who don't eat like that, when they do eat it, then they're pretty psyched on it. That's like, that kind of changed them a little bit, to be more open to it. But, I think the hardest part is probably the first couple months, 'cause you gotta figure out what you're gonna eat, what is the right suff. [...]" [29]

The Villager website states (below the video): "[...] In this short film, Miles discusses his vegan way of life and the upbringing that propelled him to achieving his goals." However, in the video there is no mention of Miles being a vegan. The above quote from the video rather suggests that he also eats non-vegan vegetarian food (pure speculation). However in the October 2014 issue of Thrasher (see here, under 2014) Miles says that he has been vegan for four months.

Anyway, if you have watched his Nine Club interview [30], you'll know he seems like the nicest and most gentlemanly fella ever. His signature shoe on adidas is animal suede.

In a blog post by Jenkem Magazine (March 2018) [64] including a video (in which he mentions that before he used to be "[...] constantly on skate trips - it's almost impossible to take care of your diet [...]" [65]) and vegetarian recipe (grilled cheese sandwiches as a side) by Yaje Popson, it is mentioned that Yaje Popson grew up in a Hare Krishna household [possibly in Belo Horizonte, Brazil], which indicates he likely grew up with a lacto-vegetarian diet.

"If you’re familiar with the beloved Yaje Popson [...] you might have wondered about his heavy feed of Avocado related posts. [...] We headed over to his East Village apartment, which was tinged with the scent of sage and covered wall to wall with cultural artifacts and souvenirs from all across the globe.

While we were chopping it up in the kitchen, we discovered that food is a serious subject for Yaje, who was brought up in a Hare Krishna household. He considers a good and healthy meal to be an important part of any healing and recovery process and broke down how he has grown to take care of himself through food." [64] In the linked Thrasher Yaje Popson skate video he seems to be wearing almost exclusively Adidas shoes and very likely all of most of these were leather. Also, interestingly he uses garlic and onions - which generally Hare Krishnas don't use,indicating that he is not a Hare Krishna himself [64].

In an article about Brad Staba (who used to be meat-free at least at some point in the 1990s) opening his own pizzeria, in Jenkem Magazine (June 2018) [63], Brad Staba is asked ...

[Jenkem:] "In recent years pro skater diets have evolved from the three food groups of Doritos, Fritos, and Cheetos, to veggies, green juice, and nutritional supplements. But you’re sticking with pizza. Are you ever gonna go vegan?

[Brad Staba:] No, I’m never going vegan. Isn’t that the new thing, though, plant-based? That’s an awesome trend. I think it’s great that people are getting healthier. I think it’s awesome that Villager debuted bottled water recently. [Bong noises] Sorry, I’m doing drugs. It’s just crazy that there hasn’t been a water company yet. Skaters buy water. Do you drink a lot of water?" [63]

Brad Staba around 2018 (no later) (from Jenkem Mag)

In episode 103 of The Nine Club (July 2018) [31] Brandon Turner - of Shorty's Fullfil The Dream fame - says: "I don't eat meat anymore" [... fish?] "yeah, sometimes." [31]

Supreme "chicken dinner" deck graphic

In the Jamie-Thomas-interviewing-himself episode of his video podcast "Thrill Of It All" (episode 6 [32]) Jamie Thomas talks about his typical (second) breakfast after yoga class: I make a "bulletproof" coffee, which is coffee, organic coffee with grass-fed butter and coconut oil - to stimulate my brain and get me going." I think the man is speaking for himself. To be fair, he doesn't respresent EVERYthing that is wrong with the world, just a handful of things. I'm being too harsh. Religion is the opium of the people.

In the Ray Barbee episode of Jamie Thomas's video podcast "Thrill Of It All" from July 2018 (episode 7 [33]) behind Ray Barbee on the bookshelf you can clearly see the book "John Robbins: Diet for a new America" (top left, third book from left). This 1980s/90s bestseller and classic of vegetarian/vegan popular literature was the unfortunate "bible of veganism" - similar to the current unfortunate "bible of veganism" titleholder "The China Study" by Colin Campbell (and his son). Without explicitly mentioning the word "vegan" the book "Diet for a new America" used correlations from scientific studies to paint a picture of how a diet free from animal products would prevent disease and environmental destruction. Unfortunately John Robbins did not (and likely does not) understand how nutritional science works but he does not know that he does not know. While Robbins once famously rejected inheriting the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire from his father, he later rejected vegan diets as unhealthy, and in his 2006 book "Healthy at 100" he makes the outlandish claim that vegans must take carnosine supplements (see rant below).

Ray Barbee ("Thrill of it all" podcast episode 7)

[Rant about John Robbins: In his US-America focused 2011 booklet "A vegan history: 1944-2010" Erik Marcus (who it seems confirmed this information with John Robbins himself) writes: "John Robbins picked up the mantle and wrote the 1987 book, Diet for a New America - the first hugely popular book to specifically advocate veganism.

By the time he wrote the book, Robbins had followed a vegan lifestyle off and on for more than fifteen years. He and his wife Deo became vegetarian in 1968 and vegan in 1969. Becoming vegan in the 1960s was rare enough, but the interesting part of this story is that John's father was ice cream tycoon Irv Robbins, cofounder of Baskin-Robbins. As Irv's only son, it had always been the plan that John would eventually take over the family ice cream empire. Now not only had John taken himself out of the running, he wouldn't even eat the stuff.

When John and Deo's son Ocean was born in 1973, the family continued a vegan diet for six years. In 1979, John and Deo went back to eating dairy products, and Ocean had his first Baskin Robbins ice cream cone.

One of Robbins' close friends is Kali Ray, the founder of TriYoga, a popular California yoga school. In 1984, she convinced Robbins and his family to switch back to a vegan diet. It was around this time that Robbins decided to write a book on this subject, which his publisher ultimately titled Diet for a New America. He worked for nearly two years on his manuscript. As with Akers' 1983 The Vegetarian Sourcebook Robbins' book tied together the health, ethical, and environmental advantages of a vegan diet. Although Robbins read The Vegetarian Sourcebook while researching Diet for a New America, he considers Animal Liberation [by Peter Singer] to be the book that most influenced his manuscript.

At the time Robbins was writing, very few Americans had ever even heard the word vegan. I figured he must have had an awful time trying to find a published for a manuscript on such an obscure subject, but that was not the case. His response to this question: [Marcus doesn't use quotation marks here.] Actually, it wasn't difficult at all. I wrote the entire book, every word of it, before even thinking about publishing. I was just taken over by the need to write it. I never had a single thought about publishing which is odd, when I look back upon it, because we were living on savings that we had built up while I had been a practicing psychotherapist - but for the two plus years I was writing our savings were fast dwindling. Deo was cleaning houses and doing bookkeeping to make money, but she wasn't able to make enough to keep up with our expenses. When the book was done, I sent it to five publishers, and - with one exception - they all wanted to publish it. [I'm assuming the quote ends here.]

Diet for a New America was published in 1987, and has sold more than a million copies. Very few books have achieved such success after getting off to such a slow start. Two years after publication, Diet for a New America had sold just 25,000 copies. But then the book suddenly gained traction and sales soared. For well over a decade, it was the dominant vegan advocacy book.

There are several reasons for the strong success of Diet for a New America. The story of Robbins turning his back on the family ice cream fortune caught people's attention. The book itself was written in an engaging style. And the tone was the exact opposite of The Smith's [!] "Meat is Murder." [!] [the song] Robbins' book avoided stridency at all costs. It was the sort of book you could give to your grandmother without worrying that it would cause offense. And its nonjudmental tone won many a die-hard meat eater over to veganism.

Robbins' May All Be Fed was published in 1992, and it was a sequel of sorts to Diet for a New America. The text was just over a hundred pages, with the remainder of the book consisting of recipes. May All Be Fed focused primarily on hunger issues, and the concept of showing reverence for food. The book did not sell nearly as well as Diet for a New America. In July of 2001, Robbins came out with a full-length follow-up, titled The Food Revolution. It presented updated information first covered in Diet for a New America, as well as a lengthy section on genetically modified foods. The Food Revolution sold about 75,000 copies in its first year.

With the publication of Diet for a New America, the vegan movement at long last had a popular and explicitly vegan advocacy book [It was not explicitly vegan and is full of misinformation.]. During the 1990s, well over a hundred local vegetarian groups cropped up around the United States.

Today, just about every midsized city has a local vegetarian group. And, largely from the influence of Diet for a New America [claim by Erik Marcus], the focus of local vegetarian groups has shifted from vegetarian to vegan. During the 1980s, most potlucks put on by local vegetarian groups were dominated by dishes loaded with dairy products and eggs. By the late 1990s, most local vegetarian potlucks had become 100 percent vegan [claim by Erik Marcus.]."  

In a personal email reply to me from October 2007 John Robbins confirmed to me his opinion that: "In the short term, a strictly vegan diet helps a lot of people. In the longer term, you need to be careful to get certain nutrients: B-12, of course [I agree - take a B12 supplement], and there are a few others, including zinc [easy to get from plant legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains], long-chain omega three fatty acids [It's very uncertain if vegans would benefit from such supplements], and carnosine [not necessary, likely not beneficial, and possibly harmful, also see here]. There are phytonutrients that are essential for health, and are mainly found in plants. And there are carnonutrients [Which?] that are essential for health, and that are more commonly found in animal products.

A healthy vegan diet is certainly possible, but it means eating a wide variety and lots of fresh vegetables, and it means taking B-12 [yes!] and carnosine [no!] and DHA and EPA [not necessary, questionable if beneficial] supplements."

See my vegan nutrient recommendations here. You can file both "The China Study" and "A Diet for a New America" under: good general recommendation (a more or less plant-based diet) using dodgy, non-science-based but rather personal-ideology-based arguments.

In a blog post from 9 April 2012 Erik Marcus writes: "[John] Robbins certainly has the talent and expertise to write the next major book on veganism [my opinion: he doesn't at all] and food politics, but No Happy Cows [another book by John Robbins] is not a serious effort to open up a new vein of conversation on the topic." [34]]

A video from May 2018, titled "Tom Asta Gets All Up In Our Grill" (which shows Tom Asta grilling meat at the beginning of the video), on The Berrics YouTube channel has the text: "Ever since Tom Asta adopted more of a plant-based lifestyle, he's had a surplus of beef left over. We gladly relieve him of his gristle while he butchers the park and gets all up in our grill." [61]

   

Skate Mental Wieger van Wageningen

In episode 120 of The Nine Club (Spencer Hamilton episode) Spencer Hamilton says how he has switched from a vegetarian-ish/vegan-ish diet to a very meat-heavy ("ketogenic") diet [35] while Kelly Hart reports that he "stopped eating meat kinda lately" [36] because he keeps seeing photos of dead pigs stacked on top of each other. Kelly says "[...] bacon is good [but] you're just like killing an animal". Interestingly the response to this by Roger Bagley and even more so by Spencer Hamilton ("Plants feel feelings, too, brah. [...] You're supposed to eat the fucking meat, eat the veggies, eat the fucking stuff that makes you feel good.") can be filed under "typical manly jock response" in the vein of "empathy with animals is weak/silly/"effeminate"/"gay"/not manly". Maybe in 2018 we still have to consider it progress when the Nine Club hosts and their guests aren't as backwards and reactionary as Donald Trump.   

Kelly Hart, The Nine Club, episode 120 

[Nutrition rant: The nutrition "info" provided by Spencer Hamilton in this issue is just from so deep within anti-science nonsense-land (and I do empathize with Spencer for being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and searching for useful info, and I do understand it is not easy to find answers in nutrition, especially for the general public) ... that I did add a comment on YouTube and will cite it here:

"Some confusing statements were made about nutrition. Maybe this will help... Our digestive tract is (in that order): mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon), anus. So everything after the stomach is the "gut" or intestine. Almost all nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine: carbohydrates (sugar and starch), fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. Meat is mostly fat and protein with some minerals and vitamins, so yes, these are absorbed in the small intestine - but so are sugar and starch. What is not absorbed in the small intestine is fiber. Foods very low in fiber are all animal products, refined sugar, juices, white flour and oil. Foods high in fiber are fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and mushrooms. Fiber ends up in the large intestine and is fermented there by bacteria into short-chain fatty acids, and these protect our intestinal wall (they also provide a small amount of calories). For general good health, prevention of disease, and lowering inflammation in the body healthy (!) plant-based diets are often recommended. See here: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein/ 

If Spencer is only eating fruit, meat and salad, this does not seem to include a good source of calcium, which is important for bones. For info on calcium see here https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/calcium-and-milk/ Instead of just trying "Dr Google", if you're looking for general advice on health or diseases check "Dr Mayo Clinic". If you are interested in healthy eating check "Dr HSPH" (Harvard University; see links above). If you are looking for info on specific supplements, check https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/ It can be frustrating that medical doctors can "only" give you advice on which medication to take (or which operation to have). BUT that is their job. That is what they are trained in, despite what the general public often expects of medical doctors. If you have a special condition (like ankylosing spondylitis) and are looking for nutrition advice, try to find a registered dietitian (= RD; or another university trained nutritional scientist), ideally one who is specialized in what you are interested in (for example ankylosing spondylitis, or less specific auto-immune disorders). If you live in the US you can possibly find a suitable RD here https://www.eatright.org/find-an-expert 

If you want to look at the latest science yourself (this might be tricky) you can check "Dr PUBMED" and look for reviews (tick "Reviews" on the left). Then just search for example "ankylosing spondylitis nutrition" etc. However, this info is not written for the general public and might not be easily understood ... 

Here's the latest on ankylosing spondylitis and diet: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29657875 I would also make sure to get enough omega-3 fatty acids from (especially also from plant foods) which are anti-inflammatory https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-Consumer/#h3
Take care!"]

In the Nine Club episode 125 [37] Dustin Dollin remembers how he used to get "this first, like, fake vegan chicken, even though I wasn't vegan, but I liked the fake one better" [37]. 

Memorable quote from Andy Macdonald: "I'm a chai tea latte soy." [buys it at Starbucks] [38]

Andy Macdonald on the the Nine Club (episode 126)

Ryan Lay (around 2018)

Chris Wimer, a pro for Zero since 2018, in a Thrasher interview (posted on 19 November 2018) said that he is a vegan: 

"[Alex Papke:] Is it hard going on skate trips with dudes that aren’t as healthy as you are? Are you full vegan or just vegetarian?
[Chris Wimer] I’m vegan, but no I don’t think so. Sometimes it can be a little tough but I try not to make it inconvenient on anybody else—just gas-station snacks all day. Can’t go wrong with a bag of chips or some trail mix! Sometimes you gotta make something out of nothing. I’ve been doing it for five years now so I’m pretty used to it." [39].

Chris Wimer 

An article posted on the Transworld website on 8 August 2018 [40] about a Theories of Atlantis skate trip to Mexico (including Ben Gore, Luke Malaney, John Baragwanath, Mike Heikkila, Matt Velez, Kevin Coakley, and Pat Steiner) includes the statement (article written by Pat Steiner): "What better way to celebrate than to eat? 
The street meat had been kind to us but we needed a nice sit down meal. The crew was split between vegan tacos and pizza, [...] [And then after some sort of catastrophe occurring:] Oh, well. These vegan tacos better be good." [40]


On 1 November 2018 Transworld posted an article [41] called "adidas in Oz". Asked about the "Top 3 things you ate in Australia" ... 
Diego Najera responded: 
"I ate a lot of vegan food. I try to eat healthy super foods every day no matter where I am."
Miles Silvas responded:
"Lord of the fries, this restaurant with a vegan "Big Mac" went crazy, and a homemade meal from Tommy Fynn's mom was super dope!"
 ... and
Zach Saraceno responded:
"I ate really good Thai food, vegan burgers, and the same breakfast every single day on the trip. I forget the name of it but it was really good." [41]

Diego Najera (TWS, 2018)

Miles Silvas (2018)

Zach Saraceno (2018)

Aaron Homoki (aka Jaws), Birdhouse

Louie Lopez, Flip, "space monkey"

An article [42] on the Jenkem Mag website about Tyshawn Jones' new restaurant in New York City mentions that "Bill Strobeck came to congratulate TJ and got the chef to make him a special vegan plate." However, in a Tim O'Connor podcast from 2015 [43], Bill Strobeck mentions not being vegan or vegetarian anymore, but having tried out a vegan diet for a while earlier. 

Bill Strobeck, 2018

In an interview [44] with Martino Cattaneo on the Free Skateboard Magazine website (posted on 23 October 2018), there is the following exchange:
"True. You are vegan and you really pay attention to what you buy and eat right? Why did you make this choice?
[Martino Cattaneo:] I’d rather say I am ‘plant based’; it’s more accurate. I pay a lot of attention to what I eat but not that much to what I wear, so I am not really vegan. Anyway, I became vegetarian when I was 17, after awhile I stopped drinking milk and eating milk derivatives. At the beginning I made this choice because of ethical reasons; I didn’t want to support the meat industry in any way. I really believe that the meat industry is consuming a lot of unnecessary energy and is really damaging our ecosystem. But after a while being vegetarian also made me feel better physically and I realised it was good for my body. Since I’ve stopped eating milk derivatives I stopped having pollen allergies and now for me it’s just normal to only eat plants; it became a habit." [44]


In a "Hangig out with ... Mark Suciu" video by Jenkem (14 November 2018), Mark Suciu says: "I'm also vegetarian, leaning towards vegan [...]" [45].

In a post from 23 November 2019, on the Live Kindly website [46], there is an interview with Kenny Anderson. 

Here are some sections from the interview: "[Kenny Anderson's career] has also given him a valuable platform to work with nonprofit organizations and advocate for causes close to his heart, such as veganism and animal rights.

A vegan of four and a half years [that would mean since roughly early-ish 2015], and a longtime vegetarian before that, Anderson says initially finding the [vegan] movement helped him out of a space where he felt lost and disconnected.
“I had a vegan friend that really helped me connect back with myself and inspired me to really align all of my values and morals in life with my actions [.] Becoming vegan naturally happened because it was the best and most impactful way of doing that.”
The vegan skateboarding community is not huge, says Anderson, however interest in the lifestyle is growing. And it’s this interest that inspires him to keep advocating for the movement. “My diet does come up a lot through social media and in person,” he said. “I get a lot of people asking me questions about how to start being vegan, healing, energy, etc… I’ve seen the scene grow first hand by simply just talking about it.”
Since adopting the lifestyle, he explained, every step in his life has been a conscious one, considering the impact of his actions on the earth, the animals, others, and himself. His food philosophy is simple, carrying around a jar of seeds, nuts, and berries on every tour, and trying new plant-based meals at restaurants around the world.
Even Anderson’s brand collaborations are as ethical as possible; he’s currently working on a 2019 collection for Converse that will be devoid of animal products, created from pineapple leather and vegan suede. He’s also in meetings regarding a vegan skate event and likes to leave himself open for any advocacy opportunity that may come along.
Aside from events and collaborations, Anderson believes in simple advocacy through his daily actions. “When I first posted anything vegan I received a lot of feedback and it inspired me to show more of what I do on a normal day,” he explained. “I feel like being myself and being open to answering when people ask, whether it’s online or in person, is the most important way for me right now.”
“What I’ve learned is that skaters don’t connect with all of the information out there, but they do connect with me as a skateboarder,” he continued. “They can relate to me so they relate to my words, so skateboarding then becomes their connection to veganism, animal rights, etc.” [46]

2019

At the very end of the Bobby Puleo episode of the Nine Club (episode 133 [47]) the conversation takes a surprising little turn into a small discussion about if they could kill an animal themselves to eat it. 

Chris Roberts: "Do you hunt?" 
Bobby Puleo: "No." 
Roberts: "Could you kill ...?"
Puleo: "No." 
[...]
Roberts: "But going hunting for sport ..."
Puleo: "It's crazy." [...] "I can't fish either." [...] "Fishing is a weird one." [...] "What's the difference between the fish and the ... [land animal/mammal]?" 
[...]
Roger Bagley: "What if you suffocate it?" [...] "... but you take the fish out of water and you're basically suffocating it."
Puleo: "It's true."
Roberts: "It's this weird divide, weird line that I have." [killing mammals like deer or dogs or cats vs. killing fish]
Puleo: "Well, I'm not a huge promoter of the vegan lifestyle."
Bagley: "You're not going around telling everyone you are vegan and...?"
Puleo: "Well, you know, if I have to like, if that comes up, then yeah maybe." [47]

Then Bobby Puleo goes off talking about the idea of absorbing the "negative energy" when you consume the meat of slaughtered animals [this is likely nonsense, even when metaphorically speaking of energy]. [47]

Puleo: "If you have a dog, that you take care of, a pet ... you know, would you eat your dog?"
[...]
Roberts: "... because they're killed pretty brutally."
Puleo: "Yeah, it's crazy." [...] "And again, I'm not a hardcore promoter of the, the like vegan lifestyle" 
Roberts: "Right. But you practice it?" 
Puleo: "Yeah, yeah. ... But there is definitely something that makes sense to me, that you shouldn't be consuming flesh, like that [...]." [47]

Bobby Puleo, The Nine Club episode 133)

In episode 135 of the Nine Club [48] Jason Jessee mentions that his "mom ... was a ... equal rights activist, a lay midwife ... so she was, she was pretty ra[dical], they were radical, like, vegan. So my mom was like this, she was a great example of how to be, and I would do the opposite a lot." [48]

Jason Jessee (The Nine Club episode 135)

At the very end of the episode Jason Jessee says: "I'm gonna go to Long Beach Black [?]. Kenny [Anderson] did the ... vegan. "
Roger: "They've got a vegan menu?"
Jason Jessee: "Yeah, so good!" [48]


Prime Wood LA which might be the same wood shop that in the early 1990s produced the skateboards for the company Prime (under the Steve Rocco - World Industries - Plan B - Blind - 101 - umbrella). Prime Wood LA has a series called Prime Heritage that produces early 1990s rehash graphics. In April 2019 (it seems) they came out with two new versions of the infamous Jason Lee burger graphic from 1991, by World Industries (see here):
- an Ed Templeton Veggie burger ... Why is the burger green? (see below)
- a Bart Simpson pork burger (see below)

The ad for the Ed Templeton board states that Ed Templeton has been a vegan since 1991, and that the Ed Templeton graphic is originally from 1991 but was never released. I have my doubts because Ed Templeton never rode for any of the Rocco companies (World, Blind, 101, Plan B, or Prime). But the 2019 Prime Wood LA website [49] claims to have manufactured boards for companies like Madrid, Z Products, "World, Blind, Plan B, 101, Shorty’s, Birdhouse, Flip, Hookups, Baker, and the Firm to name just a portion". Interestingly, the website states that their current decks are made in the US: "100% handcrafted quality skateboards, proudly made by skateboarders right here in Los Angeles". Notably their website also says that "To this day Phil [Tuccinardi; one of the owners] speaks of the countless hours Rodney [Mullen] spent shaping and perfecting things at the Prime factory to make top notch, quality skateboards." [49] The decks by the Rocco brands (World Industries, Blind, Plan B, 101, and maybe Prime) in the early 1990s were widely known to be some of the worst quality decks around.
As you can see from the ad the deck is available in a 1990/1991 shape and a modern shape in different widths.

Prime (Prime Wood LA), Ed Templeton Veggie burger (slick)

Prime (Prime Wood LA), Ed Templeton Veggie burger and Bart Simpson burger

In the David Gravette episode of the Nine Club (episode 150) [50] David Gravette mentions that he goes fishing and that he releases the fish that he catches (called "catch and release"). This leads to the following exchange of thoughts:
Chris Roberts: "So you're a catch and release guy?"
David Gravette: "Yeah, which ... I mean, I'm definitely a hypocrite, because I'm not a veg... - I eat meat, and I'm out there cat[..], like it's stupid that I ... I've been trying to come to terms with that. I feel like I either need to be like a vegetarian or start taking my own meat cause it's just too like ... annoying to ... I mean, no one has the guts to do it, and the world would be ... probably be a lot better if ... you had to. [..] I mean, I'm catching this meat trout and putting it away and then ordering a fish sandwich from like McDonald's. You know, like, it's stupid."
Roger Bagley: "It doesn't make sense, yeah."
David Gravette: "Makes me feel like a hypocrite.
Chris Roberts: "Right."
David Gravette: "And the one I just ... it wasn't that long ago ... that I finally did take the fish ... and I felt like it was ... because I've been claiming I was gonna do it a lot because I'm always camping, and right there I'll tell ... like, people always be like 'Let's eat like ... catch a fish, let's eat it' and I'll be like 'Maybe'. And then I catch one and before I even think about it my hands have already tooken the hook out and ... put the fish back. But I'm like, like I said, I've just been thinking about how silly it is to keep ... I need to make a choice, kind of ... if I'm gonna be a vegetarian or start eating some of the things that I can catch. ... This fish ... I caught it. I put it in the net, and it was wriggling so hard that it, like, ripped something in its mouth and it was just like prof... I could see that its tongue was all tore up and it was like profusely bleeding, and I'm like 'Shit, this is it. This is the one'. Just went to shore, blessed its soul, thanked it, smashed it with a rock, flayed it right there. Brought it up to the campfire and it was delicious."
Chris Roberts: "That was hard for you to do?"
David Gravette: "It was. I don't like it at all. ... Yeah ... I was a vegetarian for like eight years when I was a kid."
Chris Roberts: "Oh, OK."
David Gravette: "And it stopped at, kind of when I started travelling with skateboarding, because it was like too hard."
Roger Bagley: "It's hard to eat."
David Gravette: "Yeah."
Chris Roberts: "Yeah. ... I mean just hurting animals in general is hard for me."
David Gravette: "That's walking my fightin side, for sure."
Chris Roberts: "Yeah."
David Gravette: "Like, I will not let ... I will not stand there and have someone abuse an animal, even if it ..."
Chris Roberts: "Oh yeah ...? [...] I was watching this YouTube video the other night ... this woman was on a horse and the horse, you know how they, they lift up their front legs, and the horse fell over backwards, onto the woman ... I didn't care about the woman. I was like ... they fucking ... this horse just ... like it hurt my soul."
[...]
Chris Roberts: "But you would hear about, you know, even if a horse would, like, break its leg, they would put it down, you know. And that's fucking gnarly. [...]"
[...]
Chris Roberts: "Animals getting hurt, it fucking breaks my heart, bro. ... But fishing's different though. I feel like maybe I ca... It's something about it. I've said it before ..."
David Gravette: "It bothers me a lot sometimes, but I can't help ... it's just so good, like it's the excuse to get out, to be out there and like ... Man you get addicted to that wriggle too, man. You wanna feel ... You want that pull to hit." [50]

David Gravette (Nine Club episode 150)

In the Chad Muska episode of the Nine Club (episode 159 [51]) Chad says: "I eat a completely plant-based diet but yet my shoes are made of leather at times, and they've been made of leather and suede before I became, ah, ah, vegan - ahm, so, I say plant-based because vegan, I think, is a very strong statement to make. In my time it was, and so just the fact that I would wear leather on my feet goes against the idea of being vegan - I would say so. I eat a plant-based diet. I want to make less amount of products with these, with animal by-products as possible. But the machine is running pretty heavily and it's not all up to me at this point. But I do plan on making vegan products. Right now, especially, like, I have a lot of things, ideas in the works. [...] And I think it's also tricky for vegans as well, if you make a line of vegan products, but then you also have the other side. It's sort of like a ... But I think there'll be some people who will appreciate it if you make, at least offer the versions and ... Some of my shoes have been synthetic, and there are options out there. I have to look into the glues more too, and stuff, to know exactly if they're 100% vegan or not." [51] (Update: 6 October 2023: The "original" Muska pro shoe has just be re-released by éS shoes. However, while the original ones from the late 1990s were actually synthetic - or at least there were synthetic colourways - the two new colourways that have just be released in September/October 2023 are made of real, animal-source nubuck/leather. Shame.)

Chad Muska (Nine Club episode 159)

 
Some interesting new board graphics by Antihero ... the Brian Anderson lobster graphic is quite disappointing ... true to the cliche that ex-vegetarians are often the worst when it comes to self-indulgent callousness towards making animals suffer (such as, a lobster when it's boiled alive).

Antihero Brian Anderson

Antihero "street anatomy" board graphic series

 

(Photo: Kenny Anderson, London, 2018. Photo by Sam Ashley, Free Skateboard Magazine)

In an interview with Kenny Anderson on the Free Skateboard Magazine website (posted on 6 March 2019 [52]), there is the follwing exchange between the interviewer Sirus F Gahan and Kenny Anderson: 
"I tried not to nerd out too much on chatting veganism with Kenny between spots, but it was semi-inevitable […].

So you just visited the UK last week, what did you come over for? It wasn’t for skating right?
Kenny Anderson: Well, there’s this vegan festival called Vevolution that happens out in the UK. They invited this organisation called ‘Eat, Drink Vegan’, which is out in LA. I was one of the ‘Eat, Drink Vegan’ representatives that was invited to speak on their stage, ha ha.

[…]

Did you get any weird questions?
[Kenny Anderson:] Actually no, it was kind of just pertaining to me as a skateboarder and being on a plant-based diet and what that means. Also the speaker asked about how that effects having product in skateboarding and all that, and so I was able to talk about the shoe I put out and the shoe I’m working on. So I guess it’s pretty much just about my life basically ha ha.

[…]

I don’t want to talk about veganism too much, because it can get pretty dry, especially for the non-vegans out there, but I do have a couple more vegan questions (sorry non-vegans). I know what it’s like to be a vegan on a skate trip, and in general it kind of sucks actually… I wanted to ask, how do you go about it? Are you always running off by yourself?
[Kenny Anderson:] It’s definitely a lot easier now actually, because I travel mostly with Converse and a few guys are vegan as well on there. But typically throughout the last years, I’d just do a lot of research on where I’m going, and I’d just disappear and do my own thing. Which is cool because I’ve seen cities around the world that I’ve been to before, but I’ve seen them in a whole different way, just to go to this one restaurant, that I wanted to go to. I’ll break out early and go skate, and be in the zone I’ve never been to before, find a skate spot, things like that.

Yeah, that’s sick.
[Kenny Anderson:] It’s pretty cool.

It’s kind of a conduit to lead you on new adventures, to places you might not have stumbled on before?
[Kenny Anderson:] Yeah! I kind of like that. It’s cool that I can eat with people now, but at the same time I kind of like venturing out by myself a lot.

So the guys on Converse that are vegan, did that all happen because of that trick in Purple?
[Kenny Anderson:] No, it kind of started after this Korea trip we did. It stemmed from a discussion with Mike (Anderson) about the drought in LA, and it just led on to more questions, and I feel like Mike was already going that way. He was also my roommate, so we’d sit there and talk a lot and inspire each other you know?

That’s really cool.
[Kenny Anderson:] And then Aaron (Herrington) was there at that trick in Purple yeah, the noseslide nollie flip. It was one of those tricks that you know, you stick and you just keep buckling. Then a couple guys said that they’d go vegan for three days if I landed it, and then all of a sudden everyone’s chiming in: ‘I’ll go vegan the rest of the trip’ just to kind of spark me up. Which is funny because that would spark me up more than anything. And then yeah, that’s the one I did. That’s why in the video my hands were up; sadly it wasn’t a joy for myself.

It wasn’t self props.
[Kenny Anderson:] No, it was about everyone there, probably about 80% of the people in that crew were going to eat plant-based for the rest of the trip. So then that’s when Aaron [Herrington] started, and he hasn’t gone back. I think it’s been two years now.

And he’s sober as well right?
[Kenny Anderson:] Yeah, vegan and sober, and that’s the thing with Aaron too, we were already having talks, it’s not like it was just like, ‘Oh here’s a trick let me do it, and you can go vegan.’ He was already on that level of consciousness, of shifting his life. And it’s not about just diet; it’s about stress and breathing, and prioritising yourself more you know? And diet just happens to fall in that category. Since then, there have been times when people will just throw it out there during a trick, and it’s kind of cool. I did a Girl and Chocolate trip with Mike Mo and Malto, and they called it out on this trick, and I did it, and they ate vegan the rest of the trip. It was only two more days, but you know it’s kind of a thing now.

For sure, but are these guys actually sticking to it? Ben Raemers told me he said he’d do it once, but would sneak off at night to get Big Macs, ha ha.
[Kenny Anderson:] I remember some people were cheating, which is funny because I don’t really care. It’s more about the concept of it and the conversations that come about. Even a couple of meals, that means a lot to me…

You kinda mentioned it there, veganism in itself is just about being plant-based, but it’s part of a bigger outlook and awareness on your life as a whole. Being conscious, having a greater understanding of yourself as a being, as well as other beings, right?
[Kenny Anderson:] Yeah, it’s like I said about Aaron, and myself too. My transition was more about, yes I didn’t want to hurt animals, yes I learnt more about not hurting the environment, and that’s great you know. Here I am, eating this way and trying to help as much as possible, whilst my own stress was hurting me. You can be a vegan, and help animals, whilst you’re killing yourself with your own stress. You can look at it, and be like ‘well at least save the animals’ ha ha. But to me, it’s more about, connecting to the animals, to earth and to ourselves, all as one. I think when you have that theory that we are all one, then it’s a lot easier to align your actions with those same values you know. Because at that point, you’re not going to do anything to hurt the environment, the animals, ourselves, your friends…

When you realise everything is connected?
[Kenny Anderson:] It’s about a higher consciousness, of all of our actions and the consequences of those. I always feel, especially with having kids, if we were taught about that more, about all of our actions, where all our food comes from, the consequences of purchasing stuff, even purchasing fashion sometimes, like where that came from. If everyone knew exactly where things came from, and what they’re doing to your body, and mind, then I don’t think the majority of us would be making those same decisions. And if you do, fine. I’m not one to judge, I’m just more, on my own life, being a little more conscious of that, and trying to align all those actions.

Because you’re the one you have control over…
[Kenny Anderson:] Right, and I got to the point where, I’m not ever going to consciously hurt our earth, hurt animals or hurt myself. There is a point of that where, man, you realise how much stress, or negative energy, or eating certain things, can do to you. Like when you’re really aware of what that does to your own body, and other people, you start taking steps towards a better option.
And eliminating those things.
[Kenny Anderson:] If something’s going to hurt me it’s not going to be by my own choice, it’s not going to be by the food I put it my mouth, or the thoughts I put in my head. It’s like: if something’s going to hurt me it’s going to be skateboarding, a sucker punch, a car accident. Something I can’t control. I think that’s the biggest thing: being aware that we actually have control over our lives.

So it’s like the more you are aware of your own responsibility in effecting that trinity: yourself, the earth and other beings, the greater your sense of actually having control can become?[Kenny Anderson:] Yeah exactly, and the fact that we’re all one. Some people don’t care about that, and I don’t judge for that. Like some people don’t care one bit about animals, only themselves. It’s just for me; I look at it this way.

[…] We heal on a cellular level, and everything we put in our mind and body, effects our cells. So I started obsessively studying, researching cellular structure, and how our bodies work. I was already eating plant-based, but when I was in my healing process, that was when I really just flipped into like – if I’m going to prioritise myself and my health at this point, it’s going to be one thousand per cent.

You’re going all in.
[Kenny Anderson:] Just go in on every single level to heal. I think every skater will agree; we don’t ever do that. We heal as much as we need to just to be out pushing, and then we’re out skating again. That’s what happened to me for 30 years of skateboarding, yes everything caught up and my ankle’s about to fall off.

Gnarly!
[Kenny Anderson:] It was basically dangling off because I rolled it so many times, and never really took care of it. But then during that time, I prioritised myself more than everything and I was able to heal myself. In about seven months I was skating again. It was kind of scary at first but within a few weeks, I felt better than I’ve felt in ten years.

That’s crazy.
[Kenny Anderson:] So I took a video of the doctor giving me the shot in my knee, and I posted it, and I just said my story really briefly, just saying like, ‘Hey, if anyone’s considering surgery, get 3-4 opinions, I was able to heal myself naturally with breathing, meditation, diet. If you have any questions, hit me up.’ I put my phone away, went to sleep, woke up to a hundred DMs the next day, and that turned into two hundred, three hundred in two or three weeks. That was a trip because some were about my knee, some about a vegan diet, some about meditation, some breathing, some depression, which I didn’t talk about. All these things, from teenage kids, to people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, everyone asking questions about something, and some topics I didn’t even talk about. That kind of opened my eyes up to how many people just need to talk to someone, or are just searching for answers.

[…]

And that all stemmed from allowing yourself to take that time, to heal properly, and give yourself space to think, whilst coming to a greater understanding of how you’re treating your body?[Kenny Anderson:] That goes back to your original question, like it’s not just about eating a plant-based diet. If it was just that I could have been eating fries and soda, it’s not about that. When you truly connect with yourself, and prioritise yourself on a health level and make sure you take care of yourself, then food and diet will just follow. If you really care about yourself, inevitably you’re going to start putting healthier things in your mouth.

[…]" [52]

In a post on the website Monster Children titled "10 Things I Hate With Mike Anderson" [53], from 20 May 2019, it says: "Skater Mike Anderson is many things. He’s a rad dad, ATV (All Terrain Vehicle), Ventura OG and, in his own words, ‘a yuppie vegan. [...]" In the accompanying video Mike says (at ~1:43 min): "I'm a fucking ... yuppie vegan. I hate meat. I hate dairy. I hate all that shit. [...] I also hate the fact that because I'm fucking vegan [name] is always 'Oh, so, we have this gluten-free ...'. Fuck your gluten-free [...]." [53]

[It seems Mike Anderson has been vegan since around 2017 (or later; see above under 2017 and below also under 2019).]

Mike Anderson 2019

An article on the Red Bull website (from May 2019) mentions that Leticia Bufoni has a "mostly vegan diet" while not travelling: "[...] Bufoni eats a mostly vegan diet when she’s at home. Whenever she travels, she craves her hometown favorites: avocado toast and green juice. [...] Every once in a while she treats herself to California’s fast-food staple, [presumably a non-vegetarian] In-N-Out Burger. [...]" [88]

A Jenkem Mag article about Stefan Janoski from July 2019 [54] mentions Janoski eating "vegan artichoke pizza" [54]. It also mentions one of Janoski's sculptures being called "vegan grill". Stefan Janoski's shoes on Nike are leather though.

Stefan Janoski 2019

In a post [55] on the Thrasher website titled "Trevor Thompson Goes Pro" (posted in 9 September 2019) it says: "It’s no surprise to us that Trevor “Bone” Thompson is WKND’s newest pro. [...] This past Saturday, WKND hosted a private get together at Kingswell in Los Feliz with some of Trevor’s closets friends for the release of his first pro board, featuring a classic WKND style skit to go along with it. Fueled by vegan doughnuts and copious amounts of free beer, the crowd was stoked to present Trevor with his first pro board.
[...]

There is no better way to Trevor’s heart than a box of vegan doughnuts.
[...]
But most importantly, Maaloof just wanted his piece of the vegan doughnuts." [55]

In September 2019 Etnies revived Sheep, not as a separate shoe company und der Sole Tech umbrella but as a product line within Ethnies. This is the Etnies Sheep flyer from 18 September 2019:

You can see pictures of the original Sheep Shoes from 1996 onwards here.

In a video by Thrasher, posted on 27 September 2019 [56], Mike Anderson is shown at his home, with his goats and chickens, and he explains how he "had to kill" his chickens because they had some kind of disease, and he got blood all over himself, and decided that he'll "try this shit out, trying the vegan thing out." [56]  

In a Thrasher post from 30 December 2019 [68] it says about Chris Wimer and his new Zero part (in the "Damn it all" video): "The vegan Virginian won’t harm any animals but he’ll damn sure punish some private property."

2020

In an article descibing an Enjoi tour in Portugal, that apparently appeared in Thrasher (February 2020), there is a mention of "deedz" (Didrik Galasso) and Thaynan Costa both being vegan: 

"[...] I first learned of fruit diarrhea as a young boy after eating three apples in a row on an empty stomach. [...] I'm just gonna go right ahead and throw Deedz and Thaynan under the bus and let you know that they are vegan. I know--it's fucked! You may think I'm being harsh, but I'm telling you Deedz would start and end every day with an agai bowl. [...]

[...]
[...] I had to find some WiFi and do a quick Internet search to prove that fruit diarrhea was real! Deedz and Thaynan shook their heads and both claimed that they'd never experienced it--as if they're immune or something. Yeah, right! Just because you're vegan you think you're immune to fruit diarrhea?! [...]" [82]

Nutrition side note: If you are vegan your diet is likely high in fibre. Any diet high in a lot of less processed plant foods (fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts/seeds) is high in fibre (much higher than typical Western diets. And if your habitual diet is high in fibre, you're very unlikely to get diarrhoea from eating a lot of fruit (i.e. a lot of fibre), especially if you eat all that fruit for breakfast on an empty stomach. And if you eat a lot of fruit on an empty stomach, you're also unlikely to experience a lot of flatulence (which may very well happen if you eat a big meal high in protein and THEN you eat a lot of fruit afterwards, i.e. NOT on an empty stomach.)   

On the Berrics website, there's a post from 13 April 2020 titled "‘VEGOUT LA’ INTERVIEWS VEGAN PRO MICKY PAPA" [57]. This post however, doesn't contain anything about vegetarianism or veganism. In the full Micky Papa interview it says: 

"VO: Is veganism accepted by the skating community? Are athletes receptive to it?
MP: Yeah, I would say that it is. Some of the best professional skaters are actually vegan. We’re definitely seeing more and more skaters leaning toward healthier lifestyles, and veganism is one of those.
VO: Why did you decide to adopt a vegan diet?
MP: I’ve been fascinated with health and nutrition for as long as I can remember. I was raised old school Italian. Growing up, I would pick fresh ingredients out of my Nonna’s garden for family meals. That was the foundation. As I got older, an all-organic diet has been imperative to my lifestyle, and more recently I decided to go full vegan. I am seeing drastic differences in my health as well as my physical performance. Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand how these changes in diet can completely affect one’s quality of life. [...]" [57] 

Probably a bit exaggerated.

Micky Papa 2020

On 5 May 2020 the Berrics posted a video [58] of Joey Brezinski making vegan tacos, titled "Pro Skateboarder's Taco Tuesday Special" to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Joey Brezinski 2020

In an interview [59] for the largest German skate shop chain (Titus), posted on YouTube on 8 May 2020, Kenny Anderson mentions that his reasons for becoming vegan was mainly animal rights, in addition to environmental reasons. It is really nice to see a skateboard pro not just talk about veganism but explicitly mention animal rights. Thank you Kenny.

Kenny Anderson 2020

In an interview with Thaynan Costa on the DC Shoes website, apparently from June 2020 (but no longer online), Thaynan is asked: "Does being Vegan make finding a decent meal on trips harder?" And Thaynan replies: "It's a little harder but it all depends where we go, but most of the places we've gone have at least one vegan meal." [83]

In a Nine Club "Stop and Chat" episode from June 2020, Paul Rodriguez - unarguably one of the biggest names in skateboarding - says that he has been "plant-based" for 3 months (i.e. since March 2020) [75]. They actually end up talking quite a while abou the topic:

Chris Roberts: "Well, you're looking good, bro."

Paul Rodriguez: "I appreciate that. I feel good. I've been plant-based for three months."

Kelly Hart: "Oh wow."

Paul Rodriguez: "[Changed] my diet a bit."

Chris Roberts: "Paul, let's talk abou this plant-based thing. ... I don't even know where to begin on this plant-based thing ... It's a whole new world ... You have to totally change your ... You don't want a steak?"

Paul Rodriguez: "Yeah, well, so, I will give myself special moments or special occasion to break it, but I've been holding pretty good since beginning of March. [.] I decided to try this plant-based diet 'cause I watched this documentary on Netflix called Game Changers, about all these different athletes who decided to try plant-based diets and the science behind it, all the results they were having; they were feeling really excited about; so, I was like 'Yeah, what do you know? Maybe, maybe I'll give it a try.' And the pandemic actually helped me do it, because I don't know if I would have the discipline to do it if we were still living our lives, going everywhere; like I'm out skating, and there's in and out, and have the discipline to not eat in and out. But when you're at home and you're on quarantine, I would just go to Whole Foods, I would buy only plant-based groceries and having them here in the house; and I'm not going anywhere. So, my only option is just eat what I have at the house. So, I got used to these things that I was buying, and I got comfortable with it, and then I started finding certain restaurants that do vegan stuff. And now I feel that I'm pretty well in the routine that I can now go out and, you know, maintain it."  

Chris Roberts: "I have such a hard time in Whole Foods as it is. I can't imagine going in there, strictly plant-based. I'd be in there for five and a half hours, trying to figure out what to buy."

Paul Rodriguez: "At first I did, but now I know what I like ... And they have, this day and age, like the Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meat and all that stuff, like that [...]. [...]

The Beyond Meat, the Beyond Burger, stuff like that. Now you've got these Just Eggs that you can make into scrambled eggs that taste just like regular scrambled eggs. They got substitutes of pretty much anything you'd like to eat that is pretty damn close and pretty good. So, I don't know. I don't know how long I'm gonna do it for ... because there's also, like, other documentaries of other things and other scientific information that says, well, eating meat is this and that. So, I don't know what to believe these days."

Chris Roberts: "That's the problem, isn't it? You have to find what works for you. If you wanna experiment with these different kind of 'diets' or whatever, you gotta experiment."

Kelly Hart: "Well on this, ah, I saw that documentary. And it said, in there, that eating vegan, plant-based helps with, like, inflammation, or reducing it. So, do you think that's what kind of helped you feel back to normal in the last couple ..."

Paul Rodriguez: "Maybe."

Kelly Hart: "... couple of months."

Paul Rodriguez: "Maybe ... I mean, I mean, it's pretty strong coincidence if ... if it's not helping."

Kelly Hart: "Cause I did see, all the stuff. That documentary was crazy. It was pretty wild to watch."

Paul Rodriguez: "Apparently, it helps with a lot of functions as well."

Chris Roberts: "OK. Seems to be a recurring theme on the show, but ... [.] Do you have a bidet?"

Kelly Hart: "No, it helps with the ...it helps with the ... penis ..."

Paul Rodriguez: "With the boners."

Kelly Hart: "With the boners."

Chris Roberts: "Oh! Well, send me your shopping list after the show. I should try this diet out."

Paul Rodriguez: "Good blood flow."

Christ Roberts: "Yeah. Need to try this out, man."

Paul Rodriguez: "Seems to be factual. So ..."

Chris Roberts: "Proven."

Paul Rodriguez: "TMI, TMI. TMI"  

Chris Roberts: "Proven ... Listen man, it's a whole thing ... Neen [Williams] - he was just on our show, and he cooks at skate spots. He brings out a stove, at a spot! I was blown away."

Paul Rodriguez: "He's all about the lifestyle. I mean, it's crazy. ... But I don't think he's plant-based."

Roger Bagley: "He's not plant-based, yeah."

Paul Rodriguez: "He eats meat and everything. So, whatever works for him. I mean, it clearly seems to be working for that, for that guy ..."

Roger Bagley: "I think, Joey [Brezinski] is fully plant-based."

Chris Roberts: "Oh Brezinski."

Paul Rodriguez: "Brezinski??!"

Roger Bagely: "Yeah."

Kelly Hart: "For sure."

Paul Rodriguez: "Since when?"

Roger Bagley: "For a while."

Kelly Hart: "Yeah, he's been eating vegan for a long ass time."

Paul Rodriguez: "Mr Burrito??"

Kelly Hart: "Yeah."

Roger Bagley: "He gets veggie burritos."

Kelly Hart: "Yeah."

Paul Rodriguez: "Wow. Is he vegan or veggie? There's a difference."

Chris Roberts: "There is."

Kelly Hart: "He is vegan, I think."

Paul Rodriguez: "There is a difference between vegan and plant-based."

Roger Bagley: "He walks the line."

Kelly Hart: "I don't know. He's somewhere on that side."

Chris Roberts: "Is tequila plant-based?"

[There seems to be something edited out at this point.]

Paul Rodriguez: "Yeah, yeah. So, I'm trying to ... I don't know if it's gonna be a permanent thing. But ..."

Chris Roberts: "I think, it's good to try this out."

Paul Rodriguez: "[...] And you know who else is ... kinda been plant-based, vegetarian by default, is Spanish Mike. So, he's been ... actually a big help because him and I, our big thing is, when we go skate, we would always find the nearest whatever restaurant we're hyped on at that time and go eat after. So, you know, he's a big foodie. So, he's like: 'Oh [.], I've got the good vegan spot, right by the spot. We're good. I got this. So, after we hit the spot we'll go hit the vegan spot.' Aight, sick."

Roger Bagley: "Isn't there any competition for him?" [?]

Paul Rodriguez: "[.] No, but like, he's hyped on it, because you know, his girlfriend really got him whipped into shape on a good diet. So, like, ... And he didn't know I was doing it either. And I didn't know he was doing it. And I told him and he was like: 'Ah, me too. Ah, that's crazy, ah, that's crazy.' ... It turned out, that was kind of a cool, little blessing in disguise, because he's always the guy who would search for the food spot right after we skate. So ... [Roger Bagley says something.] Yeah, he already has it on deck. 'That's good because at this spot, 2.3 miles we got the vegan burgers over here; OK, we got the vegan Thai spot here by this spot.' He's always has it all ready to go."

Chris Roberts: "It's funny that people who are ... even being vegan ... I remember, we were on tour a long time ago ... I think it was A Smith, I think, it was Aaron Smith. He was vegan."

Roger Bagley: "Yep."

Chris Roberts: "Has been for a long time."

Roger Bagley: "He'll let you know."

Chris Roberts: "And we would all go on tour, and we would all pile out of the van, go into the restaurant, and Aaron would go off by himself to go find a res[taurant] ... He had an app and everything. But this was years ago. I don't remember the actual tour or the year, but I always felt bad. I'm like, man, that's crazy. He totally, he totally goes out on his own and .."

Kelly Hart: "Adelmo Jr. did the same stuff."

Paul Rodriguez: "Yeah. You know, I never wanted to deal with that. I like to eat whatever I like to eat, but I think now - like, however many years it's been since you, what you're talking about, Chris ..."

Chris Roberts: "Oh, it's changed!"

Paul Rodriguez: "There's so many more options, and it's so much more mainstream, I guess, that, like, it's pretty accessible. Like, today I postmated [Postmates Food Delivery] a vegan burger to the spot."

Kelly Hart: "Wow."

[...]

Roger Bagley: "There's actually a good vegan Thai spot down the street from there [a flatground spot they were talking about]."

Paul Rodriguez: "There's a spot over here by my house. Oh, I gotta get that from you, Rog, cause I'm gonna be over there a lot. But, there's a spot called 'Vegan My Thai' here by the crib. Dude, ... You can't even tell the difference. ... Sometimes, I think, they're lying and it's not actually vegan."

Chris Roberts: "I feel like a lot of places are like this. They're getting so good at it."

Paul Rodriguez: "Yeah. Yeah."

Chris Roberts: "You could give somebody two burgers, and they wouldn't even know."

Roger Bagley: "True."

Paul Rodriguez: "Yeah."

Chris Roberts: "And the Thai vegan spot is really good. [...]"

Paul Rodriguez: "But I have given myself, over the three months, I have had sushi on two occasions. I will ever so often break for my most favourite dishes. So, you know, I'm not gonna be, you know, like a marine about it."

[...]

Kelly Hart: "What's like your meal [...] that you usually want ... when you cheat?"

Paul Rodriguez: "When I cheat? Sushi, usually ... I'm waiting [...] for, like, a real special occasion to go to like a steak house and just go apeshit. [...]"

[...]

Roger Bagley: "Kind of like a California vegetarian."

Chris Roberts: "What does it mean?"

Roger Bagley: "It means, normally you eat vegetables, but occasionally you have fish." 

Paul Rodriguez: "I don't know, this day and age we know how to label and segment things up so much. I'm gonna be predominantly plant-based ... and slide in some of my old faithfuls here and there."

[...]

Chris Roberts: "I'm glad you're [...] experimenting with stuff."

Paul Rodriguez: "Experimenting!"

Chris Roberts: "It's awesome."

Paul Rodriguez: "Trying it out."

Chris Roberts: "We're trying to skate as long as possible."

Paul Rodriguez: "Indeed we are." [75]

In the Nine Club "Experience" show, in episode #102, from June 2020, when talking about Paul Rodriguez being on a (predominantly) plant-based diet, Chris Roberts says (at ~18:49 min): "I'm switching to a plant-based diet."

Kelly Hart: "Yeah?"

Chris Roberts: "Yeah, now. I brought some almonds with me."

And a moment later, Steezus says: "I will eat consistently plant-based, like, four or five days a week [...]." And Steezus also mentions that "Certain people who consider themselves to be vegan still wear leather shoes or have leather seats in their car [...]. And there are people, like, Dan Askew. He's full vegan. He only gets shoes that are faux leather, and he really ... for as long as I've known him." Kelly: "Vegan." Steezus: "Yeah, he's full vegan." And Kelly says: "On the éS website [Kelly works for éS shoes] ... I think, one of the number 1 searches on the éS website is 'vegan'." [93] ... Dan Askew is, I think, co-owner of the skate shop Escapist Skateboarding in Kansas City, USA.

Right at the start of the Nine Club "Stop and Chat" episode with Torey Pudwill from July 2020, Torey Pudwill says that he has been "plant-based" for seven months now (i.e. since about December 2019).

Chris Roberts: "Dude, you look good."

Roger Bagley: "Looking healthy."

Chris Roberts: "Yeah, you're looking healthy, bro. What are you doing? Are you eating right or you got some ... Are you vegan now? ... Or plant-based? What's going on over there?"

Torey Pudwill: "I am ... plant-based."

Chris Roberts and Kelly Hart: "Really?"

Torey Pudwill: "Yeah, I started on a plant-based diet like seven months ago; six, seven, eight months ago."

Chris Roberts: "I feel like every other skater we talk to now is plant-based. P-Rod's plant-based [Paul Rodriguez]"

Roger Bagley: "Joey"

Chris Roberts: "Joey Brezinski"

Torey Pudwill: "Joey's vegan though, right?"

Roger Bagley: "Depends on what day you ask him."

Kelly Hart: "Isn't plant-based still vegan? Or no?" 

Torey Pudwill: "I don't know, man, like."

Chris Roberts: "I don't know either."

Torey Pudwill: "So, for me, dude. When I say that I'm plant-based or I'm on a plant-based diet. Like, I don't like, for [.] the reasons of being vegetarian or vegan, I don't like [to] put the title [.] on it because I feel like when you're vegan, you're like not eating meat or dairy for a specific reason of not consuming animal products."

Chris Roberts: "Sure."

Roger Bagley: "Yeah."

Torey Pudwill: "Or for health reasons. But ... For me, I just started a plant-based diet because I watched a documentary [..], and I said [.] I might as well try it. It doesn't hurt, and it's actually really easy to do. And I enjoy eating veggies. And ..."

Kelly Hart: "Which documentary was that?"

Torey Pudwill: "Called Game Changers."

Chris Roberts: "Oh, that's the one we talked about, yeah. I have to watch it. I haven't watched it yet."

Torey Pudwill: "Dude, just watch it."

Chris Roberts: "I'll watch it tonight."

Kelly Hart: "It's really interesting, yeah."

Chris Roberts: "I've tried a little. [...]"

[...]

Torey Pudwill: "Like, to my understanding of being plant-based or, you know, being on a plant-based diet is really like ... The documentary caught my eye because it was really based around performance, being, like, a professional athlete, and recovery. And that's [.] why I was really entertained with that, you know. If I could change my diet so I can heal faster and not be as sore, then it's pretty much a game changer.

[...] And the thing is, I tried it and after doing it for like a week, I like totally noticed."

Chris Roberts: "Really?"

Torey Pudwill: "I'm not super unhealthy but when you eat, like, just meat, you know, it changes your blood. So ..."

Kelly Hart: "How did you notice it though? In what way?"

Torey Pudwill: "I noticed it, when I started skating that, like, my energy was like 100. And as I was skating, like, battling, I wouldn't be, like, my body wouldn't be giving out."

Chris Roberts: "Oh, stamina"

Torey Pudwill: "Yeah, I just felt like I had more strength."

Chris Roberts: "What about the pop? Is the pop still there?"

Torey Pudwill: "The pop's there."

Chris Roberts: "Perfect."

Torey Pudwill: "But I also realized too, it's not magic. Like, if you change to a plant-based diet, it's not magic either. You still have to maintain all your muscles ... like, normally, as ..."

Roger Bagley: "Live a healthy lifestyle."

Torey Pudwill: "Even ... when you get to a certain age, you just have to do that."

Chris Roberts: "Sure. But you just turned 21, [Torey's not actually 21; he was born in 1990] so ... I mean, look at you, bro. Doing it early. I like it."

Torey Pudwill: "Yeah. That's the goal in life, you know. As you turn a year older, you feel a year younger. That's the goal."

Chris Roberts: "Yeah."

[...]

[During the show Torey gets a vegetarian burrito delivered - with dairy cheese]

Torey Pudwill: "[...] Beans, rice, cheese. So now, with the cheese ... So, I guess that's not part of a plant-based diet. And that was something [..] I found out like a month ago [i.e. around June 2021]. I was devastated. I was like [...], I knew dairy wasn't, like, good for you. But I was like, oh that's against the plant-based diet. [.]"

Chris Roberts: "Cheese is so good."

Roger Bagley: "There is fake cheese."

Torey Pudwill: "And chocolate."

Kelly Hart: "Vegan cheese, right? Yeah."

Chris Roberts: "Oh, chocolate as well? Oh no."

Torey Pudwill: "Chocolate too, because there's dairy in it."

Chris Roberts: "This plant ... It's not for me."

Torey Pudwill: "[...] I'm on this plant-based diet. But that's the thing, you're not putting a title on yourself. You are not dedicated to the lifestyle."

Chris Roberts: "Right, there's different tiers."

Torey Pudwill: "With vegan, it's like a lifestyle, that you're like 'I'm vegan. I'm living this lifestyle. I'm doing this for certain reasons.'"

Roger Bagley: "And making a statement."

Torey Pudwill: "You're making a statement. I'm just trying to better my performance, as a professional athlete."

Chris Roberts: "Right, and that's why they do have cheat days."

Torey Pudwill: "[.] You can eat some cheese. I eat the vegan cheese and I enjoy it. It's good. All the vegan stuff's great."

Chris Roberts: "Right."

Torey Pudwill: "But the cheese, it's hard for me to get away from. [.]"

Roger Bagley: "Cheese is good."

Torey Pudwill: "I didn't know about the candy bars either. And I was like, well ..."

Roger Bagley: "Is there a candy that's plant-based?"

[...]

Torey Pudwill: "I stopped eating candy a while ago, man. That's what I used to eat for dinner. [..] I used to not eat much. And now [..] I eat a lot, but as far as candy goes, I do the Snicker bar. Reese's. Reese's has tons of chocolate bars now."

[...]

Chris Roberts: "[...] I try to cut down on my sugar as well. Not eat so much. It's bad for you."

Torey Pudwill: "So, cutting down on sugar is something I haven't tried yet. Completely eliminating all sugar. But I hear that that one is very good. So, eventually, you know, I start like [..] in little increments of trying to better myself and trying to get benefits out of changes. [..] You can't just change over night." [77]

Torey Pudwill, Nine Club "Stop and Chat", July 2020

In the Nine Club Experience show number 114 (from September 2020), Stefan Janoski talks about a new colourway of his (non-vegan) Nike SB "Janoski" pro shoe which is made from 50% real leather (from slaughtered animals) and 50% recycled leather, thus reducing the environmental impact and animal killing for these shoes [92]. Nike calls this material "Flyleather". But (as of 2022) I'm not aware of any other colourways (or any other shoes) of this having come out with "Flyleather". This material is not vegan, of course. And animals are still slaughtered for this. So, I wouldn't buy it. I personally wouldn't even want to buy an entirely "recycled leather" shoe. But reducing the number of animals killed is surely a great thing - vegan shoes for me though. Let's hope that leather ("virgin leather" as Stefan Janoski calls it) will be phased out more and more and as fast as possible.

While they are repeatedly mentioning "pig suede", they are also talking about cow skins. Suede is made from both cow skins and pig skins (as well as other skin from other animals). It's awesome that Stefan brings up "the commodification of animals" and that he says that he is vegan (i.e. a dietary vegan - as he uses leather - and profits from the sale of leather at a massive scale, of course).  

Stefan Janoski (Nine Club Experience, 2020)

Here's the most relevant (to this issue) excerpt of their conversation: 

Stefan Janoski (SJ): "[...] my mom was a vegetarian [...]. So, I've always really wanted to do really earthy type things. So even at the beginning, when I started the shoe, I wanted to do recycled and sustainable and do things like that but, you know, it [doing eco-friendly things] was brand new at the time. No one really new what was going on. [...] 

I would love to move away from virgin suedes and pig suedes and the leathers that are just straight from the, you know, commodification of animals, which is just, I think, you know ... and it's like 'pig suede is like the best one for skating'. But it's, like ... it's not a good enough reason to me ..."

Chris Roberts (CR): "Right."

SJ: "You know what I mean? This to me is like a really good first step. It's like using the pieces of leather that would normally just be thrown into the landfill. All the companies, they don't use every piece of leather. They chop it up, and there's all this stuff on the floor."

CR: "Sure."

SJ: "And so, yeah, this company in London, I mean, they take all of the scrap leather that would go in the landfills, and they grind it up into like a pulp. And then they take [these] crazy, high-pressure water guns, and they shoot it into the pulp that infuses it back into ... a leather."

CR: "Right."

SJ: "And then they have it on these giant rolls, like, like a roll of paper but a huge roll of this recycled leather. And then by having it on the roll, it's easier to use for the shoes. [..] And they have less waste of the recycled leather ... [..]. So, they're using more of the leather, the recycled leather, than they would normally use of the real leather because of the fact that it's already in this perfect roll, where[as] real leather is actually a cow's back."

CR: "Right. It's not a square. It's like a ..."

SJ: "It's shaped like a cow ... that you skinned and ripped its skin off and ...."

CR: "Right. Right."

SJ: "It's kind of heavy to see like a stack up to your chest of cow skins. You know, like 'Whoa, OK, crazy.'"

CR: "And when you see that kind of stuff, it really puts it in perspective. You know, that's the thing, ... because sometimes we live 'out of sight, out of mind' ... you know."

SJ: "Totally. It makes it very real. And ... I'm like ... you know ... I'm trying ... I'm a vegan, I don't eat meat, you know. And, I try to not use plastic ... and use these eco-friendly clothes and all this stuff. But then I have this product that is just made from cow's backs, like thousands of cow's backs every day. So, it's kind of like ... Uuh, yeah, good job, vegan ... You know?"

CR: "Sure."

SJ: "Yeah, so this project I was very excited about ... And, I think, it's also what I'm really excited about: it works really well, looks good, it's great for skating. And also it's just a first step. They want to do more. And like, for a big company like Nike to say 'Hey, we want to start to make a change', which is like ... You know, they're a huge company, but every little bit helps. And also it's like, when they do something, other companies have to do it too because ... You know what I mean? 'Oh, Nike is doing sustainable. Nike is doing recycling.' So, Adidas will probably want to do that too. And other people. So, you know, it's like, it's good. It's a good ... small steps, but every small thing is really important."

CR: "I mean listen. It's 50% recycled leather. That's a great first step. You know."

SJ: "Oh yeah. The whole thing is 50%. So, the whole shoe is 50% ... because the sole is crushed up rubber, recycled. And, I think, there's even some other ... I think even, like, I don't know. I heard maybe even stitching might have been recycled. Don't quote me on that."

CR: "We have to fact check that ... But is this colourway that we're holding right now, it's like the greyish colourway, is this the 'raw' that comes of of what they do?"

SJ: "So, that is pretty much the raw leather. And also what they did for this first one, it's flipped. So, that's the backside of the leather. That's why it's kinda got that texture to it."

CR: "I like that texture."

SJ: "And the texture is good. So, it's more of like a suede than a smooth leather. And for skating it's actually, it's really good, you know, grip, flicking, and doing all that stuff, if you know what I mean."

CR: "[...] We all know some shoes ... that the board slips and this and that ... Were you getting to test these out?"

SJ: "Yeah, yeah. I got those a long time ago. The first ones, yeah. Because they were like: 'We wanna know if this is good for skating.' And I wear size 9, like I said, so it's very easy for them to send me all samples. They don't have to like change any size. They just send them all over. [...]"

[...]

CR: "[...] So, Nike, I take it, is kinda starting off with your shoe, and then they're gonna move into other categories with this, right?"

SJ: "Yeah, I think, there might be ... some in other categories ... maybe. ... But this is the first one for skateboarding."

Steezus: "They were doing something with the Space Hippe ... [...]."

SJ: "Yes. So, this if the first one for SB. And it's just kind of a step in [...] the Janoski shoe, of just moving towards, like, ... really just trying to do, not just have one model recycled, but moving towards the whole thing being, you know, sustainable shoes ... sustainable materials, and recycled, and just getting away from all the ... just ... [..] I'm down. Listen, I'm down, don't give me any more pig suede. Let's do ... You know? But it's gonna be slow. Like I said, I'm not ... I don't have a desk at Nike. So, ... [...]."

[...]

CR: "[...] No, but it's incredible, man. And to think that, what did you say, 2009? [...]"

SJ: "Yep. So, last year was the ten year anniversary."

[...]

[talking about golf]

[...]

SJ: "[...] There's gotta be a cool lace ... that's not leather. There's gotta be better the laces. The lace thing drives me crazy. The leather laces to me were such a really cool detail. [...] 

The problem is, once you start selling lots of shoes, those leather laces cost too much money. [...] Hopefully soon, there will be better laces."  

[...]

CR: "[...] I'm so stoked that you guys are doing this."

[...]

CR: "But that's why we need the bigger companies and the forward thinkers and the visionaries to kind of come in and change all this stuff. You know?" 

SJ: "Yeah."

CR: "Absolutely."

[...]

SJ: "[...] You would notice that the Flyleather is significantly lighter."

[...]

CR: "[...] And pretty soon this shoe ... I can already call it, man. It will be 100% leather fibres." [92]

Not sure from when this Kevin Coakley (who's vegetarian, see above) "All Natural" deck graphic on Traffic is exactly but probably from around 2020.

Some skate video:

• The 2020 video "Third Shift" by Traffic (skateboards) features footage of (among others) Sergei Trudnowski (vegetarian, maybe still vegan), Kevin Coakley (probably vegetarian), and Jake Rupp (still vegetarian?).

2021

In a video by Get Up Mag Philly (posted in January 2021), you can see (a vegetarian, maybe still vegan - see 2022) Sergei Trudnowski skating some (legendary) brick transitions. Later in the video, you can see Sergei pick some mushrooms (called "chicken of the woods" or "chicken mushroom") in Nicetown, Philadelphia [111].

Still from the video: Sergei Trudnowski skating in Philadelphia (probably in 2020)

In an article from February 2021 in The Beet, Rob Dyrdek states that he is now eating more plant-based. Rob Dyrdek: "I'm a product of the evolution of vegan to plant-based [.] Vegan used to be impossible, then 'plant-based' made it more attainable. Plant-based made people more aware. If you have one plant-based meal a day, there's such a positive impact on the environment and your health [.] That's the philosophy I subscribe to." [67]

In a February 2021 interview with Don Brown (1980s freestyle pro for Vision, vegetarian - I think, "skate on the motorway guy", from England, and éS but apparently also Emerica head honcho) for Slam City Skates, Don Brown explains how at Sole Tech they've incorporated vegan shoes into their lines (fat print added by me): "Pierre’s [Pierre André Senizergues, owner and founder of Sole Tech] a really good designer and he would just work with the riders to create stuff or he’d already know what he needed in a skate shoe himself. Even I ended up designing shoes. You’d sit down with the rider, whether it’s Ed Templeton or whoever, and ask them what they like about the shoes that are out there right now, ask them what their favourite shoes they’ve ever worn have been, what’s important to them, what problems they might have with shoes in terms of pain points and how we could try and fix that. Then you start coming up with things like lace savers and lace loops to avoid abrasion, and you start using triple or quad-stitching in certain areas to make sure it lasts longer than a single stitch, or we’ll use a thicker suede. ‘Oh, you’re vegan? We’ll use synthetic material then’. Boiling all these ideas down.

[...]
Yeah, I’d been hooking Mike [Manzoori] up with etnies for a while already. It [Sheep] wasn’t intended to be a vegan brand, but that’s the thing - when you get your key people and they’re vegan, it’s going to attract every other vegan to want to be a part of it. I think the only person [on Sheep] who wasn’t vegan was Brian Anderson [This is very likely an exaggeration.], but I think he might have been trying back then. The shoe brand wasn’t even vegan; we had suede shoes and leather shoes in the line for a while.
Frank Hirata wanted in - he rode for us already - and there was Sergei Trudnowski from Philadelphia… This was this super-gnarly crew, and it’s still to this day probably one of the most cult ‘Best Team Ever’ squads. It was just really confusing though, because it wasn’t intended to be a vegan brand, and it became a vegan brand, and it was almost too progressive because nobody at the time was asking for vegan shoes.[...]
So, Sheep was a really fun brand that just kind of made fun of everything, and itself, and just kinda became vegan. It was at a time when everything was growing so much, and suddenly the French guys say, “Hey, we want to sell the etnies brand”. Pierre and I talked about it, and thought, “Fuck it, we don’t need etnies. We’ve got éS, we’ve got Sheep, we’ve got ThirtyTwo [ThirtyTwo snowboard boots; started in 1995]. They’re gonna fail if they try and do it themselves because they have no idea about skateboarding”.
[...]
They eventually offered Pierre a really good deal for the brand, something he couldn’t turn down. We figured we could have etnies do action sports, the whole snow/surf/BMX/motocross thing, with big distribution. That could be etnies and Emerica could be more rock n’ roll, more ‘Fuck The System’, and éS being more athletic/urban/technical/innovative. At the time Sheep was doing its thing, and was a little misguided, but basically vegan and at a little bit of a cheaper price point.
[...]
[MacDonald: Cool. So what happened with Sheep?]
It came to the point where we had too many brands and not enough people, and everything was still growing, and the market was still going crazy. Sheep was the most challenging one with the least direction at the time, and different countries around the world were kinda struggling with it, so we thought, ‘Fuck it’ and put it on hold for a while so we could focus on etnies, éS and Emerica and get those strategies in the skate side of things working better. So we agreed on that.
Probably about a month before that decision, Ed [Templeton] brought me this big piece of wood that had ‘The sheep will be led to slaughter’ on it, with no idea that we were going to put that brand on hold and shut it down for a while. It was really weird that he did that, with no idea of anything that was coming. We transitioned the brands, and obviously [Ed] Templeton became a huge part of Emerica, [Rick] McCrank joined éS, Brian Anderson was snatched up by Savier at the time, Frank Hirata kinda disappeared out there, I can’t remember what happened with Sergei Trudnowski and [Mike] Manzoori became a bigger part of etnies and took more to do with the video role." [69]

In the Thaynan Costa episode of "Followed", by Pocket Skateboard Magazine, from February 2021, Thaynan says: "We opened a burger place, with my dad, and ... it's really nice, all vegan ... I've been vegan for three years, or almost three years. Kind of sounds like a cliche thing and then everybody talks about it, but I do feel better and I do feel different in my body. And after a while, my dad was into it too. Me and my friends kept bothering him to open a restaurant. He got into it. I'm just happy he's doing something that brings joy to him, you know." [84] 

That means, it seems that Thaynan has been vegan since around 2018. 

Thaynan Costa eating a vegan burger from his father's vegan restaurant (Lisbon, Portugal, 2021)

In an interview with skater and medical doctor Simon Kramer (from Germany), by Pocket Skateboard Magazine, from March 2021, Simon Kramer says: "Focus on good plant-based nutrition which means for me: as vegan as possible! Because in studies you see that animal proteins have a negative influence on healing processes, pain and arthritis. We did several interviews with pro athletes who finally recovered and going vegan was a game-changer." [87]

From March 2021, Santa Cruz team manager (since around the early 2010s maybe?) and skateboarder extraordinaire in his own right and long-term vegan Andrew Cannon has started focusing on vegan content in his YouTube videos. Check them out. (Andrew Cannon seems to have been vegan since around 2014 [124].)

In 2021 (around April/May) Ron Cameron made an artist shoe for DC Shoes [60]. I don't know if Ron Cameron is or has ever been a vegetarian.

Ron Cameron "artist shoe". 

Note that the insole says "vegan friendly" - something I have never seen in a DC shoe.

Not meant to be a "vegan police" investigation, just an observation of a curious detail: Mike Vallely - who was an outspoken vegetarian from the late 1980s (see here under 1988 and 1989), then went vegan, then back to vegetarian, back to non-vegetarian, and then in (around 2015 - see above) back to vegan - has been riding for Brazilian non-skate shoe company Cariuma. After the fiasco (2015) of his real suede (pig suede if I recall correctly) pro shoe for the Swedish skate shoe company Servant - they came out with the shoe and he left - I'm not aware that Mike V had any shoe sponsor. Now on Carium, he does not seem to take an anti-leather stance, as all the recent pictures (January to May 2021) I have seen of him wearing Cariuma shoes attest - the shoe he's always wearing does not seem to be available without leather. Anyway this is just an observation of the curious personality that is "the enigmatic Mike V" (as Ed Templeton once described him). 

Mike Vallely, 2021

In the Mike Vallely episode of "Stop And Chat" by The Nine Club (31 May 2021), Mike V makes the following announcement: "Well, the shoe that I'm working on, my signature shoe, is 100% vegan. And it has ... the material are natural and recycled. So, there's recycled materials in the shoe. If you can recycle materials and use them. Man, that's a step in the right direction.[...] It think it's gonna hit in September and initially [there will be] five different colourways." [66]

Mike Vallely at The Nine Club (May 2021)

Film Trucks (by Jeremy Daclin) came out with a collab trucks with some fashion companies whose identity revolves around endorsing fishing [71]. Film Trucks' and the fashion company's slogan "fishing is not a crime". Many skateboarders go by the belief that skaters are all one big family and that companies are worthy of support just because they are skateboarder-owned. I don't think that companies who promote right-wing (anti-egalitarian) world views are worthy of support at all. The idea that killing animals for fun, as a hobby (hunting or fishing), is such a right-wing view.

 

Film Trucks collab truck with "fish killing as fashion" company

Nike SB has also come out with a "fish killing as fashion" shoe: the Daan van der Linden pro model (BLZR Court DVDL) with a fishing-hook on the swoosh - which ironically appears to be completey leather-free (as far as I can see; at least the currently available colourways):

In the Andy Anderson episode of the Nine Club (episode 190, from July 2021), Andy Anderson states that he has been pescetarian ever since he was 11 (that means since 2007 or early 2008, since he was born in April 1996) [72]. 

Andy Anderson at The Nine Club (July 2021)

In a post on the VegNews website from July 2021, it says that Micky Papa (on the Olympic team for Canada, Tokyo Olympic 2021) and Amelia Brodka (on the Olympic team fro Poland) are both vegan [85]. I'm guessing that both Micky Papa and Amelia Brodka are dietary vegans (only) but do wear leather shoes. Micky Papa appears to ride for Axion shoes (back from the dead) and Amelia Brodka appears to ride for Etnies (plenty of vegan options).

About Amelia Brodka the VegNews article says: "[...] Brodka is competing in Women’s Park Skateboarding for Team Poland, her home country. She’s competed at the professional level since 2007 while also finding time to advocate for female athletes, produce her film Underexposed: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary, and launch Exposure Skate, a nonprofit for women in the sport. She went vegan 10 years ago to improve her athletic performance. Brodka told VegNews, 'Ever since I started skateboarding, I knew that I wanted to do it as much as possible for as long as possible and my choice to go vegan has allowed me to do that.'

To fuel, Brodka relies on protein-packed, store-bought staples she can whip up in minutes. She’ll eat a vegetable-filled JUST Egg omelette in the morning, toss together a trough-sized salad for lunch, and stir-fry a mound of vegetables to serve over cauliflower rice (also cooked with JUST Egg) for dinner. All that sounds nourishing and tasty, but her choice of dessert is a bit unorthodox. 'I throw some frozen banana, broccoli, and vanilla protein powder into a food processor for delicious nice cream,' Brodka explained. Well, there are about three grams of protein per 100 gram serving of broccoli, so we’ll try anything once." [85]

That would mean that Amelia Brodka has been (dietary) vegan since around 2011. Check out here Arbor Skateboards "Baba Yaga" video part (from June 2021) on the Thrasher website (no mention of veganism). 

In the "Followed" episode with Cata Diaz (who is from Chile originally and who apparently skates for Toy Machine and Venture), by Pocket Skateboard Magazine, from August 2021, she says that she is vegan (basically right at the beginning of the video, nice!). [86] I'm guessing that she is a dietary vegan (only) and does wear leather shoes. She appears to skate for Nike. (At the very end of the video she makes some vegan food, at ~12:28 min. There is no other mention of veganism in the video.)

At the very end of the 3+ hour Dave Mayhew episode of the Nine Club (episode 198, from September 2021), Dave Mayhew - after half a second of hesitation - does mention that he's vegan [73]. 

Dave Mayhew at The Nine Club (September 2021)

In the documentary "A Look Back: DogTown and Z-Boys", directed by Glen E. Friedman, that was posted on the Thrasher YouTube channel in September 2021, at around 21:26 min, Peggy Oki says: "The fame through the Dog Town documentary [by Stacy Peralta] has helped me with my activism. I have been able to use my 'celebrity status' to promote my cause, my environmental concerns about saving the whales and dolphins and, of course, the environment. The whole planet right now is swinging towards crisis. So, I say 'I work it for the whales ... and veganism!'" [103]

Peggy Oki in "A Look Back: DogTown and Z-Boys", 2021

 

In an Instagram post from September 2021 [74], Salman Agah (who has a non-vegetarian pizzeria) showed off some new vegan mozzarella (also available on the pizzas at his pizza place).

An interview with Kristin Ebeling in Thrasher from October 2021 [76] mentions that she is vegan. It's not explicitly mentioned that she is ("only") a dietary vegan, but on all the photos (and in the video) she is always wearing Nike shoes, and from what I can tell, none of these are probably not vegan.

From the interview:

"[Alex White:] Yeah, tell me about the choices that you've made. I mean, you chose to marry a Canadian, you chose not to drink and be vegan.
[Kristin Ebeling:] [...] before I met my husband, I was in an abusive relationship [...] and I picked up a drinking habit for whatever reason [...] [...] I decided one day that I didn’t wanna be a victim of life. I wanted to be in control of my life. I wanted to skate more, because obviously in my previous relationship I wasn’t skating as much. So I stopped drinking and smoking and adopted a stricter diet. I’m vegan, but that’s a little separate thing—I wanted to do that for the environment and because I like animals. That just felt more in sync with my heart and mind, nothing I want to cram down anyone's throat. It's 100-percent personal and just works for me. It’s kinda hard to be in skating, because so much of it has this attitude of, Fuck the rules. Let’s party. I was all about that until about 25. I don’t judge anyone who chooses a different path. And, you know, solidarity with anyone struggling with addiction. Quitting drinking just gave me so much more energy and more time to skate and more money.
[...]
[Alex White:] You're both vegan and straight-edge. What do you do for fun?
[Kristin Ebeling:] Nothing. We have zero fun. No, we like surfing and going to theme parks.
[...]
[Alex White:] What’s your go-to vegan theme-park food.
[Kristin Ebeling:] The pretzels are usually vegan. Disneyland has pretty good food, but it’s usually the pretzels for me.
[...]" [76]

Kristin Ebeling, Thrasher, October 2021

Breana Geering, who apparently has been a dietary vegan (with some exceptions) since around 2018 (see the info from her Nine Club episode below), is on the cover of the October 2021 issue of Thrasher. Breana Geering is pro for Girl and also rides for Vans (and Spitfire etc.), and appears to be using leather shoes.

Breana Geering, Thrasher, October 2021

In the Nine Club "Stop and Chat" episode with Chris Haslam from October 2021, Chris Haslam says "I don't eat meat" in response to the question where he would keep "bologna" sausage in his live-in camper van that has no fridge [78].

Chris Haslam, Nine Club, October 2021 

In episode 206 of the Nine Club (November 2021), Robert Neal ... after talking, at the beginning of the show, about his pet snakes and feeding them live mice (and Chris Roberts agreeing that this is all "survival of the fittest") ... mentions that he used to be a (dietary) vegan for a while. Kelly Hart asks him what he likes to eat after skating, and Robert Neal mentions several restaurants, including Sage, saying that this is a vegan restaurant and "I was vegan for a year ... I stopped that though. I stopped that." Asked by Chris Roberts "Why did you become vegan? Why did you stop?", Robert Neal says "I was trying to be better. ... I was trying to be better. I psyched myself out of eating meat for a bit because I was like "bro ... it's bad. They got parasites in it. ... I was just looking at all these documentaries." And then on why he stopped being vegan: "I lost like five pounds. ... I'm done. I said 'nah, never again. I gotta start eating some fish or meat, something, but I can't do it no more.' ... I gained that back though. ... I gained it back and I was like 'no more vegan'." Kelly Hart also asks: "How did you feel? Did you feel any better when you were doing the vegan thing?" And Robert Neal replies: "Mentally I did, yeah. ... My body too. I wake up early, feel good. But after a while I felt ... I don't know if I was giving myself the right amount of protein. ... I started feeling a little weak. ... My muscle mass is ... I'm done ....". Jeron Wilson adds: "It's almost like you wanna get a nutritionist to make sure you're doing it the right way." 

And after everyone saying that it requires discipline to eat healthily, Jeron Wilson says: "I have a hard time doing that shit now. Incorporating new foods and shit. But like I know that I need to do that shit. Especially as you get older, you know. You get tests and shit and you know, cholesterol's too high, prediabetes. You need to fuckin figure it out. You know what I mean." (It seems that Jeron Wilson is talking about himself here - this is later confirmed in the conversation.)

Chris Roberts adds: "I always thought that that was weird. We're the only species that drinks other species' milk. [...] Now I go for the almond milk." And Robert Neal on vegan cheese: "It's slimey and chewy." ... Chris Roberts: "Meatless burgers, Beyond Burgers ..." ... Jeron Wilson: "Our eating habits here are psycho." [79]

Jeron Wilson and Robert Neal, the Nine Club, episode 206

In episode 208 of the Nine Club, Kelly Hart asks Breana Geering if she is a Tim Hortons (Canadian fast food chain) fan to which Breana Geering replies: "I'm vegan now, so I can't eat anything there." [80] And when asked by Chris Roberts "Why vegan?", Breana Geering says: "I've been vegan for like three years." "But I actually ate pizza once or twice." "I cheated a little bit." "But I've actually been vegan for three years though." "It's better for the planet." When asked by Chris Roberts "Do you miss eating meat or anything? [...]" and Kelly Hart "A little cheese here and there?", she says "Yeah, but only because I was drunk, and nothing was open, and I was like 'I gotta fuckin eat something'. So I had a piece of pizza." And regarding vegan cheese: "You gotta find a good one." Chris Roberts: "There's a lot of good stuff out there. You just gotta find it."

Kelly Hart: "Do you find it hard on trips to find certain places to eat?" Breana Geering: "Yeah, it's so fuckin annoying on trips. It's just like a side of fries and a side salad [..]." [...] "When Ed [Templeton] was doing that back in the day, it was probably fucked [difficult to be vegan on tour]." [...] Kelly Hart: "He [Ed Templeton] was the first, like, vegan skateboarder I could think of, that I ever heard of." 

Chris Roberts remembers: "[...] Aaron Smith, he was vegan at the time [He doesn't specify when exactly, but it was on some tour that Chris Roberts and Aaron Smith were on.]. I felt so bad for him, because we were going through ... cross-country trip [...]. Poor guy, he would always just go eat by himself. He would always go, he had an app [probably HappyCow]. He would find the closest little vegan spot, and he would venture off while we parked the van. I just felt bad, because he would always have to venture off alone. [...]"

Chris Roberts: "How's the vegan scene up there in Vancouver?" Breana Geering replies that that her favourite restaurant that is still open is "The Wallflower". [The Wallflower is a non-vegetarian restaurant with vegan options.]

Breana Geering, the Nine Club, episode 208

In a 2021 interview with "The Bunt" (season 13, episode 7), Mike Maldonado says: "Nowadays I try to take a little bit better care of myself. I have been, like, vegetarian, and stuff like that. [...]" (125) He mentions seeing lots of dead chickens in one place and that it had a disgusting smell. He also mentioned that Jamie Thomas and Ed Templeton, "vegans" (Jamie Thomas was vegan back in the later 1990s), had already told him "Don't eat that shit. It's not good for you." He says: "[...] I don't want to put any kind of chicken in my body that's like been, not like physically been tortured by someone, but tortured in some cage. [...] I don't want that on me. I don't want that in me. So, I just stopped. ... It is what it is. I still would still like to eat a burger. I'm not one of them vegetarians who is like 'How dare you eat meat in front of me'. I'm like 'Damn, that looks good. I won't eat it. I won't eat that crazy stuff.' [...]" (125)

2022

Laban Phedias (wearing a "Meat is dead" hat) and Kristian Svitak in 2022

In the skate video "Open Container" by Brandon Stepanow (posted on YouTube by New York City skateboard website Quartersnacks in February 2022), you can see skater Will Nieves wearing a "VEGAN" shirt [97].

Will Nieves in "Open Container"

In episode 189 of The Nine Club EXPERIENCE LIVE! (March 2022), Chris Roberts mentions Manny Santiago's positive attitude and says "[...] No beef ... Manny" (as in Manny Santiago has no "beef" with anyone), to which Steezus adds "Nah- He's vegan." Chris Roberts: "Yeah - oh, is he?" Kelly Hart: "He is [vegan] for sure." [106] He seems to be a dietary vegan "only" as he seems to wear leather shoes ... however, he also seems to be wearing a lot of Nyjah shoes (Nike SB, Nyjah 2, which is leather-free).

The Nine Club EXPERIENCE LIVE! #189

In episode 221 of The Nine Club (starting at 01:04:34 hrs; March 2022), it turns out that, after all these decades, Jason Lee still anti-vegetarian ... Some people never progress (and yes, you can pop pressure flips.):

Jason Lee: "You know what should have been on trial? The pressure flip."

Chris Roberts: "Did you ever get into the ... ?"

Jason Lee: "Never did it."

[...]

Jason Lee: "Pressure flip was like the gluten-free kickflip, right? Pressure flip was like the vegetarian kickflip." [90]  

In a video by Zembo Temple of Skate and Design (posted in April 2022), Sergei Trudnowski is asked what his favourite sandwich is. He says: "I don't know. I've been vegetarian since I've been 13. So, I don't know. Like, occasionally I like cheese hoagies, I guess but ... not really a sandwich too. ... Yeah, I do a lot of bananas. I have like five [bananas] in morning, before I get out the house." [112] Irrelevant nostalgic side note: You can see Sergei wear a glasses strap - as a former spectacle wearer I used to wear these at hardcore concerts in the 1990s.

Stills from the video: Sergei Trudnowski (probably in early 2022)

[112]

(Vegetarian) Sergei Trudnowski skating on Go Skateboarding Day (21 June 2022) [114]

Former vegetarian (see 1996) Brian Anderson, in a podcast posted in July 2022, mentions that for breakfast he likes to have "a banana, maybe some vegan yoghurt" [109].

In a Red Bull YouTube video (posted in July 2022) titled "" (at ~14:19 min), Mike Vallely says - about the original 1989 "barnyard" graphic - "So, this was a vegetarian-themed board." [108] At this point, Mike Vallely was probably not vegan anymore. In the video, he's eating donuts and wears what look like (leather) Cariuma "Catiba" shoes.

Still from the video: 

Unfortunately, Moses Itkonen, who used to be an animal rights vegan doesn't appear to be vegan anymore. In his latest Instagram posts (from July 2022) he has posted several pictures of him fishing. Not that Red Dragon, which he is co-owner of has ever been a vegan company (they've always had leather belts etc.), but to go from someone in favour of animal rights to someone who kills animals as a hobby (and fishing is one of the most brutal ways to kill an animal, pulling them out with hooks or nets, often letting them sufficate to death - but whatever the method of killing, the wrongness of it in these modern times remains). Also, Red Dragon (like several other skate companies) now promotes fishing on some of their clothing (see the hat). This is not meant to be a "name and shame" post. I'm just saying. This is what this blog post documents (vegetarianism and the lack thereof/anti-vegetarianism in skateboarding). I'm not sure at all when Moses Itkonen stopped being vegan. As a very vague reference point, the Chrome Ball Incident post about Moses Itkonen from October 2009 still contains this reference to Moses: "red dragon representative not afraid afraid to throw them dukes then chill and eat a soy burger..." [81] Well, he still might be eating "soy burgers", hopefully. A Transworld interview from 2000 also stated that "Moses is a vegan". Moses also had a vegan pro shoe on Duffs around 2001/2002. As a further random side note, the Chrome Ball Incident post contains a comment which notes "There was that incident around 1997 where he [Moses Itkonen] got punched out, hit his head on the ground and was bleeding from his ears." [81]

Moses Itkonen (2022)

An article in Forbes (!) (from July 2022) mentions that Leticia Bufoni has a mostly plant-based diet: [...] In order to assure longevity in a sport that can be taxing on the body, Bufoni leans heavily toward eating plant-based.

'Being a professional athlete, you gotta try to do your best to eat really healthy,' Bufoni said. 'Especially since I travel far distances so much, it can be hard to find plant-based choices.'

She adds that she first heard about Mikuna, a company specializing in a plant-based superfood protein called chocho, 'at my gym, where I train.' [!]" [89]

I watched the Kris Markovich episode of The Nine Club precisely to see whether he was going to mention vegetarianism - he didn't. He also didn't elaborate much on T-Bags or even his amazing video part in the first 101 video. However, the show basically starts with Kris Markovich catching a fly in his hand without killing the fly, and Kris says: "Yeah, I let it go." [Chris Roberts talking.] "I didn't want to kill it though. [He didn't.] [...] I'll leave that ... I'll just shoot your finger [with the water pistol]. I don't want to kill anything. [...]" [91] Kris also mentions his friend and pro skater Charlie Thomas (who is vegan - and not related to Jamie Thomas) who was a co-owner of the board company Crimson, which Kris was a big part of (until he left because the main owner was shady, apparently).

Kris Markovich at The Nine Club (episode 244), September 2022

In a podcast interview (by The Bunt) that appears to be from September 2022, Miles Silvas mentions that he is not vegetarian anymore.

The Bunt: "So, now you're on a vegan diet, we hear. How's that going and what made you switch up? [i.e., go on a vegan diet]"

Miles Silvas: "Well, I'm not on it [a vegan diet] anymore but, I was ... I was probably ... Me and my girl started, like, probably like eight years ago [i.e., around 2014]. She's still, she's still locked in [i.e., on a vegan diet]. But ... I was ... I already knew I was gonna have to, like, probably switch it up when I started travelling and shit or just be lenient. And I did that for like four years [i.e., since around 2018], and then once ... maybe four [or] five [years]. But anyways, I went to Portugal, with ... Or, I started dabbling into seafood a little bit [before he went to Portugal, it seems], and I was kind of like trying shit [seafood] here and there. And then, once I kind of broke the seafood, like having that shit for the first time, then I started going crazy on sushi. And then ... But I couldn't get myself to eat like steak or some shit like that. And then [I] went to Portugal, with Primitive, and then Carlos [Carlos Ribeiro, presumably] is like ... One of his good homies from Brazil happened to be living out there, owned a restaurant, and it was Carlos' birthday too, so he, like, cooked us this crazy, like, dinner of, like, lamb and steak, all this kind of shit, like. It was a whole experience. I was like, I can't not, like, eat this shit here, I gotta like ... yeah, can't turn this shit down, and then pretty much just got hella full, like, went crazy and like just ate a bunch, and then, like, after that, it's just kind of been around."

The Bunt: "When you're [i.e., were] in the midst of the vegan diet, like, what is the one that you, like, craved the most, man?"

Miles Silvas: "Yeah, I don't know. There wasn't really like ... There wasn't really, like, the connection, for me at least, with the seafood, like, as far as like eating an animal, compared to like chicken or some shit like that. It was hella easier to, like, smack some shrimp or something. [laughter] But, like, getting used to ... The first thing that was hella hard to get used to was just, like, no cheese on, like, anything, or like milk added into, like, a random ingredient or something. I didn't really, like, drinking plain milk as it was but it was, like, the cheese was definitely super hard."

The Bunt: "Shit, well, you're back to the dark side now, man."

Miles Silvas: "Yeah, for real."

The Bunt: "Steaks all day."

Miles Silvas: "Yeah, [I've] definitely been eating hella steak these days and, yeah, definitely sampled fuckin' ... got back to the full sample of trying everything, so ... It's cool, it's cool to touch on both sides ..." [120]

In an interview with Karma Tsocheff (pronounced something like "Tah-sheff" apparently), on the Talkin' Schmit podcast from October 2022, Karma says that he was raised as a vegetarian. However, what his says leaves plenty of room for speculation:

Karma Tsocheff: "[...] This was early, like '86/'87. [...] I was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. [...] I left Fort Lauderdale when I was seven years old [...]. I finished first grade in Mountain View [California]. [...] She'd [his grandmother] always make me an egg salad sandwich to take to school, 'cause I was, like, my ... I was a vegetarian then. My dad raised me a vegetarian. So, I'm still not eating meat. I didn't eat meat 'til I was like ten years old. [...] So, yeah, I finished first grade in Mountain View, and then that summer we moved to Visalia [California]. [...]" [122]

But later during the interview, Karma mentions that, during an Antihero tour, they barbecued hot dogs:

Karma Tsocheff: "If we got stuck and couldn't sleep somewhere, we always slept in the van. We had a hibachi [a small cooking stove heated by charcoal - or something of the kind]. We'd, like, barbecue hot dogs. [..] Then it got full of ants, so we had like a big ant problem in the van for a while. [...]" [123]

So, it seems that Karma Tsocheff was raised as a vegetarian until he was ten years old - note that some people mean pescetarian when they say "vegetarian". And then from then on he ate meat - or he ate meat only once or sporadically - and that as of 2022, he also did not eat meat. Note that some people do not include fish or "seafood" (sea animals) in their definition of "meat". But "hot dogs" generally refer to meat, so it seems he did eat meat at least during that Antihero trip, or maybe during most of his adolescence and adulthood. What he says in the interview doesn't make it clear.

The Loose Company, from Rotterdam (Netherlands), have come out with a (presumably) pro-vegetarian ("cow in a hamburger" and "cow reading a sad cow novel") board graphic. This board is from ~ November 2022:

According to an instagram post by straightedgeinterviews from November 2022, the skater known as "deer man of dark woods" appears to be a vegetarian. In an interview, deer man of dark woods says: I'm also very committed to the animal rights movement and driven to promote vegetarianism and animal welfare as a whole (94). An interview on the vegan skate blog website from 2011 confirms that "deer man of dark woods" was also vegetarian in 2011.

On 5 December 2022, the Nine Club episode posted their Vernon (Vern) Laird episode (episode 256). Vern Laird is an OG Philadelphia skater, Bones Bearings team manager (since around 2010), and long-term vegan (since ~1992) (see here). Straight edge people will also be happy about his X watch [95]. He mentions being vegan twice, saying he needs an XL shirt to hide his belly: "I'm working on my Ed Templeton vegan body" (at ~2:44:26) ... and when they ask him whether he has a nickname. Vern says that Kevin Taylor calls him "Papa Vegan" or just "Papa" (at ~1:25:51 hrs) [95]. 

Vern Laird on the Nine Club (December 2022)

On 31 December 2022, Mike Vallely posted in Facebook that he and his wife were eating a "Real American Burger" (a non-vegetarian cheese burger, apparently) [96]. That is, apparently Mike V is not a vegetarian anymore as of the end of 2022. (For a timeline of Mike V's on-and-off vegetarianism see here.) Mike V posted two more videos on Facebook, in January 2023, in which he's buying/eating Casey's pizza, presumably non-vegetarian.

2023

In Moby's new documentary movie about vegetarianism in hardcore punk "Punk Rock Vegan Movie" (February 2023), Atiba Jefferson has an appearance. Atiba says that they (he and others) always only skated in canvas skate shoes (canvas Vans) [98].

Atiba Jefferson in Moby's "Punk Rock Vegan Movie"

Common Youth Brand has published a short documentary called "Preserving History Through Print With Kevin Marks" [99] which is about Kevin Marks' massive skateboard print publications archive (called "Look Back Library"). Kevin Marks is a skateboarder, former Tum Yeto worker, and longtime vegan. Veganism is not mentioned in this documentary (but on Kevin's instagram it says "vegan", as of 12 February 2023).

Kevin Marks in "Preserving History Through Print With Kevin Marks"

In the Nine Club "Stop and Chat" episode 92 with Brian Anderson (BA), from February 2023, they end up broaching the subject of taking care of yourself healthwise, and Kelly Hart asks Brian Anderson: "What about foodwise? Are you eating differently now?" And BA replies: "No, I've always eaten ... like I always ... I think that I always ate ... pretty good. Even with like drinking and cigs [cigarettes] and stuff, like ... I could tell ... I knew, you know, if I'd have a crazy night, I'd be like 'I need to have miso soup and a gallon [~3.8 litres] of water [...]".

Jeron Wilson: "Yeah, you were never [one] to do [that], like going to McDonald's [...]. Don't get me wrong. We would entertain it and do that when necessary."

BA: "Yeah, I'd eat it [.]."

Jeron Wilson: "You would try to find other things."

BA: "Yeah."

Roger Bagley: "Brian would always break off." [go off somwhere on his own, in search of food] 

BA: "Yeah ... [John] Cardiel ... me and him on tour ... guac talk ... I love making guac[amole] on the road."

Chris Roberts: "I mean, you got your instagram filled with veggies." [...] "Bananas, ginger, avocado, beets".

Kelly Hart: "Kale? Is that kale?"

BA: "This is kale ... You put that in the Vitamix [blender]"

Chris Roberts: "Got the cayenne."

BA: "Tea ... I try not to have a lot of dairy, ... you know, like .."

Roger Bagley: "Get all gassy?"

BA: "No ... I can eat cheese. I'm Norwegian/Irish. I think, everybody's ...what you can eat depends on, like, your genetics, like where your parents, and grandparents and great-grandparents are from. I understand people ... that think, you know, we shouldn't eat animals and things but ..., yeah, I also think that it depends on your genetics, you know, where your family came from, which is so interesting to look into, you know. [...]" [100] 

Side note: BA was a vegetarian until (VERY roughly the year 2000). They are here probably talking about the time when BA rode for Girl, possibly around the time when "Yeah Right!" came out (2003). So, probably BA was not a vegetarian anymore at this point. 

In the Krooked video "Where To Go", a UK (England only, I think, London, Leeds, ...) tour video from February 2023, at around 9:45 min, you can see Mark Gonzales and Mike Anderson (who is vegan, as far as I know), and in Mark Gonzales scribble it says on the screen: "Mike: I don't eat animals", and then "Mark: 'vegetables'" [101]. See below:

Mike Anderson and Mike Gonzales (probably 2022)

In Beyond Boards podcast (episode 45, March 2023), Kristin Ebeling says: "[...] I was really [.] influenced by [.] straight edge [.] hardcore, Youth of Today and [.] Gorilla Biscuits and stuff like that. I started eating vegan [..]. That's where, sort of, I feel like I found my self identitiy [...]." [126] This again indicates that she's a dietary vegan (but uses leather shoes).

In episode 267 (March 2023) of the Nine Club, finally, it was Glen E. Friedman time ... and for the vegan skateboard historians among us, Glen did says since when he has been vegan (roughly). This is definitely the best episode of the Nine Club to date. 

Starting at ~59:53 min, Glen says: "[...] You know, people, it's like [some people say] '... oh, fuck Friedman. He's, you know ... commie, you know, whatever, you know, asshole, bigmouth, vegan, fuckin' bitch, you know, whatever.' [everyone laughing] I don't care, you know. I don't really care. It's like, you know, it's like ... that's good. I'm proud of all those titles, you know. But it's like, how about just everyone start caring a little bit more? And not just givin' in ... 'cause you could do it. [...]"

At ~1:45:14 hrs, Glen says: "[...] I'm an environmentalist ... OK? I care about the planet. I've been vegan for 35 years. Yo, I tell a joke: It's not about the animals. I hate animals so much, I don't even eat them. [everyone laughing] ... That's just a joke. But I'm just ... my point is that I do it for the environment, for the planet. That's why I started. And now I'm 60 years old, I'm like, you know, it's like, I know it's good for my health too probably, you know? And, you know, whatever. But ... it's all about caring motherfuckers, it's all about caring."

At ~2:23:34 hrs, Glen says: "And you know what? [Let me tell you] something. You don't have to be fuckin' vegan. I don't know if you are [addressing Chris]. I don't know if you are [addressing Kelly]. I don't know if you are [addressing Jeron]. You don't have to go to protests. You don't even have to fuckin' vote. You could be an apathetic piece of shit. ... OK? But ... but what you do need to do: ... just do something. ... Do something to make the world better. ... Don't be fuckin' selfish all the goddamn time. Just do something. ... Now, you could do a lot of shit. There's a lot of things we could do to make the world better. Just by tellin' the truth, callin' bullshit when we see it ... But I've learned as I've gotten older not to be so mean about it, ... you know?"

Jeron [Wilson]: "Pick and choose."

Glen: "But ... whatever ... just do somethin'. Just do somethin', man. [...]" [102]

That is, if Glen has been vegan for 35 years, that would be since around 1988.

Glen Ellis Friedman at the Nine Club (March 2023)

Unfortunately, as of around 1 June 2023, Mike Vallely's shoe on Cariuma, the "Vallely", is now also available in non-vegan colourways, made from real, animal-source leather. Apparently, Cariuma do not think that the consideration of animals is a part of "sustainability".

From Rick McCrank's instagram (story, 16 June 2023): Tofu sticker

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this board graphic trivialises violence against animals. Yes, unicorns are fictional. Metal Skateboards, Brian Anderson "barbarian" graphic. Long gone are the days of Welcome to Hell.

In the Kris Markovich interview (posted in July 2023) on Clyde Singleton's radio podcast "WCRP on Skateboarding" - the episode's called "WCRP: Kris Markovich 051- #MondayMorningRAW" (at ~6:10 min) - Kris mentions (OG H-Street pro) Charlie Thomas being vegan and "living in the gym": "[...] Dude, I used to live with Charlie, Charlie Thomas, and he's been the fuckin' ... That dude lives at the gym. Like, he has been just a model of fuckin' health. Like, he's a vegan, and he would like make his salad and shit and be like using the cap of the fuckin' dressing in squirting a couple of drops on. Dude, you don't have an ounce of fuckin' fat on you - what are you proportioning the dressing for, dude? Like, always constantly - I fuckin' love the dude to death - but it was a constant reminder of what a piece of shit I am. [...]" (105)

Blockhead came out with a new Laban Pheidias pro model called "Switchface" along with a Laban Pheidias "Switchface" video (which was posted in August 2023) [107]. Laban seems to have been vegan since around 1989 (when he was 16) (see 2013).

Peggy Oki on the cover of The Vegan (2023 issue 3)

In the Beyond Boards podcast episode with Ryan Lay (episode 63, November 2023), the podcast host (what's his name?) says: "[...] I'm interested in this because I'm vegan myself. I've been vegan for two years."

Ryan Lay: "Respect."

Host: "Thank you (laughs). ... And I believe you are [vegan] as well, and that you've been [vegan] for quite a while. I was just curious to ask you about that. I know that there are quite a few, probably, now, people in skateboarding that are vegan. I think, Ed Templeton was an early like ambassador of veganism, I guess. Kenny Anderson. I know that Kristin Ebeling, that I had on the podcast as well. She told me she was vegan. But it's still somewhat [...] a limited amount of people. But I just wanted to ask you how, how did you decide to go vegan? [...] And also what's the perception of veganism in the States [USA] and maybe where you are, in Arizona, and throughout your travels, how people have perceived it? Because from my perspective here in France, you know, we're a country where food [he means traditional food; not deviating from traditional preparation], of course, is very important. It relies very heavily on the dairy industry and the meat and fish industry. So being vegan here is basically, ahm, super marginalized. And whenever I say I'm vegan people look at me like [.] I'm a huge asshole or something. So [...] it's not usually pleasantly welcomed, you know. So I was just wondering what is your experience of that, where you live and also as you've been traveling all around the world. Like, how have people reacted to that?"

Ryan Lay: "Well [...] it's changed over the years for sure. [..] I started being vegan in New York in, ah, maybe ..."

Host: "Early 2010s?"

Ryan Lay: "Yeah, like early 2010s, I had a friend who kind of pushed me over the edge along with a book and I just did it 'cause I was like, you know what, this seems easy enough. Like, I think in life there's, you know, there's all sorts of sacrifices that we're faced with and that we know are the right thing to do. And some of those we're not really willing to make, which is like, not drive a car or, you know, take the subway. Whatever. But for me I was like, well, I think I could kick [give up] meat. And then eventually I was like, yeah, I could kick dairy and ..." 

Host: "Eggs."

Ryan Lay: "... all that too, yeah eggs too. And the thing that was rad about it was that it like opened up a whole new way of eating that I never knew existed, 'cause I just grew up on like a standard American diet, you know. Not to say that it was like bad food, but you know my mom had four boys to feed. So she's making the stuff that's available at the grocery store, that's affordable."

Host: "Sure."

Ryan Lay: "And yeah, once I started eating vegan, I just like ... it was weird 'cause you think that you're constraining your diet but what ends up happening actually is, like, you open your diet up to like a whole new range of things that you have to eat because, you know, you're trying to look for things on the menu. But at the time in New York it was pretty easy. Like, there were good vegan options. And then moving back here, you know, it was ... I felt like I just kind of like rode right into that wave of, like, Chipotle came out and Whole Foods came out and skate tours started to change. Because skate tours used to be centred around eating at fast food places and then all of a sudden it was like, oh we just go to Whole Foods every day. And people just eat the salad bar. [.] At least the trips that I was going on. But that's not to say that, like, traveling, it for sure happens, like, and it sucks being the one person who's like in a foreign country that doesn't really understand your weird dietary preferences and you feel culturally insensitive, 'cause you know, you're getting offered food and you're just like, I don't really know what to do in this moment."

Host: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly."

Ryan Lay: "But then you go to places like Palestine and there's like incredible vegan food that's just abundant everywhere."

Host: "Oh, really?"

Ryan Lay: "Yeah, like most of the, you know, like falafel and hummus and the salads are all vegan. So, it's pretty easy to eat there."

Host: "For some reason I thought over there it would be quite difficult [...].

Ryan Lay: "Yeah, it was pretty good but yeah, I mean, and on skate trips it's like now, you know, like, I was eating vegan food with [Andrew] Reynolds on the last New Balance trip. And there always seems like there's like one or two people, which makes it just a lot easier. And people [now] just all have weird dietary things, you know. Like, there's, there's ... We're all freaks now. There's, like, always like one or two guys that are like, eating a ton of meat, one or two guys that eat, [.] you know, no gluten [...]. You feel a little bit less of an outcast." [127] kkk

In a podcast posted in November 2023, Alex Olson says (after being asked: "Do you follow a diet or ..?"): "Yeah. I mean, I'm just like plant-based. [...] I try to be Ayurvedic, but [.] it's really hard. [...]" [110]. Then later in the conversation Alex says: "I mean, I will say that I've played [.] with the idea of just eating eggs again because it's like, ... the chicken's gonna produce it regard... Like, I eat honey, you know. And ... but an egg is like, also, like, it comes out of the animal but it's not hurting the animal. You know, it's [the chicken's] gonna do it regardless. But then someone was like 'Well, I think, they're bred to have [lay] an egg every day which isn't natural.' But ... I haven't done no research, so I don't know if that's true or not." [110] Alex is then asked when he started following a plant-based diet and why. Alex replies that he bought John Joseph's book "Meat is for pussies" in "I think, 2016" [110]. This confirms that he has followed a near-vegan/plant-based diet since around 2016 (also see 2018 above).

In an episode of WCRP podcast from December 2023, skater, surfer, and filmer Tony Roberts is interviewed. Tony Roberts had a part in the skate video "Tales from the Street" (1989), he produced the Santa Cruz Speed Wheels video "Speed Freaks" (1988) [118] and also made and partly filmed the Santa Cruz video "Risk It" (1990). In the WCRP episode, Tony Roberts says: "[...] I started skating in 1973 [...] We're really the first generation of people who started skating when we were little kids and then never stopped our whole life. In my case, incorporating like plant-based diet since childhood, strict yoga regimen, all kinds of ... just always doing everything I could do to try to set in my own mind possibly get an edge to skate better and surf better and be able to do it for more time, that's been my lifetime mission really. [...]" [116]

Check out Tony Roberts' YouTube channel Real Skate Stories.

2024

None other than Tony Hawk (who is not and never has been a vegetarian) did a short instagram commercial for vegan chocolate company "VGAN" (see the video below). The company seems to be from Norway originally and apparently has a lot of money (?). The 16-seconds-long commercial was posted by both VGAN (@vganchocolate) on their and Tony Hawk on his instagram on 7 February 2024, but at least as of 17 February 2024 (that's the earliest I checked) the commerical is not on Tony Hawk's instagram anymore (maybe that was part of the deal ... as he does commericals for A LOT of companies it seems).

An instagram post by VGAN (also from 7 February 2024) quote Tony Hawk as saying: "My favorite sweet snack as a kid was milk chocolate with almonds, but I was always looking for a better option than what was available. Little did I know that I would eventually be able to help develop the exact recipe that I was searching for all of those years. This is the good stuff."

Tony Hawk, VGAN chocolate instagram commercial

In an episode of "Talkin' Schmit" (posted on 2 April 2024), surfer, skater, and legendary 1980s skate filmer Tony Roberts is interviewed. In the interview, Tony Roberts says: "[...] I've been, you know like, vegan for, you know, most of my life, vegetarian since I was 18 years old, and heavily into yoga since I was a child [...]." [119] Towards the end of the interview, he says: "It's known to occur that when people get into yoga, they naturally become vegetarian, without even thinking about it. They just lose the desire to eat dead things. [...]" [121] 

Tony Roberts (with the green and yellow Oakland Athletics cap) on the Talkin' Schmit podcast

Just spotted this on LinkedIn (yes, it still exists): Tony Hawk (non-veg) collaborating with an even taller than Hawk VGAN chocolate man.

In episode 337 of the Nine Club (September 2024), Kelly Hart says that "[...] vegan shoes are [.] the most looked up thing on the internet". And Don Brown confirms: "[...] for our websites, [.] the search for vegan shoes is top 5 pretty much every week for all brands [i.e., éS, Etnies, and Emerica]." [128] Even though Thirty Two (snowboard boots and clothing) and Altamont (clothing) are also brands that belong to Sole Tech, I don't think he is referring to these two, when he says "all brands".

In the same episode, Don Brown (who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023) also says: "[...] I'm mostly plant-based [..], [...] a little bit pesc[catarian] [...]. I don't claim any kind of food. [He means he does not claim to be vegetarian, pescatarian, etc.] But I'm pretty healthy in what I eat. My only vice probably was I could drink as much [alcohol] as Dave Duncan." [129]

Side note: Although WCRF does not list alcohol as a risk factor for prostate cancer, alcohol consumption increases the risk of many cancers and there might also be a link to prostate cancer.

The full-length Blockhead video "Heads up!" (released 24 September 2024) includes parts by Blockhead founder Dave Bergthold (vegetarian, as far as I know) as well as Laban Pheidias (vegan) and Chris Lambert (vegan, as far as I know) [130]. There's even a clip of Kevin Marks (who is vegan, I think - see above). There's also a Ron Cameron part (he might be a vegetarian - see above). The video even includes vegan doughnuts for Laban (check it out at ~47:40 min).

In episode 341 of the Nine Club, Chris Roberts asks Jamie Thomas about his new skate shoe company War Saw (Warsaw):

Chris Roberts: "[...] Were you worried about, like, using, you know, animal products?"

Jamie Thomas: "You know, I've, I've used animal products on shoes throughout my career. A lot of my signature models - definitely when I was vegan - were synthetic. But when I started my own shoe brand with Fallen, I wasn't going to make a 100% vegan shoe brand. That wasn't the brand ethos.[*] It was like making shoes for skaters of all kinds. So, I kind of went with 'What are the premium materials now?' This is really what this brand is about. Like, what premium materials are readily available. And for the most part it's full-grain, which is like a tumbled leather. You know, like, if you get a really nice pair of shoes made in Italy or Portugal, they're Italian tumbled leather. That's full-grain leather, that's the creme de la creme. It's really soft, it feals really nice. [...]" [131]

* Also, Fallen Footwear was founded by Jamie Thomas in 2003, and Jamie Thomas had stopped being vegan and had started to eat meat again from around 2002 (see here).

Jamie Thomas continues (later in the interview): "[...] To have a vegan shoe in the line [...]. [...] I'm really trying to have a vegan shoe, not because of that search [many people searching for 'vegan' on the Sole Tech websites], just because I feel like brands that are conscious and that care about their customer base, I feel like they should have one. In my personal diet, as I'm vegan with fish. That's what works for my body, after years of testing. And I feel, like, I feel great on that diet, but I really like synthetic suede shoes, if they're done well. You know, and [..] I'm trying to do that as well as I possibly can. [...]" [132]

Some skate video:

• Mike Anderson has a part (first part) in the 2024 Dickies [!] video "Honeymoon". 

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77) The Nine Club: Torey Pudwill - Stop And Chat, The Nine Club With Chris Roberts, 20 July 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHi75CHjpv8&ab_channel=TheNineClub (last accessed 21 Oct 2021)

78) The Nine Club: Chris Haslam, Stop And Chat, The Nine Club With Chris Roberts, 29 October 2021, Episode 76, https://youtu.be/OOz6Hwjdpt4?t=294 (starting at ~4:56 min) (last accessed 4 November 2021)

79) The Nine Club: Robert Neal | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 206, 8 November 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pfWUW_S84k&t=5748 (starting at ~1:35:48 hrs) (last accessed 28 November 2021)

80) The Nine Club: Breana Geering | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 208, 22 November 2021, https://youtu.be/2AlG3FJx1sE?t=4253 (starting at ~1:10:54 hrs) (last accessed 04 December 2021)

81) The Chrome Ball Incident, chrome ball incident #366: dapper dan, https://chromeballincident.blogspot.com/search/label/moses%20itkonen (last accessed 31 July 2022)

82) Thrasher: Spackle me not: enjoi's smooth moves in Portugal, 1 February 2020, by Caswell Berry, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/SPACKLE+ME+NOT%3A+ENJOI%27S+SMOOTH+MOVES+IN+PORTUGAL.-a0624326473 (last accessed 1 August 2022)

83) DC Shoes: What's Happenin', Thaynan Costa, 18 June 2020, https://dcshoes.se/blog/skate/Whats-Happenin-Thaynan-Costa.html (last accessed 1 August 2022 - but I could only see the text while googling, the link did not work)

84) Pocket Skateboard Magazine: Followed: Thaynan Costa, 11 February 2021, https://youtu.be/bMon2Ew2Q5c (starting at 1:14 min)(last accessed 1 August 2022)

85) VegNews: Why are all these Olympic skateboarders vegan?, by Tanya Flink, 23 July 2021, https://vegnews.com/2021/7/olympic-skateboarders-vegan (last accessed 1 August 2022)

86) Pocket Skateboard Magazine: Followed: Cata Diaz, 26 August 2021, https://youtu.be/vJN51nU0mEg (at around 0:13 min) (last accessed 1 August 2022)

87) Pocket Skateboard Magazine: Pocket Talk: Simon Kramer, by Johannes Schön, 6 March 2021, https://pocketskatemag.com/pocket-talk-simon-kramer/ (last accessed 1 August 2022)

88) Red Bull: The Red Bulletin, 14 ways to see Leticia Bufoni, by Jen See, 9 May 2019, https://www.redbull.com/us-en/theredbulletin/get-to-know-leticia-bufoni (last accessed 2 August 2022)

89) Forbes: Leticia Bufoni Keeps Trailblazing On Skateboards—And As An Investor, by Andy Frye, 14 July 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyfrye/2022/07/14/leticia-bufoni-keeps-trailblazing-on-skateboards-and-as-an-investor/ (last accessed 2 August 2022)

90) The Nine Club: Jason Lee | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 221, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtn7OThBfrU&t=3874s&ab_channel=TheNineClub (last accessed 12 August 2022)

91) The Nine Club: Kris Markovich | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 244, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkaOvjFhiIs&t=145s&ab_channel=TheNineClub (last accessed 19 September 2022)

92) The Nine Club: Nine Club EXPERIENCE #114 - Stefan Janoski, Chad Muska, Erik Ellington, Tony Hawk, 17 September 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS71xBJq8qo&t=557 (starting around 9:17 min), last accessed 25 September 2022

93) The Nine Club: Nine Club EXPERIENCE #102 - Thaynan Costa, EA "Skate" game, Barker Barrett & Cher Strauberry, 25 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlSveR1xbjQ&t=1701s (last accessed 27 November 2022)

94) Straightedgeinterviews: DEER MAN OF DARK WOODS, 28 November 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/ClfuuYDpobe/ (last accessed 13 December 2022)

95) The Nine Club: Vern Laird | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 256, 5 December 2022, https://youtu.be/YUKX1xkoduo (last accessed 11 January 2023)

96) Mike Vallely: IOWA DAY TRIP: MARSHALLTOWN & UNION GROVE STATE PARK, 31 December 2022 https://fb.watch/hOw7P_V7Tr/?mibextid=qC1gEa (last accessed 11 January 2023)

97) Quartersnacks: 'Open Container' Video by Brandon Stepanow, 16 February 2022 https://youtu.be/XsIztTLfQEQ?t=1186 (at around 19:45 min and again at around 22:10 min) (last accessed 29 January 2023)

98) Moby: Punk Rock Vegan Movie, posted on YouTube on 9 February 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9q1IidazY8&t=1940 (at around 32:20 min) (last accessed 12 February 2023)

99) Common Youth Brand: Preserving History Through Print With Kevin Marks, posted on YouTube on 10 February 2023 , https://youtu.be/_P7hVfo6raI (last accessed 12 February 2023)

100) The Nine Club: Brian Anderson - Stop And Chat | The Nine Club - Episode 92, 27 February 2023, https://youtu.be/6SoOTkP6TR0?t=6075 [starting at ~1:41:15 hrs] (last accessed 4 March 2023)

101) Krooked: "Where To Go" UK Tour, posted on YouTube on 27 Februray 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9KLAWw082c&t=585s&ab_channel=KrookedSkateboarding (last accessed 4 March 2023)

102) The Nine Club: Glen E. Friedman | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 267, 20 March 2023, https://youtu.be/922b_AJ8SMM (last accessed 21 March 2023)

103) Glen E. Friedman: A Look Back: DogTown and Z-Boys, creative director: Glen E. Friedman, producer: Eric Matthies, editor: Eric Pritchard, https://youtu.be/EgoemJPWFko (last accessed 10 April 2023)

104) The Nine Club: Nine Club EXPERIENCE #4 - Justin Eldridge, Kenny Anderson Facetime, Trent McClung Facetime, 24 December 2017, https://youtu.be/JfbUFjKLrI4?t=1075 (at ~17:55 min) (last accessed 11 May 2023)

105) WCRP on Skateboarding, Clyde Singleton: WCRP: Kris Markovich 051- #MondayMorningRAW, 17 July 2023, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wcrp-kris-markovich-051-mondaymorningraw/id1565922132?i=1000621397660 (at ~6:10 min) [last accessed 27 August 2023]

106) The Nine Club: The Nine Club EXPERIENCE LIVE! #189 - Kader, Red Bull DIY, Emerica, Manny Santiago, 17 March 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccUQgtfPJis&t=1805s [at ~30:27 min] (last accessed 19 September 2023)

107) Blockhead Skateboards: Laban Pheidias Switchface Part - Skateboarding and innovating (at 50!), https://youtu.be/x1p6NfJXS8g (last accessed 27 December 2023)

108) Red Bull Skateboarding: Meet One Of The Pioneers Of Street Skateboarding Mike Vallely | SKATE TALES S2, 30 June 2022, https://youtu.be/msF7D1qJBSo (last accessed 28 December 2023)

109) Living Proof New York: Brian Anderson. Ep.110-Angel and Z Podcast, 14 July 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLDhVP-Mal4&t=4410s (at ~1:13:44 h) (last accessed 29 December 2023)

110) Living Proof New York: Alex Olson: Living Proof Radio. Ep-152, 13 November 2023, https://youtu.be/KtX0InL44q0?t=775 (at ~12:58 min and then at ~20:12 min) (last accessed 29 December 2023)

111) getUPmagphilly: GetUpMag Issue004: Skate Protest with Duray Montague and Serge Trudnowski Mycophile, 2 January 2021, https://youtu.be/a5gAhkQQts4?t=88 (at ~1:29 min) (last accessed 30 December 2023)

112) Zembo Temple of Skate and Design: Droppin' In - Episode 203 w/Sergei Trudnowski, 18 April 2022, https://youtu.be/aynjlqfa4F0?t=789 (at ~13:10 min) (last accessed 30 December 2023)

113) The Nine Club: Rick McCrank | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 24, 21 November 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HysCuR_MiJE&t=969s (at ~16:10 min) (last accessed 30 December 2023)

114) sabotageonline: Go Skateboard Day 2022, 5 July 2022, https://youtu.be/52oMZS6PSso?t=263 (at ~4:24 min) (last accessed 30 December 2023)

115) The City Wide Show: The City Wide Show - Sergei Trudnowski, 3 November 2018, https://youtu.be/MTSGhZx-qMU?t=385 (regarding Natas: at ~6:46 min), 

https://youtu.be/MTSGhZx-qMU?t=1281 (regarding meeting Sean Sheffey in 1990 or 1991: at ~21:21 min), https://youtu.be/MTSGhZx-qMU?t=5036 (regarding a Sergei Trudnowski clip from the Sheep video being used for the vegan Ryan Lay Etnies shoe commercial: 1:23:56 h) (last accessed 30 December 2023)

116) WCRP on Skateboarding, Clyde Singleton: WCRP: Filmmaker, Tony Roberts 055, 7 December 2023, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wcrp-filmmaker-tony-roberts-055/id1565922132?i=1000637802717 (at ~16:45 min) (last accessed 13 January 2024)

117) The Vegan: "I've found my porpoise!", Activist Peggy Oki on following her passions and taking actionfor dolphins and whales, by Ursula Watson, The Vegan 2023 issue 3

118) Confusion, International Skateboard Magazine: Real Skate Stories by Tony Roberts, [no date,] https://www.confuzine.com/real-skate-stories/ (last accessed 24 April 2024)

119) TalkinSchmit: Talkin' Schmit Ep. 218: TONY ROBERTS, 2 April 2024, https://youtu.be/tlLoBUfO43M?t=3270 (at ~54:30 min) (last accessed 24 April 2024)

120) The Bunt: The Bunt Ft. Miles Silvas S16 Episode 01 “Definitely been eating hella steak these days”, [no date, no later than 28 September 2022 but maybe earlier than September 2022] https://soundcloud.com/thebuntlive/the-bunt-ft-miles-silvas-s16-episode-01-definitely-been-eating-hella-steak-these-days (at ~32:52 min) (last accessed 26 April 2024)

121) TalkinSchmit: Talkin' Schmit Ep. 218: TONY ROBERTS, 2 April 2024, https://youtu.be/tlLoBUfO43M?t=7438 (at ~2:93:58 hrs) (last accessed 26 April 2024)

122) Talkin' Schmit: Talkin' Schmit Ep.175: KARMA TSOCHEFF, 18 October 2022, https://youtu.be/3wO5F0Pr1qM?t=555 (at ~9:15 min) (last accessed 2 May 2024)

123) Talkin' Schmit: Talkin' Schmit Ep.175: KARMA TSOCHEFF, 18 October 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wO5F0Pr1qM&t=3040s (at ~50:50 min) (last accessed 2 May 2024)

124) Andrew and Shay: BEST VEGAN SPRING ROLLS EVER?! | NO SEVENS W/ Andrew and Shay, 24 May 2024, https://youtu.be/6XHTwGywvsM?t=108 (at ~1:48 min) (last accessed 24 May 2024)

125) The Bunt: The Bunt Ft. Mike Maldonado S13 Episode 07 “You ride for Toy Machine now.. Hit this blunt”, [2021; no date], https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-bunt-ft-mike-maldonado-s13-episode-07-you-ride/id1146650964?i=1000516127859 (at ~1:04:45 hrs) (last accessed 1 July 2024)

126) Beyond Boards: Episode 45 - Kristin Ebeling, 6 March 2023, https://youtu.be/WLdzZiPOeBI?t=2324 (at ~38:44 min) (last accessed 27 July 2024)

127) Beyond Boards: Episode 63 - Ryan Lay, 30 October 2023, https://youtu.be/SE88MlpREoQ?t=890 (at ~14:50 min) (last accessed 27 July 2024)

128) The Nine Club: Don Brown | The Nine Club - Episode 337, 2 September 2024, https://youtu.be/_Z2GTw_Gglw?t=3449 (at ~57:31 min) (last accessed 8 September 2024)

129) The Nine Club: Don Brown | The Nine Club - Episode 337, 2 September 2024, https://youtu.be/_Z2GTw_Gglw?t=5323 (at ~1:28:43 hrs) (last accessed 8 September 2024)

130 ) Blockhead Skateboards: Heads Up! A skateboarding film by Blockhead Skateboards, posted on YouTube on 24 September 2024, https://youtu.be/G7m4mQMkjJk (last accessed 3 October 2024)

131) The Nine Club: Jamie Thomas Launching A New Footwear Brand "Warsaw" | The Nine Club #341, 7 October 2024, https://youtu.be/GdTKAaC0GDM?t=5007 (at ~1:23:28 hrs) (last accessed 7 October 2024)

132) Nine Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdTKAaC0GDM&t=5941 (at ~1:39:00 hrs) (last accessed 7 October 2024)