Violet Skateboards

Article by Nic Fensom

Back in April of last year, New York-based photographer and filmmaker Ari Marcopoulos was in Paris for the opening of his show Beware at the Musée d’Art Moderne.

The exhibition signified the remarkable story of a brown paper bag he’d stashed away eons ago in a banker’s box of miscellaneous items, which had moved around with him from one studio to the next, coast to coast and back, until its rediscovery in 2018.

The bag was full of unlabeled cartridges of exposed Super 8mm film. While decluttering one day, Ari decided to develop the film rather than throw it away. To his surprise, it was forgotten skateboard footage he’d shot during the mid-’90s in New York.

With the Olympics coming to Paris and skateboarding somehow now a medal sport, the museum bought what would become “Brown Bag” — a short skateboarding film that Ari edited together after converting the film reels to digital video — from his representative gallery where, in 2020, it originally exhibited.

The museum then offered him a “carte blanche” selection of the 15,000 artworks in its acclaimed collection. All in all, 40 pieces from artists Ari admires, including Christopher Wool, Luciano Fabro, and Giorgio de Chirico, were chosen and combined with a survey of Ari’s portrait work of musicians, artists, skateboarders, and snowboarders, along with the screening of “Brown Bag.”

Contemporaneous to the exhibition and his other commitments was a somewhat open-ended project photographing Violet, the validly skilled, vitally youthful, newish skateboard team of nine (plus two flow riders).

Surprisingly for the N.Y.C.-based company, there isn’t a single native New Yorker in its current mix of shredders.

“Seven Strong is from right outside of L.A. Patrick O’Mara is right outside L.A., in Burbank. And Kyle Teh’s from Simi Valley,” said Bill Strobeck, the acclaimed skateboard filmmaker and Violet’s founder, before he continued with roll call: “Auguste Bouznad’s from Paris. Kris Brown, Mike Ward, and Efron Danzig are from Philadelphia. Kader Sylla is from right outside Los Angeles, and Troy Gipson’s from Seattle.”

The team loosely operates out of a newly leased studio in Chinatown. A big pink painting hangs on the main wall. Done by skateboard legend and artist Mark Gonzales, its brushstrokes of text reads, “This is not a white or black ishue.”

Bill put the idea to Ari in January to shoot Violet for a future issue of SNEEZE. Ari was already familiar with some of its skaters from commercial work he’d done for Supreme, from Bill’s very active Instagram account, and from bumping into them around downtown. He was down.

However: “It’s not like I’m going to just go a couple days and take some pictures here and there,” said 67-year-old Ari. “When somebody asks me to do something and I agree, I go all in.”

Months after commencing the assignment, Bill and most of the Violet team were fortuitously in Paris during Ari’s opening week at the museum.

One afternoon, Mike and a few others were waiting for Ari at the Dôme, the iconic esplanade spot encompassing the Palais de Tokyo, France’s largest exhibition venue for contemporary art, conveniently located just behind the museum where Ari was showing. When Ari arrived, Mike was trying to get a trick (for an iPhone clip).

“A tre flip down the double set,” the 26-year-old said, noting that he couldn’t believe how much smoother the sidewalks were in “The City of Love” compared to the sidewalks in his “City of Brotherly Love.”

It was his first time in Europe, let alone Paris. Leading up, he’d yet to be shot by Ari. They also hadn’t previously met.

For Ari, it’d been a minute since photographing a trick — and decades since he shot the Justin Pierce frontside ollie standing atop the short wall at the Brooklyn Banks, the Bobby Puleo backside 50-50 grind bracing below the tightly tucked stairway within the confines of One Liberty Plaza in the financial district, or the Harold Hunter kickflip aiming intentionally at the left turn pavement marking on Lafayette Street.

For Mike’s try on the 360 flip over the stretched three-flat-three made up of sandblasted concrete pavers, Ari set himself up, according to Troy, 22 and Violet’s first to turn professional, “in the line of fire.”

“I knew that,” Ari started to explain. “But I knew where I had to be to have him silhouetted in the perfect way… And then his board shoots out and it hits me in my arm, like, so fucking hard.”

Right above the wrist joint on the forearm with his $5,000 Fuji GFX100 in hand. The camera went airborne. Everyone freaked out.

“I’m like, ‘Holy shit, I just met him, like, five minutes ago,’” Mike recalled. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Dude, I’m so sorry!’”

Ari undid his Gore-Tex jacket, peeled the sleeve of his sweater back to assess the stinging pain, saw blood emanating from his new found wound that cut to the bone, and sarcastically said to himself, “Ohh, yes.”

Kris, 24, who pulled up to the scene after the fact, wasn’t surprised by the news surrounding Mike.

“His board is flying somewhere, he’s slipping out somehow — pushing on the street he’ll slip out,” Kris said half-jokingly.

In the aftermath, Ari’s camera was fine. So, too, was he.

“But he ate it. I don’t think I could have shot my board out any harder,” Mike said.

Then he gave “old Ari” his due props: “He’s a strong man — a strong guy — for sure.”

Insert flexed biceps emoji.

“I like the idea that it brought us closer together,” Ari reflected.

Insert people hugging emoji.

Regrouping later for Stellas at La Perle, the go-to café right around the corner from the Supreme store in the Marais district, Seven, 26 and the “head honcho” of the squad, said Ari was “super hyped to show us his bloody arm” and that Ari felt like “a part of [Violet].”

Insert purple heart emoji.

“My mother always texts me the purple heart for no reason,” Bill responded when asked about the name Violet. He said his only reference to the specific color itself, which lies within the spectrum of purple, was her signature emoji usage.

The name was chosen mainly for its phonetics, tough-but-feminine aesthetics, and how Bill feels it gives 1998-Hype Williams-feature-film-debut energy.

“Me and Seven were talking about the movie Belly a lot,” he said, touching on Violet’s early infancy that began forming in Italy during the spring of 2021 while filming for the Supreme Milan store opening short video, “STALLION.” Upon their return, it continued to take shape over filming trips to Philadelphia with Troy — and, on occasion, Auguste, Kyle, and Patrick — during the production period for “Play Dead”, Supreme’s full-length video that premiered in December the next year. “It was just that opening scene in Belly for me,” he continued. “I just felt like Violet felt like that.”

“We were in Milan,” recalled Auguste, 24, “Bill told me that he wanted to do a board company and asked if I wanted to be involved. That’s where I first met Troy and Seven. I was just down. But I couldn’t really speak English when I met them. That summer, I came to New York for, like, three months to film for “Play Dead” and that’s how I met Kris, Mike, and got closer to Troy, Seven, Efron — like, everyone. My English also got way better that trip and, I don’t know, it just felt natural, you know?”

“It doesn’t even feel like a company. At a certain point, it just feels like we’re all hanging out,” Seven said.

“It’s just a vibe,” Kris said.

“Kids just kickin’ it,” Bill said. “It’s not just the trick, man. It’s literally, like, kickin’ it. And all I’ve been doing since I started skating has been kickin’ it.”

So while in downtown Philadelphia, skating at the Municipal Services Building, or Muni, as they call it, they kicked it with Mike.

“He’s got a good-ass laugh,” Troy remarked. “It doesn’t sound like the sound that should be coming out of his mouth, because he looks all diesel.”

“I think he can be intimidating, but he’s the sweetest person,” said 21-year-old Patrick. “Mike is like a big teddy bear.”

They kicked it with Kris.

“Kris is kind of a big brother at times,” said Kyle, 19. “He’s also very mellow.”

“And he’s ambitious,” Seven affirmed. “He always wants to better himself.”

And they kicked it with Efron, who at the time hadn’t yet moved to New York.

“I guess you could say she’s super poetic,” Troy said, before adding: “She got a shit ton of energy.”

“She can change a group,” Ari chimed. Violet’s honorary team member likened her presence to champagne. “If there’s 10 people around and Efron arrives, you know, it’s like everything starts bubbling.”

The Philadelphia trio took frequent trips to New York — Mike sliding up with Kris, Efron usually solo.

“Bill sent me a message, like, ‘When the fuck are you coming to New York?!’” said Efron, 25, recalling that first winter.

There, they kicked it with Troy, who’d recently moved to the Lower East Side.

“Troy… the kid is… he’s just magic,” Mike said, almost lost for words.

“That quote of Bruce Lee, ‘Be like water,’ that’s Troy,” Kris said. “He just floats.”

They kicked it with Auguste and Kyle when either or both were in town from Paris and L.A., respectively.

Of Auguste, Mike said: “He’s hilarious. He talks with his whole body and he’s got sick steez.”

Of Kyle, Efron said: “Spiritual,” and added that when she first met him she thought he was older than his actual age. “He carries himself very maturely.”

They kicked it with Seven, who, like Troy, had already relocated to the Lower East Side.

“If Seven’s your dog and you ever need some shit handled, he’d help you handle getting it done,” Mike said.

Efron added of Seven: “Stoic.”

They kicked it with Patrick, who, the day after graduating high school in 2021, flew to New York to surprise Seven for his birthday before proceeding to crash at his crib for the summer. That would turn into recurring stints of months over the next few years.

“Patrick reminds me of Sharkboy every time,” Kris quipped.

“Pat” — Efron paused — “he’s a little fucking sweetheart.”

And they kicked it with none other than Kader, who’d also crash at Seven’s with Patrick, or be put up in a hotel by Supreme. Kader was still skating for Baker at the time. Or was he?

“Kader grew up skating with Patrick and Seven, like your crew kind of thing,” Bill said, beginning to touch on Kader’s much observed and speculated-on board sponsorship status that began in the late spring of 2022 and carried through until the early summer of 2023. “When we started Violet and started to promote it, I could tell that Kader was like, ‘That shit’s fire.’ He was hyped on the stuff we were doing — you know, there’s wheat pastes of Kris and Lil’ Kim that we had posted everywhere — and he was reposting it [on Instagram]. He was backing his friends, you know, lightly.”

“I remember during that time we were all just kinda in Kader’s ear a little bit,” Mike said. “We’d all be like, ‘Come on, man, skate for Violet.’ Like, ‘What are you doing bro?’”

“As we went along, I think it felt very vibrant to him and fresh and new,” Bill said. “He had been on Baker for a while.”

For a solid seven years, in fact. Kader had started his career at Baker and been with the storied L.A.-based board company since he was about 13.

Andrew Reynolds, 46, active professional skateboard legend, owner and founder of Baker Skateboards, and the one who first put Kader on, recounted Kader broaching the subject of going to Violet with both him and Jay Thorpe, Baker’s team manager.

“Go ahead,” he said they both replied frankly, and advised Kader that it was best not to think too long about it. “That was it.”

Andrew then added: “He actually fits on Violet better than he fits on Baker, to tell you the truth.”

“I think it was a really hard decision for him to leave because of Andrew — having somebody of that level back him,” said Bill, who made a point of saying that he was speaking for himself.

Kader, who just turned 22, admitted as much. Both he and Andrew spoke fondly of one another and noted how they still talk about once a week. Both recalled the times spent with Stella, Andrew’s daughter, when the three of them would spend the day driving around to different skateparks in L.A.

“The switch was never going to be personal or anything like that. Nothing ever is, I want to say, for the skate shit,” Kader said. “But it sucks when you have to make those decisions. You really become close with these people and it sucks that shit has to go that way. I kind of thought it was time to move forward and try to build a brand around myself.”

“When it happened I was like, ‘Damn, this sucks,’” Andrew said. “But at the same time, I understand it completely. I can’t even judge it because I know. I put myself in Tony Hawk’s shoes when Tony was like, ‘Dude, Andrew’s gonna go with all these guys and start Baker. So it’s just the next step. I wish more young skaters would actually go on and start businesses and do new projects. I love what Limosine is doing. I love Violet. I love GX1000. All that shit, I’m such a fan of it.”

In June 2023, the inevitable wheat-paste posters went up all over Los Angeles, Manhattan, and the newly renovated Brooklyn Banks, featuring an up-sized selfie that Kader had sent Bill years ago, when he was in braces, biting down on a small wad of folded U.S. currency. The caption to the corresponding post on Violet’s Instagram account read: “Kader Sylla rides for Violet.”

It was quite the coup for Violet. Kader gave Violet’s team manager, Blanca King, the equivalent of a five-tool player to pencil into the lineup.

But not until Kader recovered from two separate arthroscopic surgeries on a torn meniscus in his left knee, which he thinks he suffered in the summer of 2022 after jumping down the 12-stair segment of the Chinatown set.

So in the meantime, queue a montage of tricks from the rest of the team:

“Mike Ward switch hard!” Efron snapped.

“Front three,” Troy said of Patrick, with envy.

“Nollie heel front crook on a ledge,” Patrick said of Kris.

“Randomly,” Kyle began to say of Seven, “he has nollie backside flip to tailslide. Randomly.”

“Back bigspin, ’cause he wraps them,” Seven said of Kyle.

Of Troy, Efron said: “He does that back 180 5-0 180 thing that’s cool.”

“Varial heelflip,” Patrick said of Efron, noting how hers are “satisfying to watch.”

“Insane ollie,” Mike said of Auguste.

Moreover, for Auguste, Troy asked if a backside powerslide counted, recalling just how long Auguste held one down a hill while they were filming in L.A.

Auguste scoffed when asked about any tricks made by anybody, including himself, before chuckling just a bit. “I need to have a spot,” he countered. “I need to find my spot and know what I want to try.”

Enter Kader back into the chat in early 2024. He and Patrick had officially signed leases to residences in New York (Kader in the East Village, Patrick in Dumbo with his girlfriend). Also, at this point, it is important to note that Kader had returned to almost full health.

Then came February 26, when the two — along with Seven, Kyle, Bill, and photographer Ben Colen — were at another spot in Chinatown that very few have stepped to.

“Looking at that thing in person is just, like, ‘Nah,’” Troy said.

“To do anything on that thing is fucked up,” Kris said. “And he did that?”

Contributing to the overall mystique of the situation, Kris surmised that Kader was probably either lit the night before and “kickin’ it,” or up all night playing FIFA.

(“Blissed out but working hard” was how Kyle succinctly described Kader’s approach.)

Kyle said that Kader “hopped out the car, did a couple flatground tricks, and just did it like it was nothing. I think that was the craziest skate trick I’ve ever witnessed in real life.”

“We didn’t even yell right away because we were just confused,” Seven said, somewhat still bewildered as he recalled that moment at the pavilion in Columbus Park when Kader rolled away from his switch frontside flip over the hubba.

“I don’t think it clicked in our brains,” Patrick said. “We just watched him start riding away. When he got, like, five feet, we were like, ‘Oh, shit, he just landed that.’ That was so easy for him. None of us were expecting it would go down like that. I think it was just complete shock for like 20 seconds. I got up and broke my board. We all started screaming, chasing after him. It was unreal.”

On April 8, Thrasher magazine revealed that it put the photo that Ben shot of Kader on its June cover. Andrew said he called Kader as soon as he saw it.

“Being a perfectionist skater, I’m like, ‘How did you do it?’” he said. “He’s like, ‘Dude, I did it perfect.’ He’s one of the best skateboarders I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Insert double exclamation mark emoji.

“The day it happened, it was good. But then the next day you just still feel like you need more to show,” Kader said. “It definitely relieved me of a little bit of stress, I guess.”

“People shut the fuck up after that photo,” Efron said, referring to those who were unaware of Kader’s long injury rehab and thought he’d fallen off or gotten too fried after he made the switch to Violet.

For Auguste, back home in Paris, seeing the cover for the first time, he said, “Dude, I was fucking so hyped, and, also, the Thrasher logo purple color, it looks so dope.”

But the photo also served as motivation for him.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, OK — it’s time to film for this video.”

“We’re not, like, gung-ho, but these kids are putting it down,” Bill said about the progress of Violet’s anticipated full-length video. He played coy about when it might be ready, but hinted it could be out in time for SOTY season next year. He also explained that if two more years is what it took, that would be fine too. He wasn’t concerned about any pressure to meet some unnecessary deadline “as opposed to everything in the nature of today.”

Up until now, Violet has released about a half-dozen smaller-scale video projects, produced, Bill said, “just on the fly.” They range from the introductory “VIOLET PROMO” in the spring of 2022, to the self-explanatory “VIOLET IN MIAMI (SOUTH BEACH SPECIAL)” put out last summer, to its most recent “JAX & LUCAS FOR VIOLET.,” a 12-minute merry-go-round of its two groms on flow.

As it stands, Kader’s switch frontside flip is likely the only clip known to exist that will appear in Violet’s full length. This can easily be deduced if one goes by precedent: An insane trick is often on a Thrasher cover preceding the video that contains the clip.

Bill is widely known to keep an extremely tight lid on all footage.

“He thinks it’s corny to show the skater their footage because he likes the feeling of them seeing all their footage at the video premiere — which is sick, it’s fire — but not what I’m used to,” Kader said.

Mike put it bluntly: “He’s a psychopath about never letting anybody see footage before it comes out.”

Bill will, however, give the skater the courtesy to view the trick on his camera viewfinder at the spot, in the moment. But that’s it.

Unfortunately for Bill, he can’t film everyone at the same time or be in multiple places at once. The same secrecy that he adheres to is expected from all the skaters and filmers involved with any video project under his direction.

“If he even finds out someone else filmed a clip that might be for the video or he finds out you’re showing somebody,” Mike warned, “the boogeyman’s coming to get you.”

Troy mentioned he got a trick recently with Violet’s secondary filmer, Alex Greenberg, that he was “really stoked on.”

“Should I say?” Troy pondered for a moment before cutting himself off so as not to get caught slipping. “I don’t even— Yo, Bill— Actually— !”

Insert zipper mouth face emoji.

“He’s such a skate filmer,” Kader said. “He’s 100 percent a skate filmer.”

“That’s his life,” Seven said matter-of-factly about Bill’s relentless pursuit of documenting and capturing skateboarding. “He enjoys every second of it. He stresses on it because he’s hungry. He doesn’t want to do anything else.”

“He’s always down,” Patrick said. “If you have an idea, he’s down to go with you to that spot and try to handle it.”

“He’s honestly good at hyping people up,” Troy said. “He’s loud. I think that’s what it is. That’s what hypes me up. He’ll be like, ‘COME ON!’ Like, ‘COME ON, BABY, GET THIS SHIT! GET THIS SHIT!’ He’ll get more hyped than you are about trying some shit.”

“I’ve seen him yell at people to get out of the way while you’re waiting to try the trick,” Patrick said.

“He’s just a crazy motherfucker,” Kader said warmly.

“There’s never a quiet moment,” Seven chuckled.

Patrick added: “He also has high expectations.”

“Filming with Bill, sometimes it’s…” Auguste trailed off, then said: “I’m so lucky, but the thing is that in skateboarding, he’s filmed so many people. Like, some of the best skaters in the world, and I don’t know, sometimes he’s pretty impatient, you know? He’s seen so much stuff. Sometimes when I’m filming something, he’s like, ‘Dude, my shit is like work.’” He then kind of laughed.

The fact that Violet’s founder is the most influential filmer in skateboarding today gives the brand a big leg up on the competition. When it comes to content marketing, Violet has a mood, a point of view, and a tone of voice all of its own. Overall, the work is tasteful and compelling because not only is it artistic and cinematic, it comes from an honest and sincere place.

Bill acknowledged as much. “It is easier for me because I’m out with them, not that they rely on me that much. But I do think it is to their advantage that I’m around and able to see things and just be immersed in skateboarding and the scene. That’s a plus.”

Combine that with a unique cast of characters, among whom Ari said he saw an “amazing camaraderie” as he photographed and kicked it with them across Paris, Philadelphia, and New York.

“They get along almost like a family,” Bill said, before analogizing Violet to the Junkyard Gang from the cartoon series Fat Albert. “I look up to them in this day and age for what they’re into.”

That’s where Bill keeps the door wide open, and rightly so.

“They’re so in tune, like how I was,” he said in regards to when his younger self kept tabs on who and what was next in art, music, and pop culture, both online and off. Bill’s lack of the latest knowledge in some of these areas can be attributed to being in early middle age and to what little bandwidth he has left after each day.

“Dude, I’m literally listening to the Eagles and Neil Young and calling it a day, basically,” he said.

Unlike with his video work, he recognized that ceding control of Violet was for the greater good. The company, figuratively and literally, is just as much theirs as it is his.

“They see stuff and tell me what they think is cool, and we’ll do it,” he said. He references commissioning Frank Dorrey, a 25-year-old visual artist (who also raps), for hyper-saturated photo portraits to appear across four decks. “That series was done because of Auguste, Seven, and Troy.”

Other collaborations have ranged from staple skateboard companies, like Venture Trucks and Spitfire Wheels, to the much more personal and unexpected, like Café Mogador, a landmark Moroccan restaurant in the East Village where Bill and the team like to brunch. (Seven recommends the Moroccan Benedict.)

By now, Violet radiates from city to city. Efron, who has been sent to Paris eight times so far this year — for skateboarding and for walking the runway during fashion week — doesn’t have to look far when she’s there.

“Everyone has Violet boards — like all the kids in the park at [Place de la] Bastille,” she said. She then relayed comparable sightings back home at Tompkins Square Park, the historic downtown hub that was just repaved.

One board that’s easy to spot from a distance is the simple-yet-bold peace symbol. The graphic idea came from Kyle, a self-described minimalist who’s of Christian belief.

“Peace is something that I’m always trying to achieve and maintain,” Kyle explained. “I just thought it was a subtle message that wasn’t too overwhelming, but still a reminder.”

Of what?

“Of why it’s Violet,” Bill asserted.

Insert crystal ball emoji.