An Interview With China Joe: Retailer/Distributor Explains Country’s Skate History
adamsullivan
- September 09 2008
- 1,031 views
- 29 comments
Joe Eberling has been skating in China longer than you’ve been skating, and selling boards even longer. He lives in Shanghai and owns Wild Rampage and IconX, one of China’s largest distribution/Retail outlets for action sports. Smart brands know him as the go-to guy for breaking into the Orient.
Transworld Business sat him down and asked about the history, Google rewrites, and how the Chinese youth are more tech-savvy than the American youth.
TWB: When did you first arrive in China, and why did you move here?
JE: I moved to China in April 1986, straight out of college. I wanted to have an adventurous life and learn an impossible language, so moving to the world’s largest and oldest country seemed like a good idea. I got off the plane with an English-Chinese dictionary in one hand and my McGill green Jet Plane skateboard in the other. It wasn’t more than a few hours after arriving that I discovered that there wasn’t even a word in Chinese for skateboard! Ever since that day I’ve been teaching people to ride in China…
Can you give me a brief history of skateboarding in China?
I can’t really speak for the whole country, but I can tell you my experiences. Since I’ve never met anybody in China who’s been skating longer than I have, this should have some small value… For a couple years after arriving in 1986 I never met a Chinese skater. Then, around 1990, a few skaters appeared in Beijing. We all hung out at the capital sports stadium, near the zoo, where Sun Hu built China’s first skate ramps. It was a tight halfpipe, pyramid and five-foot-tall wallride with about three feet of vert. GNAR. In the 90’s college kids started skating, with the numbers growing very slowly throughout the decade. After the millennium, skateboarding started to change quite a bit as China’s first generation of single-child, little emperor, “me-me-me” kids hit puberty. All of the sudden I was seeing groups of skaters at the spots that I’d never met before. In the last couple years, if you stand on a corner long enough, you can see kids passing by with skateboards on any main street of any city in China.
Another cool thing that’s happening is that rather than adopting English words for skateboard tricks Chinese kids are starting to develop Chinese words for skateboard tricks. This shows that they’re making skating their own.
When did you first begin working in the Action Sports industry?
Hahaha. Great question. In 1977, when I was 14, I registered a skateboard shop, called the Boarder’s Edge, in my hometown of Tacoma, Washington. I was basically buying stuff wholesale for me and my friends and selling out of my bedroom. The first thing I brought in were a Road Rider 4’s and some Tracker mids. More recently, after leaving my job at Nike China in 1998, I set up Wild Rampage in Shanghai. We did consulting for a few years, then launched Iconx, China’s first snowboard shop with Burton at the Nanshan Snow Resort in 2002. In 2006 we started carrying skateboards, then this year we worked with Santa Cruz Surfboards to introduce surfing in China when we brought Wingnut of Endless Summer II fame to teach China’s first generation of surfers what it’s all about.
Joe Eberling and his staff hard at work.
Tell Me About Google In China—I heard they had to rewrite the Chinese history?
If you Google “Tiananmen Square” here, you’ll get a picture of a tank. In China, if you do that, you’ll get a picture of happy Chinese people under a huge Mao portrait.
So lots of web sites are blocked?
Yeah, but young people can come up with workarounds faster than the government can put blockers in place.
Has the government become more lenient?
When I worked for CNN as a translator, I got followed. I’d take people into stores to buy a water, and after I come out, two guys would go in and “debrief” the shop owner.
How are you enjoying your trip to California?
I’m loving it.
Would you eventually move here?
I definitely want my son to grow up here, and I’m not about to have my son grow up without me around. America’s the best country in the world. Americans “get it.”
Joe sounds off about the Chinese market, and how brands can save time and money when they enter it, in an upcoming issue of Transworld Business. Don’t miss it.
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September 9th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
FUCKIN BULLSHIT!!!!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Hi Im looking to buy skateboard shoes Nike SB , how many pair do i need to buy to start and what our your prices .
LIVE IN CHICAGO IL IF PRICE IS RIGHT WE WILL BUY MORE
BETWEEN 50-200 PAIRS ALL DIFFERENT SIZES FROM 6 AND UP
WHOLESALER MANUFACTURER NIKE SB SHOES SKATE
September 18th, 2008 at 12:29 am
This bums me out….
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 am
I hope Joe really know China Skateboarding market ^L|||
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:36 am
this guys full of shit he cant even skate i met him last year
all the chinese guys hate him
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
he has no idea about skate business
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
“Smart brands know him as the go-to guy for breaking into the Orient.”
ummmm….smart, like in the sense of having no clue about China and its skateboarders and throwing your lot in with a total poser? That’s smart!
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Joe is the biggest lier with a skateboard, every skateboarder in China knows that, China skateboarding never be affected by any foreigners, they grow up themselve, and got their own skateboarding culture with Chinese OG skateboarders rule it, just go away Joe, coz you even cant skate with a skateboard.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
JOE IS FUCKING GAY
i lived in shanghai china the last two years of my life
he is a fucking joke
knows nothing
and cant even skate
he can drop and and thats about it and carve the smallest bowl in shanghai
he is fucking gay
he is a joke
and all of what he said is pretty much bull shit
i was best friends with local skate team hash team and they dont say tricks in chinese they speak no english but the trick names are in chinese
and no, skaters arn’t down every street
thats a load of shit
skating isnt massive but it is getting bigger
but most of all
joe is fucking gay
and i think everyone in shanghai can agree with me on that one
if u dont fuck u and go suck joe’s dick
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 pm
i hope u die dropping in the peanut bowl dickface
September 24th, 2008 at 4:06 am
that is so true fuck icon x and funboxx
September 24th, 2008 at 4:10 am
this guy sponcered me
and he gave me nothing
he is gay and shit i and i will punch his kid in the face the next time i see him
September 24th, 2008 at 4:13 am
if you ask a china skateboarder about joe they will warn you to stay away from him
September 24th, 2008 at 4:16 am
if you google joe u get a picture of a penis
September 24th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
whoa! this is savage!
September 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
dude…u guys are all fucking haters. get a life and try to get something going for yourself. how many of you are riding HIS product or session-ing HIS mini every day? yeah…i thought so.
funny is how u guys think u know the skate market cauz u can stick a kickflip…
September 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Haters & Posers out there, why don’t you just go out and skate instead? Whether gay, a liar, penis or fucking anything else, ask yourself this: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE to stop the rollerblading epidemic out there? Oh, lets see…trash talk each other anonymously? Wow….very brave.
Anyway, go skate.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
stop sippin that haterade. less time talking, more time skating.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:40 am
two thumbs up for this comment
September 25th, 2008 at 2:40 am
and in china if you google penis u get a picture of joe
September 27th, 2008 at 9:23 am
oh my god,what happen in here,
Adam,don’t trust that guy,even 1%,
he is such a drama queen,
hey joke,
why you don’t tell people you created pop shove-it out here?
you teach poeples how to skate in china ?
what the fuck?
you cant even sk8,how you do that ?
to be honest,
let’s get the fuck out of china skate market,joke!
the local company working so hard to make the market like today,
it’s not for you man,
don’t lie to the US company anymore,
today,everybody think the china sk8 market gonna be big,in fact is not,
most of the business man don’t know anything out here at all,
that’s why peoples trust him easily,
anyway,your ICON X(in chinese mean extreme home)suck at business.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
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October 7th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
who are you?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
explain how i’ve got no idea.
and sign your name, please.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:45 am
this guys going out of business i heard he spent all his budget
January 29th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
China has a bog carrot to dangle the western brands who think they can cash in here, Actionsports is tiny in China and will stay small for it is nothing like the Chinese culture and Chinese do not wear surf/skate wear. Go to any chinese community in your counrty and they are not wearing, Quiksilver, Billabong, Element,
DVS, ES etc, and in mainland china it will be a very slow road
for actionsports retail.it needs a huge grassroots push of coaching to get young people into these sports and lifestyle,
It needs big bucks to invest but watch who you give it to for it may go up in smoke. I know by experience.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
ye and when do do wear thos brands they dont buy it from a legit shop and its all factory leaks so the company wont make any money
February 20th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
joes first shop has closed down due to bad business this will be a start of a chain reaction soon he will go bust
July 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
joe lost his biggest invester and will have to close down all his shops unless he gets a new invester