History
Beginnings
Both Carroll and Howard decided that they wanted to make a contribution to the skate footwear industry by founding their own company rather than being sponsored. One night in April 1999, while at Largo Comedy Club in L.A., Tim Gavin proposed an idea to Rick Howard about starting a new shoe company. After talking to Mike, they decided to partner up with Podium Distribution to launch Lakai Limited Footwear. In August 1999, Mike contacted Cairo Foster and asked him if he would like to ride for his “unnamed” shoe company. When he called to quit, Cairo told his current sponsor “Mike Carroll asked me to ride for his shoe company, that’s all I know”. After hanging up the phone, he (somewhat) confidently became Lakai's first official team rider. In the next couple of months Andy Jenkins hired designer Andy Mueller to develop a logo for Lakai, which later became known as the “Flare”. Andy Mueller moved to L.A. shortly thereafter to become Lakai's art director. Anthony Pappalardo, Rob Welsh and Jeff Lenoce agreed to become Lakai's first batch of amateur talent, earning a whopping $250 per month, and in November 1999, Scott Johnston decided to leave his current shoe sponsor D.C., making him the final rider on Lakai's introductory team. Kelly Bird was also officially hired as Lakai's team manager. By May 2000, the first line of Lakai shoes (Howard, Carroll, Cohort, Clay and Worthy) were delivered to shops worldwide.Additions, First Pro Models, Changes
In June 2000, after filming together for Tranworld's ''Modus Operandi'', Mike Carroll decided that Brandon Biebel had to be part of Lakai. In April 2001 Scott Johnston's debut pro model was released and Danny Garcia joined the team. In November 2001, JJ Rousseau became Lakai's first official European rider, laying the foundation for what would eventually become The French Connection. In March 2002, after waiting for almost a year for his existing shoe contract to expire, Lakai welcomed Marc Johnson to the team. His first pro model came out a little over one year later. Cairo Foster's first pro model came out in December 2003. In January 2004, Lucas Puig and JB Gillet joined the team, officially forming The French Connection. In May 2004, the first ever co-brand shoe with Girl Skateboards was released, paving the way for several more notable collaborations, including The Art Dump, Dominion, Wrench Pilot, The Quiet Life and Where the Wild Things Are Series. In May 2005, Guy Mariano joined Lakai after a long hiatus from skateboarding. Jesus Fernandez also joined the team, as well as Brits, Nick Jensen and Danny Brady, who were dubbed as The Royal Family. In September 2005, Alex Olson, the son of veteran pro skateboarder Steve Olson, became Lakai's first amateur in almost five years. After months of speculation Eric Koston joined Lakai in May 2006. In July 2006, Danny Garcia was the first skateboarder to leave Lakai, and moved onto his next shoes sponsor,Post-Fully Flared Era
In March 2008, Alex Olson and Anthony Pappalardo made the decision to part ways with Lakai in pursuit of footwear opportunities withThe Flare Era
After adding names such as Stevie Perez, Jon Sciano, Ronnie Sandoval, and Miles Silvas, a meeting was held at Spike Jonze's house in early 2014. Discussion was made for Lakai's next full length video, which would eventually be titled ''The Flare''. Throughout the filming for the video, the team went through massive changes with riders such as Miles Silvas, Ronnie Sandoval, Brandon Biebel and most notably, Guy Mariano and Marc Johnson, leaving the company. Lakai Brand Manager Kelly Bird, and Shoe Designer Scott Johnston left the company in 2015. Amateur riders such as Cody Chapman, Simon Bannerot, Tyler "Manchild" Pacheco, Yonnie Cruz, James Capps, Nico Hiraga, and Johnny Jones joined the company, as well as veteran pro Rick McCrank. ''The Flare'' released in July 2017, unveiling Lakai's next additions to the team, Jimmy Wilkins and Tony Hawk. Lakai left Girl Distribution and joins HUF undeVideos
Similar to the other brands distributed by Girl, Lakai has received a considerable level of attention for its video productions. Videographer and director Ty Evans has been responsible for the majority of Lakai's video productions, followed by Federico Vitetta.Fully Flared 2007
Lakai's first full length video, Fully Flared, premiered November 16th 2007. The video had an enormous amount of hype surrounding it, mostly due to high-profile riders being added to the team, such as Eric Koston, a rumored 13 minute Marc Johnson part, the return of Guy Mariano, and a release date that was pushed back multiple times throughout 2005–2007.Timeline
Filming for the video started almost immediately after"It was kind of just known that we were all going to start this project. I don't remember a specific phone call. I didn't have any initial thoughts about the video. I didn't have any idea that it would turn out to be what it actually ended up being. Back then, in my mind, it was just 'we are working on a video.' It wad a lot more laid back. I'd just go skate with the bros and if you got a clip, you got a clip. The beginning was a lot more mellow..."In February 2004 a handful of the team embarked on a trip to Barcelona and Mallorca. The goal was to have the video done by the end of 2005. During the trip it snowed, which the locals explained never happened. The team met up with European riders JJ Rousseau, JB Gillet, and Lucas Puig.
"The Barcelona/Mallorca trip was the first official 'oh this is really happening.' It was fucking freezing cold and it snowed. It was sick to have the whole crew there skating around. This was the first 'lets get up early in the morning, get down to Starbucks, blah, blah, blah.' You are just going and going and not stopping" - Mike Carroll.In March 2005, with the original video deadline approaching, a rough cut of the video was made to let everyone know where they stand. While Marc Johnson already had 15 minutes of edited footage, others had as little as 30 seconds. It was evident that the team had a lot of work to do if they wanted to meet the deadline set for the end of the year. Marc felt embarrassed as if he was that guy, or that prick, that had the most footage. A couple of months later, Lakai, adds Guy Mariano to the team after a 5-year hiatus from skateboarding. Initially, Guy thought he was just going to film a handful of tricks for the video as sort of a welcome back, but Ty decided that he wasn't going to put out the video unless Guy had a full part. Because of this, and the fact the rough cut didn't meet everyones expectations, the video was pushed to a 2006 release. By the summer of 2006, the Lakai team had grown to an astonishing amount of 20 riders, the latest being Eric Koston. With the deadline quickly approaching, another rough edit was made at the end of summer. The team wasn't happy with where they were at, especially considering all the outside hype and pressure that the industry and fans were putting on them. Yet again, the video deadline was pushed to the end of 2007. Well into the fourth year of production (and two years past the initial deadline), the budget for the video is so tapped that the only viable option to close it out is with two vans, the open road, and cheap hotels. If there was one constant the final two years of production, it was definitely Motel 6. Riders quickly became accustomed to the Motel 6 tour life. Finding things like used condoms and cockroaches in their hotel room, living off gas station food, spending hours on the road, peeing in bottles, fixing spots, and staying up all day and night filming for the video.
"I just felt really bad when all the POP got out. Distribution bought all these cardboard stand ups, and these posters, and all this stuff. They were trying to pre-order it. We were running 'out now' ads. There were window displays. When I realized it wasn't going to the cutting room floor anytime soon. it was hard. Then I had to go back and say, 'we got to put another years worth of our marketing budget into this.' At the end of the third year, it was obvious what was happening with video sales. We were coming up with marketing schemes to help sell the video because we were convinced we were not going to sell any copies of this thing. We have almost a million dollars invested into this thing. It was hard math to justify. I was afraid it was going to saddle the company forever." - Kelly BirdTowards the end of production, a timer appeared on the website, counting down the release of the video to the second. Alex Olson stated that he thought it was "the worst fucking thing they could do to us. It's like knowing the day you're going to die or something."
Ads, Names, Release Dates
In December 2004, Lakai's 60th ad, was the first to mention a video in production. The text coming out of Ty's camera read, "Another new video..... it just seems weird." It's a tribute to Carroll's infamous response when initially asked about the idea. The next ad with any reference to the video came about a year later in September 2005. The text reads "Another new video... get ready for the Heat Score suckas," thus sparking a long trial and error process of naming the video. In November 2005, ad #71 is released, with Scott Johnston's suggestion of naming it "The Full Flare." This ad comes close to having the chosen name, but it took another five months to evolve into the one that eventually stuck."I think we were on a tour kicking around names. Carroll was still trying to push 'Lakai or Die,' but no one was feeling that because of the ''Zero or Die'' video. Someone brought up the ''Beware of the Flare'' tour video, and I said, 'We blew it. That should have been the name of the official video. We used it on just a tour video.' Then I was like 'full length video. Full Flare. The Full Flare.' They were like all 'that's not too bad. That's a possibility.'" - Scott Johnston.In February 2006, Ad #76, the name "Who Flares?" was thrown out. Ty was not happy about this and the working title "The Full Flare" returned. Next months ad was the first ad to use the triangular color prism that became emblematic for all ''Fully Flared'' branding. In April 2006, Ad #81 would be the first time the actual name of the video is seen. "Fully Flared" coined by Kelly Bird, which was a morph of "The Full Flare" title Scott Johnston had suggested. The first trailer was also released, set to Whitey's "Leave Them All Behind." This song would become almost like a theme song for Fully Flared and was used for the main menu music on the DVD. In the summer of 2006 ads were released in magazines such as
The Introduction of High Definition (HD)
In 2006,"At first Ty would use it for filming like a little filler clip, personality clip. So when it came out to actually film a serious trick, you almost felt like 'shit, I'm trying this hard ass trick and it's a little filler clip?' Which clearly it wasn't, but you know at first we were thinking 'if it's getting serious, screw that death lens on there and get in there close.' It was just that old mentality of the good old days of how we filmed videos. We didn't take these HD cameras too seriously in the beginning. Obviously seeing it in the end, it is the way things are going to go. It's a much better product." - Eric Koston
Release and Reception
The video premiered atThe Flare 2017
''The Flare'', Lakai's second full-length video was released in July 2017, ten years after their first video, ''Fully Flared.'' Filming officially began in February 2014 after a meeting at Spike's house in LA. Throughout the video, there was massive changes to the team, both on the inside, and outside. This video would heavily feature the newer squad of up and comers, with appearances from the older dudes on the team. At the time of release, the only riders left from Fully Flared were Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, Danny Brady, and Jesus Fernandez. With Ty Evans, leaving Girl Films in 2013 after Girl & Chocolate Skateboards, ''Pretty Sweet,'' Federico Vitetta would take the lead role for putting the whole video together. Joining him was, Daniel Wheatley, Rye Beres, and John Marello. ''The Flare'' premiered on June 13th, 2017, at the Egyptian Theatre in HollywoodTeam riders
Pro
* Mike Carroll *Rick Howard *Vincent Alvarez *Stevie Perez *Amateurs
*Nico Hiraga *Cody Chapman *Greg Dehart *Kyonosuke YamashitaFormer
* Danny Garcia * Scott Johnston * JJ Rousseau * Alex Olson * Anthony Pappalardo * Lucas Puig * Eric Koston * Mike Mo Capaldi * Rob Welsh * Cairo Foster * Jeff Lenoce * Karsten Kleppan * Guy Mariano * Brandon Biebel * Marc Johnson * JB Gillet * Daniel Espinoza * Raven Tershy * Nick Jensen * Ronnie Sandoval * Jon Sciano * Sebo Walker * Danny Brady * Jesus Fernandez * Rick McCrank * Tony HawkVideography
*''Australia/NZ Tour'' (2001) *''Beware Of The Flare'' (2002) *''Canada Eh? (2004)'' *''The Red Flare Tour'' (2006) *''EMB Carroll'' (2007) *''Fully Flared'' (2007) *''The Final Flare!'' (2008) *''Fully Trippin' in Malaga'' (2008) *''Voltage'' (2010) *''Am I Am'' (2010) *''2010 Video Collection'' (2010) * Transworld's Skate & Create ''"LAKAIromania"'' (2010) *''Getting Nordical Tour'' (2010) *''Stupor Tour'' (2014) *''Stay Flared'' (2015) (with Emerica Footwear) *''The Flare'' (2017) *''La Flareto Rico Tour'' (2019) *''No Rest in the Northwest Tour'' (2019) *''Flare Canada Tour'' (2019) *''Street Safari Tour'' (2019)References
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