In a 2013 Jenkem interview, Hook-Ups founder and former World Industries pro Jeremy Klein says he hates sports, which is why he started to skate. That’s how many felt back then, we included, and while it has grown large and popular enough to be accepted as an Olympic discipline ever since, we still remember fondly when skateboarding was all about shits and giggles. Jeremy’s brand, founded in 1993 as a joint venture with Jeremy’s then-sponsor Birdhouse, was an amalgamation of everything that made skateboarding cool. It fused Western pop culture with a manga-style art direction courtesy of Sean Cliver and featured more illustrations of mammose women than our parents would care for. Wearing a Hook-Ups t-shirt to school was on the very edge of doing something forbidden, just like skateboarding itself. Hook-Ups helped foster the perception of skateboarders as rascals and pranksters, an image that holds up to this day. In short, it was the perfect brand for 15-year-old edgelords. In 2001, when Hook-Ups released the wildly popular skate video Destroying America, we watched the tape until it was worn out more than that one copy of Playboy magazine we used to pass around. The video not only featured plenty of shenanigans on and off skateboards, and a narrative revolving around a cop trying to hunt down Jeremy Klein and Heath Kirchart to boot, but also introduced us to the music of Rick James, David Bowie, Geto Boys, and many more. In Destroying America, Heath and Jeremy embark on a tour-de-force through America, causing trouble and mayhem everywhere they go. Jeremy’s skateboard rebel attitude, as well as his thorough dissatisfaction with mainstream sports, is present throughout the video — for example, when he and Keith harass an inline skater, the 90’s epitome of corporate sports. Hook-Ups is actually still around, flying under the flag of JK Industries, but we mostly care for the old vintage stuff we used to beg our parents to get us back in the day (most of the time, we failed). So while we’re not carrying Hook-Ups as a regular brand, we’re excited to bring you pieces from a time that was most formative for us as skateboarders.
