Mr Barletta! How are you? For the sake of the uninitiated, can you kindly introduce yourself please?
I’m doing great. I am a professional skateboarder, former enjoi brand manager, and now I run a skateboard brand with the former enjoi TM Jeff Davis called Jacuzzi Unlimited.
So your full-time board sponsor is Jacuzzi Unlimited, though you’ve become involved in the first collection for Push. Take us back to the start please, how did Push come into being, and when did you come on board with the project?
At Sidewalk Distribution, we knew that the completes category was huge, but I personally did not want to make Jacuzzi completes because I was so burnt out from doing enjoi completes all the time. Then the idea came about starting a brand that was only completes, with the idea that the brand was going to be a giveback program initially. It was only Make Life Skate Life at that point, which I thought was cool. But I was fairly uninterested. Like I said, we made completes at enjoi, and I wanted to just focus on Jacuzzi Unlimited
‘Skateboarding for a Cause’ is Push’s mission statement. Can you talk us through the charities that you’re supporting with the first collection of products? How did you identify the causes you wanted to highlight, and what will your support mean to them, and to others?
Yeah, so like I said initially, our first giveback program was going to be to Make Life Skate Life, which builds skateparks all over the world for underserved communities. When I had the opportunity to do a guest model for Push, I wanted my charity of choice to be something in the mental health world. When I started a dive into it and find somebody that I wanted to donate my money to, I really didn’t find anything that suited exactly what I thought skateboarding needed. And then I found Clayton (Norman), who runs a program called Skate Therapy, where he takes kids and young adults out of the sterile clinical environment of a doctors office, and get them out in the street, or at the skatepark, and gets them talking about their mental health by using the same terminology and lingo that we all use skaters. Everyone at Sidewalk was so stoked on Clayton and what he’s doing that we decided to bring him in to work for Sidewalk Distribution, and I’m proud to say that not only does he do Skate Therapy, but he’s now also the mental health professional for every employee and skateboarder who works and skates for Sidewalk Distribution.
As you talked about in the launch video, having ready access to a mental healthcare professional has the potential to positively alter the course of a sponsored skateboarder’s life. Over the last few years - mainly since the passing of Ben - what changes in the skateboard industry have you observed in regards to mental health, and where would you like to see things going in the future?
Well, I think we could all agree that the big thing that changed after Ben’s passing was the awareness that this is going on, and that broke down the stigma and the walls of it being something not talked about.
The hardest part about getting help is asking for help. My hope for the future is that there is no stigma behind people asking for help.
Tell us a bit about your debut Push complete please. Obviously this is geared towards more of an entry level skater, or someone who might not have the funds to piece together their own custom board, but how hands on have you been with the development? Did you work with Ruben on the graphic, and how pleased are you with the finished board?
Actually, that’s very untrue. The Louie Barletta Push complete board. Is the same deck same mould, same construction as any Resin-7 DSM board. Again, having history in completes from enjoi, I understood that some entry-level skateboarders are not five years old and they’re actually in their 20s and 30s and can easily snap a board, so it was my main priority to use the same boards that we are using for our pros today. I’ve worked with Ruben in the past and Ruben has been a huge fan and supporter of Make Life Skate Life, so when I asked him about the project and told him that Make Life Skate Life was part of this, he was all in. I love Ruben’s art style. My only direction for him was that I wanted him to create a graphic with the idea that it will always have trucks and wheels on it, so his layout and design would be built around the idea that there will be trucks and wheels on the board, rather than just building and creating a graphic.
What’s next for Push? Are you going to stay involved as a guest pro indefinitely, or are you passing the proverbial torch to another skater in time for the next collection?
I am going to stay on board working closely with Push because I want to keep the mental health initiatives going, and make sure we keep that moving in the right direction. As for the pro guest models, we would love to have more and spread the love, whether that guest pro wants his money to go to breast cancer research or a local DIY, I just love the idea of giving other pros a platform to express charities that they are passionate about.
Other than working on the launch of Push, what have been some of your other highlights of 2024? What have you been the most hyped on this year?
Well, obviously one of the big highlights of the year was going out to the Philippines with the Make Life Skate Life guys and watching them build a skatepark and seeing it completely transform the community, not only the kids, but also the families and businesses around the area. We’re so integrated in skateboarding that we forget sometimes how impactful a freedom of rolling around can be if you lived in a place that there was nowhere to skate.
And what’s next for you, Louie? Any plans or projects in the pipeline for 2025 that you can tell us about?
I’m working with our mental health specialist on making a zine and a mental health toolbox that we could start giving out to skate shops that would be like bullet points, so the people can familiarise themselves with some of the signs of somebody who’s going through a mental health crisis, and have some very simple non-invasive ways of approaching said person. I think it’s crucial to get this to people who work skate jobs, because not only are they dealing with their own team, writers and employees, but they’re also typically the epicentre of the skate community in the region. And I know from experience being able to see the signs and get them talking before it escalates gives that person in crisis a better shot at getting help before it gets too late.
I’m gonna be working closely with a couple other people to start doing Push how to videos, not only how to trick tips, but also simple things like how to dial in your trucks so they turn properly for your skate style. And there’s also talk of maybe another Jacuzzi full-length video, so I’m starting to make a trick wish list! Hahaha.
Thanks for your time mate! Any final words for the people reading this?
Kuato lives!
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