Metropolitan

Metropolitan was a wheel company. Deluxe was doing Spitfire in the early nineties, and they decided they wanted to have a brand that was more east coast driven. They realized they weren’t getting much traction on the east coast. It was Jim Thiebaud, Chris Pastras, and a few others who developed Metropolitan, which only featured east coast skaters. It was myself, Ryan Hickey, Maurice Key, and a bunch of other guys.

It was a cool but very short-lived company. Spitfire was doing well, Metropolitan was doing decent, and they had to make the decision on which to run with. Spitfire was the stronger brand, so they continued to go with it. We were all heartbroken because we all thought Metropolitan was the best brand ever. It was around for three or four years, but I’m not positive.

What was riding for the company like? It was just ads — no videos, trips or anything, right?

It was only ads in magazines. They made wheels, hats, tees, and sweatshirts; I remember they tried to do swishy pants and nylon jackets for it. Ari Marcopoulos was the photographer behind it for a long time. He’d shoot all the ads, Todd Francis would do all of the art, and Dune would manage a lot of the New York skaters.

 

Photo by Ari Marcopoulos

 

Are you trying to pick up where it left off with all the classic designs, or are you going to take another route with it?

Everything always has a new direction, but I want to keep it authentic to what it was. Except, I don’t want to go out there and build a wheel company. I want to build an apparel company; wheels are down the totem pole for me. I’d rather do rad apparel for people to be hyped on. The competition is too stiff out there for wheels.

Is it going to stay a New York-centric thing?

Over time, I’ll start a team, but for now, I’m just hooking up people from all over. I want it to be something people search out. Everything is U.S. and Canada made for now and I hope I can keep it that way. Everything’s going to be good quality and made in small runs to make it special for the people who want to rock it. It’ll always have its New York roots though.

Is anyone else from the original company involved with the re-launch?

Ari actually did the first lookbook, but it’s mostly just blessings from a lot of those people.

 

Read the full Quartersnacks Interview here.

 

Photo by Ari Marcopoulos