Grassroots Branding: An Exploration of Grassroots Businesses within the Florida Skateboard Community

• Main Author: Shaw, Lawrence M.
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2017
• Subjects: Skateboarding; Phenomenology; Neoliberalism; Branding; Experience; Ethnography; Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7085; http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8282&context=etd

Why do original/grassroots branding efforts occurring on a local level continue to proliferate despite the existing market saturation created by larger corporate entities? Using existing theoretical frameworks associated with “do it yourself” (DIY) culture, this thesis explores cultures and themes associated with skateboarding, including the production and consumption of brands of skateboarding products; the use of space and spatiality by skateboarders; and, finally, changes in skateboarding. I conducted ethnographic interviews within a network of skateboard entrepreneurs in the Florida skateboard community, seeking to understand why they start brands, their perceptions of their entrepreneurial efforts, and how these businesses operate. Drawing from historical, visual and interview data, I identify the roles that branding efforts play into the formation of skateboard culture. The project analysis creates an understanding of skateboard culture that explores skateboard identity at the intersections of consumer/citizen, individual/citizen and the politics of larger capitalist structures and the entrepreneurial efforts of local business.