It was the video games, but they also brought a lot of people into skating but also a lot of those people sucked. You gotta buy gear that breaks a lot and it was a small thing so it became like anything that goes mainstream. His branding was there in the 80a cause he was really good and it's literally how you make money as a pro is being paid by sponsors to promote their fear by skateing awesome with it. The only career plan once your skating inevitably gets worse or younger dudes are better is to run a brand or become a partner with the one you had. So like, I get why he did what he did and I don't think anyone thought those games would be so fucking huge and they did get a shitload of kids into skating too. But he was kinda one of the first to treat it like a sport and was a spoiled rich kid. It's complex.

A thing I really noticed with it was cause of the games tricks became very categorized and creativity took a massive dive skating is just catching up from