**pictures were taken by me unless otherwise noticed**
The Experience:
Day 1:
This area was our home base, encompassing the hotel, Queen St., Kensington Market, and Downtown (Google Maps screenshot)
Thursday ended up being dedicated to diving into skate culture. To gather more intel, we hit up Queens St., which was one of Toronto's major skate culture hubs. As we walked down, we admired the graffiti that adorned the walls all along our path. It was like being in a Kid Cudi music video.
Another curious trend was that if there was a store that had a corner, more often than not they would have graffiti that we assumed was commissioned to decorate their walls. It was later learned through our talks with skaters that Toronto's view on graffiti is far more understanding and nurturing that cities like New York. This tolerance extends to the art culture in the area as well, which we felt was communal, and wide-spread.
By way of the music scene, we noticed that the communities of skate & music, even food, were interconnected. Local publications would be out in skate shops (So Hip It Hurts was the best one) and vinyl stores (we walked into Rotate This) that would publicize artists like Hundred Waters and Ariel Pink playing at local venues. Of the mentioned, El Furniture Warehouse had a water interesting skate and advertising connection (described in Ian's post) involving Red Bull and a connection to Girl.
We visited C.J. Skateboard Park and School, though well-funded and equipped, came off as "franchisey". There, while Ian blended in with the skaters and did tricks along side them as he interviewed them, the non-skaters talked to various Nicks and Nickis, and even a tiny Mike (I attempted scooting about on a scooter and talking to the skaters, but after many close calls with my face on the ground I decided to stay on foot and pursue conversation with those who were stationary and on safe ground).
What NOT to do: Personally, I think the whole plastering a branded sticker at the wall of the skate park is a definite no-no. What I found common among the converse wearers was that they loved converse for a non-superficial reason, so the advertising aimed at them cannot be basic level, as we've discussed. So I feel like these basic opportunities shouldn't even be looked to as something on the side of a major activation. Everything should be genuine and meaningful when manageable.
What NOT to do: Personally, I think the whole plastering a branded sticker at the wall of the skate park is a definite no-no. What I found common among the converse wearers was that they loved converse for a non-superficial reason, so the advertising aimed at them cannot be basic level, as we've discussed. So I feel like these basic opportunities shouldn't even be looked to as something on the side of a major activation. Everything should be genuine and meaningful when manageable.
The common thread among their stories was that skating was something that was indeed a part of their life...part of growing up and an experience they use to connect with their kids, if they had any. We spied a mom helping her son with the half-pipe. She did this by holding his hands and rocking him up and down the length of the pipe (so much cooler than teaching your kid how to ride a bike, no?) The boy seemed to be around seven, so we are sure they start young! The little Mike we talked to proudly declared when asked that he loved his Converse shoes and that he would soon be getting new ones as he was growing out of his current pair. A nod to how Converse consumers seem to also be "good" people...when his friend was teasing him about thinking he was "so cool", little Mike laughed it off, saying to his friend "you'd be just as cool too, probably even cooler" as he shrugged the teasing off. Kid's going to grow up with good character, and it made me happy for his parents. Anyway, I digress.
After filling our bellies with cheap, fried food (perfect skater diet...except I'm not a skater) at El Furniture Warehouse, we proceeded to Lee's Palace for a concert. The lineup: Moon Runners, Kid Genius, Squat, and eventually Hundred Waters. The crowd was super supportive and young. The girls and guys both came off as super edgy, aware, and worldly. And much braver than me (a lot of the girls had nose rings...something I have yet to muster the courage to attain). The atmosphere seemed incredibly supportive, communal, and most importantly genuine.
With the mood lift from the atmosphere, we came back to the hotel and busied ourselves with some last minute assignments before falling asleep (I'd like to shout out here to Carissa's patience and kindness for tolerating my snoring. You're the best! ^-^ Be sure to check out her post on the Toronto Radio Project!)
Day two, bright and early, we had an appointment with Andrew Young at the PHD Toronto office, which is so beautiful inside, you could pretty much feel the creative inspiration, even though most of the office was gone for their annual company ski trip. We took notes and bounced some ideas off of him that we will be discussing during the meeting back at PHD NYC upon our return. A note: apparently everyone in Toronto loves Drake. Drake is their hero. Just thought that should be shared (I'm half-kidding). Andrew confirmed that the Kensington area should be where we should do our sleuthing for the day.
As the others have mentioned on their posts, we first went into an art gallery curated by Mark Liam Smith, the January winner of Art Battle, a twenty minute art competition organized by The Artist Project. Imagine our luck and walking into his gallery on that day. Turns out there's another fair and competition happening that very night. With our evenings planned out, we continued to venture up the street towards Kensington Market, with two stops at Livestock, skater apparel and shoes, and Homebase, graffiti supplies and customized toys, (perfect for our potential consumer market). At Homebase, we saw this little guy outside the entrance, and then began to notice him in some form everywhere.
His name is Lovebot, and his story is as follows (from Wiki):
The Lovebot character is a design created by Toronto artist and designer Matthew Del Degan,[1] consisting of a geometric, faceless robot with a red heart logo (called the "hero heart") on its torso.[2][3] The character is used as a symbol for Del Degan's campaign named Love Invasion, which he describes as a global movement aimed to spread love and kindness. He came up with the idea for the campaign after moving to Toronto and viewing the actions of fellow subway passengers as "robotic" and stating that he felt that people "[needed] more love" and chose to add the heart to the robot's design to signify that Toronto needed more love.[4] Del Degan decided to use concrete as the Lovebot's artistic medium, which he felt referenced "our architecture, the concrete jungle".[5]
The campaign was initially created as a street-art sticker campaign but Del Degan eventually chose to also create the small concrete statues, which he placed throughout Toronto.[6][7] Each robot is dedicated to a person who has "made a difference in the lives of those around them" and is intended to inspire others into performing additional acts of kindness.[8][9] In 2013 The Grid gave Del Degan a Mensch Award for his work with the Lovebot campaign and named him one of fifty individuals that had "made Toronto a better place this year".[10]
It was interesting to see the figure pop up everywhere, from street art, to stickers, to the backs of trucks, to concrete statues like the one picture above. Also noteworthy is the partnership between It was as if the citizens of Toronto had something that for a moment connected them all together when one happened to see then. And when we finally figured out who Lovebot was, it was great to be part of the cute, well-good insider knowledge. After some digging, We realized that the two managers of Homebase, Skam (famed street artist) and Chris Tsang (custom toy designer) are in a collaboration with the creator of Lovebot. My hunch is that Skam and Matthew Del Degan are the same person, but it's just a theory.
Activation opportunity discussed amongst us: Converse could have something like a beacon that the skater community would recognize that would help them maybe scan and see other tricks done in the are, community events, words of wisdom, etc. If Converse set up the infrastructure for that, it would be a long-lasting, woken-in part of the existing community. Looking at the Vice-Intel Creators Project, this would have the potential to be much, much cooler.
After finally arriving and walking around Kensington Market a bit, we zeroed in on this boutique calls Longboard Living, where one of us board a cool skateboard (guess who?) and all of us learned a little bit more about the skateboard culture.
We were told by the owner that the community of skaters is super close knit. In fact, they were scheduled to have a little pizza party that very nice. Before we started talking to the owner, he himself was just finishing up a meeting with another fellow skate enthusiast/entrepreneur (who also happened to be visiting from NYC and is also in media-WHAT are the odds?).
My impression of Toronto skate culture: though hidden from public knowledge, the skateboard community didn't at all seem rude to me, while still being exclusive. It seemed like they were all very nice, as long as you respected and showed interest in the art. "Nurturing" is the word that kept coming to mind throughout the various encounters with skaters, artists, and community members. At the same time, as Carissa mentioned in her comment on Ian's post, the skateboarders are single-minded: my tricks, my improvement, etc.
After some guidance from the community members, we ventured to some outdoor skate parks.
After finally arriving and walking around Kensington Market a bit, we zeroed in on this boutique calls Longboard Living, where one of us board a cool skateboard (guess who?) and all of us learned a little bit more about the skateboard culture.
We were told by the owner that the community of skaters is super close knit. In fact, they were scheduled to have a little pizza party that very nice. Before we started talking to the owner, he himself was just finishing up a meeting with another fellow skate enthusiast/entrepreneur (who also happened to be visiting from NYC and is also in media-WHAT are the odds?).
My impression of Toronto skate culture: though hidden from public knowledge, the skateboard community didn't at all seem rude to me, while still being exclusive. It seemed like they were all very nice, as long as you respected and showed interest in the art. "Nurturing" is the word that kept coming to mind throughout the various encounters with skaters, artists, and community members. At the same time, as Carissa mentioned in her comment on Ian's post, the skateboarders are single-minded: my tricks, my improvement, etc.
After some guidance from the community members, we ventured to some outdoor skate parks.
Outside skater haunts included Toronto City Hall (pictured) and Dunbat. Upon closer investigation we found that Dunbat was a good example of makeshift parks that we were told were not particularly well-funded, infrastructure wise. However, despite this skaters still frequent the area...something to be said about the dedication and loyalty they have to the art and community presumably.
Activation opportunity discussed amongst us: Perhaps Converse could establish a warehouse skate park that would be like the crown jewel and headquarters of sorts of its community outreach initiatives. More details to come during the post-trip briefing.
Last but not least on our itinerary was the art show/competition:
That's all these artists had. And the work was amazing. Here's some footage during the initial few minutes:
Last but not least on our itinerary was the art show/competition:
- Same colors
- Same time
- 20 minutes
That's all these artists had. And the work was amazing. Here's some footage during the initial few minutes:
[trying to upload the video and failing, will try again at home]
The pieces were edgy and relateable, two characteristics that often do not come together for me with art.
We took it all in, picked up contacts, noted the insights and said goodbye to the wonderful experience (and the tundra-like cold).
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