By Cameron Rubner
I got a chance to talk to Mike Pisctelli afterwards to ask him about the brand and some of its early roots.
I asked him how he met Dill and he told me they had met in New York in the late 90s’ through mutual friends and instantly hit it off.
I asked Mike when he and Dill started FA almost 20 years ago, if they knew it would be as big and successful as it is today. he told me there was no way he could’ve imagined it being where it is today. People called Dill crazy for leaving Alien Workshop in the first place.
In the early stages of FA before they made skateboards, a lot of their t-shirts were very controversial, including a t-shirt with the confederate flag combined with the LGBT flag. Mike referred to this shirt as “The Rebel Fag.” Mike told me he wanted to piss off any skinhead or racist that saw someone wear the shirt.
Photo by Chandler Hatathlie
I asked him how important New York City was to the brand since him and Dill were living there during the early stages. He told me New York was everything to the brand.
He’d step outside and there was so much going on and so much to be inspired from.
When I asked him why they took old school photos of themselves and put them on t-shirts and boards he said that was the first idea but he pulled Dill aside to ask him himself because he wasn’t quite sure.
Dill said, “The first boards were the embossed white and black dipped, and me and AVE (Anthony Van Engelen). Those were all the ideas I had,” Dill told Mike.
The second and last question I got to ask Dill was about how his early designs for FA are substantially different compared to what we see today, in which he interrupted my question by saying, “Because I got better.”
This falls in line with what Dill said at the event. “Don’t repeat yourself. Keep it moving,” The most important thing I took away from this amazing lecture and experience was that anything is possible.
If you weren’t able to attend or missed out here’s a link to Jason DIll’s lecture on Friday
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