Kim Woozy wears so many hats you could call her skateboarding’s leaning tower of Pisa. From her work as Director of Development at Skate Like A Girl (and by extension, Wheels of Fortune, and related projects), through VP of Marketing at Women’s Skateboarding Alliance, down to the extra-curricular advisory role she holds for the California State University, it’s hard to know where to start. But perhaps the most relevant for this issue is her work on The Skate Exchange, an women-centric event which took place in Tokyo, two years before the Olympic Games kick off this summer. Bringing together skaters from all over the world, to meet, greet and compete, it was – for many – an anti-Olympics, foreshadowing the fact that, when skateboarding’s largest podium is erected in 2020, we should all remember why we started playing with this silly old toy in the first place.
Photos by Norma Ibarra
Published in January 2020
Kim, with the Olympics on the horizon – are you going to be hitting Tokyo again with the Skate Exchange?
So most of our sponsors for the Skate Exchange weren’t endemic to skateboarding, they were tourist boards, those sorts of things. The Olympics is the biggest tourist event for Tokyo, potentially ever. So that, plus the fact that Mimi Knoop is the USA Skateboarding Women’s Coach- means we are looking post-Olympics for the next edition of the Skate Exchange.
Hitting Japan again?
I know everybody is looking at Japan right now, but I also feel that there’s a lot happening in other metropolitan cities in Asia. My parents are from Taiwan. I grew up in California, but I started going back with them sometimes. Taipei is an interesting one because it’s relatively easy to travel there, as a visitor. If you have a US passport, you don’t need a visa to go to Taiwan. All the younger people speak English – it’s emphasised in schools – so 99% of the people who work in the stores, like Starbucks, they speak English. When I go to China it’s so intense, I feel alien. Taiwan itself now is like San Francisco, Hawaii, Japan, all in one.
How would you describe the skate scene?
It’s a lot smaller than Tokyo, for sure. But there are a few distributors and shops. Surfing’s pretty big there. I’ve noticed over the last few visits that, similar to so many other places in the world, the skate scene has been growing. Where in Japan, they’re more about creating their own brands and culture in skating, in Taiwan it’s more Westernised. It’s pretty easy to street-skate, and not common for cops to bother you.
Any others?
Seoul is another. There’s a big growth for women in South Korea. I think Seoul is like the new Tokyo!
Seoul’s got soul.
I think the thing with Tokyo is that, when I first went, everything was so modern, futuristic; but now I go and I feel like, parallel with the economy, there’s less progression. In Seoul, the economy is thriving and you see the influence around the world as a result. People have slept on it, but it’s exciting.
The Olympics has bankrupt a bunch of countries in the past… Fingers crossed, Japan makes it through.
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s definitely not the most sustainable event, and is a horrible model in a sustainability and environmental sense…
I think the Japan Winter Olympics in 1998 cost 10.5 Billion dollars. It’s crazy… and this time they’ll have to fly a bunch of skaters out there, pay for their room-service tabs… carnage.
[Laughs] You know, touring around different cities is something we’ve tossed around, but it does add a lot of extra work finding and learning the new city.
Okay, so let’s backtrack. Where did Skate Exchange come from?
The origin was through WSA (Women’s Skateboarding Alliance), which was founded by Mimi Knoop. It was something we created with the help of YuLin – who worked at Street League, and is now the agent of many women skaters – who brought us into a meeting with Dyrdek, etc; saying, you have to talk to them. We went in, gave a presentation, and they said, you know: cool, we’ll be in touch. And, from some combination of timings, other business, and not really caring, we didn’t hear from them. Then, when the Olympics came around, they got in touch. We knew it was because of the Olympics, but when they said “yes, let’s do this.” We realised we had to set up a company. We did a bunch of these consultancy jobs, including Street League, X-Games, Dew Tour (Mimi Knoop headed that one), and what we realised was that all these events came and went. SLS had a contract for, like, the first two or three years, then they went. I get it, it’s business. But we were always talking about doing our own event. That’s when we met Kaz.
Kaz?
Kaz is our business partner. He’s Japanese, but lives in LA, representing Japanese baseball plays in the MLB. He had ties to Japanese sponsors, and spoke the language – and since he wasn’t from skateboarding, he had no ego or knowledge about how to do this. He, along with his connections, knew we knew best. We had control. So we brainstormed a bunch with the skaters, and we all sort of said, you know, when you’re at these big events it’s just hotel, venue, hotel, venue. It’s just a job. And, actually, most of the women had never been able to attend these events because the companies didn’t include them, for whatever reason. So we wanted to keep the amazing elements of these big events, but also make sure everybody could hang out with each other – without the stress of a major corporate contest. And since almost nobody who came had ever been to Tokyo, it seemed like the right place to do it.
To discover the place together?
Yeah, we created this itinerary for the trip. We did have a contest, but that was more for the locals – to give them a platform to compete with people from all over the world. The international skaters competed with the locals, rather than against them. They got to have fun in that environment again. Then we did a clinic for an orphanage school…
Hence the word “exchange”, you leave something behind…
Yeah, we felt like foreign exchange students. We got to see what it was like to really experience a culture, versus just being on a job – which is what it felt like at SLS and X Games. If there was a local girls scene, or whatever, which we could get hyped – there was no chance. At Skate Exchange, we got to connect with the local community. And we all got paid.
‘Bout time.
Yeah, it’s been missing – being able replicate the vibe of a tour, and a contest, and, like, get to tour a historical Japanese fish market, all in one… [laughs] everyone was so pumped. And for the travel companies who sponsored the event, they loved it – all they wanted was interaction with local culture.
There’s a new era of skate events on it’s way… Take Pushing Boarders, a conference about skateboarding – redirecting finances which are usually contest-centric, to another side of the culture.
Yeah, and as the Olympics marks the pinnacle, we want to make sure that, however it goes down, the people at the heart of skateboarding – that keep the flame alive – are still promoted and preserved. We wanted this to be the opposite of the Olympics, not because the Olympics is necessarily bad, but just because you need the balance. When there is so much focus on youth, ability, physicality, competitiveness – we need something which gives space for the older, less able, or just disinterested skaters who, you know, make art… This is flipping the script. You can hit a global audience without having some dude hucking his body down a huge gap. I was never attracted to the culture because of the physical feats, it was the community I loved.
We’re right there with you! And more and more people are gravitating towards that. Skateboarding is as much about building communities, as it is about being you with your skateboard.
Yeah, and I’ll add that part of the reason we were even able to have the Skate Exchange was because, strategically, the years leading up to the Olympics would mean increased interest in skateboarding related activations. We were able to capture that interest. So in many ways, we were there thanks to the Olympics. And now, ironically, the Olympics means we can’t do it there this year. Skateboarding is such a small world, that everyone wears different hats – so people are busy. But I am committed to having events that reflect why we love the culture. And interest, opportunity, will continue after this – after the Olympics.
Perfect world?
For me, we would travel with the event to different countries, cities, and bridge the gap between the most legendary skaters – Leo, Alexis, Vanessa, Jaime, Elissa – and the community. Also, I think you can age as an influential pro male skater and still make a career for yourself, but for women historically that hasn’t happened. Elissa has started her own brand, and now she’s getting pulled into opportunities, but it took a long time. These people should be ambassadors, and should be guiding industry decisions – they need a spotlight, a platform. That’s the perfect world.
To be able to create environments where you can pull down barriers between spectator and competitor, we can drive the culture to something more collectivistic, less individualistic.
People are craving real life, human touch – not just through the screen, right? Wheels of Fortune, Pushing Boarders, The Skate Exchange – I’m always surprised by how many people are willing to come to these type of events. It shows me that what has been missing, both from a cultural perspective and by way of technology, is that we don’t have as many opportunities to interact in person. I think this also goes towards feeding social anxiety. It’s a measure of the time, that these types of events are successful now. People are thirsty.
Is this a moment or is it a movement?
Well for years, events like Wheels of Fortune were not sustainable. Pushing Boarders is based on voluntary effort. Are these things sustainable? Focusing on the bottom line, we need money. And because of the Olympics, we can do that now – do good, and generate money to keep it going. I think last year was the first year Wheels of Fortune didn’t lose money. I think that’s really important – we can be excited about these events, but if they go away that’s detrimental to the community. We want to grow, and grow in the right direction – bring in scholarships for those who can’t make it. With Skate Exchange, we came at it with this in our minds. For so long we’d done projects for nothing. We knew from the first moment, this had to be sustainable.
Kim, you wear many hats. Do you ever feel alienated within skateboarding inspite of that?
I don’t think I’ve ever felt alienated. I think when the tides were turning, and people started to understand the value of partnering, supporting, promoting women and non-traditional skaters, me, Mimi, everyone, had a “told you so” moment. But we are so stoked by all the opportunity. When Hoopla closed, MAHFIA too, I could have been like: “well, okay, I failed.” But I moved to Skate Like A Girl, and it made me reconnect with why I started working towards this in the first place. And looking around, there are so many things showcasing this side of the culture. I feel more a part of the community now than I ever have before the tide shifted. It’s happening now. The wave is finally breaking…
