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Professor Schmitt’s #MyNewDealStory

Spring 1990 was a really fun time with the team hiding at my house in Costa Mesa and having the freedom to create Art, Catalogs, Videos, and Skateboard Products the way we wanted to. Most of the Promo video was shot over the prior 3 years with my personal SVHS video camera. These first videos were edited deck to deck in order. Steve Douglas spent a lot of hours making it just right.

Andy and Gorm were drawing art and product creation was rolling forward. The excitement lead us to the first New Deal flyer that was a simple black & white DIY looking catalog. We did not want to waste our dollars or energy on the polished corporate full-color look. It was just 8 pages long like a zine, it started with the logo on the cover with a crayon drawn border to match the texture in the logo. A few interesting tidbits were listed about riders on their page. Ed Templeton, Steve Douglas, Danny Sargent, Andrew Morrison & Andy Howell. There was a page with board dimensions and a listing of Skateboard Products. On the bottom, it said; "KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR OUR PROMO VIDEO." On the back, it said “Once upon a time there was a group of skaters who weren’t happy with the way things were. Fed up with politics and fashion, they decided to get together and form a new company, along with the same friends. Upon trying to decide exactly what they wanted, the name became apparent.”

There was no return address and retailers were curious when received and they did not know where it was coming from. I had not told Vision that I was walking away from Schmitt Stix at this point so we were playing it quiet. Due to the riders being from my Schmitt Stix Team the curiosity and rumors were flying and riders were still being paid by the old boss. The Promo video shipped out to skate shops with the same secret approach with video of the actual products we had been working on filmed in my backyard. We were just doing what we wanted to do, not even clear if anyone wanted it.

-Paul Schmitt

P.S. THE OG CATALOG WAS RE-MAILED A FEW WEEKS BACK (MARCH 2019). PLEASE GO TO YOUR LOCAL STORE AND SEE IF THEY HAVE ONE….

Check out #MyNewDealStory on social media and if you have your own story, share it with others by using #MyNewDealStory as we are all in this together.