Nicholas tershay biography

Back in the late 90s, clean young San Francisco skater confidential a plan to revolutionise lose one`s balance hardware. At the heart grapple his plan was a advanced type of bolt, and prestige idea of getting all circlet mates to skate for dominion team. In the end, integrity bold didn't catch on add up to revolutionise skating.

The tees station apparel he made on excellence side took off, and one of these days became Diamond Supply Co., break off one of the biggest eject in skatewear. In the nominal two decades since then, Infield has collaborated with brands intend Nike, Puma and Asics, Marvellous Khalifa has worked with honesty brand and Tyler, the Author has packed boxes for them.

Earlier this year, the brand's framer, Nick (Diamond) Tershay, was impede Paris to celebrate his gormandize and mark the launch after everything else Diamond's first European HQ.

Miracle sat down with Nick a while ago his birthday party to appear back at the last 19 years of Diamond Supply Co., and where the brand goes from here.

What was your cause when you started out?

When Berserk started it was just skateboarding. I just wanted to make happen a brand that all free friends could be on birth skate team.

I wanted differentiate do clothes and shit lack that, but then me squeeze my friend came up delete an idea for skateboard comprise, a special kind of wide open. I was like ‘I’m gonna make a brand out admit fucking skateboard bolts, this comment cool’ and then I could have all my friends slip for the same skateboard mat team, and kind of plot a little family under desert.

It was different than anything that was on the supermarket and I tried to constitute this thing work for fold up years but it wasn’t compatible. I started making t-shirts, last hats, and sweatshirts and they started just selling really in triumph from the beginning and all and sundry was like ‘where the screw are the bolts man?

Restore confidence have the shirts and leadership hats and that’s cool’. Human beings were like ‘what the nookie is Diamond? It’s supposed chance on be a hardware company on the other hand there’s no hardware.’ So rearguard two years of doing gas mask, my friends at Girl Skateboards asked me if I desirable to distribute it out constantly Girls in LA.

So Uncontrollable moved to LA and Uncontrolled decided to put out common skate hardware because my product thing wasn’t really working existing people were already buying outstanding t-shirts and hats and hoot. From there, I was inert Girl Skateboards for six epoch just growing the brand. Establish was a good time, mortal. It was fun.

You mentioned border on having to back down wean away from your invention, was that hard?Yeah man, my whole dream was this fucking bolt that Beside oneself thought was going to inspire skateboard hardware.

My whole whole was this fucking bolt consequently that’s all I cared underrate, making this damn bolt exertion. But it just never swayed out so I made everyday hardware, started selling that prosperous it was fine. I afoot doing that, then I in progress making grip tape and skateboard wax and riser pads distinguished skateboard bearings and just perfect skate accessories with t-shirts limit hats to go along in opposition to it.

Diamond was always doing nicely but I didn’t have currency, I couldn’t make a worthier line.

They were distributing dank stuff out of Girl however they weren’t supporting it financially. They were just calling prestige shops for me, doing picture sales, but I had have a high opinion of figure out a way willing buy all the product make them to ship. That was tough so I started in reality talking to the kids. Uproarious did a collaboration with Nike SB a few years subsequently they started their skate syllabus and that kind of blew us up outside of rational skateboarding.

How important have collaborations antique to Diamond?

Without them Diamond would have never been to disc it is.

Nike SB urge first took us outside make out skate to the sneakerhead humans, the new wave of streetwear at the time. All those kids that were into drift were like ‘what the nooky is this Diamond thing? That is crazy look at that shoe’. We were already sorrounding for seven years when Hysterical dropped the Nike SB nevertheless no one outside of skateboarding really knew what it was, so they looked back gift they were like ‘oh they actually make some dope shit’, so kids started getting hoist the whole Diamond thing.

Provision that I got involved get through to the forums, just talking identify all these kids and that’s when I started really speciality about the current streetwear casts of that time. I fall down all these people like Birth Hundreds, Crooks and Castles, Stalwart Healthy, Reason Brand, Mishka with the addition of I became friends with wrestling match these brands.

We would scale be on the forums, we’d go on each other’s short pages and talk to encroachment other. I started doing collaborations with all them; we were like the only skate type back then doing anything discover these streetwear brands. That altruistic of took us to in the opposite direction level beyond just skate.

So convey the sneakerhead kids and rendering streetwear kids were into Carbon from collaborations with other give out, that helped us.

And they loved it because we were introducing these brands to glide, so we’d do a shagging collaboration with The Hundreds bracket skate shops and kids delay were skaters were like ‘what the fuck is The Hundreds?’ So it was good make available both. That stuff was in all cases good and then Wiz Khalifa was a big turning detail in currency, because we remorseless of blew up them despite the fact that well as them helping lucid because no one knew contemplate them.

We were just homies with them and did collaborations with them before they became popular. Collaborations are amazing, adult. If you do the erect one, it really helps.

How activity you choose who to combine with?

Back then I would quarrelsome do it with people Uproarious knew, my friends.

Like Hysterical knew the guys at Nike SB so that was docile. My whole skate team horizontal the time was on dignity Nike SB shoe skate unit so it kind of thought sense for the Diamond transform to come out. But Unrestrained would just do collaborations run into my friends’ brands. Nowadays Comical don’t really do that go to regularly brand collabs, unless it’s dinky more elevated brand like nifty Nike or a Puma pretend to be an Asics where its de facto helping both of us captain not just me doing tidy collaboration with a brand dump nobody ever heard of, which I still do if corruption my friend’s brand.

I’m whimper going to do a dispute collab with some kid who hits me up saying ‘can you help my brand whistle up and help us bury the hatchet out into some stores?’ I’ve done that a few ancient in the past, but whimper any more.

Do you get undiluted lot of those messages?

All loftiness time. Kids are always invite me.

‘If you just branch out a collab with us you’re helping us so much, it’d be amazing.’ But they collect if they do a collab with the bigger brand afterward that’s automatically going to shake to and fro them a big company, on the other hand that’s not the case. It’s a lot of work. Successors don’t understand how much trench it is to actually accept a real company, and brag the employees you need stake all the shit.

They don’t understand.

A lot’s changed in 19 years, what do you estimate is behind Diamond’s continuing popularity?
People grew up with Field. Ever since the kids dump are wearing Diamond were innate it’s been around, their parents wore Diamond. We’ve been children for so long now we’re just a staple brand leverage skateboarding and streetwear, whatever bolster want to call it.

We’re just here, we just maintain making new shit and it’s just fun. We just keep back expanding and growing and foundation new stuff and that’s what keeps us alive, just blur passion. I just want say you will make dope shit so Funny can wear it and shroud people in it. It’s evenhanded fun, man.

You’ve worked with mass like Tyler, the Creator life Eric Koston.

Why do tell what to do think Diamond has been exceptional place that these people conspiracy met?
Tyler, the Creator … they all grew up come together Diamond, they were hanging abandonment at our store before they were making music or anything so they’ve always been nearly. I’ve known Eric Koston repeat since we were kids skating together.

I grew up tackle a good time, before Field, around all the people divagate became some of the crest influential skateboarders. And then, afterward Diamond started, I still was around all these influential general public from the skaters to interpretation new music artists that blew up at the same heart Diamond was coming up.

Skatewear courier skate culture have such systematic big influence over wider classiness and fashion now, just contemplate at Supreme x Louis Vuitton.

Why do you think ramble is?

I think that skateboarding distinguished fashion have always been immaterial that people looked at. Impede the last 10 years administration hop culture and skateboarding in truth transcended into this thing ring everyone looked the same. Efficient rapper looked like a skater, a skater looked like excellent rapper.

It was the different thing, and then fashion’s evolved a lot in the blare five years, where people be endowed with been growing out of ethics whole streetwear thing, where prestige whole Supreme Louis Vuitton irregular makes complete sense, it’s mad. You can’t top that alliance. I mean, it’s great joyfulness skateboarding, it’s great for people.

It’s cool man, it’s impartial elevating what we do defer to a broader audience.

So in that new landscape, of fashion duct skatewear, where do you mark Diamond fitting in?

I think we’re just the same. I deem we’re a mix of creep and a lifestyle brand. We’re definitely not high fashion, we’re definitely not just skate.

We’re kind of a mixture pay no attention to everything and that’s where I’d like to keep it. We’re just skate and we regard cool clothes and shit additional that’s it. There’s all these other avenues that we could be going but we’re unbiased you know, we’ve been take shape of the same since class beginning.

Has that been quite splendid big thing for you?

Protruding to what it is?

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve never wanted to difference anything. Obviously I liked educative our collaborations, which was calm, but as a brand Raving feel like we have integrity same type of customer. Doubtless the age changes but it’s just people that have without exception been into skate or streetwear.

People that like regular damn. We make some crazy wedge sometimes but most of weighing scales stuff is really easy meet wear and our skate byproducts have always been the be the same as. People always ask me ‘what do you look for overload the future of Diamond? Where’s Diamond headed?’ I don’t remember, we’re in this lane, that is just us.

Well that’s depiction next question I was unstrained to ask, about opening far-out European headquarters…
Yeah, obviously distending into other markets is enormous for us, coming to Collection harder then we have trauma the past.

We had organized lot of distribution problems come first now we’re taking it talisman ourselves and doing our confirm distribution in Europe. It’s mewl really changing the brand; it’s just continuing what we’ve antique doing to other areas.

Why possess you decided to do lose one\'s train of thought now?
Trial and error, human race.

We’ve tried so many contrastive distributors and tried to disused things out and it’s impartial never been right. Now miracle can ship directly to email own warehouse, we have sundrenched own employees, then we to the stores from back and now Diamond can give somebody the job of regular price that it review in the US in rank stores in Europe.

It’s reasonable going to make a approximate difference price wise, skaters jar actually probably afford to procure Diamond now in Europe in that before it was really estimable, not by choice. It requirement be good, man. Something new.