Lesque, Japan's Underground Skate Company
Lesque is an independent skateboard company founded in 2007 by two prominent skateboard pros--Arahata "Ishiko" Junichi and Itō Shinichi (Itoshin)--and a skateboard videographer, Asada Koji. Ishiko is one of Japan's oldest and most respected pros, having become representative of a new level of skill among Japan's small skate scene at the age of 16 when his first video part, Top Six, was released in 1993. He moved to the Los Angeles in the mid-90's and was the only Japanese professional skating in California during an influential period of innovation and experimentation with difficult, technical tricks taken into the streets.
After changing sponsors and weathering difficult economic periods as well as instability within the corporate-controlled sports distribution market inside Japan, he was frustrated by how he and other pros were easily discarded and the unpredictability of his own finances even as major sporting goods chains were doing vigorous business in skateboard lifestyle goods and hardware by the early 2000s. Skateboarding had become a multi-billion dollar industry by then with most of the revenue generated not by boards and other hardware components, but by softgoods--clothes, hats, accessories and most importantly, shoes. Within Japan, distributors were funneling in American-based product. Japanese pro or amateur skaters, even those with the rare sponsorship deal with these American companies, were struggling, pinioned between West Coast industry trends and the desire to represent a Japanese-specific version of skateboard culture.
On a skate trip to Barcelona, Spain in 2006, Ishiko filmed a part for a video along with a handful of other innovative Japanese skaters. Costa-Rican born Japanese videographer and skater Koji had conceived of the trip and video project as a way to situate Japanese riders among an increasing interest globally in skate scenes across the world, signalling the beginnings of a shift away from the powerful organizing imaginary and economic heart of skateboarding located in Southern California.
After the underground video was released in Japan it drew considerable attention to the style and skill of the skaters featured, as well as their ability to ride some of the most desirable urban terrain of the moment (Barcelona had become a requisite location for any pro to shoot video and photographs by the mid-2000s). Itoshin, another of Japan's rising stars, and Koji were convinced they needed to form an independent board (deck) company in order to give veteran pros like Ishiko and newer but influential arrivals like Itoshin much needed creative and professional autonomy. This was a radical shift and a risky proposition. It placed these riders outside the mainstream distribution channels and with very limited access to the highly structured relations between large corporate skate companies, retail shops, and the average Japanese skateboarder.
The company is “underground” meaning specifically that Lesque is attempting to operate in the open marketplace without formal outside investments, loans, or the support (and financial claims) of one of the major action sports distributors in Japan. The company is exclusively owned and run by skateboarders with the intention of retaining autonomy over finances, business relationships with shops and riders, and significantly, image.
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