For Lesque, being based in Japan means having limited to no visibility within the tightly networked and dominant matrix of the skate industry arrayed along the West Coast of the U.S.  Technological innovations, new tricks, influential personalities and perhaps most significantly, fashions, seem to emanate from, or at least are pulled into the authorizing/tastemaking orbit of California’s skate scene from where they are circulated globally.  YouTube has provided Koji a medium to beam carefully edited representations of his riders outwards towards an international audience of fellow skaters.  With luck, Lesque’s riders will get noticed within skateboarding’s metropole of California and become sponsored by a company situated at the center of this cultural and economic matrix.  This arrangement gives the US company a local connection and presence in a lucrative market while extending a heightened authenticity to the Japanese rider and thus to Lesque, insofar as the rider is then recognized by the legitimizing force of a Californian hegemony.

The crew was built around a creative, expressive ethos and drew together skaters with demonstrated technical skills complemented by stylish body performance and innovative sensibilities to various terrain as well as an inventive videographer in Koji. The three then recruited two amateurs to their company--Masataka from Okinawa, and Tokyo native Shota. Additionally, they drew on their friendship with Kawasaki-based photographer Ryo Yamamoto as their primary camera person. With four solid skaters representing a variety of styles and strong media support in both video and still images, the company began filming its first video while working with Tokyo-based designers to draw up their board graphics.

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