Eric Koston: The Return | Hypebeast

Oakley held a big launch in Japan for this line. How exciting was that?

It was cool, I love going to Japan so I was psyched when we were coming up with ideas about what we would do as far as certain launches for it were concerned. Its just different, I didn’t know if people would accept me, with me being from LA, but they did. It was definitely a place where I wanted to go.

How would you compare Japan’s approach to skateboarding as opposed to back home?

I don’t know, it’s different. In Japan, the people are super into the lifestyle, it’s cool because although that does happen here I don’t know if it’s as intense as it is out there. Its sort of crazy how passionate they (Japanese) get about a particular lifestyle. They (Japanese) are very into it, you know? They’re just really cool, I wouldn’t even know how to describe it, but it’s hard to actually put that into words. They also have magazines about everything, even the smallest of things that they are into, there’s so many different interests, especially with something like skateboarding.

From the outside looking in, it seems like Japan embraces our culture a bit more than ourselves. Do you think its the fashion side of skateboarding or more of the actual aesthetics that draws their attention?

I’ve done skating demos there and they are nuts. Super excited about any little thing. They really just appreciate everything a bit more, especially when you skate. I could just be fucking around with some little shitty trick or me just fucking off, even just having fun or warming up, and they will freak out other those things. It’s really crazy how much they savor every little bit.

Right. It seems like that happens with any high profile athlete visiting the country. For example, someone like Kobe Bryant.

Well, they don’t really get to see a certain person that often. It’s really the only time they ever get to meet a pro or something. Like with Kobe, I’ll run into him at some restaurant or something in LA, but it’s tougher for a person in Japan.