Watch a history of Etnies “High 5” video and the legend of Tom Penny

Jenkem talks to the creators and filmers of the 1995 Etnies promo. Famous for being the first skate video for a shoe company with it’s heavy line-up (Jamie Thomas, Koston, MJ, and Phil Shao amongst others) and how it cemented the burgeoning legend of Tom Penny.

Tom Penny — Kickflip over the rail, circa 1995 (can’t make out photo credit). The story goes that Penny was drinking at a trade show all day, then grabbed Mike Crum’s board and kickflipped this rail on the 4th or 5th try. A thing to think about then is that the crowd is not random on-lookers but basically the entire skateboard industry. The legend grows. Scan via The Chrome Ball Incident. You can see the footage in this montage from Danny Minnick.

This is a cool mini-documentary especially hearing the first-hand Tom Penny stories.

Now not to be that guy, but fuck it, I’m gonna be that guy. There’s a claim that prior to High 5 the only companies to make videos were board brands and magazines and that’s simply wrong. While its true that the bulk of videos were made by board brands, major truck and wheel companies like Tracker, Gullwing and Speed Wheels had done multiple full-lengths and Thrasher was the only mag doing vids. As embarrassing an example as this may be Vision Street Wear had done a bunch of videos which are largely responsible for the bulk of Gonz footage (outside of contest videos) seen prior to Video Days. And lest we forget Forties — a clothing brand out of the Deluxe camp — made the amazing Amigos promo video in 1994 featuring such legends as Julien Stranger, Ethan Fowler, Natas (also the first Etnies rider), Jake Phelps, Mike Daher and more. Kinda felt like that needed to be pointed out. On to the featured entertainment:

And don’t forget to watch the actual video:

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