David Flores On Breathing Life Back Into Shorty’s Via Collab With Pleasures

Favorite Shorty’s ads and graphics courtesy of the man who made them, David Flores.

When I was thirteen years old, I was living a shithead skateboarder’s life.

I had ripped jeans, faded shirts, half a cigarette, and was stealing Arizona Iced Tea’s from Chevron gas stations. My family life was tumultuous and I hated school. My friends and I were gathering at each other's houses to watch illegally-uploaded skate videos on the internet (between actually skating in the driveway and Google images of boobs) and eventually came upon Shorty’s 1998 classic, Fulfill the Dream. I observed for the first time, skate tricks that I didn’t understand. I saw the fashion, the style, the not giving a fuck. Mid-way through the video, during Aaron Snyder’s part, the words, ‘THAT SHIT’S GOT POP’, flashed in the top left corner and I laughed harder than I thought I would.

It was as though I was watching a Shorty’s video with Shorty’s in the room, talking shit along with me. I felt a friendship, a kinship, and an understanding. Shorty’s didn’t feel so much like a brand that wanted my money as it did another kid that I ran around with. A part of the crew. A friend. That, I believe, is their heart and soul; they are one of the homies. 

For a period of time, Shorty’s fell a little bit off. The team dispersed and the creative team did their thing, as would be expected of talent in the throws of youth seeking to live and try and diversify. 

Now, Shorty’s returns, retaining their core image and homie status, but with an updated look and feel, headed by Shorty’s Art Director and OG, David Flores. Flores is a well-known name in the skate world, and, after a long and established career as an independent painter, designer, and muralist, among other things, is returning to breathe new life into one of skateboarding’s most beloved legacy brands. 

Shorty’s hasn’t lost a bit of its earned respect and notoriety in skateboarding history, and with this new and exciting collaboration with PLEASURES - an adored staple in the streetwear and fashion world - releasing on Friday, August 2nd at 10:00am PST, we thought it best to catch up with Flores to discuss the collaboration, the rebirth, and his favorite Shorty’s ads. 

I’m sure you’ve been asked a thousand times how Shorty’s came to be, the story, the origin, and it is very Googleable. Instead, I’d love you to tell me why it came to be. 

Why? Yeah, Shorty’s began out of necessity. It began with the bolt. Back in the day, hardware was really long and skaters were chopping them down. 

Ah yeah, like vert hardware?

Yeah, when skateboarding hit the street it came from vert, and all the hardware remained the same. It was long because it had to bolt the board, the truck, and the riser pads - it was like an inch and a half long. So Tony was like, ‘yo, no one is making short bolts, they only need to be this long.’ All we were doing was board to baseplate, we didn’t need all that bolt. The nut was also shorter, it was half the height. Together, it was like 7/8ths of an inch long. 

Why do you think that was such a game changer?

Because if you were riding bolts that were too long, you’d get caught on tailslides and noseslides, you just couldn’t skate as well. It’s so simple, we just made a product that fulfilled that need, hence Shorty’s. 

It’s an obvious but niche need in skating at that time. Usually we remember board brands or clothing brands. How do you think your art direction and input helped to solidify the brand in that time?

I think it was just about marketing it to make it catchy, especially for kids and skaters at that time. We had ads that said like, ‘Everyone’s gotta get a little nut’, and it’d have two lions fucking. The ads were funny and had to do with short bolts, jokes about stuff. It was very touch and go, catchy, so that people would remember it. As far as the art is concerned, it was about being bold. Everything had to be bold and colorful. We used to call it Skittles back in the day. If it wasn’t a color in the Skittles rainbow, we don’t wanna fuck with it. 

Do you have a favorite ad or marketing scheme that you’ve worked on?

My favorite one was my very first full drawn ad, which was for the Black Panther bearing. It was a big orange logo in the middle with a dotted line around it and it said to cut this out and stick it up your ass. For me, that was the most memorable one. It was a defining time, memory, of that era. 

How would you describe that era? What were the characteristics of that time?

It was very free wheeling. Whatever you could come up with was good to go. People were not as offended as they are today. People took things as humor. People’s first reaction was, ‘this is funny as fuck.’ There weren’t really ramifications, it was more like, ‘let's do this and watch people laugh.’ It didn’t feel like a risk.

What do you want from the brand in the modern day? What would you like to achieve?

I want it to be back to the level that it once was. Backpacks, clothing, shoes, jackets. As far as products, I want to do everything under the sun. As far as a brand, I think that it still has that name and respect. It’s still a core skater thing, you know what I mean? It has that we-never-sold-out kind of vibe. I want it to keep that place in the industry, but get back up to the level that it was as a business. 

So this is a time of expansion?

It might never be as big as it once was, but I’d like it to be in all the skate shops. I want it to be out there. 

Can you speak a bit about how this collaboration with Pleasures ties into the grand scheme?

This collaboration with Pleasures is a big part of expanding the whole company. Getting product made, learning how things are done, getting all of Vlad’s (Vlad Elkin, PLEASURES Co-Founder) advice. He’s just hooking us up with connection after connection. All of our things were lost in time, you know? We didn’t even have a hat manufacturer, and Vlad has been really helping us out in getting to where we want to be. I mean, I’ve known Vlad for forever, and when he saw that we were picking up again, getting riders, doing advertising, he was like, ‘let’s just make it happen!’ It’s great for the brand, it’s a great look because Pleasures is dope. 

That’s another thing. I was asking myself, do we want to collaborate with another brand? I wasn’t sure if it felt right. Once we saw how Pleasures is taking all of our logos and OG stuff and making it kind of more about Shorty’s than it is themselves - it very well could have been a big ‘PLEASURES’ across the front, but they’re really tasteful and love how they’ve approached everything. Everything is coming out really dope. 

Shorty’s ‘92 versus Shorty’s now, what sort of things do you look to for inspiration? Have those things changed over time?

The attitude of Shorty’s has always been that skating is fun, don’t take life too seriously, have fun, do good, be a good person, be generous and kind, but also don’t be too nice, too generous; don’t let anyone walk on you. Let’s remember who we are. 

That attitude, be cool, be yourself, don’t take any shit.

Have pride in your crew, your friends, your posse. As far as Shorty's back in the day, I think that the team conveyed that message. We all skated together, worked together, filmed together; it was a big family. When it came to ideas for art, Tony and I would work together and then share it with the team and get them on board. It was a real family. 

Do you have a favorite piece of Shorty’s media?

I think I’d have to say, if you watch Fulfill the Dream, if you watch closely, there are these little tiny things that pop up in the top right corner. Words and sentences. These quick little hits of, ‘go for it’, or, ‘Fulfill the Dream’, for like a single frame or whatever; it was these encouraging subliminal words or phrases that you might never see unless you pay attention.

Especially for people who are kind of a little bit outside of skateboarding, they might see it as this sort of aggressive thing, but we were all wearing it because it was about being part of the crew, a homie, full of love kind of thing.

Full of love, yeah. Offer your homie your last beer kind of thing. Full of love, nothing but respect. That’s what it’s really about. 

You are decades into Shorty’s, what do you think your legacy is and what are you still working toward?

I think that the legacy so far has been everything that’s come from it. All the videos, the ads, the trips, the laughs, the products. What we want to see from it is what we have going now. We have a whole new team of riders, but we also have our legacy pro’s back; we got Smolik and Muska, Toan. We want to have the legacy pro’s with boards always available, and the new kids pushing out all the new logos and new products. I want it to have the attitude and edge of before, but have it work for today. We want to keep step but keep our history in mind.

We are moving forward again. There were about eight years where I was off doing my thing, painting murals, galleries, and Shorty’s wasn’t really doing anything. Tony’ got sick and then he passed away, did you know about all that?

Yeah, it was devastating. 

Yeah, so after he passed, his wife hit me up and said she wanted to do something with it so I was like, ‘let’s go!’ And here we are. 

Go check out the new collection from August 2nd at 10:00am at PLEASURES here.