In over 15 years of a skateboarding career, life and its tribulations have taught Jim Greco a lot of things. One being to be careful with how you open up to the media. This is why for this interview, it started as me having to ask him questions live, him thinking about an answer for a minute, then writing it down and reading it to me aloud -- press conference-style. Fret not, we ended up having a normal conversation, regarding his recent involvement with the Dickies operations.
ESPN.com: How did the whole involvement of Dickies in skateboarding come about?
Greco: I'm friends with Atiba [Jefferson], and he was helping with the marketing over at Dickies. I wear Dickies so riding for Dickies made sense. We started talking about this a few months back.
The team really makes sense with the whole blue collar skateboarding thing. Do you have a hand in choosing who gets on? We're just trying to have a family vibe, where we all have a say on who's on -- it's a rad team. So far it's Vincent Alvarez, Kevin Terpening, Tom Remillard and I just got on a couple months ago. My first ad just came out in Thrasher. Vincent is just unbelievable, have you seen his Skate Sauce part? Kevin Terpening, I think he's from Ohio, he's insane. I'm really hyped on the team. It's not like we try to buy all these pros or anything. We're not trying to swoop this big team, it's just a fun team that really backs the product.
What were some Dickies-sporting pros in the history of skateboarding that you remember being influences on you? John Cardiel, Julien. Only the best guys have always backed Dickies and they back it for a reason. They back it cause it's the best, they back it cause it last long, they back it cause it's affordable, they back it cause it looks awesome. The thing with Dickies is, every skate clothing company copies them, right? And they charge three times the amount of money for a pant that lasts half as long. Basically Dickies are half the price and last twice as long. It's that simple.
It's so natural -- Dickies and skateboarding -- you wonder what took them so long? I think they've always been there. I've always thought of it as a skate brand. Dickies and skateboarding go together even before they were in skateboarding. Even if I didn't ride for them, it's a product that I would buy anyway. Sponsored or not. They just decided that it's a good opportunity to give back to skating, I think that's why they're getting into it. We got a lot of cool stuff planned. We're working on some signature items for me personally and I would imagine Vincent and the other guys. I'm working on some action slacks, kind of like really rad pants that are really cool. There's nothing out in skating like them right now.
Do people give you crap for having given up on the crazy outfits? I don't know what people think, if they think something bad they don't say it to my face. Also, I'm not bothered by it, I just love skating.
What do you think when you see photos of yourself all decked out? I think it's rad.
Besides, what's up with Brigada Eyewear? Brigada is awesome, the first debut pros are Andrew Reynolds, Paul Rodriguez, Terry Kennedy and Lizard King. The shades dropped in June and their price point is going to be different this time. It's gonna be more affordable for skaters to wear and buy, it's been really fun working on it. We have new riders we're gonna announce soon that we are excited about. Recently, we got Andy Roy on the team, and also Ali Boulala, Theotis Beasley, Erik Ellington and Shane Heyl.
