PAUL MEATES
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A new breed

In 2021, skateboarding was set to make its Olympic debut. Although excited by this, skateboarders typically don’t love the sanitized, official version of the sport. While other brands scrambled to align themselves with this moment, Meta chose to focus on other aspects of the culture, where the role of social media is impossible to deny. Gone are the days of sharing tattered skate mags or worn VHS. Now Instagram feeds, Whatsapp groups, and virtual reality serve as the sport’s modern-day classrooms for a new breed of skateboarder.

Our first spot, “Skate Nation Ghana", follows Ghana's first skate crew as they connect via WhatsApp and give skate culture new life in a distant corner of the world.

SKATE NATION GHANA

Bus celebration from Meta's D&AD award winning "Skate Nation Ghana" by Droga5
Animated sperm VHS clip from Meta's Ciclope Grand Prix winning "Skate Nation Ghana" by Droga5
Custom skateboard from Meta's One Show winning "Skate Nation Ghana" by Droga5
 
 

NO COMPLY

“No Comply”, featured the modern day misfits who made a bygone trick their own, and showed the impact Instagram had on the evolution of skateboarding through that lens.

 
 
Series of No Complies from Meta's Shots award winning "No Comply" by Droga5
A Kento No Comply in Tokyo from Meta's Clio award winning "No Comply" by Droga5
Custom skateboard from Meta's D&AD "No Comply" by Droga5
 
 

ONCE UPON A TIME EVERYWHERE

For Oculus, we featured Tyshawn Jones - dubbed the Michael Jordan of skateboarding. Part of a new wave of professionals, he grew up playing skate video games and it often appears his sense of what can be done on a board is influenced by the unnatural laws of those worlds.

 
 
Skating scene from Meta's Shots Gold winning "Once upon a time everywhere" by Droga5
Skateboard climbs the walls in Meta's Shots Gold winning "Once upon a time everywhere" by Droga5
Custom Skateboard from Meta's Shots Gold winning "Once upon a time everywhere" by Droga5
 
 

WE change the game when we find each other

In the end, it wasn’t about the Olympics. It was about the communities that made skateboarding what it is today, and it acknowledged all the people that went into building them.

 
 
PR and awards from Meta's "We change the game when we find each other" by Droga5