{"id":292620,"date":"2013-04-26T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T19:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=292620"},"modified":"2018-05-14T05:56:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T09:56:20","slug":"todd-harder-talks-nibwaakaawin-x-vans-collab-all-nations-skate-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/todd-harder-talks-nibwaakaawin-x-vans-collab-all-nations-skate-jam\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Harder Talks Nibwaakaawin x Vans Collab & All Nations Skate Jam"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fans of fashion will tell you that Pendleton fabric and collaborative sneakers have been trending for more than a few years. While the Nibwaakaawin x Vans \u201cAll Nations Skate Jam\u201d Collection<\/strong> carries both hot characteristics, its inspiration and impact is much deeper than any fresh fad or sold out sneaker.<\/p>\n Created in conjunction with the All Nations Skate Jam event by Nibwaakaawin founder Todd Harder<\/strong> and Vans vet Steve Van Doren, the annual capsule collection finds sneakers and skateboarding serving as a platform to inspire Native American youth. We caught up with Harder, that’s the man in the the lead image next to Johnny Depp, who has been doing plenty of leading of his own prior to this weekend\u2019s All Nations Skate Jam and Nibwaakaawin x Vans capsule collection release, to hear the story behind the kicks and the event.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: How did the Nibwaakaawin x Vans collaboration come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> In the second year of the All Nations Skate Jam, Steve Van Doren and the Vans crew came down and set up at the event. Steve fell in love with it. He handed stuff out to kids and at the end he’s cooking for every kid. He told me after the first year that he’d never gotten so many ‘thank you’s.’ I told him that’s the way Indian country is – they still have those old values. One of the years we were talking about a collab and what kind of products or fabric would be culturally significant and I started talking about Pendleton and how it’s become culturally significant to us.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: What makes Pendleton so important to the Native American culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> They make a lot of fine wools but they also make the nicest Indian blankets. For us, one of our highest honoring ceremonies in the Indian country is to give someone a blanket. It’s a gift given for a big accomplishment. This dates back to the days when blankets were crucial for our survival. By giving a blanket, you were telling this person that they were so important and so loved that you were giving them this blanket so that they would make it through the winter. We still do this these days for babies. Pendelton makes the Cadillac of blankets in Indian country.<\/p>\n Highlights from previous Nibwaakaawin x Vans “All Nations Skate Jam” Collections\n Snkrs Day: What part did Steve Van Doren play in kicking off the collab?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> Steve took some fabric over to the factory years ago and made about ten pairs for the first run of them. I got them and everywhere I went in Indian country people were stopping me, saying, “Oh my God, where did you get those shoes?” They even became Steve’s favorite shoes. He wore them for some TV appearances and events. We decided to test it out.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: What was the response like when you finally made them available?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> The first year we did them we made up 325 pairs. He brought them to the event and I told him I wanted more, but he said, “I don’t want you stuck with shoes, let’s just test the waters.” They sold out in two hours. Each year we pick out from different Pendelton and different colors. We have people coming from all over just to get these shoes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Steve Van Doren of Vans handing out hot dogs at the All Nations Skate Jam\n Snkrs Day: Since the 2009 launch, how have you seen the collection’s popularity grow?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It’s exploded. One of the hard things is that we can’t get enough Pendleton fabric for all that we need. We’re doing about 800 pairs this year for the event. It’s nice to have it as a smaller, exclusive run but it’d be really sweet to be able to get them out to everyone in Indian country. As a minority, there’s not a lot of us left on the big scale of things. I think the last census put us at about five million people. As Indians, if it sits around the house too long we put beads on it or we have Pendleton on it. I’ve got a Pendleton iPad cover! It’s just one of those things. When we came out with these shoes I told Steve that there are some grandmothers in that line that don’t know what Vans is but they know what Pendleton is. They want some of those Slip-Ons so that they can go to bingo and have the coolest shoes on their reservation. They were in line with their stools just waiting to get those shoes.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Collaboration shoes tend to get stowed away, but skate shoes are usually worn into the ground. Are kids at the All Nations Skate Jam skating or storing these kicks?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> They’re a collectible. That’s their fine shoes. You have to look at the demographic, they probably don’t have the access or the money to get to a lot of the collectible shoes. That’s been one of the sweet things to see these kids get and take care of these shoes. They’re gonna wear them. Every year, Steve puts out a limited edition matching shirt and you’ll see these kids at other events in Indian country putting them on like their Sunday best. They’re wearing them out to their A occasions. It’s pretty cool, because a lot of those kids don’t ever get the opportunity to have something that nobody else does.<\/p>\n Nibwaakaawin x Vans 2013 Collection\n Snkrs Day: Looking back at past collections, what makes this year’s run different?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> They always tend to have their own appeal. The pattern that we’ve got this time is called the Morning Star. There are different stories that go with the Morning Star. The Morning Star represents a new beginning in life, like the beginning of the day. Sometimes you just have to let the night go by, that darkness that you’ve lived in, and when that Morning Star appears and you start that new day before sunrise it’s a new beginning for you. We have a great oral traditional of handing stuff down, that’s how we’ve kept our traditions alive over the centuries. This kind of just adds to it. Even what we’re doing with the skateboarding, the kids can put different symbols on their boards that are culturally significant to them, to their tribe. It helps reestablish that pride. It’s evident when you’re in or around Indian country that we’re still very proud people.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Focusing on the event, how did the All Nations Skate Jam come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> I started the All Nations Skate Jam and this will be our seventh year. The reason I got it started was to try to help inspire, motivate, and give direction to some our Native American kids around the country and use skateboarding as a tool to reach them. I’ve been a skateboarder my entire life and I know all the benefits that it did for me. I got a hold of one of my buddies, Bill Danforth, and we decided to do this event.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Why Albuquerque?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> The All Nations Skate Jam is the same weekend as the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque. This Pow Wow draws over 200,000 people. We knew that a lot of kids that were skating on the reserves probably couldn’t get a ride to the Skate Jam if there wasn’t something else to piggyback on. It’s just taken off like crazy. We have over 300 kids each year competing and five to six thousand people roaming around for the two days. That’s not too bad for an amateur skateboarding event.<\/p>\n Steve Van Doren & Todd Harder (far right) at the All Nations Skate Jam\n Snkrs Day: What makes skateboarding such a great activity for the youth?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It tests your personal strengths and will power. It’s not a team sport, so you can’t depend on someone else to pick up the slack for you. If you’re gonna do it in skateboarding, you’ve gotta do it. Skateboarding also provides opportunities that these other sports don’t. You don’t see many formal players in basketball or football that own a team. In skateboarding, the majority of teams or companies are owned by old skateboarders. We build from within and around our sport. For our kids, skateboarding really helps test that warrior spirit in them. Our kids used to be taught how to hunt and survive. That warrior spirit is still in their blood memory. We believe they have that DNA in their blood but we don’t have such ways to be tested. When the kids and their families were put on the reservation the government didn’t let them do any of that. Well now, we see it as a different age. This is a new beginning, that Morning Star for our people. Skateboarding has taken off like crazy in this country, because of those factors. It really tests these kids. You’ve gotta be fit, you’ve gotta be healthy, and you’ve gotta have that mental control. That’s what a lot of our old warrior ways were. I really see a lot of similarities between the two. These kids need it, they long for it.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: At an event like the All Nations Skate Jam, what’s the competitive atmosphere like?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> Skateboarding always has been a sport where there were always guys that were going to beat you and you wanted to beat them next contest. But, you where there cheering them on or hitting the board on the coping when they would bust out a sweet trip. You were always in support of them. No one’s sitting there begrudging them, it’s just never been the way our sport’s been. You were cheering them on as much as the crowd was even if you were competing against them. It’s very evident in our contest that the groups that come aren’t like organized teams but in skateboarding they’re almost family. They come and they cheer everybody on. That’s one of the unique things about skateboarding that I’ve always loved. If you miss a trick, everybody’s cheering for you to try it again because they want to see you nail it. It’s a cool, unique thing about our sport and our way of life.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: What do you want kids to take from the Nibwaakaawin x Vans collection and the All Nations Skate Jam?<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It’s a lot to just keep getting inspired. ‘Keep moving forward.’ That’s my biggest phrase in life. That’s one of the messages that we teach those kids there. Keep moving forward. Find your goals and make your goals a reality. We let them know that anything can happen. When you think back to how big Vans shoes are, it was just a couple of guys that started it and wanted to make some shoes. So I always tell the kids, you can do anything, these guys just wanted to make shoes. Look at what they’re doing now? They’re still making shoes! [Laughs] They’re making a lot more shoes, but they’ve developed a way of life. They’ve helped build industries. They’ve done huge things. Even the help that they’ve given us. For Vans, it’s a little drop in the bucket, a pebble in the ocean. But the ripple effect that it’s made not just for our organization but all across Indian country has tribal leaders looking at it more and thinking maybe we should build a skate park for our kids. It’s really added some weight that’s made us legitimate. That’s one of those messages that I like the kids to know: all it takes is one little pebble, you’ve gotta be that person to throw that pebble in the water.<\/p>\n Nibwaakaawin x Vans 2013 Collection\n The Nibwaakaawin x Vans 2013 Capsule Collection will launch this weekend at the All Nations Skate Jam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Todd Harder:<\/strong> I started the All Nations Skate Jam and this will be our seventh year. The reason I got it started was to try to help inspire, motivate, and give direction to some our Native American kids around the country and use skateboarding as a tool to reach them. I’ve been a skateboarder my entire life and I know all the benefits that it did for me. I got a hold of one of my buddies, Bill Danforth, and we decided to do this event.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> In the second year of the event, Steve Van Doren and the Vans crew came down and set up at the event. Steve fell in love with it. He handed stuff out to kids and at the end he’s cooking for every kid. He told me after the first year that he’d never gotten so many thank yous. I told him that’s the way Indian country is, they still have those old values. One of the years we were talking about a collab and what kind of products or fabric would be culturally significant I started talking about Pendleton and how it’s become culturally significant to us. They make a lot of fine wools but they also make the nicest Indian blankets. For us, one of our highest honoring ceremonies in the Indian country is to give someone a blanket. It’s a gift given for a big accomplishment. This dates back to the days when blankets were crucial for our survival. By giving a blanket, you were telling this person that they were so important and so loved that you were giving them this blanket so that they would make it through the winter. We still do this these days for babies. Pendelton makes the Cadillac of blankets in Indian country.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> Steve took some fabric over to the factory years ago and made about ten pairs for the first run of them. I got them and everywhere I went in Indian country people were stopping me, saying “Oh my God, where did you get those shoes?” They even became Steve’s favorite shoes. He wore them for some TV appearances and events. We decided to test it out.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> The first year we did them we made up 325 pairs. He brought them to the event and I told him I wanted more, but he said ‘I don’t want you stuck with shoes, let’s just test the waters.’ They sold out in two hours. Each year we pick out from different Pendelton and different colors. We have people coming from all over just to get these shoes.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> The All Nations Skate Jam is the same weekend as the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque. This Pow Wow draws over 200,000 people. We knew that a lot of kids that were skating on the reserves probably couldn’t get a ride to the Skate Jam if there wasn’t something else to piggyback on. It’s just taken off like crazy. We have over 300 kids each year competing and five to six thousand people roaming around for the two days. That’s not too bad for an amateur skateboarding event.<\/p>\n 2007 was the first year of the event and 2009 was the first shoe release. <\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It’s exploded. One of the hard things is that we can’t get enough Pendleton fabric for all that we need. We’re doing about 800 pairs this year for the event. It’s nice to have it as a smaller, exclusive run but it’d be really sweet to be able to get them out everyone in Indian country. As a minority, there’s not a lot of us left on the big scale of things. I think the last census put us at about five million people. As Indians, if it sits around the house to long we put beads on it or we have Pendleton on it. I’ve got a Pendleton iPad cover! It’s just one of those things. When we came out with these shoes I told Steve that there are some grandmothers in that line that don’t know what Vans is but they know what Pendleton is. They want some of those Slip-Ons so that they can go to bingo and have the coolest shoes on their reservation. They were in line with their stools just waiting to get those shoes.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> They’re a collectible. That’s their fine shoes. You have to look at the demographic, they probably don’t have the access or the money to get to a lot of the collectible shoes. That’s been one of the sweet things to see these kids get and take care of these shoes. They’re gonna wear them. Every year, Steve puts out a limited edition matching shirt and you’ll see these kids at other events in Indian country putting them on like their Sunday best. They’re wearing them out to their A occasions. It’s pretty cool, because a lot of those kids don’t ever get the opportunity to have something that nobody else does.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> They always tend to have their own appeal. The pattern that we’ve got this time is called the Morning Star. There are different stories that go with the Morning Star. The Morning Star represents a new beginning in life, like the beginning of the day. Sometimes you just have to let the night go by, that darkness that you’ve lived in, and when that Morning Star appears and you start that new day before sunrise it’s a new beginning for you. We have a great oral traditional of handing stuff down, that’s how we’ve kept our traditions alive over the centuries. This kind of just adds to it. Even what we’re doing with the skateboarding, the kids can put different symbols on their boards that are culturally significant to them, to their tribe. It helps reestablish that pride. It’s evident when you’re in or around Indian country that we’re still very proud people.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It tests your personal strengths and will powers. It’s not a team sport so you can’t depend on someone else to pick up the slack for you. If you’re gonna do it in skateboarding, you’ve gotta do it. Skateboarding also provides opportunities that these other sports don’t. You don’t see many formal players in basketball or football that own a team. In skateboarding, the majority of teams or companies are owned by old skateboarders. We build from within and around our sport. For our kids, skateboarding really helps test that warrior spirit in them. Our kids used to be taught how to hunt and survive. That warrior spirit is still in their blood memory. We believe they have that DNA in their blood but we don’t have these ways as much to be tested. When the kids and their families were put on the reservation the government didn’t let them do any of that. Well now, we see at as a different age. This a new beginning, that Morning Star for our people. Skateboarding has taken off like crazy in this country, because of those factors. It really tests these kids. You’ve gotta be fit, you’ve gotta be healthy, and you’ve gotta have that mental control. That’s what a lot of our old warrior ways were. I really see a lot of similarities between the two. These kids need it, they long for it.<\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> Skateboarding always has been a sport where there was always guys that were going to beat you and you wanted to beat them next contest. But, you where there cheering them on or hitting the board on the ??? when they would bust out a sweet trip. You were always in support of them. No one’s sitting there begrudging them, it’s just never been the way our sport’s been. You were cheering them on as much as the crowd was even if you were competing against them. It’s very evident in our contest that the groups that come aren’t like organized teams but in skateboarding they’re almost family. They come and they cheer everybody on. That’s one of the unique things about skateboarding that I’ve always loved. If you miss a trick, everybody’s cheering for you to try it again because they want to see you nail it. It’s a cool, unique thing about our sport and our way of life. <\/p>\n Todd Harder:<\/strong> It’s a lot to just keep getting inspired. ‘Keep moving forward’. That’s my biggest phrase in life. That’s one of the messages that we teach those kids there. Keep moving forward. Find your goals and make your goals a reality. We let them know that anything can happen. When you think back to how big Vans shoes are, it was just a couple of guys that started it that and wanted to make some shoes. So I always tell the kids, you can do anything, these guys just wanted to make shoes. Look at what they’re doing now? They’re still making shoes! Laughs They’re making a lot more shoes, but they’ve developed a way of life. They’ve helped build industries. They’ve done huge things. Even the help that they’ve given us. For Vans, it’s a little drop in the bucket, a pebble in the ocean. But the ripple effect that it’s made not even for our organization but all across Indian country has tribal leaders looking at it more and thinking maybe we should build a skate park for our kids. It’s really added some weight that’s made us legitimate. That’s one of those messages that I like the kids to know: all it takes is one little pebble, you’ve gotta be that person to throw that pebble in the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2415,"featured_media":292726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n