Skate Video Classics: Zero "Thrill Of It All"

In the course of time we will also post the skate video classics on this blog to ensure that historically particularly relevant works are not forgotten and that the younger generation also gets an insight into the development of skateboarding.

The "Thrill Of It All" video was released in 1997, just a year after Toy Machine's "Welcome To Hell," which featured a short Zero commercial announcing the brand. Jamie Thomas initially only planned Zero as a clothing company, since he had recently switched to Toy Machine and was responsible for building the team and producing the videos. Jamie got the name "Zero" from his sponsor "Zero Sophisto" Clothing, Andy Howell's company. Andy had previously removed the Zero and marketed his brand as just Sophisto Clothing, to which Jamie Thomas asked if he could use the Zero name and Andy immediately agreed.

Zero became a successful brand overnight and since most of the then unknown amateurs on the Zero team did not have board sponsors, Jamie began producing Zero logo decks for his team. As the demand for Zero decks grew, Jamie decided to leave his sponsor Toy Machine and devote himself full-time to his Zero brand, which he turned into a board company. The rest is history.

The Thrill Of It All video was groundbreaking at the time. Jamie Thomas and newcomers Adrian Lopez, Scott Copalman, Wade Burkitt, Erik Ellington, Aaron Harrison and Matt Mumford took rail, gap and stair skating to a whole new level.

The video was so good that I had to watch it every day for months: