Tony Hawk has been known as one of the best skateboarders since he was 16 years old. He has won more than 70 skate competitions in his career and is the subject and creator of the popular game “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater”. This time, though, Hawk is really going outside the box; he’s partnered with Liquid Death, an energy drink company, to make a custom skateboard.. Only 100 of these boards have been made, and they quickly sold out within the first 20 minutes of release,  even with the price of 500 dollars. This was a limited time drop, with a beautiful design art. 

Another artist tried to do a similar stunt to this, but received massive backlash for the product because he used Satan and 666 to prompt his shoes as well they were copied for Nike shoes. Lil Nas X came out with his own blood shoes, in which he received massive backlash. The shoes were modified versions of the Nike Air Max 97s. Nike was not involved with the process of making these shoes and a lawsuit followed, causing the shoes to be recalled.  There was no backlash, however,  for Tony Hawk, and Lil Nas X frustrated took to Twitter to express his feelings, asking “now that Tony Hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? And maybe you were mad for some other reason?” The backlash Lil Nas x received was for making the shoes satanic and chose to advertise it that way. 

Even though there is a difference between blood infused paint and literal  blood inside a pair of shoes, there is also a difference in culture between the two. Some people believe Hawk’s skateboard release is satanic, but it’s all about how it’s explained to people. Lil Nas X labeled  the shoes “satanic shoes” and sold 666 shoes, and Hawk called it a blood board and only sold 100. A share of the profits will be going to a non plastic non profit that Liquide Death runs and the Skateboard Project, a non profit organization founded by Tony Hawk which helps build skateparks in underserved communities.