End of an Era? Lakai Limited Footwear Faces Uncertain Future

In what can be considered a strike through the heart of every skater, recent social media posts from the last few days may indicate the end of an era in skateboarding with Lakai Limited Footwear may be closing up shop.

For those who have been living under a boulder, hell a mountain, Lakai was created by Mike Carrol and Rick Howard, quickly becoming a staple in skate culture. With continuously savage team members lacing up for them, like Mike Mo, Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, and even Tony Hawk, they released a string of critically hailed videos such as the infamous, Fully Flared.

Over the last few days ,social media posts have indicated trouble brewing behind the scenes. On November 6th, a statement was posted on Lakai’s Instagram on behalf of the current CEO, which discussed the finances, riders, and the future of the company.

“Reality: Lakai has been losing $1,000,000 per year and was weeks away from being shut down. Lakai has been sold twice before due to lack of profitability and Rick and Mike haven’t had ownership in the brand for a number of years.”

The post continued to discuss how a 10% ownership offer was extended to Rick and Mike, along with a request to reduce the current skate team budget by 23%, with the post claiming, “to prevent the company from falling into another near-bankruptcy, as the cost of the skate team was greater than the total cost of employees working at the company.”

This also mentioned plans to release full-length films, build a multinational skate team, and create the Hometown Hero Program, which would scout talent and build community efforts. But an important part of this post was how they would deal with the current team.

“The new Lakai ownership had no plans to remove the skate team, and due to recent events we are not in the process of offering 90-day transitional contracts to the skaters via Rock and Mike as they specifically told us that they alone should be the ones in contact with them.”

In response to the many rumors and messages, Mike Carroll posted a message on November 9th.

“All I’ll say is that on October 29th, Rick and I were let go from Lakai by the new owner because we refused to cut the team.” I feel like we failed the team and everyone who loved and worked for Lakai. For that, I’m sorry to everyone I love.”

Along with the message came a short video, also uploaded to the Crailtap’s YouTube page, that showcased the many moments and faces that made Lakai iconic. A creative, fun, and relatable brand for all skaters to strive for in their own lives. Not just with dreams of going pro, but the desire to find community in a like-minded crew, hellbent on just enjoying their lives.

“Hard to put 25 years into words or a paragraph,” the description read. “We want to take this moment to THANK EVERYONE that rode the Flare, held the Flare, waved the Flare, and shared the Flare. What a run with the best humans, wouldn’t have done it any other way.”

Without Rick and Mike’s direction and passion, it is hard to envision where Lakai might end up, if it continues at all. What I do know, is I plan to turn on The Final Flare and a few other favorites and think of better days.