For years, Thrasher Magazine has been organizing and documenting their King Of The Road series. What started in the early 2000s, took a brief hiatus and continued in the late 2000s, has become a staple in skateboarding media.
King Of The Road (KOTR) is not just another video series. It’s not just another tour. It’s not just another challenge. It is one of the most highly anticipated video series in the context of one of the gnarliest tours chock full of challenges for some of the best skateboarders on the planet to conquer.
KOTR has effectively encapsulated all aspects of street skateboarding and road life as a skater. From the city-specific challenges to the weird and wonderful, each challenge represents something in skateboarding, silly, gnarly, and everything in between.
It was a couple months ago that we started asking ourselves, “What happened to KOTR 2015? Is the content being published?” Sure enough, the footage was captured but never released. … Yet. It was recently unveiled that 2015’s King Of The Road would be shown in a brand new format. VICE’s new channel, “VICELAND,” which features new and edgy programming, is premiering Thrasher’s King Of The Road over the course of a season of twelve hour-long episodes.
Many forgot that it was never aired, but some were chomping at the bit for their KOTR fix. Our thoughts on the new collaboration were as follows:
First off, in the interest of VICELAND, it’s crucial to recruit outside programming to truly create a diverse line-up. King Of The Road is exactly the kind of thing you won’t find anywhere else. So Cheers to VICE and Hell Yeah for VICELAND.
Thrasher is a unique brand that sells apparel but is and always has been a media company. As the longest-running skateboarding magazine that has never changed ownership, it’s important for them to stay relevant in the context of today’s media landscape. VICE has built a cult following among the fringe of skateboarding culture, all things “hipster,” and is the perfect platform for partnership.
It’s a little bit of a bummer that to watch King of the Road, you have to have access to the VICELAND channel. Sorry Thrasher, but we know that there will be a lot of skaters not paying for VICELAND that won’t ever see King of the Road because of this. It’s a solid move, but it brings about an exclusivity that is a bit contrary to the spirit of skateboarding. It’s a pain for us skaters who don’t own TVs, but it also makes for unique content that isn’t available everywhere.
The amount of video prepared to fill out twelve hour-long episodes is bonkers! With the help of VICE cameras and staff, the full show will give a much deeper look in to the van life, piss bottles and all. However, we’ll see if the additional camera crew creates a less-than-desirable effect on the quality of the tour (spots busted, makeouts diverted, etc.).
All in all, we’re pretty stoked on the Thrasher x VICE action coming soon (April 28th). There will be setbacks involved, but with those also come huge benefits from partnering with VICE.
If anything, VICELAND just got cooler. Let’s see how it goes, boys. Do whatever it takes to see the show: get a bootleg plug-in for VICELAND, make friends with someone who has it, or get a job at VICE… No matter how you do it, be sure to check it out & let us know what you think!
