‘Turns out Rocco was not only willing to share his name…’
Downward
USA
Daniel Fedkenheuer
Who is crazy enough to start a new printed skatemag in the heart of California?
I suppose that would be me! Starting a proper print mag has always been something I’ve wanted to check off my bucket list,especially while living in California. Getting to meet and work closely with so many skaters and folks in the industry out here is unlike anywhere else I’ve experienced.
Where do you position yourself with all other skateboard media outlets in your neighborhood especially the remaining print mags like Juice or Lowcard?
I am definitely a student of the print mags that have come before. Simply put,we haven’t put in a fraction of the work that guys like Lowcard, Juice,Skate Jawn or Grey have quite yet. I hope to keep publishing for years to come and earn a reputation similar to those mags that I admire.
Your day job is running a distribution company. Are there any benefits running a skatemag with your experience, knowledge and network being a distributor?
Absolutely! My full-time gig was originally working for Dwindle and now Sidewalk Distribution has taught me everything I know when it comes to brand building,production,and product delivery. I’ve been super fortunate to have a front row seat to learn the process of how skateboards make their way from the factory to the skate shops of the world. I tried to implement a lot of the same strategies we do at Sidewalk in terms of running the online store and establishing a schedule for delivering new content.
‘It’s a one-man operation at the moment’
What are your plans with downward mag?
The big plan is to get into the rhythm of releasing quarterly issues. It’s a one-man operation at the moment,so I want to get into a routine of spending about a month doing interviews and writing, followed by a month of working on the layout, in between promoting the current issue and doing outreach for the next one. At the end of the day – my aim is to publish a top- quality manuscript every time. I have a solid foundation in place after recently dropping the third issue,but I want to constantly sharpen my writing and design work to make the magazine the best it can possibly be. Hopefully the readers that appreciate what goes into releasing a print mag will be inspired to start their own.
That’s impressive being a one-man show behind the mag. Is there anything you don’t do like the design?
At the moment, I’m the only one steering the ship. I’ve been publishing my writing for a few years now,but I haven’t put much of my design work out there. I’ve been self-teaching myself Photoshop since high school and recently got super inspired to start learning photocopied,collage-style art, thanks to designers like Piper Ferrari from Roman Candle. Instead of focusing on band flyers or merch, I thought the magazine would be a rad way to incorporate the textures and graphics I’ve been working on into skateboarding culture.
You worked on a book called ‘The Next Wave’ uncovering skateboard history from 1999 to 2020. What inspired you to work on this?
My book was originally supposed to be a sequel to ‘The Concrete Wave’,written by Michael Brooke. If you haven’t read it, it’s one of the most comprehensive skate history books that got published at the turn of the century. I was contributing to Concrete Wave (the magazine) at the time and started the book as I was finishing college and in the process of moving to California. Since the original book covered the 50’s through the 90’s,my goal was to pick up where it left off. I started skating around 2010 and there were a ton of videos like Emerica’s “Stay Gold” and Transworld’s “Hallelujah” that shaped my understanding of the culture at the time. There are already a million books that celebrate the 70’s and 80’s,plus a fair amount of books that have started to go as far as the 90’s and early 00’s. I wanted to publish a book that put the 2010’s on a timeline and give my best effort to reference everything from the most popular shoes and influential tricks that went down in that time. It was a tremendous undertaking to mention all those points in a cohesive way. The full text ended up being over 80 thousand words and I think it highlights the majority of the major happenings from the past two decades.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why?
This is a tough one – but I aspire to have someone who is at the top of the game in all aspects featured in the mag. Off the top of my head, I think Ishod Wair is as good as it gets. He’s been so effortlessly stylish his whole career and only seems to get better with time. He’s low-key everyone’s favorite skater and has filmed plenty of memorable tricks that I would want to ask him about. I’d also love to pick his brain about starting to get into more photography and about the development of his new Nike shoes. Of course, if we’re talking about other New Jersey legends,getting to chop it up with Fred Gall about crusty North Jersey spots would also be legendary.
‘I wanted to publish a book that put the 2010’s on a timeline’
