You Will Soon‘s Dan Watson lays down some of the realities behind Berrics United and does it well in a post titled Unified Theory. . . Of Bullshit.
But what are the qualifications for a shop to be saved by the Unified Berrics? Is it the amount of work they’ve put into grassroots events? Is it proof that the owners actually skate? Is it a lifelong dedication to the culture of skateboarding? No it’s anywhere from 1440 to 5280 dollars. . . . Yes, as Exit Skateshop has pointed out via Twitter, what Berra forgot to mention was that the completely altruistic system that is the Unified Berrics is actually just a 12 month contract to have your skateshop advertised on The Berrics.
And as a commenter on Boardistan pointed out this morning that while Steve Berra says “there may be a war being waged” against small businesses by mall stores with “deep pockets and empty histories” The Berrics still sells product in the Canadian mall retailer West 49.
[Link: You Will Soon]
So let me get this straight…
Steve Berra get paid to skateboard and collects board-shoe royalties.
Steve Berra sells products on The Berrics(full blown mailorder launching the end of this month).
Steve Berra sells The Berrics tees to big chain retailers such as Zumies, etc.
Steve Berra sells advertising space to Adidas, Quiksilver, etc. on The Berrics.
And now Steve Berra wants to charge struggling retailers to be featured on his site under the false pre-tense of a goodwill gesture.
Wake up ya’ll, Steve Berra loves the almighty dollar and is looking to cash in on skateboarding from every angle possible.
you guys are retarded. the entire purpose of the berrics unified is to let people know that your shop exists and try to get everyone to come by to keep it alive and running. youre just looking for a reason to bash him.
i really wanna kick who ever made this in the balls soo hard.
“A system can always estimate how close it is to being revolted against by counting how many smart and willing people it is excluding from participation”. -S.B.
Yet Steve is excluding anyone who doesn’t pay him $1440-$5280. What a chump.
the berrics is a great thing. and who isnt out to get money these days. you dont know his life situation. you dont know if he needs to help pay his dying fathers medical bills. you dont even know.
I think fair play to berra for making money etc etc
skaters dont get paid enough to wreck their bodies
could give in any day etc etc
but I think hes giving the false pretense that he is
being so great for doing this. He could do it for free,
technically he is losing money by advertising them
and not big companies that are going to pay out the ass
but I’m pretty sure hes making a killing through the berrics
and he could do it. Plus failing shops are’nt going to be
able to pull 5 grand out of their arse, skate shops
dont make much money let alone when theyre
have a shit year
ya, if this is true, which it may not be without a published valid source, berra should be advertising for free, locals know their skate shops, and a little extra blip on a berrics map is not gonna do much for a shop, if anything, if berra wants to help shops, he should be giving them part of his revenue. in reality, skateboarders shouldnt be payed jack shit, who cares what they do to their bodies, there are way bigger issues throughout the world that need financial support (healthcare, poverty, starvation, lack of drinking water in 3rd world country). anyone who lives in the US and complains about being underpaid, just go visit a third world country and get a reality wakeup call.
did more research, seems valid, ya, berra is doin nothin to help skateboarding with this idea, only himself
I’m not mad at Berra for trying to make a buck. It’s the way in which he pitched it that’s disturbing. If you want to sell advertising space to retailers, then just come out and say it, don’t dress it up and present it as something else.
Huh said it perfectly above, Berra is only helping himself.
You are taking some information and leaving out other information which is making Steve look bad.
This is Berra’s excact words from an email:
I wouldn’t say that was true.
I would say it has taken things and twisted them so that I look bad.
I will tell you this. Say a shop signs up for the Berrics Unified. pays
$120 a month for banners to show up on the Berrics site, the most
popular, most visited to site in the skateboard world… So, they pay $120 a month,
less than a penny saver ad, and they get to focus their advertising
on skateboarders, not people who randomly pick up a pennysaver
and then throw it away, but skateboarders. Say they get 4 new kids
to come into the shop, their advertisements are paid for. Say we go
and do a Field Ops on the shop. They live in Philedelphia, so I fly out there,
two of my filmers fly out there, we get hotels, have to rent a car, have to pay
for food. That’s about, on the cheap side, a $2500 expense, just to go out
and do a Field Ops on the shop that paid $1280 to get tens of thousands of
dollars worth of advertising for an entire year. So… we take a $1250 hit or more
by doing this, and this is even the time spent filming it that I have to pay my
guys. We lose money on this. If the program was free, we couldn’t do it at all
simply because we just don’t have the funds. Don’t mistake popularity for
wealth, not the case with us. And don’t mistake someone’s misunderstanding
of what the program is because they have no idea what goes into running a
business and creating something like this, for the truth. They’ve twisted facts
and left out others to make me seem like the bad guy. I stand by what I said,
I stand by the Unified and skate shops are really psyched on it and it’s already
helping them. More and more shops will be added every day. It’s going to be
a great thing for skateboarding. Sorry you would believe someone with no
credibility over me.
sb
who ever posted this bullshit is a dil hole.
Just because Berra thinks he’s the mouth piece of God doesn’t mean you have to believe everything he says/types. I think a few members on the Slap Forum said it best;
1) It does not seem as if the argument is saying how much the program cost, but more or less that Berra gave the idea that the program is “so you know who the IMPORTANT skateshops are” when in fact it’s just “so you know who’s PAYING the berrics” to be seen.
Blackbox, Girl/Choc, and now Deluxe are all running awesome shop connect programs for FREE.
It took Jim Theibauld one post to discuss the Deluxe shop connect program “RT @jimt43 t’s free. It’s simple. It will send kids to skate shops.”
It took Berra 15 mins, a bunch of crazy AK47 references, dramatic lighting, AND NO SOLID FACTS to talk about their program. You can find the rates right on the berrics site if you want to see them yourself http://www.berricsunified.com/plan-selection.php
2) If you’re charging for a favor then its actually called a “service”.
3) I like how his boy Vinny Ponte’s shop isn’t hooked up through this program after that nice spotlight a week or so ago.
4) Funny that they’re doing this before they launch a full blown mailorder business that will certainly take business away from local shops.
5) Bob and I are starting a Skate Talk Unified to help core shops… send us your money.
6) Steve doesn’t need money, he’s just hungry for it.
Chomp on This states “5) Bob and I are starting a Skate Talk Unified to help core shops… send us your money.”
so you want their money?
how are yiou gonna advertise it?
if you do, im 100% sure you cant do a damn well job that sb is doing
grow up
and you guys dont understand, berra loses money in doing this
as he said in his post, he pays 2500 just to go do the little comercials for it
and second, it cost money to advertise
he charges what it costs him
berra is doing what he can and you guys need to get off his balls
also, any shop can go up on the site
he doesnt choose the shops
its up to the shop to go up
this is kinda being taken out of context if you look at the membership plans first off theirs different choices of exposure you guys are stating it as if you gotta pay steve thousands of dollars right away you definitely have certain choices and there is definitely the option to pay a couple hundred of dollars (even as low as 50$) month by month over the course of a year. furthermore skateboarding is fun and awesome but when your running a business its a business honestly steve is doing small shops a huge favor even though their being charged because think about how much more nike would pay for that spot on the berrics website he definitely can be making ten times more off of that space selling it to a big company
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