Guerillas In The Mist

December 12, 2008 @ 5:00 AM

Guerrillas in the Mist - Propaganda Rollin Co.
The art of rolling through the eyes of Hari

Text and photos: Deeli

Squeezed between Mt.Hortiatis and the Thermaic Gulf of the Mediterranean sea, in the Macedonian city of Thessaloniki, Theoharis Kazantzidis is in a tight spot. Just off the main road that runs through the city along the coast is a maze of small side streets and dark allies. Parked cars line the tiny streets, stealing into the pavement only to spill back onto the street again, sometimes in two more or less parallel lines leaving only a narrow stretch barely wide enough for a single car to crawl past. Hari swirls his steering wheel, his head spinning around like a corkscrew, his little Peugeot 206 darting back and forth, his eyeballs sweeping the dimly lit chaos of beat up vehicles littering the street in front of his office. “Malaka” he spits under his breath as he’s persuading the car into a tiny spot not much longer than the distance between his own two bumpers. There we are, partly on the pavement, partly swaying on top of a rubbish heap, half blocking the road, ready to step inside the Propaganda office.
Theoharis grew up skating in Thessaloniki, but unlike most kids dreaming of turning pro and having their names heat-transferred onto cheap Chinese wood, or opening a struggling shit hole peddling other people’s planks, he dreamt of starting a brand of his own. Biding his time, he worked in a local skate shop and kept his eyes open, watching the birth and growth (and the occasional death, of course) of the European board companies. At the time there weren’t any Greek board brands around and Hari decided to do something about it. The catalyst came in the unlikely form of the French happy snapper Kevin Metallier, on a skate trip to Greece by coincidence. Hari mentioned his dream to Kevin, who would not let him off the hook until he saw the first Propaganda boards being printed in the Artprint wood shop on the outskirts of Bordeaux.

“When I started the company in 2005, the people couldn’t believe it. My friend wouldn’t believe that any Greek guy could have somehow made this stupid decision to start a Greek skateboard company.” There aren’t that many skaters in Greece and there are hardly any parks. “In the beginning, people thought this would be the worst business ever! But for me to see the first boards was just crazy man, I was so stoked. It’s nice to do designs on paper or computer, but when you see the real board with basically your dreams printed on it, it’s on a completely different level.”