Guerillas In The Mist
December 12, 2008 @ 5:00 AM
So what’s in the name? “For me it’s important, because somehow it’s the truth behind every company. It stands for advertisement, marketing, all of these things. Every company is called something different, but they all do their own propaganda behind their chosen name. The other reason is that this word is the same in almost every language. So everyone in the whole world can understand the meaning of this word.” Except for Greek. It’s not a Greek word, it’s Latin. In Greek you need at least one sentence to describe its meaning. But there you go.
At a time, when blanks are pushing brands into the corner and everything but everything is produced on the cheap in China, you could be forgiven to doubt the sanity of a small European company screening pro-boards in France to sell them in Greece. Propaganda has managed to come a long way in the three years following the tiny first set of boards. It’s probably not far off the mark to say it’s largely down to Hari’s hard work and enthusiasm. He’s an eternal optimist, the poor sod. “I don’t know man. People have small dreams, and people have big dreams. My opinion in life in general is that if you have a goal, the goal should be big. I want to move Propaganda to Europe. I want to try to make the team bigger and get European riders to skate for Propaganda and gradually start selling boards and clothing in other European countries.” Hari won’t listen to reason about the uphill struggle life is for any European company. His mind is made up. “I have a good feeling about it. I like to be positive in life. And of course I have to also think of the worst case scenario, but when I see what’s going on with the market in Europe and I see how other brands work and the quality they offer to skaters, I think we can stand at least, at least, next to these companies. And I think some of our riders are already on a level where they can be respected on the European scene.”
And why not? Another native son of Thessaloniki, Alexander The Great, went on to conquer half the world. Ironically, it’s the enormous statue of the very man that looks over the main spot in Thessaloniki today, standing guard over the skaters and their hopes and dreams as they work on their jumps and wheelies day in, day out. Greece gave the world democracy and geometry. How hard can exporting a little skate company be compared to that shit?
