In Conversation: Doyenne Skateboards

IN CONVERSATION: DOYENNE SKATEBOARDS

Words by Nathan Tuft
Artwork by Tom Shotton

March 8th marks International Women’s Day 2020 with this year’s theme being #EachforEqual, an idea of encouraging everyone to tackle gender inequality and ensure conversations are happening, however big or small. The idea of collective individualism is a powerful one and looks at individuals who look to make a difference, both within their own communities and helping to shift perceptions in others. To celebrate IWD2020, we chatted with Doyenne, a female led and driven skateboarding brand based out of Glasgow, Scotland. Their values around diversity, equality and inclusion are what drive them and are using the medium of skating to bring together communities, spark conversations and push for change....

NT: Why did you start Doyenne?
DS: When I started skating 3 years ago, there was a general trend of not many female skaters, either in the media, videos or represented within brands. When buying skateboarding labels, the relationship between the brand and the customer is pretty tight because you’re buying into their brand - supporting their team, style of skateboarding, style of clothing etc. So when I was buying these brands, I didn't feel as though they were supporting me - they don't sponsor any females, any queer person, they were focusing on other things and thats fine. But I thought it would be nice to have a skateboarding brand that actually supports people like me and that we wished had existed for us when we started out.

NT: When creating the brand, who/what were you looking at for inspiration?
DS: At the start, we ran a session with Unity Skateboard, a queer skateboarding brand from California who just happened to be in Glasgow. We reached out to them and ran a queer skateboarding session, something which had never been done in Glasgow before. That session itself served as one of our first inspirations and it was well attended by people from all walks of life. Meow Skateboards, which is run by and supports women in skateboarding, was also a big inspiration. So for us, it was about taking those elements that we admired and liked and bringing them together to create Doyenne.

NT: With a mission that looks “give a voice to the underrepresented”, what are the key points you are looking to raise awareness around and why do you believe these to be so important?
DS: Our key points are inclusivity, accessibility and sustainability and we try to push these through in everything we do. With inclusivity, we try to include the marginalised and represent them through our marketing, our models, our social media. We want to let these people shine through our platform and by showcasing that these people exist, it helps our brand to exist and show others about the people who we aim to represent.

Our beginners sessions are open to all and is a space for people to try skateboarding, hang out and meet people in a safe environment. Skateparks can be imitating for anyone so we aim to promote inclusivity with regards to how people view skateboarding as accessible and give it a go. With some people who have attended our sessions, it's great to see how they have grown and are continuing with skateboarding and knowing that they may not have started if we were unable to create that space is a great thing. Marginalised groups already have a lot of barriers and disadvantages so if we can do anything to make it a little bit easier, then we are doing something right.

DS: The theme of IWD2020 is “#EachforEqual’ and promoting the idea of collective individualism. Within the realm of skateboarding, do you think enough is being done to promote the rights of all genders and what more do you believe could be done?
DS: I think that the action should come from the people who don’t do what we do. For example, if someone attends our beginner session, they know that it is a safe space but that doesn’t mean that everywhere is. So there is a need that everyone has a responsibility, regardless of gender, sex or race and most importantly. People also have to recognise their privilege and accept that they may be oppressing someone else, which isn’t always easy to accept. But by understanding this and educating ourselves, that is the only way we can truly make a difference. If we keep flying around ignorance and don’t want to take responsibility, nothing will change. We can create all these spaces but it shouldn’t just be the marginalised who are tasked with this - people with power and influence should also be involved. And for the people with power, they have to give some of this power up or nothing will truly be equal. Everyone should try to make equality happen.

NT: You have done a lot of work in reaching out to other organisations. Why do you believe it is so important to connect with other organisations and are you particular about who you work with?
DS: We are not picky and it’s more of who we support that we like to work with - that is why it was so important to work with the likes of Skatepal and Skateistan. We live in such a lucky and privileged part of the world and by working with these brands, we have been able to give back and also showcase their work to a larger audience. I was able to go and work with Free Movement Skateboards where they were teaching skateboarding to young refugees in Athens and the work they were doing was incredibly stressful, tiring but ultimately rewarding as it was a release and an escape from their situation. That's why we cant be hypocritical and focus solely only on problems at home - they need to be shared and for people to understand and appreciate the hard work that goes on.

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