An interview with Justin Heister

Co-owner/ Art Director of Focus

Being new to the job, I’m slowly realizing just how small and tight knit the skateboarding industry is. Not only between companies, but skaters everywhere across the world. We have this strange immense web of people that I swear exists in nothing else. With the way skateboarding is growing and changing so fast these days do you think the community feeing will remain or slowly fade with the more popular and mainstream skateboarding gets? Yeah, I think skating will always have this feeling of camaraderie and be a tight-knit community. It’s really like family, and more people are just getting married in. So, back to your video "Stay Focused" Who’s going to be in it? Any up and comers? Is it strictly east coast skating or have you guys been taking trips elsewhere? Correct. Our new video is called "Stay Focused," and the operation is being spearheaded by our senior writer, and major contributor, Keir Johnson. Keir has teamed up with Josh Friedberg, and the lineup is looking to be pretty epic. All the footy is coming from the East Coast … We are going to have sections, like Boston, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC, NC, FL… and parts from: Tommy Wisdom, Mike Maldonado/Kerry Getz/Pete Eldridge, Luis Tolentino, Shaun Gregoire, Ryan O'Connor/Bert Wootton, Nick Panza/Zach Funk, David Clark/Dan Plunkett/Justin Brock and Jimmy McDonald/+Friends.

We are still in the works of finalizing everything, but I’m pretty confident this will be final the line-up, and it should drop in November. We are going to be airing little trailers and teasers online, so be sure to keep checking out www.FocusSkateMag.com for all that sort of stuff and info about the video.

That sounds sick, I can’t wait to check it out. Anybody you want to shout out and say thanks to? First and foremost I’d like to thank Jim and all the guys over at Real Skateboards and Deluxe Distribution for making this happen! There are way too many people to thank individually, and when it comes down to brass tax, you know who you are. Thank you to anyone who has believed in us, and supported us in any capacity – from advertising, to contributing photos and writing, to distributing the mag at your shop, to ordering a tee or this awesome deck we had the pleasure of doing with Real, to visiting our website to leave a shitty comment, to putting a sticker up, to spreading the word that we exist. Thanks, we’ll see you in the streets! Justin Heister kickflip