I would like to lay this thread to rest. Vex all i can say is good luck on your business venture and i wish you the best with your advertising strategies.
I have never really made an attempt to thoroughly explain what has been going on with ELYTS but i figured I owe a minor explanation to one of the forums that helped form this great scoot nation.
ELYTS was founded by me and an investor for financial backup. These are my ideas, my creativity my heart and soul made possible by an investor who actually sat and listened to what i had to say about the scooter industry. As you know, I worked with Nike 6.0 in the past... I used my experience and all the ideas that I attempted to share with Nike 6.0, but they were to busy with multiple other sports to listen to scooters, and I put them into this project called ELYTS. There is no huge conspiracy behind it, you can be at peace about that.
To address the 18 and up for the pro team. The reason why these guidelines were layed down this way is because now I think its time that we define a "pro rider." Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, i admire feedback from the people. To be a pro rider means that you are fluent in tricks of course, as anyone in the scoot community is from like age 6 to like 20-something. A professional rider position should only be available for responsible people who can be held liable for their actions when representing a company. (Example: 20 year old pro gets into a fight at a skatepark/event, unacceptable 100% accountable for his actions ; 16 year old pro does the same thing, "well what did you expect, he's a kid") So you can understand the severity of the situation, lets use uhhhh... McDonalds for example... Im sure there is a 10 year old fry cook out there he will not be on staff till he is of age. To add to that, underage kids cant oversee their own deals or sign anything without a parent present, and I'm sure they cant fill out a W2 when they are branching with a company. [If you dont know what a W2 is, that is exactly my point lol]
Which brings up another issue in this industry, our manufacturers offering AM contracts with nothing but flow parts and calling them PRO, which is crippling the growth of our industry. Or, some competitions charging a lot of money to enter the comp and when you win they shower you with more free parts that "Pros" do not need. Or our judging policies at competitions, where some comps use skateboarders to judge us. There are plenty other "conspiracies" that can be "Exposed" in this industry. I assure you ELYTS isn't one of them. If anything, link up with ya boy Ziggy and lets solidify the scooter revolution. ALL ARE WELCOME, even you Vex