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If you’ve ever tried skateboarding, there’s a good chance that a section of asphalt contains some of your DNA after a bad tumble. Going a step further, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk arranged for his blood to be infused into a limited-edition run of 100 skateboards, which have already sold out. Priced at $500 per board, each deck features a red color scheme that has some of Hawk’s blood mixed into the paint.
As Hawk himself noted, these boards should definitely not be used to extract his DNA from and for the purpose of creating a theme park of clones who perform his signature tricks all day long for customers. “Looking forward to our future collaborations as long as they don’t involve replicants, Hawk wrote in an Instagram post.
Speaking to GameSpot’s sister site CNET, a representative for water company Liquid Death Mountain Water explained how it managed to get its hands on two vials of Hawk’s “donated” blood.
“Tony Hawk is a member of the Liquid Death Country Club,” the representative said. “So he previously sold his soul to Liquid Death via a legally binding contract, meaning the brand technically owns Tony’s blood.”
Some of the proceeds from the sale will go to the non-profit organization 5 Gyres and Hawk’s own organization, The Skatepark Project, which helps underprivileged communities build their own skateparks.
Blood has proven to be a surprisingly effective method for creating unique pieces of memorabilia. Rock band KISS created a stir when the members had their blood drawn and mixed into the printing ink for a 1977 Marvel KISS comic book, and in a more recent example that resulted in public controversy, rapper Lil Nas X teamed up with streetwear company MSCHF to sell Satan Shoes.
Each modified Nike shoe contained a drop of blood provided by MSCHF employees, but the stunt wound up in court when Nike filed a trademark claim against MSCHF and the company voluntarily recalled the shoes back as part of a settlement.
Lil Nas X tweeted after the skateboards went on sale, and suggested that double standards were to blame for the public outrage over his collaboration with MSCHF.
