Reporting live from the site of the neophyte sportster revolution, I conclude that I am getting burned. Not the rule stickling treatment over spontaneous press credentials, or the raucous laugh about the anti-corporate/corporate takeover of a once independent celebration of fuck it-ism; ie: the capitalization of anything fresh, cutting edge and entertaining, by kids, for kids. Torched because it’s hot as a mug. By that, I mean, the interior of one filled with fresh coffee. LA, sun, sport, attire.

Being older and less assimilated as today’s youth, I wore jeans and a tee shirt, my usual business attire. Big mistake. Clothes make the kickflip. My extreme brethren have invented, besides sports where injury is as exciting as success, a captivating uniform. This teen army, unique in appearance, but lost in the crowd among their contemporaries, don a specific garb known only as the fashionable in sport/style apparel.

For good reason, the best sponsor, a competing athlete in these games can have, is a clothing sponsor. Clothing, as a market, is not only necessary to avoid chafing, but can help define an image akin to the thrasher that one idolizes. The look is spearheaded by brand names, that include in their repertoire, skateboards, wheels, trucks, surfboards, bikes, pads, hats, helmets and the such that one needs to accomplish said sport. Although, one’s ability to gnash a skateboard park or ride flat land bike trick is not determined by the brand of outfit applied to skin, but the talent within those articles of thread.

Marc Echo started designing clothes in 1972, but his trademark street-savvy style didn't really hit it big until about ten years ago. Recognizable by its eye-pleasing color combinations of camouflage, bright pastel solids, shiny pop-out plastic emblems, and the infamous trademark rhino stencil, this designer can be seen profiled by teens and trendy Gen-X'ers alike.

Introduced to the scene as an urban outfitter, the hip-hop flavored clothing designs graced the pages of Black culture magazines in ads featuring up-and-coming underground rappers. Soon the franchise pushed further than the "street" audience and began to catch appeal with skateboarders and extreme athletes, earning credit as a uniform for the rebellious and dangerous.

Bad Boy. Come on. Sean Combs (I will leave nicknames up to the imagination of the reader) has been trying to leave his mark on the world in his entrepreneurial ways for most of his adult life. Associated with pop-flavored mainstream rap hits, he has been trying to make his own name in the fashion industry independent of his hip-hop persona.

Rap artists have been developing their own clothes since the days of Naughty by Nature's O.P.P. days, and to this day it remains the en vogue power-move to make once you hit it big and cross over. Don't believe me? The following artists depend on newly-franchised self-moniker clothing sales for about a quarter to half of their total revenue: Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, Outkast, Eve, Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Fat Joe and Master P. To his credit, Fat Joe is the only one who beat the crowd to the craze, and was one of the originators of the "eggs in many basket" approaches to the industry.

American entrepreneurship has created a phenomenon known to many of us as "branding," which has imprinted an image and a lifestyle associated with corporate logos. Advertising, as a business, makes a name for itself and thrives on turning brand names into household names, and logos into cultural symbols embedded with information on class, style, age, and affiliation. Some popular brands that evoke such feelings and images on a worldwide platform are the Mcdonald's arches, the Disney Mickey Mouse ears, the Mercedes tri-star, the Macintosh apple, and the Tiffany's blue box.

For the past 35 years, men's fashion has been led by a single logo, a single brand that has always been recognized as first-class, anywhere in the world. Ralph Lauren's Polo horse icon has maintained an air of pedigree and success in an active lifestyle since its inception. Its longevity speaks for itself, as your grandfather, your father, and you can all sport clothes from this same evolving designer, and not just be posing for a family portrait. Today, Polo clothes have as much of an impact on the youth as they do on the original generation that ushered them in.