Author: Dean DeChiaro
It all started in a basement. When Bobby Bonaparte, a senior from Portland, Oregon was in 8th grade, he went scavenging in the basement and stumbled across his aunt’s old silkscreen. When his mom showed him how it worked, Bonaparte, an artistic and creative kid at heart, realized that he could finally make some t-shirts with the designs he’d been drawing for some time.
“I realized, ‘Wow, this could be kind of chill. I could design something that no one else is gonna wear. I’ll be the only person in the world with this t-shirt,'” said Bonaparte.
Throughout most of high school, Bonaparte drew original designs for all of his shirts and printed them in bright colors with the silkscreen. Eventually all of his friends began asking him for shirts, and the high demand prompted him to christen the line - Lift.
The t-shirts Bonaparte designed are diverse, consisting of random, outlandish graphics that usually spell out the word L-I-F-T. The designs all come from Bonaparte’s imagination. “I try to be completely original. I actively try not to copy other people’s work,” he said.
Bonaparte chose the name Lift simply because it sounded cool. “”It’s rad that now the name ‘Lift’ has a lot of other connotations, but back then I thought of it just as being getting lifted up in the air,” he said.
It is this image, a person flying through the air while wearing one of his t-shirts, that drives Bobby’s other passion – Team Lift, the skateboarding team he formed four months ago with an eclectic mix of young Angelinos who share his passion for “shredding.” Since Bonaparte had been skating as long as he had been making t-shirts, he was excited to arrive in L.A., a historically important place in the world of skateboarding. Indeed, the first manufactured skateboards were sold at a surf shop in Los Angeles.
But after arriving at Oxy as a first-year, Campus Safety almost immediately ticketed Bonaparte for skateboarding on campus. This prompted Bonaparte to move to greener pastures, namely the area around Eagle Rock High School.
“Outside the high school, there’s a clean spot with ledges and kickers, so I’d skate that, and I just met a lot of homies there who were chill and we just started to kick it,” he said. There he met Willy Nestlehutt, a 20-year-old EMT who skates different parks in the Los Angeles area. “Willy’s an old vert dog,” said Bonaparte, implying that Nestlehutt’s style of skating is best for ramps, half-pipes, and verts.
After three years of skating with Nestlehutt and other Eagle Rock locals, Bonaparte spent last summer in Tokyo, Japan, interning with the advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, whose clients include Nike, Google, and Sony Playstation. Working for a summer in advertising made Bonaparte realize that he could market his t-shirts, and that with Nestlehutt’s connection to local skaters, he could do it through the sport he loved. When Bonaparte returned stateside, he knew he wanted to create a state team.
“Working with the creative powerhouse Wieden + Kennedy gave me bigger aspirations. When I came back, I asked Willy if he would be interested in starting a skate team, and he was so down. I gave him a few t-shirts and he told me I should talk to Jairo and Chase,” Bonaparte said.
Chase Newton, 14, and Jairo Monroy, 17, are two other members of the team. Newton, who goes to school in downtown L.A., has been sponsored by skate companies in the past. “Chase is a young ripper. He’ll destroy any skatepark and is down to throw carcass,” said Bonaparte. The term “carcass” means that Newton does a lot of big jumps over gaps and down staircases. Monroy was described by Bonaparte as the most technical with his skating, illustrated by the fact that he can pull off ju/st about every trick in the book first try.
Bonaparte welcomed them onto the team because, as he said, “they both f*ckin’ rip.”Another skater on the team is Matt Rene, 16. Like Newton, Rene skated competitively when he was younger but recently took some time off. According to Bonaparte, when Rene saw that Newton was having his tricks filmed and put on YouTube, Rene wanted to join the team as well. “The guy’s got style for miles,” Bonaparte said.
Hekter Gallardo, 20, who goes to school in Glendale, is the skater Bonaparte described as his right hand man. “Hekter is the main guy I count on,” said Bonaparte.The last team member is Anthony “Chewy” Perez. Perez enjoyed enormous success as a young skater, being sponsored by Girl Skateboards and Nike SB, but fell into drugs and ended up in jail for a year. When he got out, Bonaparte decided that now that Perez was on the rebound and ready to skate, there was a spot for him on the team. Though he primarily skates in Compton, where he lives, Perez comes to Eagle Rock pretty much every weekend to skate with the team.
“What’s great about the team is that everyone is really down with it. They don’t get money or anything, I mean I hook them up t-shirts, but we all just want to skate and make shirts as a team,” said Bonaparte. The t-shirts are a symbol of the team, helping them to gain notoriety.
Another way to call attention to the team’s skills is through video posts on the internet. According to Bonaparte, video recording is especially handy because the industry is changing. “Nowadays with YouTube you don’t really need to compete anymore. Instead of filming a long video, you can film a quick two minute clip each week and upload instantaneously,” he said. “That’s the way kids get noticed by bigger companies.”
The future of the team, Bonaparte says, is indistinct, simply because of the ambiguous nature of their goal. “I just want to help these guys out and I hope that they will rep Lift down the line when they blow up,” he said.
Bonaparte is trying to help the team as best he can, given his circumstances. “I have a real ancient camera,” he said. “It’s not professional quality. These guys are really, really good, and they need professional equipment. It’s my goal to get their skating out there so they can work with people in the industry and get real exposure.”
Of course, Bonaparte has his own interests invested in the team as well. Like his skate team members, Bonaparte’s objective in the Lift project is to get noticed by larger companies, in his case for the t-shits designs.
The team is already starting to garner interest. All of the videos on the Lift YouTube page have over 100 views; the team operates a blog (skatelift.wordpress.org); and, most recently, Transport, the local Eagle Rock skate shop, agreed to sell Bonaparte’s shirts.
But until they make it big, the Lift team is satisfied with just skating the L.A. parks, always looking for the next ramp to jump or rail to shred.
Although Bonaparte is uncertain about his future, he hopes that Lift will be a part of it in some capacity. “I’ve had such a blast making shirts and skating. I’d even say that it’s the most fun I’ve had in my life so far,” he said.
And as for the skate team, he has endless confidence in their abilities. “I have confidence that they can blow up and I think they know they can do it too,” he said.Since the team’s inception four months ago, a great sense of camaraderie and mutual support has developed between its members. “I don’t even like the word team,” Bonaparte said. “We’re more of a family.”
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