Unboxing MTB Culture: B&M
I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this then you have probably heard of Shredder MTB zine. If you haven’t, here’s a link to the Shredder site – or you can order a copy from the Misspent Summers store. In this video we get a quick look into the thinking behind Shredder.
He raises some very valid points and whilst I am not going to delve into the the quesiton of what mountain bike culture is, I think we can all agree that mountain biking does not need any more “unboxing” videos.
Evidently I am in the minority here. Maths doesn’t lie and these videos get a lot of views. My issue comes with the feelings they provoke. I’ve always thought that the purpose of a MTB video is to get you stoked to ride a bike. Maybe I am in the minority again, but I don’t think that many people get stoked to ride off a “unboxing” video. If anything they inspire you to go and buy more stuff, which in most cases is the last thing we need.
Of course, despite ranting on about this, the irony isn’t lost on me. Youtube has allowed the sport to grow hugely and that’s all well and good, but I just think if we took a bit more pride in our sport and didn’t reduce it to pure consumerism, we’d all be laughing.
HG
