Thrasher Magazine

Tony Hawk is no stranger to acting, so once Lakai realized they needed a commercial to go with the release of his new shoe, The Proto, it was a no-brainer to get him in front of the lens. However, this time it was under the direction of Lakai’s own Tyler “Manchild” Pacheco. Seeing as how this was his first time directing a commercial of any sort, doing one with the Birdman himself was probably a little daunting. Featuring a street session in downtown LA with Tony and Manchild himself, cameos from Rick Howard and Mike Carroll, a chase scene with Animal Chin and a heavy vert session to end it all, you’re bound to get a ripping edit. After all was said and done, I was pretty impressed with what Manchild was able to come up with and I think all of you will be too. Good job, Manch! –Alex Papke

Nine AM call times are rough for anyone, even the Birdman. Straight off the plane to the Lakai office

Director Tyler Pacheco giving Tony a quick run down of his vision

Rick needed a quick look at the script before the cameras started rolling

“You know, everybody’s got that manager that thinks he’s slick but doesn’t know anything about skateboarding”

Board-meeting kicking off. Carrol is stoked for his big on-camera debut. It doesn’t get any more Hollywood than this

The star of the commercial: The Proto. It was almost cleverly named the Bony Hawk

A must needed Instagram moment.

More than anything, Mikey was a big fan of the smell

“We’ll be sniffin’ it, like gettin’ high off it and shit”

Carroll just couldn’t get enough of the smell

Hufnagel peeked his head in to get a quick catch-up with Tony before we headed towards Supreme

Tony might not have been the biggest fan, but Manch had no problems with this front feeble at the Supreme bowl

“Uh, it’s tight. Nah, I mean it’s too tight. I’m 6’3”. You want me to do a 900? You’ll be lucky to get a 90 out of me”

Maybe the streets will be a little bit easier. Manchild shows no hesitation with this frontside wallride at a classic downtown LA spot

Tony taking it to the streets, no-comply style.

“We’ll skate to some Andre Nicatina, like on some Mike shit”

Here comes the kickout…

Nope, she just wanted a photo with Tony

She was a big fan of The Proto, too. However, she declined to give it a smell

Tony’s still got it in the streets, frontside wallride

And on the brick quarters—frontside ollie to get things started.

Manchild wasn’t far behind. Backside nosepiece

Tony had to go back to back with him, backside blunt

Closing out the session with a patriotic tailblock

That’s a lot of street skating for one day.

Quick switch in locations—the boys were on the hunt for Animal Chin

Decades later, it looks like they might have found him!

“I don’t know how hard it would be to get Animal Chin, but I’m sure Tony could hit up Stacy or somebody”

High-speed pursuit style

Nuge makes a pretty good Chin, don’t you think?

Once the locals found out who was filming on their street, a selfie was mandatory.

There’s never just one…

The Chin awaits

“No marketing, just fun”

Day two, mandatory stretch session

Nuge wasn’t able to make it so we had a quick tranny sub-in for Chin

After a quick session on the pump track, Tony was ready to hit the ramp

Minutes later and Tony shows no hesitation to the ramp. A little bit easier than the streets, eh?

Chin getting his back. If you couldn’t tell, we subbed in tranny superstar Jimmy Wilkins for day two

Getting fully inverted is nothing for Tony

Masterlensman Doughnut giving the boys a behind-the-scenes preview

No stranger to the ramp, Tony didn’t have much of a problem with this frontside heelflip

Straight to doubles right after. They can’t be stopped!

Manchild hurt his back a couple of days earlier playing with his friend’s dog. He and team manager Steve Smith were stoked to see this ripping go down nonetheless

Shoutout to these guys for putting on a great show for the day. It was unreal, to say the least

And be sure to grab Tony’s shoe. The Proto is hitting shops now! You won’t be disappointed