Tyler Blue Golden is a kind of alt scene golden boy. The young model has been skating since he was 10 years old, and competing for over a decade. His skating sponsorship at age 15 has led him to the world of fashion, where he’s seen his two passions overlap more and more. Now, Golden has partnered with Gucci for the first time for their release of the Gucci Grip, a genderless watch line. In an exclusive interview with VMan, Tyler sat down to talk about skate life and his experience with the iconic Italian brand.

As skating gains mainstream popularity once again, Golden notes that branded partnerships have been an important door-opener for skaters into the larger pop culture sphere.

“Seeing other industries like fashion, film and all those types of things embrace skate culture is only is only a good thing,” Golden said. “You know, like a lot of my favorite skaters ride for skate companies. I think the more people see skateboarding as a viable activity or something that’s cool or interesting, the more that that boosts sales, and ultimately, that’s how favorite skaters of mine make their living. In my eyes, it’s really doing a lot of good and it’s spreading the idea of skating and how fun and cool that is.”

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#guccigrip get a grip!

A post shared by tyler blue golden (@tylerbluegolden) on Oct 12, 2019 at 11:10am PDT

For Golden, it’s important that brands capture skating in an authentic and natural way. With his partnership with Gucci, Golden believes that the fashion house has done their due diligence, and given him free reign when needed.

“They really gave me a lot of creative control, which I think only benefited like the overall look and feel of the photos and videos,” he said. “They were really hospitable and accommodating to what I needed from them. And so in that sense, there was a lot of freedom to go and, you know, pick locations and people to be a part of it and whatnot. And within that, because I did have that hand in things, I feel like it ultimately became more of a natural product. For me as a skateboarder looking at this from that perspective, you get a more authentic result.”

Golden hopes his work with Gucci will help bring skating to a wider audience than ever before.

“It’s great that people like Gucci have involved skating on such a global scale,” he shared. “And I think that things like that are, again, in a similar vein, only really good for skating in the long run, in terms of [giving] a platform. It’s just really, you know, it can do no wrong. And if somebody sees it on Gucci and then all of a sudden decides to buy a skateboard, then maybe that will become their origin story.”