Jeremy Klein has a reputation for pushing the boundaries of street skating, dating back to the late 1980s.
After starting his career riding for World Industries and later Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse, he founded Hook-Ups, the controversial brand that he’s best known for today, where he plasters boards with monsters and half-naked women from Japanese anime and hentai.
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He’s also, according to friends and industry mates, an “iconic asshole.” They say it was practically a miracle that he agreed to an interview with Epicly Later’d, the cult skate doc series by filmmaker Patrick O’Dell.
But miracles happen, and Epicly Later’d managed to wrangle Klein—and Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, and quite a few others—to look back at his career and see how he still keeps the rebellious, independent spirit of skateboarding alive in his 50s.
Growing up, Klein always knew he wanted to be a skateboarder. In junior high school, his friends would watch The Bones Brigade Video Show, which inspired them to get on their own boards.
“Once I saw Tony Hawk do that finger-flip in the pool, I was just like, ‘Fuck, that’s really cool,” he said. “People would ask me what I want to do when I get older, and I would say that I wanted to skate.”
Though he knew it was a ridiculous dream with little promise of financial stability, Klein pursued it anyway.
“People like people that are crazy, and he’s crazy,” Lance Mountain said of Klein.” Any good skater is crazy. It’s an attractive quality. Cause I’m too scared to be crazy, let them be crazy for me and I’ll be part of this thing.”
Early in his teens, Klein met Steve Rocco, the pioneering skate entrepreneur, who took him under his wing and made him one of the original riders for his company, World Industries.
Later in his career, Klein also worked for pro skater Tony Hawk’s skating brand, Birdhouse, where he’d both skate and create catalogs of boards with various graphics.
“As wild as Jeremy gets sometimes, he respects the hustle,” Hawk said, noting that he’d often come into the office to find Klein sleeping under his desk after spending days working there.
Klein started Hook-Ups in 1992, originally creating T-shirts with Japanese animation-style characters before expanding to sell skateboards, shoes, and other accessories. And he never left the sport—he’s still juggling all sides of the Hook-Ups business, including marketing, customer service, and shipping.
But his main love within his company is creating and reproducing graphics for his boards.
“I just like to put girls on boards,” Klein said. “I think it looks cool to have chicks on boards.”
So true.
