Yo! Let the kids know who Diamond is.

My name is Nick Tershay, Nick Diamond, Nickavelli or just Nick is fine with me. I'm from San Francisco and have been livin down here in LA for nearly 6 years.

What is Diamond? And how did it come about?

In 1997 I had an idea for a different type of skateboarding mounting hardware so my pops helped me out with getting a patent on the idea. I then decided it was time to make up a name and get the company rolling. Greg Carroll who is also part owner of Diamond and I came up with the name Diamond while we were driving around one night in the scandalous Tenderloin district of SF listenin to The Sade Diamond Life album. I remember we were thinkin how the neighborhood sucked and how we never want to be stuck livin in a shit hole like this. We started goin on about how one day we gonna live the Diamond life. Diamond!...we were like lets call that shit Diamond. We can all now thank Sade and our grimey surroundings for the name. That's some funny shit!

Diamond Supply Co. is a skateboard hardware, clothing and accessories company that was started in 1998 back in SF. I just thought it would be cool to get the company started , So I sought out some shady financial backing and made it happen. The mounting hardware I invented never ended up working correctly, so I canned the Idea and just ended up selling Diamond tee shirts until I decided to package up some regular hardware. At least an almost good Idea sparked the beginning of Diamond Supply Co. I just started out small in the beginning and after 2 years of stocking, selling and shipping product out of my tiny one bedroom apartment that I shared with one of my homies Diamond began to grow to a level where I needed a bigger distribution outlet. Kent from FTC Skate shop in SF really helped me out a lot in the beginning to get things crackin.

One day out of the blue my friend Mike Carroll offered me distribution by his L.A. based company Girl Skateboards Inc. I literally packed all my things and moved to LA the very next day. I then got Mike Carroll, Greg Carroll, Rick Howard, My brother Joey and my Pops to invest in the company. Since then we have done some major growing and now Diamond is what it is. A family owned skateboarding business.

Where do you think skateboarding is at these days? The scene..the industry.. ?

I think skateboarding is at an all time high for most companies. The Girl/Chocolate family have always been on top of the game, so being part of it just makes Diamond that much stronger. I watch other companies videos and read all the skate magazines, but other than that I don't really know what's going on with the rest of the industry product or business wise. I know what the Diamond team is up to and what some of my friends companies are doing, but that's about it. To me skating right now is better than its ever been. I appreciate the fact that all types of different kids skate these days and that skating is more accepted by the mainstream folks. When I was a kid skaters were hated by everyone. Now skateboarders are being treated like royalty and actually making a living off it. It's dope!

So how did the Nike Dunk come about? Are you an avid sneaker collector?

The Diamond dunk is part of the team manager series that Nike SB is droppin in July...Diamond was just lucky enough to be chosen to be a part of it. I worked with Sam Smyth from Girl skateboards on the color way and the shoe was originally going to be a Girl skateboards TM shoe but after I added the Crock skin and Diamond logo on the tongue it officially became the Diamond dunk. A picture of the shoe was snatched off my Myspace.com page by someone and then posted up on Niketalk.com. The hype has been crazy about it ever since.

The TM series that drops in July has shoes designed by the team managers of Real skateboards, Stussy, Alien Workshop, Diamond Supply Co. and Nike SB

As far as being a sneaker collector goes I was always one of those kids who kept my skate shoes and my chillin shoes separate. Growing up in SF it was unacceptable at school to rock sneakers with ollie holes in the side. Girls would not even look at you unless your sneakers were fresh. Shit! Back in High school in the late 80's you could get killed for steppin on someones sneakers. So growing up around that type of shit just made me big on the sneaker game. Back in the early 90's I have more than a few times bought Jordans instead of eating or paying for my rent on time. Sneakers are a part of my life almost as much as skateboarding is. I don't collect sneakers, I just keep the ones I wear and either sell or give my old useless wrinkled ones away. I do have around 200 pairs in my closet though.

Why did you choose these colors/materials for the shoe?

Diamond Supply Co. is the name of my company so it just made sense for the shoes to be the same color as the worlds most recognized jewelry store Tiffany&CO. I have always thought crocodile was tight...so I threw in the Black croc skin to make it nice.

It seems like the shoe has really catapulted Diamond, as a
brand, into the upper-echelon street wear market. What do you think about that? Does it surprise you?

Diamond has been around for 7 years and I think it is funny how
people outside of skating are just catching on now since we are
droppin a shoe with Nike. I am grateful that Diamond has been so
successful in the skateboarding market over the years. I am actually not too surprised that regular non skater folks are catching on now, I guess most people need to be told what's cool.

Now that Nike is doing a collaboration shoe with Diamond ... mainstream folks are naturally jumping on the Diamond tip just like they did with Supreme and Zoo York. As long as the skaters continue to support Diamond...nothing else really matters.

What's next for Diamond?

Well, we just want to keep doin what we do and continue making
quality product for the public to enjoy.

Any other projects..?

I have a wheel company called Fillmore that has been really taking off lately. We have been doing some wheel graphic collaborations
with other companies such as UXA, Angel Biotek, Western Addition and we also have a Limited addition wheel with The Hundreds droppin soon. Aight!