Tell us about how you got into skateboarding?
When I was in seventh grade, I was playing football for a professional league in my hometown. One day my best friend from junior high brought a skateboard to school. That was the best day at school ever.
Ever since that day I nagged my mom to buy me a skateboard of my own. It took me a few months to convince her to finally get one.
When we first started, we were just bombing hills while sitting on our boards.
I remember it took me a few months till I had enough confidence to go to the main spot in the city while back in the days that spot was full of skaters.
How did you come up with the name Spicy Grip ?
When I watch skateboarding, I always search and try to find the skaters that go wild and their mentality of skateboarding is spicy.
So that’s why I want every skater who rides my grip to get inspiration to ride harder and have a spicy ride, One more thing – “spicy”-in Hebrew slang means something extraordinary , unusually good and for sure extra stronger, also me and my best friend Doron Levine were used to say “damn shit is spicy” all the time about everything crazy that we saw.
Is it hard to build a team ? What does it take to be part of your team?
The problem is not to find the best skaters because there are many sick shredders out there, the question is who you want to represent your brand and be the face on field.
After you find your ninjas make sure you got something interesting to Offer them because it’s super important that they know all the details about the thing that they’re coming into and make sure they really want to be a part of it and to be on the spicy team obligates you to have a spicy ride and to have a good personality as well, well that is a good start I guess
With the industry being flooded with new pros that we never heard of from smaller brands. What is your opinion on that?
I think the people in these days (2020) prefer to search and support small authentic brands over big corporate brands because they are the ones that develops the skate scene with events such as contest or galleries and give back to the community.
Also all those ill brands got high ambitions to reach higher like the skaters themselves so that combined can made a lot of good videos and other ideas for promoting the brand and themselves .and yes I believe there is a big room in skateboarding for another local brands especially Israeli brands.
What makes Spicy Grip different than other brands out-there?
Spicy grips sell spicy ride experience; this is a long-lasting grip tape. We support skateboarding scenes by events and contests we make; we support street artists who design our grips. We work with 2 skate schools in Israel called “drop skate school” and “hagalgeshet skate school” and make events and surprises for the kids. I also challenge kids on Instagram to go out and get street clips to win a sheet of grip.
I try to push skateboarding to the edge in every skater I met.
Do you or do you have someone come up with the graphics for Spicy Grip?
In 2016 I created spicy grips cuz I believe if you trust your equipment you can succeed and land more tricks for sure, I also want to raise the bar of skaters all over the world especially in Israel and put Israel on the skate map and get my riders their well-deserved recognition around the world. I created the name; I chose the logo font with the help of Tel Aviv Max Rynke (@muhackk ) who is originally from my hometown. Some design are my ideas and experience and some of them are collaboration with local artists/brand.
Do you think it is hard from being from Israel to get your brand out-there compare to some brand from Cali?
Not at all, I think Israel has a really good weather for skateboarding, it’s sunny most of the year , we have crazy places to have a unique tour, Israel has beautiful spots to offer you , some are perfect and some are rough. As I said before, in this age (smartphones) it is easy to get connections all over the world just by sending a message on Instagram or so and get your products spread all over.
So, it just depends on how far you want to go with your dream and what you really do for been knowing all around…
Let us say: I am a shop owner, you come to my shop & you want me to carry your brand. How would you get me to carry Spicy Grip in my store?
First I check the shop vibes and look if he really support skateboarding around his area, and if I decided I want to put my grips in his shop, I kindly ask him how he’s doing and if he is interested in putting my grips in his shop and if yes then I try to make it the best price I can , plus going to send couple more grips to the local homies and shredders…and hope we can start working together ….
What is Gil Klessel day like?
My day starts at going to drink the first coffee in a close friends office where they give me a lil place to put my things and work over there, after the coffee I do my first physiotherapy session , and then I go around different social media to promote my brand and my riders, and also comment on the posts of my followers and checking for new stuff and sharing my friends art. Hit the local plaza to see if anyone is skating, after this I check my riders to see if anybody is down to go on a mission, some days we work on parts, other days we shoot commercials , some days I also go to visit the kids at the skate school at Ashdod ( hagalgeshet). At the evening I usually sit with my riders to brainstorm new ideas and ways to promote and develop ourselves.
And try to reach new connections on the Instagram …
Thank you for talking with us & wish you the best of luck with Spicy Grip. Is there anything you want to say to someone that wants to start their own brand?
Start doing something you like and 100% into it, make sure to stand out and deliver genuine authentic product and ideals. Much like farmers, keep pushing and do it with love and success will follow
