100 boards gone in 49 seconds: why did P-Rod build Primitive instead of signing elsewhere?

April 2014. Primitive drops 100 boards under the name of Paul Rodriguez. They launch in 49 seconds, the Berrics site crashes, and they need to do 50 more. The catch? No one signed P‑Rod with Primitive. Primitive is him. So why did a pro who already had it all start his own brand?

A 14‑year‑old kid and a “sponsor me” cassette

Paul Rodriguez was born December 31, 1984 in Tarzana, in the San Fernando Valley. At 14, he was too shy to hit up anyone. So a friend drops his “sponsor me” cassette at One Eighteen, a local skate shop. The owner, Andy Netkin, is 19. He checks out the tape, asks to meet the kid, and brings him onto the team.

Remember that name. Fifteen years later, Netkin will own Primitive.

In the meantime, P‑Rod’s career unfolds the way you know it. Pro at Girl in September 2002, at 17, pushed by Eric Koston (you heard about how the student got his Nike SB before the master). A stint at Yeah Right in 2003 that took him worldwide.

Then Plan B, the brand rebooted by Danny Way and Colin McKay, starting in 2004. And at Nike SB, his first signature shoe in 2005. By 2014, he’s on his eighth.

2008: first a shop, among friends

Primitive didn’t start as a board brand. On July 27, 2008, P‑Rod opens a skate shop in Encino, Los Angeles, with his partners: Andy Netkin, the owner who spotted him, Jubal Jones, Heath Brinkley, and Jay Partow. First day: $300 in sales.

The idea, according to the three founders interviewed by Hypebeast in 2016, is to bring together the products they love in one spot. No big strategy. A friends’ shop for skaters.

July 2013: A Plan B board repainted in Portland

For five years, P‑Rod rode for Plan B and kept his shop right next door. Then summer 2013 rolled around. At the Portland stop of the Street League, he won on a board whose Plan B logo had been repainted. The logo vanished from his personal site on July 16. A few days later, on Power 106 radio, he confirmed: he’s leaving Plan B.

He admits he didn’t break with the brand he’d wanted to. He’s in Europe for the X Games, not riding a Plan B board, Colin McKay calls to find out what’s up. And P‑Rod drops everything right then on the phone. He regrets it, he told Jenkem: he should’ve waited to come back and sit with them. Since then, he’s talked again with Colin and Danny. “It’s all love.”

And his footage? Normally, when you leave a brand, your rushes stay with them. Not for him: he’d been filming with his own camcorder for years. He owned everything he’d shot for the Plan B video. He says it wasn’t a brilliant plan, just a lucky break.

April 2014: Primitive becomes a board brand

Ten months after his departure, on April 10, 2014, Primitive Skateboarding was officially announced. Initially, there was just one pro, P‑Rod, and two AMs: Nick Tucker and Carlos Ribeiro. Netkin is CEO, P‑Rod is president.

The first 100 boards sold out in 49 seconds. The Berrics site, which handled the sales, couldn't keep up, and 50 more were sold in a panic. They made another 50 so everyone could get one.

So, why start a company instead of signing elsewhere?

Because he wanted to own himself. Those were his words on the radio in July 2013: he’s looking to “own a bit more of himself.”

In the April 2014 Jenkem interview, he explains what that actually means. The classic model for a board brand: a fixed payment each month, which is actually an advance on your royalties. The average rider earns $2 per board sold. If you don’t sell enough to cover the advance, you’ll never see another cent.

If your name’s on a product, I want you to get the biggest slice of the profit. Paul Rodriguez, Jenkem, April 2014

He pushes the idea to the extreme: it’s almost the brand that earns a royalty on the rider, not the other way around. Riders are their own brands inside Primitive, and Primitive acts as their distributor. He admits he doesn’t even know if it’s profitable for his company. What he wants is for more skaters to make a living off skate, not just a handful.

That’s the real answer. P‑Rod already had everything: his board, his shoe, his contests. Signing elsewhere would have been doing the same thing with a different logo. Launching Primitive was about flipping the contract. And doing it with the dude who spotted him at 14.

And today?

On the brand’s site, P‑Rod is still listed as “founder/owner.” The pro crew includes Tiago Lemos, Miles Silvas, Carlos Ribeiro, one of the original AMS, Wade Desarmo, Spencer Hamilton, Trent McClung, or Kyonosuke Yamashita. In France, Bastien Salabanzi and JB Gillet have been on board.

His shoes, on the other hand, never landed with Primitive: they stayed with Nike SB. Primitive is the board, the gear, and the shop. A company P‑Rod never needed anyone to hand it to him, because he built it.

A pro launching his own brand—skate’s future or just a star privilege? Drop your thoughts in the comments ↓

Correction from October 3, 2026: an earlier draft claimed Primitive was founded by Mike Vallely, had “signed” Paul Rodriguez in 2014, and produced his signature shoes. That was wrong. Primitive was created by Paul Rodriguez and his partners (shop in 2008, board line in 2014), and his shoes are with Nike SB. The article has been fully rewritten based on verified sources.