Why
Ok, I am not going to explain this well, but I will try..
Basically Skateboarding has avoided the more mainstream company's(Which is bullshyt but I digress). Skating always goes back to the "we're pure" type of thing, surfer culture stuff.
Whatever, whatever. Nike literary went full out on skateboarding in 97, tried barge in. It turned out to be one of Nike's biggest fails(Scarped there SB unit in 99 I believe). No mom and pop skate shop would sell Nike. At that time Mom and Pop Skate store ran things(they still do for the most part, that is why you see P-Rod opening his own store).
So Nike regrouped, After like 4 years(after 97) signed P-Rod(Basically Nikes MJ of SB) and Nike SB really took off. But most skate purist look at nike as if it where the devil. "He is only big because of nike" type shyt.
The best way I can sum it up, in music terms. Being from a so called indie label, is better then being from a Major....
I am not sure any of this makes sense, but whatever...