YouTube Channel Home Page Reviews: Skate Shoe Edition
YouTube channel homepages are often treated as an afterthought. Rather than building a cohesive narrative, many companies focus on releasing their newest video and hope for it to surface in feeds or spread through word of mouth. While these avenues drive a significant share of traffic, ignoring the homepage means overlooking a small but important set of users.
Users who click into a channel are opting out of the algorithmic experience created by YouTube and diving into a world owned by the channel. They are typically considering subscribing, looking to binge several videos, or exploring the catalog for something new or nostalgic. They are more intentional and less likely to bounce than the average viewer. A poorly designed homepage squanders these valuable viewers.
How effectively are the biggest brands in skateboarding using their channel homepages to engage this audience?
Let’s take a look.
Adidas
Despite Adidas producing a solid collection of videos over the last 28 years and sponsoring a team of nearly 70 skaters, their YouTube homepage is surprisingly sparse. The homepage has missed many opportunities to present videos from their deep catalog, promote their riders, and highlight their collaborations with others in the skate scene.
It does not incorporate many of the most basic features YouTube provides to allow users to easily navigate the homepage to discover Adidas's story.
The headline image is simple and has a nice aesthetic.
Sections and playlists are the most powerful features on a YouTube channel homepage. They function like headings and subheadings, structuring the page and guiding users directly to the content they care about. Adidas barely uses these features. The few sections and playlists that exist lack clear titles and offer little reason to click, leaving the homepage without a readable structure or clear points of entry.
Unlike the brand's main YouTube channel, Adidas Skateboarding feels unstructured and incomplete. Sparse content and missing signposts make the page feel like a content dump rather than a guided experience.
This becomes most obvious at the playlist level. Titles like On Tour 🚐💨 provide no useful context. Is this recent or archival? Where did the team go? Who was involved? Without clear labeling or visual cues, users are left guessing. Nothing signals that this is a 2025 Jenkem tour through the Pacific Northwest.
Much of the Adidas’s catalog is missing. Full-lengths like Diagonal, tour videos like Korean Dance, and most of their sponsored skaters' video parts are absent. As a result, most of the brand’s history is inaccessible from the homepage. There is no meaningful way for new viewers to explore a catalog that spans decades.
A lot of work needs to be done. Before rushing to make fixes, consider what story Adidas Skateboarding wants to tell on its homepage and work backwards from there. Think about what the brand has built over the past 28 years and how best to present it. Add structure and upload videos in a way that helps viewers understand the brand and discover its extensive catalog.
Title sections and playlists that help the user understand why they should explore. Instead of On Tour 🚐💨, consider something like PNW Tour | Adidas x Jenkem.
Fill out the Adidas catalog. Users should be able to easily find classic full-length vidoes, tour videos, and collections of clips featuring Mark Gonzales, Kader Sylla, Mark Suciu and the rest of the team.
ASICS
While ASICS is just starting to build its YouTube presence, it is off to a strong start. Prior to developing its own library of videos, or maybe instead of doing so, ASICS partnered with Thrasher, Free Skate Mag, and Village Psychic to help build their image.
These skate-magazine published videos are presented alongside self-published videos, playlists of their riders’ parts, and videos representing their connection to the global skate community. The homepage is easy to navigate, fun to explore, and acts as an extension of the brand.
It is a great start that the team needs to continue to build upon.
ASICS structures its homepage effectively, making it easy to navigate and explore.
Self-published videos sit alongside collaborations with skate magazines, creating a cohesive and readable experience.
The ASICS Team section is a standout feature. It gathers footage for each rider in one place, giving users a clear path to discover the skaters’ personalities and careers. It is a strong concept, though currently uneven and in need of further development.
Despite failing to properly capitalize the section title, ASICS around the Globe clearly conveys the company's connection to skate scenes around the world, rather than just the scene in the States.
While the ASICS Team playlist is a great idea, the videography for each skater is rather limited.
Keep up the good work.
Continue to build out the ASICS Team playlists. SkateVideoSite has already done the hard work of creating a database of each skater’s video parts as well as many of the videos they are featured in; they just need to be added to the riders’ playlists.
Finally, think about how to keep the page manageable as the library grows. YouTube only allows 12 sections on a homepage, which ones will best represent the brand and provide the most value to users?
Emerica
Emerica’s YouTube home page presents itself as the creative slacker who spends more time smoking in the parking lot than in class. It is full of good ideas, but lacks follow through. The homepage highlights its product, its storied past, and shows willingness to try new things, however, it does not fully commit to or build on these great ideas.
Many of the featured playlists and videos within them contain awkward or confusing titles that are difficult to understand. The playlists include videos that do not fit with the theme. And while Emerica is more likely than most of its peers to try out new features, some have been abandoned and risk turning into zombies sapping the life from anyone who dares to interact with them.
Emerica’s Product section houses commercials for each shoe released. Emerica is the only brand to highlight their shoes in this manner, which is surprising because the goal for all of these companies is to sell shoes.
Emerica leans on its deep catalog and history in the scene by displaying these videos in one easy to find location. This is great for engaging with longtime fans and introducing new fans to the brand’s history.
All full-length videos leverage Emerica's trademark green overlay in their thumbnails and the majority of video titles consistently begin with Emerica Presents:, giving the catalog a recognizable structure and reinforcing the company's branding across uploads.
Taking away from the site’s structure and attempts at branding, the homepage reflects a lack of follow-through.
Several sections include videos that do not belong. For example, the Product playlist includes Spanky’s Nine Club interview. While Spanky’s story about his fight home from Hawaii was terrifying, it is not a shoe and does not belong in the product section.
Some section and video titles are confusing. The shoe promotion section is called Product. While that may be a term used around the Sole Tech offices, it is not language most kids are using. Naming should reflect the user’s vocabulary, not the creators’ jargon. Similarly, Jollymane promotes the Spanky Hi x Mike Gigliotti shoe, but there is no way to know that without clicking into the video.
The channel leverages the Communities Experience (posts) to engage directly with its audience, but Emerica has only used it twice since June 21, 2025. It is already turning into a zombie section of the page that signals neglect rather than activity.
Emerica’s team only includes six skaters, but the homepage offers little opportunity to discover who is on the team and learn more about them or their sponsors.
The foundation of a strong homepage is there, but work needs to be done to complete it.
Clean up playlists and titles. Coordinate naming when publishing with Thrasher, Free Mag, and other skate magazines. The majority of self-published videos consistently start with Emerica Presents:. See if the skate magazines would agree to publish the next Emerica video in that format to increase consistency across the site.
Continue to leverage the past, but lean into highlighting the present. There are only six people on the team, and they should be clearly featured on the homepage. Each rider should have a dedicated section or playlist highlighting their parts and recent activity.
Ams and flow skaters should also be brought forward as well. The small pro team creates space to feature younger skaters who are coming up.
Building on the novel Product section, place the most recent shoe promo in the featured video slot to highlight it.
If the Community Experience section (posts) is going to be on the homepage, it should be used.
éS
éS appears to be leading with a small slice of its past while neglecting what is primarily driving engagement: the present. Any users who decide to click into the éS homepage after watching one of Wade Desarmo’s, TJ Roger's, or Aimu Yamazuki’s short form videos are unable to learn more about the skaters who brought them there. Instead, they are forced to confront a small portion of éS’s history.
Penny and Menikmati are important parts of the éS story, but the company’s story is much larger than these two alone. The homepage needs to be built out to better represent the full scope of the brand.
éS has carved out a space to highlight some of Tom Penny’s footage and the classic video Menikmati.
While leading with Tom Penny is a strategic decision, the rest of the team is largely absent from the homepage. Aimu, Wade, and TJ have all had breakout shorts that drove significant engagement, but there is no clear way to find or explore a deeper catalog of their footage.
A signicant pieces of éS's archival content are also missing from the homepage, limiting users' ability to discover and engage with the brand's full history.
The Featured Videos section is currently a random assortment of clips with no clear connection or purpose. There is no obvious reason these particular videos are grouped together or what the user is meant to take away from them.
The autogenerated collaboration section is limited, containing only collaborations with STORIED and Movember. The crossover video with Habitat and other companies are absent, creating a fragmented and incomplete representation of the brand's connection to the broader scene.
Tour videos are another missing category. There is no clear place to find them, even though tours are central to how skate teams build identity and connect with fans. As a result, that entire part of the brand’s output is effectively buried.
The homepage leans heavily on a small slice of the brand's past, leaving much of the brand's story invisible. éS published at least 11 videos between 2000 and 2011. Provided there are no licensing constraints, these should be discoverable on the homepage alongside other full-length and tour videos.
éS should lean into highlighting not just Penny, but the other five skaters on the team as well. Each skater should have their own playlists. If someone clicks into the homepage after viewing one of Aimu’s, TJ’s, or Wade’s short videos, they should be given a clear path to discover more about them.
Build out new sections that tell the story of the brand. Add a section for tour videos. Replace the YouTube-generated collaboration section with a featured playlist that includes all of éS’s collaborations.
Reconsider how the Featured Videos section is organized. If it remains, it needs a clear purpose. Consider what ties these videos together, how many belong there, and how often they should rotate.
Nike SB
Nike SB has over 400 videos and a team of 46 skaters, giving it one of the largest catalogs in this review. The homepage surfaces that content effectively through a mix of recent uploads, curated sections, and YouTube-generated rows.
However, much of that structure is shaped by YouTube rather than by Nike itself. While the page makes it easy to find something to watch, it does less to define how the brand’s catalog should be explored. This becomes most visible at the rider level: with a team this large, there is no clear system for representing individual skaters or organizing their work.
Like many of its videos, Nike SB’s featured video Nike SB | Creased | AF-1 hits marks many other brands miss: clear, descriptive, and immediately understandable without requiring additional context. This consistency extends across many self-published videos, such as Nike SB | Skate Like a Girl | Transcenders, Nike SB | Bronx Girls Skate | Behind the Design, and Nike SB | College Skateboarding Educational Foundation.
The recent uploads row keeps the page feeling active and current, reinforcing that Nike SB is consistently producing content and giving returning viewers a clear sense of what is new.
The brand’s international reach and presence across multiple scenes is highlighted through the SB Worldwide section, offering viewers the ability to explore skateboarding around the world through Nike’s videos.
The Local Skateshop section highlights relationships with local shops and offers a level of reach most shops cannot achieve on their own. This grounds the brand in real-world skate communities and reinforces its credibility in the scene.
Finally, with Nike’s extensive catalog and heavily viewed videos, the YouTube-curated Popular section allows users to find Nike SB’s “greatest hits.” New users are given an easy entry point into what has resonated with audiences, while longtime fans can easily return to the videos that bonded them to the brand.
Despite the depth of its catalog, Nike does not provide clear access to its full-length videos and tour videos. For a brand with this much history and this many skaters, the absence of these foundational categories makes the homepage feel incomplete.
Rider discovery is particularly weak. With 46 skaters on the team, there is no clear way to explore individual skaters, their parts, or their contributions to the brand.
Much of the homepage relies on loosely defined or algorithm-generated sections that organize videos according to YouTube’s logic rather than Nike SB's point of view. While these sections surface content effectively, they do not provide a clear narrative or structure for users to explore the brand’s content.
Build out dedicated sections for full-length videos, tour videos, and rider-specific playlists. With a catalog this large, structure is not optional, it is necessary.
Evaluate the For You section and other algorithm-driven sections. Consider whether relying on YouTube’s organization enhances the experience or undermines Nike’s ability to present a cohesive brand narrative.