Blind Skateboarder Justin Bishop on His Journey from the Ramp to the Runway
Justin Bishop Talks Super Important Style Details for the Visually Impaired
For years, Justin Bishop honed his craft as a skateboarder, enthralled since a young age while growing up in Las Vegas. Only things took a turn when Bishop was diagnosed with the rare disease retinitis pigmentosa, which doctors said would eventually cause him to go blind around the time he hit middle age.
Bishop continued to skateboard and enter competitions, but at age 20, his sight had deteriorated beyond repair. What do you do when you encounter an obstacle? Well, you turn into an advantage, of course.
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Bishop, now 35 and a pro skateboarder, eventually started skating again and recently took on a new challenge: participating in the Runway of Dreams Foundation’s first-ever Los Angeles runway show earlier this month, celebrating adaptive fashion with a special look at clothing made for disabled athletes and others in the community. (Runway of Dreams previously held a celebrated event in New York City during NYFW last September, showcasing adaptive fashions from the likes of Zappos (Bishop’s sponsor), as well as Kohl’s and Tommy Hilfiger.)
Prior to the his runway debut, AskMen caught up with Bishop – fittingly, on a break during one of his skate park sessions – to talk adaptive fashion, skateboarding while blind, and small style details that make a big difference for the visually impaired.
AskMen: Take me through your personal story and passion for skateboarding.
Justin Bishop: [My diagnosis] didn’t really mean anything because I was eight, and they told me I wouldn’t go blind until I was in my 40s or 50s. It didn’t really affect me. At the age of 10, I discovered skateboarding from a neighbor kid and just fell in love with it. When I was 20, I was in a car accident from a blind spot in my eye. It made me legally blind, which made me realize my timeline was getting shorter. I just kept skating even more, because that’s all I had left. At 25, I lost the rest of my usable sight. I stopped skating, [and] I didn’t think I could skate anymore.
I had to kind of relearn how to be independent and how to live life. Once I figured out how to live life, I got back into skateboarding. It just made my life so much better because I had my identity back. I’m never going to give it up again.
What’s your day-to-day life like? How much time are you devoting to skateboarding?
Right now, I’m actually calling you from the skate park [laughs]. I wake up early, head to the skate park. I have the park to myself, skate for three or four hours … [I’m] trying to progress adaptive skateboarding, blind, and visually impaired skateboarding as much as I can before my body starts to give out from the falls. I’m trying to progress it as much as I can and hopefully get it into the Paralympics.
Ryne Belanger (@rynebelanger)
Speaking of the Paralympics, how is that process coming along? Is it moving steadily forward?
One of the cool things with it is every year, there’s a new kid coming up that got inspired from me or a fellow blind skater. When I started, there was just two of us. Now, there’s people all over the world. There’s other skaters that lost their sight and aren’t going to give up skating. We’re definitely showing the world that there’s a want and need, and a whole division for blind and impaired skateboarding.
Can you take me through the process of what is that like skateboarding without your sight?
When I first came back to skateboarding, it was scary because you’re kind of starting from scratch. You kind of have to have a lot of humility because you’re falling a lot in the beginning. The underlying thing that has not changed is the freedom you feel when you’re on a skateboard. When you’re on a skateboard, you’re allowed to fall, you’re allowed to be reckless. That freedom is what I love. When I came back to it, when I had it when I could see, and even to this day, the freedom is what I feel. I love it.
I’ve never skateboarded myself, so I have a feeling I would definitely struggle to even stay upright.
There’s a pretty big learning curve. People see me skateboarding and they say, “I have two eyes and I can’t skate!” and I say, “Don’t worry. I do this three to four hours every day.” I truly believe that to get good at anything you have to take 10,000 hours to practice at it to be good at it. If people are willing to put the time in, they’ll definitely get good at it.
In terms of fashion and what you experience on a daily basis, what are some of the issues you’ve noticed with clothes that don’t have the specific design features you need?
For me, since I’m blind, it’s a lot of being able to dress independently without all these extra gadgets to let you know colors. Being able to have Braille embroidered on different types of clothing that’s semi-hidden, but I know where the embroidered Braille is. It lets me know what color so I can match my shirt to myself, or just have that extra confidence to know what I’m putting on.
Is that an area where you see the most room for progress?
Being blind, it’s a weird disability because we’re fully able. Every part of our body works normally. Getting dressed independently is pretty easy and pretty normal, it’s just that confidence and independence that what we’re putting on is what I know I’m putting on. There’s little labels of Braille and stuff you can put on your hangers to know what that is, but once you pull it out of the drawer, you have to still have someone help you make sure everything’s still organized correctly. Just having that independence to dress yourself confidently is my main adaptive concern.
Are there any brands you really admire in the adaptive fashion space that are really doing things right?
There’s this company called Two Blind Brothers. They kind of came up with this clothing option where it has this embroidered soft Braille in the clothing, so you can get dressed knowing what color your shirt is, what color your beanies are, and it’s kind of hidden in the clothing without being obvious. Anyone can wear it. They’re doing things right, for sure. They let me know that it is possible to put a little bit of sewing into any clothing and it’s not distracting, it’s not expensive, and it definitely benefits the blind and visually impaired.
Are there any skateboarding brands or companies that you’ve had discussions with about adding new features or designs?
Not yet. Like anything, you have to build it up, we have to show that there’s a want for it in the normal fashion world first. Being a blind skater and wearing skate fashion, there’s maybe 10 of us, and if we bring it to the general public first and then hopefully, when they see that it works, other brands will just pick it up. We’re just waiting for some big brands to start doing it so that they can show that the want and the need is out there.
Ryne Belanger (@rynebelanger)
On that note, how did you get involved with Runway of Dreams and end up deciding to partake in their show?
Through Zappos. I’m from Las Vegas and Zappos is a hometown company, so Zappos started sponsoring me back in 2019 to help me pursue my dream of getting the sport I love in the Paralympics. That relationship grew, and from there, I just created a friendship with the people that run the [runway show]. I actually got to go to one of the first Runway of Dreams shows in Vegas and it was just really, really cool. I said, “If you guys ever start getting into blind activewear or blind adaptive wear, definitely let me know.”
Where do you hope to take your involvement with Runway of Dreams and perhaps, in the fashion space at large?
I’m a skateboarder when it comes down to it. My goal is always introducing skateboarding to the next audience, showing this sport I love, and sharing it. I’ll do that on any stage possible. If that’s a runway show and they see me walking the runway with my skateboard and cane, it makes them think, “Well, what else can I do?” The runway is just a platform for me to share my love of skateboarding and to hopefully inspire others to do what they love that they might be scared of [doing], or to try skateboarding.
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