You might know the name Chris Bradl from his last successful video called Schneller, a video documenting his side of what skating in Munich looks like. I think to be honest Chris himself was surprised by the level of success of his video because it was mostly based on him and his local crew. Schneller proved something, it showed that if you mix the ingredients in the right way you don’t always need backing from big companies or pro skaters to make a relevant project. We ended up talking to Chris & Vanessa Konte about the origins behind Bubblegum. Enjoy!
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
Film & Edit by Chris Bradl.
Photos by Daniel Nguyen & Chris Bradl.
When talking to Chris he mentions that after Schneller came out he wasn’t quite sure what to do: “I kept dragging the camera around and filming some stuff here and there but I didn’t find the idea to make Schneller 2 an enticing idea. I don’t think it is worth just doing it to do it for me, there has to be a concept, something new that drags me into the process of making a video.” Truth be told, it is an opinion that we share and one that holds weight in the over-saturated space skate videos are in right now.
“It wasn’t our plan to have a score with only female artists, but it just happened organically.”
Chris Bradl, 2024.
That left us wondering, why Bubblegum came to be. That answer lies partly with Vanessa Konte, a young skater who was outside of the Munich city skate scene during her come-up. “I used to go skating really early, so the skate park was empty, I wasn’t really into skating with people.” that all changed when the Schneller crew met at a skateable art exhibition and Vanessa met the crew. Chris recalls “At this exhibition, I filmed Hase do a firecracker down the stairs, Vanessa came up to us and asked, Is this something you do often? That clip made it into the video and was the start of us going filming as a crew.” It is kind of funny because during our conversation Vanessa tells us that Schneller was a pivotal video for her. “It was so nice seeing skating & music work together for me in that way, and it changed the way I saw skate videos“
Chris Bradl & Conny Mirbach.
One more thing Vanessa brought with her was somewhat of a critical approach to the way most videos include women. “I dont watch too many skate videos, but I’ve observed that sometimes there seems to be only one girl included, almost as if it’s just to fulfill a quota. This does not have to be true obviously but I got the impression and was wondering whether it is possible to do it in a more inclusive way” It was those comments that truly got the ball rolling for Chris. He started to think about making a video where men and women are more equally balanced and that is what ultimately led him to make what we are seeing today.
This idea extended to the soundtrack, “It wasn’t our plan to have a score with only female artists, but it just happened organically.” Chris tells us, again it was Vanessa who pulled her weight and introduced Nicki Minaj’s music to the crew, “I used to listen to Nicki’s music when I was younger and we started joking that it would work well for skating, so we tried to make something out of it.” It is those ideas that make Bubblegum what it is today, we feel that this might be just the start of something, and we hope that the entire crew continues to work together and instead of Bubblegum 2, we get a fresh take again. For now, enjoy what Vanessa, Chris, Lea Schairer, Conny Mirbach, Hase, Daniel Nguyen, Fiona & Anton Wessely, and more have to offer.
Left: Chris & Vanessa – Right: Vanessa being a shot-caller.