Talk Is Cheap

Talk Is Cheap is the second full-length video from Cult, released on DVD in December 2012 after the brand's debut, Let 'Em Talk (2011). It features the Cult team, including Dakota Roche, Chase Hawk, Chase Dehart and Alex Kennedy, riding street above all, with transition and trails alongside. Filmed over two years of travel and cut to 58 minutes by Ryan Navazio, the video confirmed the new brand's identity.

Background

Cult was founded around 2010 by Robbie Morales after he left Fit Bike Co, the brand he had helped build through the 2000s. Several riders left Fit with him, including Chase Hawk, Dakota Roche, Chase Dehart and Alex Kennedy, and the new company arrived with a ready-made team of some of the most respected riders in BMX. The move was one of the biggest stories in the industry at the time.

Cult's first DVD, Let 'Em Talk, came out in 2011. It was a short video of about 24 minutes, sold with a 40-page magazine. Talk Is Cheap was the bigger project. By 2012 most brands had moved to short online clips, and a full-length DVD was already becoming unusual. Cult made one anyway: Ryan Navazio filmed the team over two years of travel and cut the footage down to 58 minutes. The decision connected the new brand to the team-video tradition that Fit had been part of with Fit Life in 2007.

Premieres were held in December 2012, including one in Cologne, Germany, announced for 15 December. Cult later put the full video online for free on 23 August 2013.

Contents and sections

Talk Is Cheap is built around rider sections cut to music, with the team's main riders getting full parts.

• Dakota Roche. A street section from the rider who became the face of Cult, combining technical grinds with large gaps and rails and a distinctive, upright style.
• Chase Hawk. Transition, bowls and trails from the Austin rider, with the high-speed carving style he is known for.
• Chase Dehart. Street riding with a focus on rails and ledges, from one of the riders who had made the move from Fit.
• The rest of the team. Alex Kennedy, Russell Barone, Bobby Simmons, Dave Krone, Trey Jones, Sebastian Keep, Timmy Theus, Cody Levesque and Robbie Morales also appear, covering street, park and trails.

The video has a clear visual identity. Cult built its brand on a particular look, drawing on skateboarding and on the street culture around the team, and the filming and editing of Talk Is Cheap reflect that. The result is more styled than the raw East Coast street videos of the previous decade, while still being built around rough street spots.

Standout parts

Dakota Roche's section is the one most often singled out. Roche had already built a reputation in the late 2000s, but this part showed the full range of his riding: technical grind variations, big rails and gaps, and a consistency of style across all of it. It helped establish him as one of the leading street riders of the early 2010s and as the rider most closely associated with the Cult brand.

Chase Hawk's section is the other main draw. It shows the speed and flow on concrete and dirt that made him one of the most admired riders of his generation.

The video as a whole is a standout for its cohesion. Every section feels part of the same project, which was the point: Talk Is Cheap was as much about showing what Cult stood for as about any single rider.

Impact and legacy

Talk Is Cheap confirmed Cult as a major brand. Coming after the shorter Let 'Em Talk, it showed that the team that had left Fit remained one of the strongest in BMX, and it gave the company an identity that it has kept since. Dakota Roche's section in particular tied him closely to the brand.

The video also stands as one of the relatively few full-length brand videos of the 2010s. Along with later releases such as United's Still United (2016), it showed that the long-form video could still matter in an era of short online clips. Cult put it online for free in August 2013, eight months after the DVD came out. For the wider context, see the web edit era.

Related

• Cult and Fit Bike Co
• Dakota Roche and Chase Hawk
• Fit Life: the 2007 Fit team video that preceded the split
• Anthem II: Stew Johnson's 2010 video, which includes a mini part from Chase Hawk
• Still United: another full-length brand video of the 2010s
• Street and park