Viral BMX Pro Nigel Sylvester’s only competition is himself

0:00Man, there were like TV stations and media outlets and websites from all around the world hitting me directly. like can we post this video we love it i knew at that point we had something what's up everybody and welcome to another boardroom out of office today i'm sitting with a new york native a legendary new yorker someone who's used the city as a backdrop to his greatness which i obviously admire as much as anything and someone who's going to tell you their story today then I know you'll all be blown away by. So please welcome to the show my friend, Mr. Nigel Sylvester. Appreciate you, man.

0:38That was amazing. Wasn't that good right off the top? That was smooth, man. Oh, man. That's what I do. Freestyle. One take. There you go. So if someone introduced you to like a layman, because I think there's a lot of kind of phrases one could use, what would you use to describe yourself in that like one or two seconds that you get when you meet someone? Man, that's a hard one, bro. But do you go BMX biker? Definitely. It would be he's a professional BMX athlete. And that's what you would say. Yeah, that's what I would say. I respect that. I like that because I think sometimes people that have so much that they do, these entrepreneurs or talent that goes on to build an entire enterprise, like to list off like, no, you can't even call me a BMX biker.

1:24And it's like, no, it's okay to rest on what it was that opened up the world to you. Of course, and at the core, that's what it is. I still go outside and ride my bike and have that feeling. I get energized. I get the adrenaline rush when I'm on my bicycle cutting through traffic, going up the wrong way, something like that. Only you can do that, bro. No, it's amazing, bro. I love it. It's your paintbrush. It's your microphone. It's everything. It's everything. It's everything, man. It's sometimes the actual canvas of what I want to create. yeah it's literally an extension of myself and even like you know we'll get into all of this but even coming into this interview when i asked like you know where you had been you were in barcelona miami for two different brands and i think about this a lot as it you know relates to my relationship with kevin and being his manager and thinking about where basketball has taken him all over the world and it must just amaze you still to think about like from the moment you first jumped on that bike till now going to shoot cologne campaigns in barcelona and tequila activations in miami and you was just jumping on your bike it's crazy man um yes i was in barcelona we shot this cologne campaign and i was actually taking a bubble bath in the hotel and i was thinking about life and i was like wow like i literally manifested all of this you know of course by the grace of god But to your point, man, like when I first got on my bicycle, I didn't know it would get to where it is now.

2:55Dreamed about it and wanted something sort of like to look like what it is now. But I didn't know exactly what it was going to be, man. And it's a blessing. And when was this first time that you jumped on a bicycle? Man, as far as I could remember, I've been riding bicycles since I was about four, like four years old. Was it like same type of story like mom or dad got you on the bike stood held the back of the seat or was it just like you know when you see the clips of Tiger swinging a golf club at four or five was it similar like you jumped on and you knew. Mom and dad weren't there. Okay. Mom and dad was at work working.

3:32I was at my grandmother's house and my grandmother's house she had a long driveway and she lived in Queens probably half a mile from where I grew up. and she took care of a bunch of kids in the neighborhood so there was always a bunch of toys bicycles things around and my older cousins they were super into bicycle riding um so they had like those really dope gts and dynos with all the colors and the mags and i was always like in awe of those things so i remember um my cousin was in the driveway fixing his bicycle and they had a little three-wheeler that was in the driveway and for some reason i don't know why i got on it and I started pedaling as fast as I can.

4:11And while I'm in the driveway pedaling the three-wheeler around, for some reason I locked up the front wheel, because the pedals of a three-wheel is on the front wheel. And when I locked up the front wheel, the back of the three-wheel kind of drifted around. And my older cousin was like, oh, shit, do that again. Oh, he thought you caught up. Right, he thought I did it on purpose. I just did it just to do it because I was just having fun. And I did it. And then he was in such awe. He was like, man, like, I keep doing that. And he set up these cones around the driveway. And I remember, like, days later, I was just, like, in my grandmother's driveway doing drifts on my three-wheeler around these cones.

4:51And I think that's the moment I fell in love with bike riding. You know why that's crazy to me? Because sometimes it's like, and I'm sorry if I make these analogies at times to Kevin. And it's whenever I talk to someone who's the best at what they do, I always find that there's so many similarities. And it's like you get to the top and it could be a bike or a basketball or a paintbrush. But it feels like there was something that you got out of the reaction. Right. More so than the bike that you were like, I just want that feeling. I want to make people feel that way. Was it that a bit? Definitely.

5:26Because at that point in time for me, it was proven to my older cousins that like I can be cool. Yeah. I could be down with them, you know. I feel like every young kid, you want to hang out with your older siblings and whatnot. And that reaction also brought us closer together. And then me seeing that, I was like, okay, I want to continue to deliver that, you know. It gave me value. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's like you were performing. Right. You felt accepted in some way. Right. And then you were good at it. Yeah, I was good at it, man. And I remember, like, probably shortly after that, my mom got me, like, my first bike and went to, like, Toys R Us, bought the bike, threw it in the back of the car.

6:07And she took it out of the car and gave it to me, and I jumped on it and took it right off. Like, she never had to hold my neck or hold the handlebars. I got on it a little bit, kind of, like, swiggled around, and then I was off to the races. Well, that's, like, that greatness trait you had. So you grew up in Queens, New York. Yeah, Laurelton, Queens. A lot of legends from Queens. Man, Queens is vibrant. Vibrant. Was there a role model or someone that was fresh that you looked up to growing up? Because part of your whole thing is your ability to be fresh, to have people want to follow you, to wear brands and make it look right, to have the fit right, to create the video right.

6:46Who was that model for you at all? Definitely my older brother, Adrian, and then just cats in the neighborhood. Yeah. Like some of his friends and we had like those neighborhood legends. You know, whether they had like the dope cars or the dope bicycles or they dressed fresh or they were just the best at what they did. That's how they moved, right? They just moved like with a certain aura, you know what I mean? Whether it's basketball or football or they could run fast or they can rap. Whatever the case is, I know we all have those like neighborhood legends and now we're like where we come from.

7:17So I had a bunch of those as well. There was a lot of those. It was like it could be the man or the woman that walked in the bodega with confidence, with a different level of confidence. And then all of a sudden you got fixated on that person. And I see some of those people in the city that I knew growing up that I would play ball with. And I see the way they are. And it's like you can't forget that connection you had to like someone young, like when you were young that you looked up to. You don't, man. I remember this one dude, his name was Jay Bird. And he just had a really big personality. He was good at ball and like he walked into the room.

7:51He just owned it. You know what I mean? I was like, man, that's, that's dope. Yeah. Like at that time you wanted to be Jaybird for a minute. Yeah. For a minute. Definitely. Yeah. You didn't, you know what I mean? Exactly. One of those things. So you're, you break off from Toys R Us. And then what is it like the thing where, um, like the Hooper never lets go of the ball. Did you just never get rid of your bike? Man, it was always there. Like always like each summer had to get a new bike or whether it was like getting a hand me down bike, just always around bicycles, right? Because growing up in Laurelton, right, if I wanted to go to the park, I wanted to go meet up with my friends, the quickest way there was on a bicycle.

8:28So it was like, always had that. And in between those moments, right, whether I was riding to the basketball court, or riding to my friend's backyard to like play ball, or ride into the park to play football, or going to the corner store, it was always on a bicycle. And in between that journey right in between point a to point b i'll hit a curb cut or i'll pop a willy or try to go fast as i can or ride with no hands it was always the thing you know and did people start to be like oh yo there's nigel again eventually yeah eventually because they most kids my neighborhood had a bicycle right we think about the bicycle it's a rite of passage in a sense you know i mean yeah at some point most kids ride a bicycle have one and so everyone had a bicycle um but when i started to do tricks right like make little ramps like i'll take an old tire and a board and i'll set it up and i'll go back as far as i can and i'll pedal my ass off and try to get as much air as possible i started to do those type of things and people would be like okay cool like you're actually taking this serious or i'm trying to pop a willy a whole block long not just a couple car lengths but yeah a whole block people started to notice like okay cool like we get it and did you Did you have like a crew with you that you was like somehow gathered around you and followed you through the hood a bit?

9:43Yeah, man. Like actually I was always the youngest kid in the pack. Oh, for real? Yeah. Oh, so there was a bunch of these guys in Queens that you rode with? Yeah. Yeah. Around like when I was probably 11 around there, like 11, 12 years old, I started to find other kids who rode BMX in that same way. Because at that point I could really leave the block and go do my thing. So I would go to like not the park in my neighborhood, but the one a little bit outside of it. per se you know i mean i started to meet these other kids who rode bikes and they were all older and they were nice you know at that point in time the definition of nice they were nice and i would take what i would learn from there and bring it back to my block and people be like okay like you're starting to get you're starting to get cool here you know i mean it's starting to be a thing so that's what that was about and were mom and dad like what are you doing now like was enough with the bike or that were they aware that you had some kind of gift you think early they weren't aware early they knew i had a passion and a love for bicycle riding but i don't think they knew it was actual gift until way later on you know um but they would take me to the skate park i remember there were probably like two or three times they took me to the skate park because the skate park was far you know i mean it wasn't close right like we had a park in owls head um park in bay rich the other one was mulalli's in the bronx by yankee stadium and then the third one was 108 in riverside had a skate park i know that one yeah so think about the location of each of those parks from laurelton queens it's a mission mission is is there more now are there is there more access way more now they pop up everywhere now which is amazing because kids have that access now yeah for like biking and skating yeah everywhere now which is dope to see so they took you they knew you had something i mean if you're really really good at something and your parents identified that in you they probably were like well let's see let's see what this is they were like we'll take you just so you can stop bugging us yeah yeah exactly i would like be on like please take me to the skate park i need to go jump on this ramp please please please so like they like they took me and they made sure i had a decent bike each summer like they didn't buy me the best bike yeah but they'll do what they can and which i'm ever grateful for do you remember a time in which you started to see it as, all right, hold up.

11:57What am I doing now? Like with this gift, with this ability and, you know, that feeling that I'm getting from people that they're reacting. And when you said, all right, I got to turn this into some type of, some type of business because competing was never what it was for you. Right. Which I was amazed the first time you told me, but you're a showman. So at some point, did you say, all right, let's get out of Queens. Let me take this bike now and see what else is out there. 100%. 100%, man. That came around, I had to be about 14, 15 years old. I believe it was right when 10th grade started. So I was around like, I saw a kind of cute track.

12:40It's like the grade, you know. And I actually met this kid who also rode bikes. And he was from like a neighborhood over. He was from Canberra Heights. So I grew up in Laurelton, and he grew up in Cranberry Heights. And he put me on to what was going on in the city. Because at that point, I wasn't really coming to the city to ride. I wasn't coming at all. I'll go to the skate parks, and I'll just stay in Queens. But I didn't jump on a train or anything like that to go to the city yet. And he told me about it. I was like, listen, Union Square, that's where all the bike riders, all the skaters, that's where everyone meets up and go kick it.

13:16Like the best guys that ride in the city go there. and I was like you sure he was like yeah mind you I didn't do no research I was just like okay that's where I'm going so I remember like cutting school one day and I left my bike at his house because my mom worked nights so I knew she's home during the day so I couldn't come home early from school to get my bike and then leave because I know she'd be like what you doing home so early So I stashed my bike at his crib the night before, and then I left school early, went by myself. He didn't come. Went by myself, grabbed my bike, jumped on the train, and went to the city.

13:55And I got to Union Square. And I lie to you not, like when I got out of the train station, I seen all these dope BMX riders. And I was like, I knew I was in the right place. Like at that moment, I knew. Was it a warm day? Yeah, it was probably early fall. So people were out, up the ramps. The war was the, what's it called, the sprinklers out? Sprinklers were out. They used to put a little plywood on the stairs. And they'll use that as a ramp and go up the stairs. And I met some of the dopest BMX riders in New York City that night. And did you just make that home then? 100%. It turned into home the second I got off that train station and seen those guys.

14:43Did you go back to school? Yeah, I went to school the next day. Okay. I didn't know if that was really it. But as soon as school was over, you went right into Union Square. Yeah, it was my thing. On the weekends, days off, summertime, I was literally in the city of Union Square or in Brooklyn hanging out with those kids. Wherever they were, I was. And that's when I really started leaving Queens all the time. and was there greatness in Union Square? 100%. Some of the best bike riders in the world. All in New York at that time. Right. In New York, bro. Because some of the best BMX riders to ever touch a bicycle come from New York City and those guys were at Union Square like perfecting their craft, practicing, chilling, hanging out.

15:27It was a chill spot. We did everything there. We ate lunch there. We ate dinner there. We rode, talked to girls, like all of it. Like I learned so much about life being at Union Square for all that time. You know? I just walked through there and almost probably got hit by that bike every fucking time. I'm sure you probably did. I was always in there like, man. We was out there, bro. Like, spent so many hours there. And were those guys competing or what were they doing for their career? Were they just loving it? Just loving it, man. So, like, with action sports, that's different than traditional sports, right?

16:01A lot of dudes compete, X Games, things of that nature. And a lot of dudes don't. It's really about just creating video parts, right? Like compiling content and video clips over a span of, it could be six months, eight months a year. And then you'll take that video part and put that out. And that's how you're judged amongst your peers and the industry. That was always the way it was? When did that era get birthed? Because that's pre, like this was, has to be not pre-internet. This is when. This is pre-internet. This was like, dudes were creating video parts and putting them on VHS tapes and DVDs.

16:37Wow. Like, my first video part was on a DVD. You know what I mean? This is pre the internet being with the internet. And what? It was all, like, grassroots distribution? Yeah. It was, like, through, like, mail orders. If you would buy a magazine, it'll come, like, the DVD will come with that. Or if you buy, like, a bike frame, sometimes it'll come with that. Or, like, the bike company itself would just sell them on, like, their websites or in their, like, magazines. But brands like they are now with you weren't around it then. No, it wasn't like that. Some of it, right? So we had brands like some of these energy drink sponsors.

17:09They were sponsoring guys because they were in the action sports world. Certain shoe brands were sponsoring guys. Skechers and Monster, those type of brands. Things of that nature. Even brands like Etnies or things of that nature, you know what I mean? They were sponsoring guys. But it wasn't how it is now. There was no tie to hip-hop culture in New York at that time, right? Or was there? It was, man, because in the video parts, every video part has music. Got it. And the dudes I was looking up to, they were riding the hip-hop music. You know what I mean? If we weren't on our bikes and we were just walking, you'd think, okay, these kids are just hip-hop kids.

17:49It was that energy that got injected into BX. And even in the 90s, those videos too? Yeah, man. And what was the West Coast scene like? Because I always imagine like Venice Beach, that's where so much of that shit was happening. And people still do think it's like that, but it's so different now. You know, even on the West Coast, it was a very similar thing. It was a very, very similar thing. Because what happened was, like, again, a lot of dudes rode skate parks and whatnot. But a lot of guys didn't have access to those skate parks. So kids like me growing up in the city, if you live that far from the skate park, you can't go there every single day.

18:21So with that, the birth of street riding came along. so it's like okay whatever's out in the street that's what we're gonna go that's the course yeah yeah the stair set the ledge the bench that's what turned into what we used to ride and we still do ride not used to we still do ride so that video the first video that you did or the first video that's has 20 some odd million views to now conceptually you were doing that always the idea of like riding through neighborhoods cutting in and out of people jumping over things getting hit this close to getting hit by a car so you were doing all that and that became like that next evolution of what it of what it was to be making this your life calling right we've been always doing that forever and then what what kind of happened when was it social media was it uh like just youtube was it a birth of that era that then kind of like like signified that you were now going to take what you had been doing getting paid for these niche dvds and that production with victor cruz and everything that you did was like to me was like a theatrical that was like a theatrical release that was the thing what went into the whole prep and the whole thought behind and if no one's seen that video they have to watch it it's still um i had seen it so many times in the past forgot watched it earlier today and you're still on the edge of your seat watching you go through the city it's it's a classic man and there's so much that happened in between like me turning pro and that video happening right so i turned pro when i was 18 years old right i was really young so that's like 2004 2005 i think it was 2005 or around there somewhere um 2006 maybe somewhere around 2005 2006 i turned pro and during that time for me was really about establishing myself as a professional BMX athlete.

20:18So going out there doing like the craziest things I could do on my bicycle just from a trick standpoint, right? So we're traveling the world, literally going around the world, grinding rails, grinding, grinding ledges, jumping downstairs, like all over the world doing the craziest tricks. And in between that, right, on my 19th birthday, broke my wrist. And that was also a very, like, life-changing moment. Reason being is I discovered that my professional career as a BMX athlete can be way more than just doing bike tricks. I can actually brand myself. I can actually do all these other things off of my bicycle so the injury which was that your first real injury my first real injury yeah and was was it the time away that allowed you to see that um so it was the time away but also i had met this dude in my neighborhood his name was baby and i met him at the bodega just like randomly i want to go get a bag of chips so i'm on my bicycle like one arm in the cast like cats up to hair um and i'm riding to the bodega ran into him he was like oh yeah like um he's a little brother i had to call my brother a in the neighborhood's like yeah like i heard you went pro and all these things like yeah i just signed to nike i just signed to miracle bikes i both i signed to both those brands the same exact time which was incredible came out the gate like on a whole nother level i was like yeah he's like oh where he's like yo like you have a manager i'm I was like, nah, I don't know what the manager is.

21:56You know what I mean? He was like, listen, I'm going to start working with you. I was like, all right, cool, no doubt. So he started to show me kind of just like the lifestyle part of the business because he worked in music, so he knew a lot about that whole world. And he started to put me on to different things. And we worked together for less than a year. But during that time, he taught me a lot about branding, about marketing, about working with brands and whatnot. not so i've come out the gate i'm riding doing my thing i get these sponsors out to get i turn pro i get injured i meet him he introduces me to this whole nother side of like the business and about being an athlete and i take that and i go off on my way and start to build my brand and do all these other things so this dude from your neighborhood basically right and he obviously was in the mix a bit but he was the one that you could point to that opened your eyes to the fact that this was bigger than these dvd videos and bigger than this niche community 100 and it was a niche community right yeah still is and you weren't making money at all by that point i was making money at that point i was still living at home but i was making money people what was it people were paying you like come over to paris and bike here or fly different places no so so i signed with nike and I had like a multi-year deal at 18 years old.

23:20Got it. And I signed with Miracle Bikes and had a multi-year deal. You know what I mean? So I was on like an actual annual income from these brands. By 18, 19 already. By 18 years old. And they were paying you as a sponsor to go and travel, do tricks. There was no competitions ever. It was always just about be Nigel Sylvester. About doing my thing. And how was the footage getting distributed at that point? Just DVDs? Yeah, it was mostly like DVDs. And then you get hurt. You see that it's bigger than that. And when you get back on the bike, what changes? What starts to happen then? I get back on the bike and I'm more hungry than ever.

23:55I feel like I never got an opportunity to show people why I turned pro. So then when you get back on the bike, what was the shift in mentality or thought process approaching everything you were doing? I wanted to go as hard as possible, you know, because I feel like I didn't have a chance to really show people why I turned pro. from the point I turned pro, you know what I mean? So it was like super locked in on riding and making sure I'm dropping like hammers on a bicycle, but then also thinking about the business side of it. Like how far can I take this thing? What other brands can I work with?

24:30What other opportunities can I manifest? Well, it's funny. This has me thinking. I always try to find parallels. It's just like, and take everything that people like you that have been great at something say, and then like think about, like i told you what it is that um that drove you because you have to work i'm sure the hours you put on this bike were like unworldly people can't even imagine and when you were hurt it was like you were missing that um that reception that you got as a kid like people weren't giving you that same feeling you weren't getting that validation and when you got on the bike you knew what it was like to not be in your life in the same way on top of it this this guy gave you this like motivation that this was bigger, you know, like this was a lifestyle.

25:17But did you feel like that? You got back on the bike and it was like, I can't not feel that way again. Yeah, man. Like I wanted that feeling for sure. But beyond the validation from others, it fueled me. Like landing a trick is probably the best feeling for me ever. You know what I mean? Like putting my mind towards something saying, I want to go out and I want to grind up this rail and do a 180 bar spin out of it. visualizing it getting to the spot doing that trick whether it takes one time or whether it takes a hundred times but when i actually land it that's the feeling that like feels like nothing else that's the maniacal shit i saw the tony hawk documentary do you see it no i haven't seen it yet he did a trick over and over and over again he kept falling and he was only like minimal pads on his elbows and knees.

26:09Body blow after body blow, but he couldn't stop. Have you had 100 takes where you're busting your ass, but you know you can't stop? 100%. There's been times where I've traveled back and forth to LA multiple times to land one trick. Why? It would be like that. Because I love it. And the rush you get from landing the trick? Right. It's the rush you get from landing the trick. Like, for me, it's if I put my mind towards something, I have to accomplish it. It's that feeling of purpose, that feeling of accomplishment. It's all those things. It's me wanting to be one of the best to ever touch a bicycle and knowing that I have to go land this to accomplish that as well.

26:55So if LeBron and MJ can't ever have decided who the greatest ever is and we have stats and championships and games. What is the credential for you to feel that way, for you to say I want to be the best biker ever? Is it the talk? Yeah, it's the talk. It's the body of work. When it's all said and done, when someone goes back and looks at my body of work from even before turning pro to when I'm done, that right there is going to be the resume of why. I get it. You know? I get it. Yeah, because I don't ride contests. I don't have gold medals and all these things, right? But there's so many other things that I've been able to accomplish, right?

27:43And the impact itself, you know, that goes way beyond a gold medal or riding a contest or anything like that, you know? Is it a diverse sport?

27:57Yeah. Yeah. Was it like that when you started? Not as much. And is it an accepting community? For the most part. For the most part. I've definitely had my adversity, had my challenges. But for the most part, it is an accepting community. And all male or a lot of women? There's a lot of women riding now, which is dope. That's good. That's new. Yeah, it's definitely new. And they're dope. They're doing dope tricks. They're pushing the bar. Whole different swag. So back to this GoPro video that I was talking about. So now you're back on the bike. You've started to show the world who you are, and you know it's different.

28:42You're going with more energy. Was this one of those inflection points? Do you feel like your star went to a whole other level after that? Yeah. So, like, you're talking about the Go series. Yeah. So the Go series was definitely a moment where the trajectory of my career changed. Because prior to that, I was pro for, say, eight years prior to releasing the GO series. And I used all of what I learned in those prior eight years. Everything from bike riding, things I knew about marketing and branding and about my audience. And I put all of that into the first GO film. And what it did was it created accessibility and an access point for people to interact and enjoy my brand that didn't ride bicycles.

29:36You know, because I realized it was a big part of my audience that didn't ride bicycles. Like they were into what I was doing, whether they liked the sneakers I was creating or certain collaborations I was doing or some of the other content I was creating. They enjoyed my brand for that, not necessarily because they knew what trick I was doing. So I was like, man, how do I continue to service my entire audience? How do I continue to entertain? I need to create a piece of content that allows everyone to have something in there that they can enjoy and speak to. That's my favorite part. And that's how the Ghost series came about.

30:11And that first video, we shot in New York on a shoestring budget, literally. We had maybe a few thousand bucks, if that. And we blew the whole budget on the last shot, which we had to rent a helicopter for. The rest of it was just favors that we asked for. And that video, man, it went viral in a matter of days. Man, there were like broadcasts and TV stations and media outlets and websites from all around the world, like, hitting me directly. Like, can we post this video? We love it. And I was like, okay, we got something here. I knew at that point we had something. And you just shot that with the GoPro on the bike?

30:52We shot it with a Sony action cam. So at that point in time, I was signed to Sony. Okay. And they had just released this small action camera, which was like the rival to GoPro. Oh, rival to GoPro. Yeah, the rival to GoPro. So let's clear this up. This is the Go series. No GoPro plug for this one. GoPro was not involved at all. GoPro, you did not see the vision that Sony saw. So Sony's seen the vision at that point in time. And they seen the vision in me as an athlete. I keep it 100. They didn't actually see the vision of the Ghost series at that point in time. But they seen it after the success of the first one.

31:29But I shot it all on the Sony Action Cam. And we just put it on YouTube. We had no marketing strategy behind it. It was really just like, I'm putting it on YouTube and see what happens. And that thing ran up so many numbers, man. And like you said, now it's over 20 million views and counting. And it's something that people can still watch and be like, oh, this is one of a kind. You know what I mean? That's like your, you have these moments throughout your career that, you know, I think about when they induct someone into the Hall of Fame in a sport and there's like a clip that has to run or there's like they read out all the MVPs you won.