João Victor Martins, general coordinator of the STU, tells details about the STU that celebrates urban culture and skateboarding
The Skate Total Urbe (STU) Super Finals will take place at Parque Cândido Portinari, in São Paulo, between the 23rd and 24th of November. The event seeks to highlight the history and lifestyle of skateboarding, which was already banned in the city of São Paulo in the 1980s. “We don’t just talk about competition, we talk about a lifestyle, a culture that encompasses much more than that. Music, art, fashion, all of this is part of what we do”, says João Victor Martins, general coordinator of STU. The tracks will be maintained by the event organizers as a gift to São Paulo, which will feature paintings by Flip. The URB Music Tour festival will also take place during the celebration, with attractions such as Febre90S and Ajuliacosta.
The STU Super Finals São Paulo is presented by Banco BV and has Petrobras as its master sponsor, in addition to sponsorships from the Federal Government, the City of São Paulo, Monster Energy and Heineken 0.0, the official beer of the event. With approval from the Brazilian Skate Confederation (CBSk) and feasibility from the Government of São Paulo and the Sports Incentive Law, its partners are Kenner, New Era, Instituto Heineken, TYR, Eletromidia and Altermark, in addition to Docile as an official partner. It also has the support of the Brazilian Women Skateboarding Association (ABMS), the Brazilian Paraskate Association (ABPSK) and Drop Dead.
“Brands are very important for the development of the sport. We always try our best to seek points of contact with the essence of the brand that connects with our reality in the skateboarding community. We always exchange with brands ways to generate true connections. Skateboarding brings a lot the values of unity and it is not always easy to work with a sport other than football, but with brands that believe in this development, we can develop the sport together”, highlights Martins.
In 2024, the STU platform passed, in 15 days of competition, through cities such as Florianópolis, Criciúma, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro and Rio de Janeiro, bringing together more than 100 thousand in-person spectators. The event had more than 100 hours of broadcast and surpassed the mark of 100 million viewers, with more than 10 million accounts reached, surpassing the mark of 17 million impressions on Instagram and almost two million views on TikTok.
“We have a different segmentation for each channel. We have a very engaged audience and a community that feeds back and follows skateboarding a lot. The audience itself becomes a multiplier of the message. And we are able to work together with collectives, artists and everyone who participates of this universe”, says Martins.
Furthermore, the events also have a social impact and have already raised more than eight tons of food for institutions that fight hunger, in addition to supporting 33 social projects that benefit more than 800 children who participated in STU Day.
“We are growing with our actions and social projects. We always collect food and now we are calculating the event’s carbon and, little by little, we are offsetting this carbon. We always get in touch with city halls and local partners to understand what we can do from an ecological and social point of view. These are new projects and ideas that are increasingly becoming an essential pillar within the platform”, explains Martins.
The STU Super Finals marks the fifth stop on the circuit, and only the 12 best skaters from the Street and Park modalities, both female and male, will advance to the final, where they will compete for the 2024 season title. I live on Sportv and STU’s Tiktok channel. The men’s Park final will also be broadcast on TV Globo.
