10 Paul Rodriguez Tidbits To Celebrate His New Nike SB "What The P Rod" Dunk

Paul Rodriguez Jr has been the capstone of the Nike Skateboarding program since joining the team with his first signature shoe in 2005. Even more monumental, he is one of the few elite athletes to have at least 10 different signature model sneaker with the brand. Nike celebrates this legacy with the release of the incredibly sought-after limited edition "What The P Rod" SB Dunk Low. It's a breathtakingly hectic mashup that borrows elements from a lot of Paul's previous SB designs and colorways.

Never ones to miss an opportunity to dip into skateboarding's (and our own) history, CCS decided to do a little P Rod career compilation for you. Join us on a trip through some of the highlights, factoids, and favorite moments of the life and times of Paul Rodriguez. So, in no particular order...

Paul Rodriguez Sr.

For a good portion of P Rod's life, he wasn't the famous Paul Rodriguez. That would've been his father: comedian and actor Paul Rodriguez.
Paul Sr. has nearly a hundred film and television acting credits, was ranked a top 100 stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central, and hosted his own talk show for 4 years.
Says P Rod on growing up with his father's fame, "No matter where we went, there were people lining up to talk to him. I remember being at Disneyland where the lines were already so long, but we had to wait even more because people wanted to talk to my dad. And when we went to a Mexican restaurant, I remember guys coming out of the kitchen wanting to meet him."

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P-Rod Got Good At Skating... Fast.

Paul Sr. bought a 12-year-old Paul Jr. his first skateboard for Christmas and the young P Rod got obsessed. Within 2 years Paul had his first board sponsor, DNA Skateboards, and released his first video part in their 1999 Microanalysis video. Within 2 years, Paul would have last part in City Stars Street Cinema video, on a team stacked with once and future legends like Caine Gayle, Devine Calloway, Eric Pupecki, Spanky, and Mikey Taylor.
From there, he got recruited into the Girl Skateboards camp.

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The "What The P Rod" Dunks Feature Elements of Over 30 of Paul's Previous Shoe Iterations With Nike

Check out this Instagram post from @nikesbornothing that breaks down every element. Here is their list:

1. P-Rod 1 Premium ’Cinco de Mayo'
2. P-Rod 6 ‘Lunar-rod’
3. P-Rod 1 White/Black
4. P-Rod 1 Hemp - 4/20
5. P-Rod 1 Premium ‘Mexican blanket’
6. Dunk High ‘Boxing Glove’
7. P-Rod 2 White/Cement/True Blue
8. P-Rod 1 Premium x Stash
9. P-Rod 2 High Medium Brown/Oak
10. P-Rod 8
11. P-Rod 3 Black/Red
12. P-Rod 2 ‘Playstation’
13. P-Rod 1 Hemp - 4/20
14. P-Rod 2 White/Cement/True Blue
15. P-Rod 5 Black/Volt
16. P-Rod 6 Black/Medium Grey
17. Dunk High ‘Boxing Glove’
18. P-Rod 2 Grey Haze/Black
19. P-Rod 4 Black
20. P-Rod 10
21. Delta Force SB x P-Rod
22. P-Rod 2 ‘Fuji-rod’
23. Dunk High ‘Boxing Glove’
24. P-Rod 1 Hemp - 4/20
25. P-Rod 1 Premium x Jordan
26. P-Rod 2 x Tinker Hatfield
27. P-Rod 2 High ‘Bo’
28. P-Rod 1 Premium ‘Mexican blanket’
29. P-Rod 2 Grey Haze/Black
30. P-Rod 2 x Tinker Hatfield
31. P-Rod 7 High x Primitive
32. P-Rod 10 Team Red
33. P-Rod 7 Black/Military

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Selena

P-Rod had a somewhat significant role in the recent Netflix Selena series. He played Roger Garcia, the Los Dinos guitarist who quits the band before big fame hits.
Said P Rod to Our Esquina magazine, "Well, my goal is, as time goes on, to transition into a full-time working actor. In a perfect world, I’d love to be in any of those type of Marvel or superhero-type movies. I’d love to do action films and I’d love to just continue to evolve and grow as an actor."

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Street Dreams

The acting hasn't always been quite so... illustrious.

In 2009 P Rod preformed the lead role in the coming of age skate drama feature film Street Dreams. It was financed, produced, written, and co-starred Rob Dydrek.
Paul plays Derrick Cabrera, who has a dream of being sponsored as a street skater and one day going pro, thus his "Street Dreams". He has all the talent but has the world against him. Parents, friends and schoolmates can't understand how Derrick has so much passion for something that has no future in their eyes. As everyone pushes him around, including his own father, girlfriend, and even one of his closest friends, he doesn't give up on both achieving his dreams, and proving everyone wrong.
The whole thing is exactly as good as you think it is.

You can watch the entire movie courtesy of Echoboom on Youtube. It grossed $122,575 worldwide and apparently won the Audience Award at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival.

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P Rod Was In Both The EA Skate And Tony Hawk Pro Skater Video Game Franchises

Our boy somehow managed to be a playable character in both Skate and THPS.
He made an appearance in 2003's Tony Hawk's Underground as well as the follow-ups Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and Tony Hawk's Project 8. He then transferred franchises with first EA Skate game in 2007 (although he wasn't in the sequels), only to rejoin the Birdman for the Tony Hawk: Ride game in 2009.

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P Rod Sponsors Himself As Well As Riding For Several Mega-Corporations

It's not a conspiracy. Paul is an owner or partial investor in several of the companies he rides for. Most obviously, he founded the great Primitive skate brand. But he also rides for / partly owns Villager Goods beverage company, Markisa wallets, Andale bearings, and he was a chief investor in the St. Archer Brewing Company before it sold to Coors. He even appeared in the St. Archer 2020 Super Bowl ad.
He probably has ownership in a ton of other brands we don't even know about. Dude's diversified.

In addition to all that, Paul has ridden for some huge brands, such as mega-retail chain Target, who has sponsored him since 2010. With a market capitalization value of nearly 109 billion, this makes Target probably the 'largest' sponsor in skateboarding (outside of Nike). Ok, Mountain Dew is owned by Pepsi, which is even bigger than Target. Wait, Mountain Dew also sponsors P Rod.
Paul is also the only skateboarder sponsored by Target (because Shaun White is a snowboarder and doesn't count).

This is probably a good place to mention that he also rode for, and quit, two of the most prestigious companies in skateboarding: Girl and Plan B.

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P Rod Helped Bring About The Era Of Single Skater Standalone Parts

Back in late 2010, Paul stacked too much footage too quickly. With what would become the Plan B True video still several years from completion, Paul released Me, Myself & I through iTunes, one of the first standalone skate parts.
The format of the single skater part released digitally on the internet would soon thereafter become the dominate form of skate content. Fortunately, the concept of paying $1.99 for a single skate part never really caught on.

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Paul Has Won A Lot Of Contests

While maybe not as 'winning' as Rodney or Tony, P Rod's trophy shelf covers a lot of ground in skateboarding. He's gotten gold in 4 different X-Games over the course of 8 years, he won the 3rd Battle at the Berrics in 2010, has 3 first place finishes at Street League stops, a 2002 "Rookie of the Year" award from Transworld, and, oh yeah, he won Tampa Pro in 2010.
Damn, 2010 was a big year for P Rod.

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P Rod Appeared On The CCS Catalog Cover

Perhaps the most significant highlights in the illustrious career of Paul Rodriguez is his work with CCS.

Without formally acknowledging that this happened, we are proud that P Rod graced the cover of the Spring 2011 CCS catalog. Check out the 'Behind the Cover' video at the top of this article for all the action.
In fact, P Rod has made a bunch of videos with CCS, so check 'em all out.

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The Nike SB What The P-Rod Dunk Low drops on the CCS Instagram account early Saturday morning, May 22nd. As always, CCS+ Members will get early access, quiz bypassing, and triple raffle entries. This is a once-in-a-lifetime shoe from a once-in-a-lifetime skater, so don't miss out.

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