From winning German championships to earning long-term sponsorships with Red Bull and Nike, Denny Pham has built a reputation as one of Europe’s leading professional skateboarders. Today, however, the board is only one part of his creative life—which now includes fashion and filmmaking. Rather than seeing skateboarding as only a sport, Pham uses it as a way to understand the world.
That begins with learning how to look. Where most people see a staircase, a marble ledge or a sidewalk, Pham sees lines, surfaces and possibilities. “Your eye is constantly working, looking for opportunities to skate,” he says from Berlin, where he now lives. “You might return to a place 10 or 15 years later and realize you can finally take advantage of it because you now have a skill set you didn’t have before.”
Born in Rostock, Germany, Pham picked up his first skateboard at around 11 years old after seeing a classmate bring one to school. He was immediately hooked by the freedom it offered. “You could hop up a sidewalk without leaving your feet,” he recalls. “It was the coolest transportation thing that we only knew from cartoons.”
Though he also trained seriously in football, skateboarding quickly became his main passion. After receiving his first sponsors as a teenager and completing Germany’s civilian service, he moved to Berlin to pursue it professionally.
The gamble paid off. Nike, Red Bull and Skatedeluxe followed, and in 2018 he reached one of skateboarding’s biggest milestones by turning professional for Flip Skateboards and receiving his own signature board. Yet when asked about the highlight of his career, Pham doesn’t mention a title or sponsor.
“If I see skateboarding as one project—as my lifetime project—that is what I am most proud of,” he says. “I kept continuing with it. I kept switching things up, even though the landscape reshaped. I overcame injuries, I created some sort of freelance career for myself, and somehow I found a way to keep it sparking for me.”
That same mindset eventually opened the door to fashion, where Pham has built a career well beyond modeling. He has collaborated with brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Nike, walked runway shows for labels such as Winnie New York, and become a familiar face at Europe’s Fashion Weeks.
Often, he styles himself and works closely with photographers and creative teams, bringing the same attention to clothing and image-making that he brings to skateboarding. To him, though, it never felt like a separate world. “Style has always been part of the identity and the journey,” he says.
As a teenager, he was influenced by ‘90s skateboarding, hip-hop, VHS skate videos, MTV, Wu-Tang Clan and Pharrell Williams. As he grew older, he began paying closer attention to proportion, color and detail. Watching skate footage meant looking beyond whether a trick worked and noticing how clothes moved on camera. “I guess at some point I learned to have love for the details.”
Fashion became another way to express the same ideas. “It’s not about the products or the placement itself,” he says. “It’s realizing that we, as a skate culture, can adopt these things and add them to our own style. I didn’t want to do things the same way I had done them for five, 10 or 15 years.”
That attention also shapes the skate videos he helps create. A finished part may look effortless, but it often takes months of planning and many return trips to the same location. Pham thinks about camera angles, lighting, clothing and even wheel size before filming.
“Depending on what you’re doing, you have to direct and plan ahead,” he says. “But there’s definitely a lot of improvising and just going with the flow. Sometimes you go back to the same spot five or six times until everything comes together. There are so many little things that can improve it by one percent, but in the end it all adds up.”
There are so many little things that can improve it by one percent, but in the end it all adds up.
That is why he sees skateboarding as a creative discipline rather than simply a sport. “There’s always a hundred thousand possibilities—with architecture, with spots, with angles, with light.” The same curiosity has shaped the way he travels. While every destination offers something new, Vietnam holds a special significance. Growing up in eastern Germany, Pham says he never felt deeply connected to his Vietnamese heritage, and not speaking the language became something he regretted as he got older.
Everything changed once he began spending more time in Vietnam.“I was looking at people—how they walked, how they acted, their characteristics—and I felt deeply in touch,” he says. “I felt like, ‘Okay, this is a part of me.’”
Skateboarding, then, became another way to experience the country. While most visitors look for restaurants or landmarks, Pham also looks for architecture and skate spots. He remembers being surprised by Saigon’s contrasts.
“I was surprised by how smooth certain places were in Saigon and how skateable it was,” he says. “Then you’d find broken sidewalks and rough streets. There were so many unexpected little things. Even if I go somewhere just for a haircut, I’m checking out the whole neighborhood. I’m always curious and hungry to see what’s out there.”
I was looking at people—how they walked, how they acted, their characteristics and I felt deeply in touch. I felt like, ‘Okay, this is a part of me
With his father getting older, Pham says he now feels a stronger need to ask questions and reconnect with the culture that has always been part of him.That same openness shapes his idea of good taste. To him, it is not about owning the right brands or following trends. It comes from curiosity, paying attention and being willing to try something new.
“Try things that feel weird and maybe a little uncomfortable,” he says. “Sometimes realizing you don’t like something is so good. At least you were brave enough to try it. My taste comes in waves. I get inspired by the things I see, and I try to go outside my usual box.”
His advice is simple: travel, observe and talk to people outside your own world. “Go to places where you haven’t been and have conversations with people,” he says. “That always brings something unexpected.”
**Crew**
Photographer: Edy Pham.
Stylist: Phạm Nguyên Phương.
Fashion: SPOT Hideout.
Grooming: Makeup Olesyalun.
Assistant: Phạm Song An.
