Nigel Sylvester: "There Is No Such Thing As An Average Day" (EXCLUSIVE)

The Daily Grind Video

Nigel Sylvester has been keeping extremely busy lately.

Between being a part of Nike’s latest “Chosen” campaign and being the first BMX rider to grace a bottle of Gatorade, Sylvester also has a watch coming out with G-shock in the next 2 months!

Last week we sat down with the BMX superstar and Queens, New York native, to talk about his upcoming projects, travels and tattoos.

Check out everything Nigel had to say below, as well as a few never before seen pictures from his upcoming G-shock watch. Also included are Nigel’s latest Gatorade “All Day” Session Videos from Miami and New Orleans for you to enjoy.

Trust us: you’ve never seen anyone bunnyhop as high as Young Sly. Stick around.

GlobalGrind: Everyone probably asks you this, but what’s an average day like, in the life of Nigel Sylvester?

Nigel Sylvester: There is no average day, (Laughs) this is average! I come in here with you guys and then go ride or sometimes; it’s just chill, hang out all day with my homies. Maybe hop on a plane and fly to Australia. There is no average day. That’s what I love the most about what I do. I get to do what I love for a living and there is no average day.

What does being from Queens mean to you?

It’s more than Queens, like NYC as a whole. From the places I traveled to, NYC is definitely the greatest city by far.

If you had one place on the planet that you haven’t been to yet, where would you go?

I want to go to South Africa; I haven’t been there yet. Haven’t been to Africa at all. I feel like I’ve been everywhere else where I really want to go, besides Africa. I keep hearing I need to go. There’s something about Africa I want to go see! So much history, especially being an African-American man, there’s just so much history there to learn about and I want to go see for myself.

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How did the G-shock collaboration come about?

I’ve worked with G-shock in the past and then late last year they were looking to expand the team and get more into sports. They started off as a sports brand and then it transitioned into fashion; heavy. Now they’re trying to get back into the roots, go back into sports, so they’re trying to expand the team. They reached out to me and said, ‘Listen we want to sponsor you, put you on the full program, do a watch with you and everything; and we did this video to announce the endorsement and everything.’ It’s dope; it’s a brand I grew up embracing, it’s part of my life. G- shock was always the cool thing to have, and it’s still something that people wear everyday. Now, I can’t go outside without seeing somebody wearing a G-Shock. It’s also one of those things where it’s a brand I naturally embrace. I actually vibe with the product and I use it in my life naturally. It just makes sense for me to be on the program, so I’m real excited about it. I got a bunch of good things happening and moving forward. We have a plan that’s going to be sick to roll out in.

And are you making your own watch?

Yeah I’m making my own watch, which I’m excited about, dude. That was even a crazy process man. It was so surreal! I’m at a point now in my life where I’m amazed that I get to sell my own G-Shock, have my name on it; sell it in stores, people are going to buy it and it’s going to be sick man. I can’t wait to walk through Macy’s and see it on display. It’s going to be dope!

How involved are you with making the watch? How far away is it? When’s it coming out?

Probably less than 2 months away now. It’s real close and I was there every step of the way, honestly. I was there from picking the models to picking the colors. I wanted the colors to sit on the watch. I was there the whole way, man.

Can you tell us about the colors and model?

It’s just a classic color way, dude. It’s classic, something you can throw on everyday, something you can throw on with a suit or something. You can dress it up, it just works.

Nigel Sylvester’s G Shock Watch.

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Now speaking of having your name on something, you got a new Gatorade bottle! That’s like the new Wheaties!

(Laughs). That’s what I’m hearing. I’m hearing that’s like the Wheaties. I still want to get a Wheaties cover though. I want to get on a Wheaties box still!

That’s pretty big move, the Gatorade thing. Did you pick the flavor?

Yeah, I said I wanted red. They asked me, ‘What’s your favorite flavor?’ and I said red and we went from there.

What’s the official name of the flavor?

The name of the flavor is 1,2 Punch! We were like playing around with a bunch of different names, but Legal wasn’t really feeling it (LAUGHS), so we went with 1, 2 Punch.

What’s one of the names that you really wanted but they wasn’t f*cking with?

I don’t know if I can spit it out (LAUGHS), but it was sick though.

And how does it feel, now that you can see it in the store?

When we first said it was going to happen and they pitched it, I was cool with it. I thought, I’m not going to tell anyone. I wanted people to be surprised. It really didn’t hit me until I actually got it. I had got the actual PDF of the label artwork and I thought, ‘This was going to be dope!’ Then I saw the picture of it on the bottle and I knew it was going be sick. I was getting more and more hyped but it didn’t hit me until the Fed-Ex man dropped it off at my door. It was crazy because that morning I was about to go out and ride. I was dressed up, bike in my hand, ready to go and the doorbell rang and he dropped this box of Gatorade off. I thought, ‘What is this? I didn’t order any Gatorade!’ I opened it up and I was like, ‘Ahhhhhh!’ I seriously sat there for like 2 minutes looking at it like this is so crazy. I didn’t even go ride that day, I went to my mom’s crib, showed my moms and I just chilled. I drove around with it all day, thinking like this shit is crazy man, but it’s a good feeling. It’s definitely a good feeling to be the first BMX rider on a Gatorade bottle and to have my own. It’s a big accomplishment not just for me, but for the sport as well.

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Is that a Big Wheel tattoo on your arm?

Yeah it’s a Big Wheel, it’s not me, but it’s a kid on the big wheel with a fighter pilot helmet, just super determined. When I started to ride bikes, my first experience on a bicycle was a big wheeler. My earliest childhood memory is of me on a big wheeler. I was at my grandma’s house and she had a long driveway, and I’m riding my Big Wheel. For some reason I locked up to the front wheel and I did a drift with my Big Wheel. My cousins were there and they were like, ‘Yo what was that?’ They said to do it again and I did it again. Then they set up cones in the driveway and they told me, ‘Yo, do it around the cones!’ I started doing drifts on my Big Wheeler around the cones and, I think, from that point I fell in love with bicycles forever. So it was only right that I just get it tatted on.

So you’re sponsored by Nike, you’re sponsored by Animal. Right now, you’re wearing nothing but Nike and Animal. Is there another brand that’s you love?

Yeah, dude. I’m super into music and you really don’t see me riding without headphones on. I really want to work with Beats by Dre. I think that’s a dope brand; I use their product all the time. I fly around a lot, so I use the big ones to just block everything out on the plane. When I’m riding, I got the air buzzing! It’s a brand that I think is dope.

If you were on a deserted island and you had 3 albums that you could pick from, what 3 albums would you bring?

This is crazy; I had the same conversation at my friend’s house the other night! I picked “Reasonable Doubt,” “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” and I would pick one of Michael Jackson’s albums, “Thriller.” Those 3 would keep me sane. I could vibe out; I could get hyped!

What’s your favorite color?

Black. Black is beautiful man.

When its time for Nigel Sylvester to just go out in the city without his bike, what are you doing?

That’s very rare, but what am I doing? Probably getting dinner.

What’s your favorite spot to eat at?

Wow it’s so many, it depends on how I feel on that day. It depends on what kind of food I’m going to eat. Recently, I’ve been going to Ruby’s a lot, getting a brown top burger. Those things are incredible, dude!

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