The 10 brands that messed up skateboarding forever
Not the clean corporate version. The boards, stickers, videos, graphics and bits of kit that got under our skin and stayed there.
Editor's note
Every skatepark has one bloke who thinks everything went downhill after 1994.
This article is for him.
And everyone else who spent their lunch money on stickers, watched the same video part until the tape went weird, and still gets mildly emotional over a board graphic.
The kid had a Blind sticker on his helmet. The bloke in his forties was riding a Santa Cruz reissue. Someone was rolling around on Spitfires. Nobody planned it. Nobody coordinated it. But every brand in skateboarding leaves fingerprints behind.
Not because of marketing. Because of moments.
Since 1978Powell Peralta
Every skate brand has copied Powell Peralta in some way. The team. The videos. The graphics. The whole idea that a skate company could build a world around its riders.
If you never watched the Bones Brigade videos, congratulations. You're about to lose an entire weekend.
Since 1973Santa Cruz
Some logos just live in your head forever. The Screaming Hand is one of them.
Santa Cruz belongs to several generations at once. Your uncle might have had one. Your mate might ride one now. Either way, someone nearby will tell you about the reissue they nearly bought.
Since 1978Independent Trucks
Trucks are not glamorous. No one gathers around your board and says, "Lovely kingpin placement, mate."
But trucks matter. They are the difference between a board that feels alive and one that feels like a supermarket trolley with grip tape.
Since 1977Bones Wheels
Wheels are easy to overlook until they are rubbish. Then they are all you can think about.
Flat spots. Sluggish roll. No grip when you need it. Too much grip when you do not. Bones made the small round things feel important, which is annoying because they were right.
Since 1987World Industries
World Industries came in like someone had drawn on the walls and refused to apologise.
It looked like someone gave a 13-year-old too much sugar, a box of markers and absolutely no adult supervision.
Flame Boy. Wet Willy. Cartoons. Chaos. Bad taste. Questionable decisions. Perfect.
Since 1993Girl Skateboards
Girl felt different. Cleaner. Sharper. More considered.
The team was ridiculous. Rick Howard. Mike Carroll. Guy Mariano. Eric Koston. Gino Iannucci. Keenan Milton. The list gets silly quickly.
Since 1989Blind
Blind hit right as street skating was changing shape.
Video Days still feels important because it was not trying to look like anything else. It was loose. Strange. Brilliant.
Since 1996Zero
Zero felt like black jeans, bleeding shins and a rail you probably should not skate.
Jamie Thomas built something with bite. Fast skating. Big gaps. Big rails. Heavy slams. No soft edges.
Zero made every local rail suddenly look skateable. This was terrible news for shins.
Since 1993Toy Machine
Toy Machine always felt like it came from its own little cracked universe.
Ed Templeton did not just start a company. He built a world. The graphics were odd. The humour was dry. The team had character. Nothing felt focus-grouped.
Since 1987Spitfire
Spitfire is more than wheels. It is a mark.
The flaming head turns up everywhere. Wheels, boards, jackets, ramps, toolboxes, skate shop counters, old stickers curling off the back of road signs.
The ones people will argue about
This list could easily have gone another way. That is half the fun. Skateboarding history is not clean. It is scratched into benches, half remembered in old videos, argued about in skate shops, and dragged back every time someone reissues a graphic that makes a grown man act fifteen again.
Missing: Anti Hero
Last seen starting arguments. Reward: none.
Baker
Too chaotic for this list. Which is probably the point.
Plan B
Technical progression. Video era royalty. Very serious trousers.
Alien Workshop
Your favourite skater's favourite brand.
Vans
Should be here. Also everywhere else.
The board dies. The stickers stay.
Nobody remembers the catalogue.
Everyone remembers the board. The one that got razor tail. The one covered in stickers. The one that survived three summers and two terrible kickflips.
The best skate brands do not become important because someone wrote a marketing plan. They become important because they end up in people's lives.
That is what lasts. Not the launch campaign. Not the seasonal colourway. The feeling.
0 comments