A Eulogy for Glue Factory
We're sad to report that Glue Factory is no more. On September 18th the Minnesota-based board company issued the press release seen above via Platinum Seagulls. The company was headed up by Dan Jackson, a long time Twin Cities ripper.
During its six and a half years of existence, Glue Factory could always be looked to for a less-than-serious take on skateboarding. The company's name was a tounge-in-cheek reference to the practice of selling racehorses past their prime for use as glue, implying that its riders had seen better days.
This spirit carried on into their graphics. As seen below, Glue Factory's board graphics were mainly parodies or inside jokes:
Additionally, their 3 full length videos feature heavily their fictional owner - a born salesman with a malapropism-laden vocabulary named Ian Steig, played by Minneapolis mainstay and Glue Factory associate Todd Brown AKA Turkey.
Linked below are Glue Factory's three full length videos. Each features multiple generations of Minnesota talent, sandwiched between Ian Steig infomercials.
Ryan Hansen took his sweet time filming this part since his last one, but man were the results sweet. Fakie 360 flip to switch manual at the Chocolate Manny Pads. As seen in Filler, 2010.
Chad Benson trades in the white shoes and films his best part to date for Filler 2D. Switch boardslide 270 over the can, 2012.
Andrew Leibman has serious smooth grooves. Frontside shove it nosegrind shove it out, Filler 3 (Months).
In the past couple years an effort was made to add some young blood to the Glue Factory squad. Three skaters who were unquestionably entering their prime, Andrew Leibman, David Nelson, and Dan Rusin were brought on board for the filming of Filler 3.
We are sad to see yet another Minnesota based company close its doors, and we wonder, will there ever be a company to successfully be run here? It seems absurd that a scene with such an unreal amount of talented individuals hasn't been able to have a skateboard company call Minnesota its home base. Thank you for the good run, dudes.