The annals of skateboarding are full of new starts. There has been constant evolution since the days of backyard pools; technical street skating, spot hunters, custom-made transition that looks like it should be used for ski jumps and rippers with ambidextrous stances have all reinvented our perception of what the act of riding a skateboard entails. Along the way the ownership of the brands that have helped define skating have changed hands numerous times: Rudy Johnson, Gonz and Jason Lee helped Steve Rocco start an empire by launching Blind skateboards. It wasn't much later that Mike Carroll and Rick Howard left one of Rocco's brands to start Girl, and by the late nineties it got to the point where it was difficult to name an influential brand that didn't have a recognizable pro (or ex-pro) at the helm. In the past five years a different version of skater-owned company has entered the mainstream. We sent an email survey to a handful of the latest independent skateboard brands to shed some light on what is different about their companies and get a greater picture of this new generation of skateboarding.

The common theme with the brands and their owners was simply being uninterested in what the rest of the skateboard industry had to offer. "We definitely thought there was a bit of hand-done element missing in skate products," Nick Teodori, owner of Scumco and Sons said. "[It] seemed like 90% of graphics weren't thought about too much and just pumped out quick and easy in illustrator." He missed the days, he said, when every board felt like "a keepable work of art." That sentiment was echoed in an email from Chad Bowers, owner of Mother: "no one was really feeling anything else."

Starting a new brand in skateboarding allows people freedom to move in new directions. "I liken it to being in a punk band," Tyler Mate, one half of Iron Claw Skates said in an email. "You just do your thing and put it out into the world, then you pack up the van and go out and meet other kids that are doing what you’re doing." Being able to exercise creative freedom using DIY ethos came up with all of the brands surveyed. Todd Bratrud, who started Send Help to escape trademark issues that prevented his previous brand from allowing to expand past decks. "We could have made boards alone forever," he said, "but we would never be able to expand into anything past boards and we wanted more." From Iron Claw filling kids glue stick containers with wax for easier application to Scumco making a push broom that breaks down small enough to fit in a backpack, these companies are offering new products in addition to decks. "I think the main thing I want is to always be pushing to be doing something creatively interesting compared to the market," Teodori said. It seems that the brands surveyed, and possibly the latest wave of small brands in general, were created in response to a perceived stagnation of the skateboard industry in the late aughts. Bratrud summed those feelings up by describing Send Help's brand identity by saying "we don’t fit in, we have never fit in and we like it that way."

Not fitting in- in this case- may mean not filling the "monthly ads in all the magazines and a blockbuster full length video" mold of a big skate brand. Every major video from Fully Flared on has prompted discussion and speculation on what will be the last big skateboard movie. As that debate continues to rage, and the amount of technology that people can pack into their phone continues to grow, the independent brands are running with opportunities to produce new content and finding new ways to deliver it. "I feel like sometimes a trick on Instagram lives just as long as video part on Vimeo, hype-wise" Lurker Lou, the other half of Iron Claw said. "Instagram is great for bullshit and opens up an interesting dialog with skaters," Bowers added, "Print is great but no one reads anything but Thrasher." All of the brands expressed admiration for print ads but had their own reasons for not consistently running them, especially with social media and youtube available for free. "I ultimately was aiming to use all those [social] media outlets in ways that took advantage of the things that each one is best for, so content on all of them would be different and best for the medium," Teodori said. "But I'm lazy on that shit. And it doesn't seem people pay much attention to print ads anymore." Mother was the only brand surveyed that mentioned plans to make a full video.

Bowers' plans to make a video may have to do with the fact that Mother's team is comprised of a fragment of the Alien Workshop squad that have experience filming full time for video parts. Their team stands in opposition to the other three brands in that it seems hard to imagine anybody riding for Scumco, Iron Claw or Send Help that makes 100% of their living off of skateboarding. These teams were built primarily through local connections: "I'm just some schlep from nowhere with no industry connections or ties," Teodori said. "I didn't expect to see a team happening and I think the first few dudes, even though they were locals we knew, kinda didn't know what to expect." Iron Claw also went the local approach. "Phil Rodriguez was one of my favorite young kids coming out of NYC when Bronze's Caviar dropped, and at about that time the idea for Iron Claw was conceived," Lurker Lou said. Send Help's team is comprised of Bratrud's midwestern homies. "I had some favorites and most all of them were already my close friends so it all just kinda just jelled together," he said. "It's super cool to me that i can make these graphics/boards and them put them under the feet of my favorite guys to watch skate." He added that rather than pressuring riders to come up with ads and clips, he waits until the riders have stuff they hare happy to put out and then releases an ad or video part.

Advertising and aesthetics are all parts of a skateboard brand but the central focus is still on decks, and the brands spoke highly of their wood shops. "I’m definitely happy with the quality of our skateboards," Mate said. "Chapman is a super legit woodshop and we’ve always used them." Mother is having PS Stix, who's boards and legacy speak for themselves, press boards in Mexico and Scumco uses Pennswood, a wood shop who's quality Teodori said he would put up against anybody else making boards. "Henry Panza, who used to ride for Traffic, and my friend Chris Stadler, who also skates, own a screen print shop here in Pittsburgh," Teodori said. "I can get better prices elsewhere but I'll always give my money to my homies and to skateboarder run business first. Other random soft goods we've had made at random other places, always keep it in the states and always local first if possible."

“Success is such a relative word especially in skateboarding”

Domestic production doesn't necessarily translate to availability though. "We've had to go dark for a few weeks due to selling out [of boards]," Bowers said. You can probably go to your local shop and always count on finding a Girl or a Real deck, but smaller brands don't have the same guarantee. "Not having big backing to the brand makes it hard because we are for sure limited," Bratrud said "there is only so much we can do and things move slow at times." Lacking the infrastructure that bigger companies or distributors strains owners resources and time for small brands. "I'm essentially a one-man operation, from editing video to designing mostly everything to packing the boxes," Teodori said. He added that "profits from one round of sales aren't enough to produce the demand for the next round. I've borrowed money from every friend and family member that was willing to lend."

Iron Claw is supplemented with full time jobs. "If I depended on Iron Claw to pay my bills I would be that annoying dude cold calling shops," Lurker Lou said. "Iron Claw doesn’t get 100% of the attention it should, but if we didn’t work we wouldn’t be able to do the company," Mate said. "Although that also works in our favor in that we don’t rely on Iron Claw to make money so we can really do whatever we feel like doing." The concept of managing growth was a common among all the brands, specifically being related to maintaining the original ideas for the brand. "From the beginning I've wanted it to be if you held any of our products in your hand you could tell someone really gave a shit about what they were making to the fullest degree and paid attention to details," Teodori said, "I hope to just keep rolling with that."

“if you held any of our products in your hand you could tell someone really gave a shit about what they were making”

The past decade in the US has seen a surge in artisanal everything- young creative types from Portland to Brooklyn have embraced everything from single-origin coffee to hand-sewn baseball caps. The low hanging fruit is to write the entire movement off as the latest trend for hipsters, but there is more to be considered. We could be witnessing a generational shift in emphasis from quantity to quality of goods. One of the questions on the brand survey was how they defined a successful brand in skateboarding; Teodori simply said Creativity. Perhaps drawing from their background in the tumultuous skateboard industry, Bratrud defined success as existing where as Bowers said that it was "Seeing everyone at the spot with your shit." Mate's answer seemed to embody the ethos of smaller deck brands, both those surveyed and the rest of them operating out of spare bedrooms across the world: "Success is such a relative word especially in skateboarding," he said. "On one hand you could be selling a lot of product but not really producing products and videos that are interesting and original. It’s easy to sell a ripped off design to people that already relate with the brand or band you are ripping off, but to be successful creating your own graphic style and original content is what makes brands last."

Written by Ian Browning

A bigger look at smaller brands