Most Influential Skate Companies

[victor doom]

H-Street
Plan B
Schmitt Stix (first concave on nose)
Independent
Real
Workshop
New Deal
Toy Machine
Blind

[somethingmustbreaknow]

cliché

[90sDamiano]

C H O C O L A T E 

[urbneathme]

elephant/street plant

[woodinbrine]

The bigger picture stuff is already covered/fairly obvious.

In my small Norwegian village, when we started out as kids the board graphics were basically what was important, and I think Toy Machine, Blind and World Industries were what suited our kid tastes best, cartoony stuff that could sometimes be a bit edgy in a sorta childish way.

Toy Machine, Zero and Black Label were probably the brands with the biggest influence on the local scene when I was a teenager due to Jump off a Building, Misled Youth and Label Kills. For my own part I thought Alien Workshop was basically the coolest thing ever.

When I was around 21 we watched Almost’s Cheese and Crackers and skated a lot of mini ramp.

These days, yeah Polar and Hockey are pretty big among the people I’ve been skating with too.

[Larry Sportello]

Indy = Thrasher Magazine = Skateboard Media Today

[FROTHY]

I think all companies have been named except Falcon Skates.

[TwisT]

If we're talking personally

Birdhouse
Girl/chocolate
DGK
Alien Workshop (habitat & Seek)
DC
es

honorable mentions for Lakai and Baker

[GAY]

Frog
Falcon
Flip
Four Star
Fancy Lad

[Censored]

Indys
Shortys
Spitfire
Es

[DannyDee]

Powell-Peralta and World.

World (and by that I mean, World, 101, Blind, Menace, etc) and its set-up changed the game housing that many interlinked companies through one distrobution and ended the mega-teams of the late 80's. Then you factor in the controversial graphics, Big Brother (and what that spawned), and the people who came through there to eventually start their own brands is unreal. Some of the most revered brands that weren't through World are built by guys who were there. Most notably Girl/Chocolate, and Stereo (A Visual Sound/Tin Can Folklore era).

Honorable mention to Alien, and the aesthetic they created that many have tried to replicate but can't quite capture.

[kidswithguns]

sternum. definitely. fuck the chest.

[More_Gas]

Supra was crazy popular when I was in hs, definitely not the same today

[Nth syd bear]

Expand Quote

World Industries

No World = No Crailtap, No Baker Boys, No Tum Yeto, No Giant, No Deluxe, No Big Brother and Shit.

[close]

That’s one hell of a resume.  It’s tentacles are woven through almost the entire industry in one way or another. 

AWS has to be up there too for being the quintessential east coast brand.  It’s also the precursor to the whole FA/Hockey thing that the kids love so much.

world changed everything . Before that skateboarding to me was Powell Perelta, vision & Santa Cruz.

[Chavo]

World Industries

No World = No Crailtap, No Baker Boys, No Tum Yeto, No Giant, No Deluxe, No Big Brother and Shit.

Deluxe started long before World Industries. Thunder was already in its 3rd stage and Spitfire had a full line when Rocco was still at Sims. Fausto actually made Rocco team manager at a then shitty truck company called Venture (not part of DLX/B.Ware at the time) which became the prototype for SMA/Rocco. Just look at their ads. No Deluxe = No World.

Giant came out of New Deal which had absolutely nothing to do with World Industries. Schmitt Stix was an independent skater-owned company out of Florida during the early '80s before they were licensed by Vision and eventually renamed to New Deal after leaving Dorfman. Paul Schmitt built the Vision/Sims woodshop, and as someone else mentioned, developed the first production boards with kicked noses. Schmitt also produced the first doublekick mold which was infamously acquired by Rocco to make the Barnyard deck. No Schmitt = No World.

The only thing I can be sure of is that without Skip Engblom at SMA, there would be no World Industries. He taught him how to build the company from the ground up, from sourcing decks to distribution. Why do you think it was initially called SMA/Rocco Division?

[Nth syd bear]

Expand Quote

World Industries

No World = No Crailtap, No Baker Boys, No Tum Yeto, No Giant, No Deluxe, No Big Brother and Shit.

[close]

Deluxe started long before World Industries. Thunder was already in its 3rd stage and Spitfire had a full line when Rocco was still at Sims. Fausto actually made Rocco team manager at a then shitty truck company called Venture (not part of DLX/B.Ware at the time) which became the prototype for SMA/Rocco. Just look at their ads. No Deluxe = No World.

Giant came out of New Deal which had absolutely nothing to do with World Industries. Schmitt Stix was an independent skater-owned company out of Florida during the early '80s before they were licensed by Vision and eventually renamed to New Deal after leaving Dorfman. Paul Schmitt built the Vision/Sims woodshop, and as someone else mentioned, developed the first production boards with kicked noses. Schmitt also produced the first doublekick mold which was infamously acquired by Rocco to make the Barnyard deck. No Schmitt = No World.

The only thing I can be sure of is that without Skip Engblom at SMA, there would be no World Industries. He taught him how to build the company from the ground up, from sourcing decks to distribution. Why do you think it was initially called SMA/Rocco Division?

very interesting idea I think the first double kick I skated was a vision vex cave

[Ziad]

80’s - Powell
Early 90’s - world, new deal
Late 90’s - girl, toy machine, shortys
Early 00’s - baker, zero
Now - FA, hockey, polar, welcome

[Murdock]

cliché

This, also made me think of Blueprint having a big influence.

[givecigstosurfgroms]

Tracker invented the modern skate truck. 

[raji]

Ones that influnced me over the years

1987ish to early 90s

powell
h street


early 90s to mid 90s


life
new deal
101
blind
stereo
mad circle
undrworld element
girl
chocolate
menace
alien

lost interest in skating early 00s but

lordz
habitat
blueprint
5boro
krooked


 around 2012ish

polar
palace
isle
scum co

amd  now curb because its my companhy 

[Tortoise]

Expand Quote

World Industries

No World = No Crailtap, No Baker Boys, No Tum Yeto, No Giant, No Deluxe, No Big Brother and Shit.

[close]

Deluxe started long before World Industries. Thunder was already in its 3rd stage and Spitfire had a full line when Rocco was still at Sims. Fausto actually made Rocco team manager at a then shitty truck company called Venture (not part of DLX/B.Ware at the time) which became the prototype for SMA/Rocco. Just look at their ads. No Deluxe = No World.

Giant came out of New Deal which had absolutely nothing to do with World Industries. Schmitt Stix was an independent skater-owned company out of Florida during the early '80s before they were licensed by Vision and eventually renamed to New Deal after leaving Dorfman. Paul Schmitt built the Vision/Sims woodshop, and as someone else mentioned, developed the first production boards with kicked noses. Schmitt also produced the first doublekick mold which was infamously acquired by Rocco to make the Barnyard deck. No Schmitt = No World.

The only thing I can be sure of is that without Skip Engblom at SMA, there would be no World Industries. He taught him how to build the company from the ground up, from sourcing decks to distribution. Why do you think it was initially called SMA/Rocco Division?

I already knew all of that. What I was saying is that everyone after World was immediately copying their aesthetics.

Watch Shit and any Menace section, and you can tell where a lot of companies got that from, in terms of tone, and image. Big Brother is the hijinks stuff came from. It's pretty obvious. That's why I think World was most influential.

Salute to Paul Schmitt. He's amazing and what couldn't we have done without him.

[kentrock]

baker
deathwish
thunder
heroin
venture
SHAKE JUNT

[shripshrapper]

baker
deathwish
thunder
heroin
venture
SHAKE JUNT

GET BUCK

[76CTA]

The New Deal
101
FA/Hockey
Baker/Deathwish

[Makaveli]

I'd say Nike SB and Adidas Skateboarding. So influential, they mass murdered an entire generation of skate shoe brands.

[silhouette]

Traffic inspired Magenta which in turn inspired Polar then all the indie board brand craze (also a natural response from the skateboarders to the general state of the industry at the time). So I'd say Traffic.

In their early days, Magenta also had a lot more to do with the comeback of artsy board graphics (as opposed to cartoonish) and the VX-1000 than most people usually give them credit for.

[The Ghost of Lenny Kirk]

josh stewart isnt a company but i think his vids definitely were influential. theories of atlantis then, i guess?

post-mind field era workshop seemed unstoppable. seemed to cause a huge focus shift onto new york that wasn't there before.

[stephop]

Might be Vision but nobody knew it when they created this deck infinitely before all decks became thinner versions of it..

[Allen.]

Might be Vision but nobody knew it when they created this deck infinitely before all decks became thinner versions of it..

Looks like an FA shape