Rob Dyrdek is buying Alien Workshop / DNA Distribution from Burton?

[b.v.]

Where can I see that promo video they mention in the 2nd to last paragraph?

[Front Crooks]

That AWS section is so good.  All of the commercials in the 411's were sick too.

[shit_for_brains]

i think he kind of forgot habitat was part of the deal

[Liam Baker]

two minutes on google.

History of Alien Workshop

In October 1990 Chris Carter, Mike Hill and Neil Blender move to Dayton Ohio from California to form the Alien Workshop. This obscure move out of the west coast mecca of skateboarding was a deliberate turning of the back to the cliche skateboard company. Operating out of the back of Jimmy George's C.S. Distributing warehouse, the three set up a fort apache style office and photography darkroom. The importance set upon removing the company from the current field of companies can not be overstated.

The team riders included two veteran pro's Neil Blender, Steve Claar, and five young amateur upstarts; Rob Dyrdek, Duane Pitre, Thomas Morgan, Bo Turner and Scott Conklin. The first advertisements featured blurry, black & white photos with no connection to skateboarding or anything remotely going on in the industry. The first priority was the making of the group's first video, Memory Screen. The deck line up at this time featured Blender & Claar pro models, the Visitor model and the Xenia model. Knock off graphics from popular culture were the rage among other companies, which made no sense to the Workshop as the very reason for forming was to escape from the much hated popular culture. In the fall of 1991, the video Memory Screen was released to mixed reviews. The video's departure from traditional skateboard video making formula took many by surprise. With nothing like it to compare to, the video either was hated for being too full of non skating imagery or loved for the opening of doors to the closed world of trick only videos. The Alien Workshop turned two of the video's young ground breaking skaters pro, Rob Dyrdek from Dayton and Duane Pitre from Metarie,Lousiana. The two's pro models were released and the Workshop was slowly building it's product line. In the spring of 1992, After a crumbling relationship with Jimmy George, the Workshop moved out of the C.S. Distributing Bld. and into a warehouse owned by fellow friend and now minority partner Mark Ericksen. The irony of the warehouse being located blocks from Wright Patt Air Force Base home of the famous Hanger 18 (where alien bodies were allegedly shipped after the Roswell crash) now seemed quite fitting. The company quickly expanded it's deck line with slick bottom decks featuring graphics that were photographs of self created puppets, dioramas and live animals. The pro team roster now included Dyrdek, Pitre, Turner, Morgan, Conklin and new comer John Drake.

The company grew while continuing to operate outside of the "industry insiders", flying well below their radar; Alien Workshop was creating a huge fan base unknown to the competition. J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr. ran shirts and banners of the company's logos at early Lallapoluza shows and the tie between the band and the workshop baffled the public. Black and white xerox catalogs were sent to shops nationwide and with Joe Bowers making the move to Ohio from the left coast to head up the sales staff, the brand began creeping in and over taking skate shops world wide.The simple yet provocative graphics depicting alien abductions, cloning, telepathy and other underground alien/conspiracy subject matter was the first of it's kind and created a following well beyond skateboarders. At the same time Dyrdek, Pitre and Drake move to San Diego to help establish a California presence a young Fred Gall rewrites modern street skating in Philly and New York City. Dyrdek becomes an early team rider for a then small upstart shoe company called DC Shoes. He was as tight with DC in the beginning as he has been with the Workshop and his skating continues to make it's impact. Mainstream America with the spoon feeding of the X-Files television show finally accepts UFOS and the alien phenomena as a legitimate subject matter that was once regulated to the tabloid and basement dwelling freaks. Paranoia of "one world government" and the like reach a fever state at the Workshop and daily rants and reports via short wave radio both trouble and bore the employees. Copyright infringements flood in as the gas station trinket makers cash in on anything and everything "alien". What was once a underground, core, taboo subject matter has now been reduced to lollipops with almond shaped eyes. The aliens have become the icon of the moment. Young amateurs Josh Kalis and Lennie Kirk join the team and continue the onslaught of a highly progressive team combined with tight graphics and ads.

By this time the alien workshop has it's roots dug deep and the skateboarding industry finally succumbs to the fact that a company outside of California is viable and necessary. The Workshop moves into abadly needed larger building in the spring of 1997. The much delayed 2nd video by AWS, Timecode is released and features Kalis as a force to be reckoned with. His style and precise control of technical tricks stands alone. The first addition in brands from the Workshop is Reflex Performance bearings. It is started with the help of Dyrdek and his professional skateboard friends and offers high end bearings supported by a heavy duty team roster; Guy Mariano, Colin Mckay, Kareem Campbell, Danny Way, Stevie Williams, Mike York and Josh Kalis.

Two new graphic designers are added to the closely held art department and would shape the company into the millennium, Don Pendleton from Ravenswood West Virginia and Joe Castrucci from Cincinnati Ohio. The two quickly adapt to the Sect's graphic style and begin adding to the companys diversity of ideas. The summer of 1998 brings Jason Dill, Anthony Van Engelen and a legend in skateboarding to the AWS team... Danny Way. The shock wave through the gossip lines of Way's joining the Workshop would last to the year's end. A promo length video of the new team changes is debuted at the 98 fall trade show. Unknown east coast ams Brian Wenning and Anthony Pappalardo raise eyebrows from all. Filming for the full length video is top priority and Philly's Love Park is the site of daily footage missions.

By the end of 1999 an idea that has been talked about for years begins to take seed. The Habitat is formed under the Sovereign Sect in December. The team starts as Kerry Getz, Tim Oconnor, Fred Gall, Brian Wenning and Rob Pluhowski. Danny Garcia joins soon after and turns pro after an amazing first year on the team. The graphic direction is uniform and direct from the upstart. The co existence of nature and man is forged by Castrucci and the Habitat's graphics lay the foundation for it's visual identity . Pendleton commands most of the Workshop's deck graphics at this point and masters the web sites for all of the brands. In July of 2000, after two years plus of harvesting footage, Joe Castrucci flattens the final layers of Photosynthesis and the 1st full length video since 1991's Memory Screen is released for consumption. The video is a multi media of skateboarding, color forms and custom music. It is met with rave reviews and generates what it often missed in the slew of skateboard videos, a feeling, a personality, the motivation to go skateboarding . The video's solid skating by AWS's Van Engelen, Dill, Kalis, Dyrdek and am powerhouses Pappalardo and Corcoran is wrapped around a introductory section of the Habitat team. A mini video within, the Habitat part spotlights a team that will dominate the skating populace for the future. It has been 10 years since the concept that a skateboard company could be more than a producer of products, that the very reason to start something was to mold it into it's own being and not a weak copy of what is already done. The Alien Workshop and its divisions are guided by this philosophy to this day. A Sovereign Sect of individuals with the goal to evolve skateboarding, projects and ideas free from outside pressures or rules.

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what fuck didn't read

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