Thoughts on NHS

[MxsDx]

Many posters on this board seem to have a strong bias against NHS.  I don't have strong feelings about this one way or another, but am curious to hear from others. What bums you out about NHS? Is it the TMNT and Sponge Bob collaborations? the ubiquitous mall store SC dot logo? marketing to the YouTube crowd? The divisive Indy cross? or the shitty performance of OJ wheels? Have I answered my own question?  On the other hand NHS has been able to maintain the relevance (to some degree) of several legacy brands and seems to take good care of its riders, including veterans like Eric Dressen. Let me know what you think. 

[TastyBurrito]

I’m fine with them.

I like riding Creature with Indys, OJs, and Bronsons. Shit works for me.

[Mean salto]

There was a while around 2004-2010 where the only 8.5+ boards I could find were creatures or Santa Cruz and only bigger trucks were indys.
I also was fully into Ed Templeton ricta cores.

I don't especially like the companies but they had what I needed for a long time so I can't bring myself to actually hate them. Indy should of kept the vertical axis (like a capital I) as their logo tho.

[lilboosie]

mob

[irunknee]

OJ's and Rictas are garbage.

Indy moved all production to China. (are even Thunder and Venture raws still at Ermico / SF / USA?)

Santa Cruz has little relevance other than banking on 40 year old iconography.

Creature and Mob still cool though.

[doublesteveburger]

they’re nice people in a sea of mean mean people

[mattdlx]

. (are even Thunder and Venture raws still at Ermico / SF / USA?)

Yes they are

[ziggy]

Creature is my favorite team

[Dwyck]

Indys are good, they are still good. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy

[Donkey Lips]

I don't have strong feelings about this one way or another, but am curious to hear from others.

I don't care that you don't care about it. But I'm curious if you care about it.

[SneakySecrets]

Indys are good, they are still good. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy

Still the best looking truck imo. 

[Dooky-shoes]

Creature has been cool since day one. Santa Cruz has a great team but an identity crisis.
Leave SC to tranny rippers and 40 year old former skaters. Split the team and make a new brand with the street guys.

Was bummed on my last set of OJs. Kind of over Indy. Might give venture another try, been awhile but liked’em until i succumbed to the peer pressure of indy.

[Eric Dolphy]

Indys are good, they are still good. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy

Indy’s are great, so is Mob. The other brands i don't care for personally but I'm glad that Tom Asta can feed and house his kids off Santa Cruz money, so on balance I guess I am NHS positive

[Tear Up a Trick]

It all comes down to Hawk versus Hosoi, and I am team birdman all the way baby

[livin on a speyer]

I just love Santa Cruz.

[MFS]

Everytime I see Santa Cruz its on some mall kid or oblivious hypebeast. Had 1 board back in the day, it was aVanik Hacobian(sp?) powerply.

[IpathCats]

Indy makes good trucks

creature makes good decks, I'm sure the other brands are similar quality

Bronson's suck

Krux are kinda wack

Idk about all that other shit though.

Also, In B4 C5 the words "racist" or "jock" were posted in this thread? I'm shocked.

[manysnakes]

Expand Quote

Indys are good, they are still good. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy

[close]

Still the best looking truck imo.

Ace look better but the stage 11 Indy is probably the best all around skateboard truck ever made.

[RajeevWins]

Santa Cruz/Creature
1. After the gyms closed during last year’s lockdowns, I put on mad weight, and Santa Cruz VX or Everslick decks were the only decks that could withstand my consistent inability to land on the bolts.
2. I finally learned fs lipslides since I knew the VX and Everslick boards weren’t just gonna explode on impact.
3. I really like their shapes/sizes/wheelbases, and now I’ll even buy Creature boards when the SC 8.25-8.5’s are out of stock. Probably one of the last brands I ever thought I would ride but the first street clips I got in 5+ years were on one of the Creature “Stumps” boards.
4. My boy Knibbs rides for them and his boards have all been 8.27’s, so I’m gonna keep supporting.

Krux
After finally understanding the concept of wheelbases (thank you Ben Degros), I was in the market for new trucks, and Kechaud Johnson convinced me to try the new Krux down-low king pin trucks. What I didn’t take into account was the fact I was going from some of the lowest trucks to some of the highest trucks and I do NOT skate with the same amount of power that Kechaud does. My tail almost never touched the ground when I would ollie and I had to ditch them ASAP. They’re in my office with maybe 30 minutes of skate time on them if anyone wants to put in an offer.

Independent
Once they dropped their old logo and released the Indy MiDs, I gave them a shot. As someone who rode Venture Lows for the past 20 years, the Indys were INCREDIBLY FUN to skate. The turning is amazing. I actually felt upset at the fact I could’ve been carving like that for decades but stuck with the slow turning Ventures out of dumb blind loyalty. Additionally (and unfortunately), my muscle memory is so used to the Ventures, that the MiDs are too high and I need to put deliberate intent on popping hard enough for the tail to hit the ground. Ended up going to Tensor Mag Lows but I’ll spare you all a review unless asked.

Mob
I like the Mob M88 grip. It’s right in between regular Jessup and regular Mob.

Ricta
I have Ricta Clouds on my cruiser/filmer board with Indy 149’s. Super fun, smooth, and quiet. But too grippy to do a lot of tricks with.

Bronson
Never tried them.

I didn’t know people on SLAP hated on NHS. Then again, I dont lurk/post here nearly as much as I used to.

[The real veganshawn]

I like Bronson bearings and Mob grip. Santa Cruz boards are good, switched to ACE 11 or 12 years ago and haven't looked back so no idea If indy fixed their issues.

[toe_knee]

Not a fan, not sure why just never got the Phillips graphics or whatever, and I had a pair of ricta cores and they broke on me when I was younger. Iono they are just kinda wack I suppose

[user18081971]

is NHS solely founded by Fausto? If so, I'm glad they essentially started Indy, Thunder, Venture, (opening the gayes for all of DLX for that matter), Thrasher, etc.

[Ghost Face]

Expand Quote

. (are even Thunder and Venture raws still at Ermico / SF / USA?)

[close]

Yes they are

Can you prove that?

[Prostate Exam]

Was forced to ride Creature boards for years since there weren't any other brands available that made 9 inch boards. Hated the boards. They were so stiff and would snap all the time. Fortunately nowadays almost every brand has a wide board in their catalogue and I don't have to skate Creature boards anymore

[SHEEM]

Completely off topic, but when did NHS lose the rights to Spitfire and how did Deluxe scoop it up?

[assvogel]

Completely off topic, but when did NHS lose the rights to Spitfire and how did Deluxe scoop it up?

Spitfire was founded under Deluxe distribution by Thiebaud.

The whole SF skateboardmanufacturing history is bit convoluted, as people, factories and distributions get mixed up.

Like Independent Trucks were founded under NHS inc. by Fausto, Swenson, Novak and Shiurman. Fausto and Swenson operated Ermico Enterprises, who manufactured the trucks, and Novak and Shiurman were the 2/3 on NHS Inc. ( Doug Haut being the third).

Then Thunder and Venture trucks were under Deluxe Distributon (Which was founded by Fausto and Brian Ware) and Ermico manufactured all three trucks.

Fausto and Swenson also formed Thrasher Magazine (High Speed Productions), mainly to promote Independent Trucks.

[Ghost Face]

Completely off topic, but when did NHS lose the rights to Spitfire and how did Deluxe scoop it up?

Did they do SF? I've got a 2008 catalogue and there's nothing in there. Wiki has Dlx starting in 1986 and there's no mention of NHS doing SF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluxe_Distribution#Spitfire

EDIT: post above mine is more relevant.

[Movies]

I'm stoked that the large legacy distributions like NHS, SkateOne, Dwindle and Deluxe are still around and financially viable. As much as we all love the smaller independent brands I have a feeling not too many of them will survive if (when) the economy collapses in the next few years. The more big distros that survive the better it will be for all of us.

[backside_frontside]

I don’t really have a strong opinion on NHS products. Never skated any of the boards but I was running Krux and OJ for years and liked both. I’m on Venture and Satori now tho lol. They probably pay their riders pretty well so that’s good, but I just don’t care about the brands/teams much.

[ok boomer]

They make good decks even though I don't use them. I like Indys
Powell also makes good boards that I don't use. I probably would if they made egg shapes though.