Familiarise yourself with the oldest brand in skateboarding history with a selection of decks, clothing and other goods from Santa Cruz Skateboards.
Eponymously named after the Californian city it was founded, Santa Cruz Skateboards was born in 1973 from the collective efforts of Richard Novak, Doug Haut and Jay Shuirman. The first brand formed under NHS Distribution (also home to Independent Trucks, Bronson Speed Co, Creature Skateboards, OJ Wheels and MOB Griptape to name a few), Santa Cruz Skateboards remains a pillar of the skateboarding world . As much due to the brand’s iconic graphics, Santa Cruz is considered one of the earliest companies to help carve out skateboarding as a business unto itself and helping create an individual industry by supporting skateboarding in its infancy through sponsoring events, early magazines and pioneering hardgoods development. Furthermore, Santa Cruz’s early video productions Wheels of Fire (1987), Streets on Fire (1989), Speed Freaks (1989), A Reason for Living (1990) and Risk It (1990) are often cited as integral pieces of history for portraying every variety of skateboarding from street to vert and slalom to freestyle in an accessible yet honest way.
Synonymous with the company is Santa Cruz’s ‘Screaming Hand’ graphic illustrated by Jim Phillips in 1985 which taken on a life of it’s own in the decades since, celebrating its own 30th Anniversary with a art-show at London’s House of Vans in 2015 and continuing to adorn many of the Santa Cruz hardgoods and apparel that pass through the store. As a brand proud to embrace it’s legacy within skateboarding, the Santa Cruz team still includes early innovators such as Eric Dressen, Steve Alba and Tom Knox (no, not the Isle one…) while sponsoring some of today’s gnarliest transition skaters with Erick Winkowski, Josh Borden and Tom Remillard all holding down well deserved professional status.
