Independent Truck Company is a skateboard truck manufacturer based in Santa Cruz, California. Established in 1978, the company is owned by NHS, Inc. and sponsors an extensive list of team riders. The trucks are manufactured in the San Francisco by Ermico Enterprises, Inc., the only dedicated skateboard truck foundry in the United States.
Video Independent Truck Company
History
The company was co-founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman, Fausto Vitello, and Eric Swenson and the Stage 1 model was the inaugural product, released on May 23, 1978 in Newark, California. The Independent truck (or "Indy") was designed as a response to the lack of quality skateboard trucks on the market at the time. In reference to the two other major truck companies on the market, Blackhart stated that one broke, and one didn't turn (Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively).
Hawk recruitment
In January 2013, a brief video part was released to publicly announce that prominent professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, Tony Hawk, had joined the Independent Truck Company roster--Hawk was identified as the second most influential skateboarder of all time by Transworld Skateboarding magazine in December 2011. The video was released on YouTube's RIDE Channel, one of Hawk's various enterprises, and Hawk was previously sponsored by the Theeve truck company.
Maps Independent Truck Company
Logo
The iconic logo for the trucks was based on the Iron Cross according to legendary skateboard illustrator Jim Phillips, who created the design. It has remained the Independent logo since the company's inception.
Jim Phillips says in his 2007 book "The Art of Jim Phillips":
"...I began toying with the iron, or Maltese cross which was long dead as the old 60s surfer's cross, and even longer dead as the biker's cross. I used a beam compass to make it into a round shape, which looked completely different than the old square iron crosses... I took my idea into the NHS office the next morning and it went on the wall as usual. Jay and Rich each stared at it for a while, and they both thought that it looked a little too "Nazi". My sketches were rejected and I was sent back to the drawing board. I went back to my studio determined to use it, knowing it was the one. I searched my archives and scrap file for some justification for using the symbol. I found a firefighter's logo, symbols on the knights and Columbus sails. Then in my scrap file, under the letter P, I found a Time magazine cover of Pope John Paul from the June 18,1979 edition. It was amazing; there was a cross on his vestments almost the way I designed mine. I marched into the office the next morning with the magazine to show what I thought was proof of acceptability. They both looked at each other and said, 'Well, if the Pope has it, it must be okay!' That was that, and the Independent cross was born."
Signature professional model trucks
As of 2012, four team riders have consistently released signature professional model trucks for the company: Andrew Reynolds, Eric Koston, Chris Haslam, and Geoff Rowley. Christian Hosoi released a guest signature truck in the winter catalogue of the company's products.
Team
- Tony Hawk
- Ryan Sheckler
- Greg Lutzka
- Chris Haslam
- Andrew Reynolds
- Lizard King
- Braydon Szafranski
- Justin "Figgy" Figueora
- Fred Gall
- David Gravette
- David González
- Matt Miller
- Luan Oliveira
- Peter Raffin
- Truman Hooker
- Sean Conover
- Evan Smith
- Darren Navarette
- Ben Raybourn
- Shawn Hale
- Jeff Grosso
- Alex Olson
- Brian Anderson
- Victor Cortez
- Peter Hewitt
- Emanuel Guzman
- Lance Mountain
- Dan Drehobl
- Christian Hosoi
- Ben Raemers
- Dustin Dollin
- Aaron "Jaws" Homoki
- John Cardiel
- Greyson Fletcher
- Louie Lopez
- Curren Capels
- Corey Glick
- Chris Russell
- Tony Trujillo
- Ronny Sandoval
- Jagger Eaton
- Lizzie Armanto
- Ray Barbee
- Anthony Van Engelen
- Bob Burnquist
- Geoff Rowley
- Steve Alba
- Tony Alba
- Jesse Alba
- Omar Hassan
- Pedro Barros
- Rune Glifberg
- Bucky Lasek
- Stu Graham
- Kevin Kowalski
- Sam Hitz
- Gilbert Crockett
- Al Partanen
- Tommy Guerrero
- Steve Caballero
- Charlie Blair
- Scott Decenzo
- Dallas Rockvam
- Rick Howard
- Andrew Allen
- Elijah Berle
- Josh Borden
- Grant Taylor
- Auby Taylor
- Danny Way
- Chris Gregson
- Mike Smith
- Daniel Lutheran
- Eddie Elguera
- Wes Kremer
- Jake Johnson
- Ben Hatchell
- Mason Merlino
- Pat Ngoho
- Jim Greco
- Cyril Jackson
- Rowan Zorilla
- Kevin Long
- Braydon Szafranski
- Riley Hawk
- Erick Winkowski
- Raney Beres
- Roman Pabich
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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