🛹 New School Skateboards: A Legacy of Innovation and Influence

Skateboarding has always been more than just a sport—it's a culture, a lifestyle, and a creative outlet. Among the many brands that have shaped this world, New School Skateboards stands out as a pivotal force in the evolution of modern skateboarding. Let’s dive into the story of this influential company, from its origins to its current impact.

🌟 Origins: Where It All Began

New School Skateboards emerged during the transformative wave of skateboarding in the early 1990s, a time when the sport was shifting from the vert ramp dominance of the '80s to the gritty, technical street skating that defines much of today’s scene. The brand was founded in California, the heartland of skateboarding innovation, by a group of passionate skaters who wanted to push boundaries and redefine what skateboarding could be.

While exact founding details are elusive, New School Skateboards was part of a broader movement that embraced smaller, lighter decks, steeper concaves, and symmetrical shapes—a stark contrast to the wider, flatter boards of the old school era. This design philosophy helped usher in a new generation of tricks and styles.

🚀 What Made Them Notable

New School Skateboards quickly gained recognition for several key contributions:

• Innovative Deck Designs: Their boards featured the now-standard "popsicle" shape, which allowed for more technical tricks and better control.

• Street Skating Focus: They catered to the growing street skating scene, offering gear that was optimized for ledges, rails, and urban terrain.

• Cultural Influence: The brand helped define the aesthetic of the '90s skateboarding boom—gritty, rebellious, and unapologetically raw.

They weren’t just selling boards; they were selling a new way of thinking about skateboarding.

🧑🎤 Sponsorships and Team Riders

Like many influential skate brands, New School Skateboards built its reputation by sponsoring talented riders who embodied the brand’s ethos. While specific names are harder to pin down today, their team was known for:

• Pushing technical boundaries in street skating

• Appearing in underground skate videos that circulated among core skate communities

• Influencing younger skaters through demos and contests

Their riders helped popularize tricks that are now staples in the skateboarding repertoire.

📍 Where Are They Now?

New School Skateboards, as a brand, has faded from the mainstream spotlight, but its legacy lives on in the DNA of modern skateboarding. The term "new school" itself has become synonymous with the style and structure of contemporary skateboards.

Today, the influence of New School Skateboards can be seen in:

• Skateboarding education programs that use modern board designs to teach kids

• After-school clubs and enrichment activities across the UK and beyond, where new school-style boards are the standard

• Skate brands and schools that continue to build on the innovations New School helped pioneer

While the company may not be active in the traditional sense, its spirit is alive in every kickflip, tre flip, and nose grind performed on a popsicle-shaped deck.

New School Skateboards - Slash Dogs (1994)

New School Skateboards Here's Flaco 1991

New School Skateboards - Minus One (1991)