Whether you like riding a cruiser skateboard, a regular skateboard, or an electric skateboard, or even a surfboard, the brand you choose determines the quality of your board.
When you invest in a brand new board from a reliable brand, it can completely change the way you skate.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of what are, in our opinion, the 10 best skateboard brands out there.
We’ll tell you a little bit about the people behind the brand, their history, and as a bonus share with you the best-selling items from each brand.
This will give you a good idea of what each skateboard brand is all about, and ultimately help you decide which brand to shop with.
Keep reading to find out about our first top skateboard brand, Element.
Best Skateboard Brands Quick Links
If you’re in a rush, these quick links will take you to each brand’s Amazon bestseller lists.
Skateboard Brand Reviews
So, let’s jump right in.
Below we’re going to start giving you the history and key information of the 10 best skateboard brands around, with a handy bestseller list for each brand.
Element
History of Element
In 1992, Element was founded by Johnny Schillereff.
Since then, they have been producing some of the most honest and high-quality skateboarding gear on the market today.
The first incarnation of the brand was a small company on the East Coast called Underground Element.
It was inspired by hip-hop movements and promoted a raw and controversial vibe.
Through hard work and determination, Element continued to grow, and are now one of the most popular skateboarding brands ever.
Elements Brand Review
As a brand, Element are extremely reliable, and a solid choice for all of your skateboarding gear.
They produce amazing, stylish skateboards, as well as really comfy jumpers, hoodies, hats, and everything you’ll need to skate with.
Coming from their East Coast, underground hip-hop look, Element clothing is classic. Most of their gear is built for function and comfort.
Element remains one of the best choices of brand for all of your skateboarding gear.
[amazon box=”B07B41KWTY,B07XSRT9NV,B081JR5BXT,B01M6XKTU2″ template=”list”]
Santa Cruz
History of Santa Cruz
Owned and distributed by NHS inc, Santa Cruz Skateboards are the oldes continually running skateboard company ever!
Founded by Richard Novak, Doug Haut and Jay Shuirman in the 80’s, this brand are some of the OG’s in the skating world.
They’ve been in the game for a long time, and will keep producing top-quality skateboards and skateboarding gear for a long time by the looks of things.
Santa Cruz Brand Review
The ‘Screaming Hand’, which you probably recognise as the Santa Cruz brand logo, was designed by Jim Phillips in 1985.
This has become a skateboarding icon all over the world.
So, when you see it on clothing, you’ll know the brand to be Santa Cruz.
Traditionally, you think of Santa Cruz as manufacturers of just skateboards. However, nowadays they design and produce all sorts of gear.
Hats, jumpers, hoodies, T-shirts, bearings, wheels. Honestly, Santa Cruz do a bit of everything.
Most of all, we recommend there decks, and stylish, minimalist T-shirts.
[amazon box=”B00DNILI0C,B018JRXMWS,B01EMYHVDI,B084LCV6BX” template=”list”]
Birdhouse
History of Birdhouse
In 1992, when the skateboarding scene was looking particularly bleak, Tony Hawk decided to set up his own skateboarding brand.
This brand was called Birdhouse.
Originally called Birdhouse Projects, this brand is based on just that. Hawk believes in building something you love, and continually working on it day after day.
Today, the Birdhouse team features some of the most respected and visible names in the sport.
They’re plastered on the covers of Thrasher, The Skateboard Mag and TransWorld Skateboarding magazines, touring the world, winning Thrasher’s King of the Road two years in a row, and racking up video views on The Ride Channel, Thrasher and The Berrics.
Birdhouse Brand Review
Birdhouse have a pretty minimal stock. They’re minimalist, and don’t create anything too flashy.
However, if comfortable, affordable and functional clothing and decks are your vibe, then we can’t recommend them enough.
Their decks are phenomenal, as one might expect, considering they’re designed by one of the best skateboarders in the world.
Otherwise, they have some nice t-shirts, jumpers, and all the accessories you would expect.
[amazon box=”B085RB6RTW,B07K128C9J,B085RM4W53,B085R9D9Y9″ template=”list”]
Baker
History of Baker
Baker Skateboards were founded in 2000 by professional skateboarder Andrew Reynolds. Nowadays, they manufacture and sell decks, clothing, and all other kinds of skateboarding accessories.
Funnily enough, Andrew started Baker Skateboards just a few months after leaving Birdhouse in 1999!
Currently, there team is home to loads of big names in skateboarding.
For example: Dustin Dollin, Bryan Herman, Justin Figueroa[6], Theotis Beasley Don “Nuge” Nguyen, and Riley Hawk
Baker Brand Review
Baker Skateboards produce loads of high-quality gear.
Obviously, they’re known for their decks with their brand name plastered onto the bottom.
However, that’s not the end of it.
Baker Skateboards produce all kinds of accessories, clothing, decks, and assorted skateboard parts for a complete skateboard.
The best thing is, its all made by skateboarders, for skateboarders.
[amazon box=”B07YWND426,B08143PBX4,B08142H4P7,B0728LB3HN” template=”list”]
Blind
History of Blind
Blind, often presented as bLind, is a skateboard company founded by Mark Gonzales in 1989 within Steve Rocco’s World Industries company.
Gonzales left the company years ago, and is now owned by Dwindle Distribution.
This company produces, decks, wheels, skateboarding clothing and many different accessories.
You’ll probably recognise the Grim Reaper logo from some of their gear!
Blind Brand Review
As a brand, Blind a pretty solid in terms of their gear and skateboards.
They mostly produce awesome decks, and all of the parts to go with your deck to make a complete skateboard.
In that way, they’re more focused on traditional skateboarding than other brands.
Other than that, they’ve got some awesome T-shirts and hats with their trademark logos, as well as the normal accessories you might expect.
[amazon box=”B0768DT3VK,B0842XDK2J,B07L3STDW7,B07DWT4984″ template=”list”]
Powell Peralta
History of Powell Peralta
The Powell Peralta skateboard brand is an old school one from the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
They’re an American skateboard brand founded by George Powell and Stacy Peralta in 1978.
In the 1980’s, as skateboarding matured as a sport, this company rose to fame.
However, in 1991, Peralta left the company and Powell continued to produce equipment you might have heard of: Power, Bones Bearings and RollerBones.
Powell Peralta Brand Review
We found a great quote on the Powell Peralta website which really summarises how we feel about the skateboard brand:
Considering I am a big fan of nostalgia, there are lots of great items here that are great for display to take you back in time, or can be used for hard core shredding. Many thanks to George and Stacy, and all of the Skate 1 folks who help keep us rolling along.
— Greg “Greg” Clark
For these reasons, Powell and Peralta sits amongst our best skateboard brands.
[amazon box=”B00D4JVYVS,B005DPFWZK,B005NHBARM,B000O3KR0G” template=”list”]
Magneto
History of Magneto
Magneto are a new company, but they have over 50 years of experience in product development. They’ve actually designed everything from airplanes to gold clubs over the years!
For that reason, they’re an excellent choice for producing your next skateboard or longboard.
Their technology is vastly superior to other brands, and we feel that they’ll be a big name in the coming years.
They are located in Carlsbad California, a hotbed for skating and surfing. They pride themselves in designing and manufacturing high-quality products with game-changing technologies.
They remain one of the best skateboard brands to date.
Magneto Brand Review
They’re really well known for their longboards, cruisers and, nowadays, even electric boards!
The best thing about this brand is the price tag.
There are always hefty sales on these boards, and they’re actually excellent quality.
Magneto are amazing for affordability, as well as function.
If you’re looking for a good read, check out Magneto’s blog!
[amazon box=”B07WC96F65,B07BWQB9KC,B084GGJMF2,B07W62FK69″ template=”list”]
Thrasher
History of Thrasher
You’ve probably heard of Thrasher more through their reputation as a magazine, rather than a clothing or skateboard manufacturer.
However, they are actually one of the best skateboard brands out there.
Truth be told, this skateboard brand don’t actually produce decks.
Still, we’ve included them in the 10 best skateboard brands purely because of the high quality skate clothing they produce.
In essence, Thrasher is a skateboarding magazine founded in 1981 by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello.
The magazine publishes skateboard and music articles, amazing photography, interviews and skatepark reviews.
Thrasher Brand Review
With that, Thrasher also produce some of the most comfy clothing and skateboarding accessories out there on the market today!
We can easily recommend their jumpers, hats, hoodies and, obviously, all of there magazines.
Always give their magazines and blogs a read if you want to know a bit more about the history of skateboarding.
[amazon box=”B085M5NH5R,B00MV54UEE,B012ILQYUI,B00WJYG1BW” template=”list”]
GLOBE
History of GLOBE
GLOBE are another phenomenal brand for producing cheap yet functional skateboards, making them another one of our 10 best skateboarding brands.
They are manufacturing experts, and are producing some of the most accessible and affordable skateboards in the skating world today.
In this video, you can see how they are made.
GLOBE started in the mid 1980’s with the distribution of third party brands in Australia. brothers Stephen, Peter and Matt created a boardsports (skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding) brand of their own.
They started with shoes for skaters and surfers, and in the mid 1990’s transitioned to apparel for a bigger market.
Nowadays, the same crew of skaters and surfers who started GLOBE are an international network who make boards in over 100 countries worldwide.
GLOBE are one of the best skateboard brands out there, with boarders making boards for boarders. Good stuff!
GLOBE Brand Review
If you’re going to shop with GLOBE, we recommend going for a complete skateboard kit and putting it together yourself.
GLOBE can supply you with everything you need for a complete skateboard.
Pick up some wheels, bearings, trucks and a deck and get cracking!
[amazon box=”B00IBF69DS,B07JPB6B92,B00BYUZPJQ,B07ZJWXTVJ” template=”list”]
Enjoi
History of Enjoi
Although it’s last in our list, Enjoi is no doubt still one of the best skateboard brands out there.
With their trademark panda, Enjoi is an extremely stylish brand with a wide range of products, and top-quality decks.
If you want to know anything about Enjoi, just look at this quote from their website:
enjoi. It all starts with a lower case e. au weee!! then it ends with an i. oh my. is it french? is it munchkin land? no way silly, it’s just upper case fun, mixed with lower case just because!!
why not enjoi with a y? easy, because you can see more with one eye! our colors are orange and yellow like the sun, and you know that means nothing less than fun, fun, fun!!! our team is from near and far……….. but you would recognize all them from the same goons sitting at the bar!
just kidding… kinda
we skate, we party, we live life to have fun.
– Enjoi
Funny, right?
Enjoi Brand Review
With that, Enjoi actually have some of the most unique and interesting skateboard gear out there.
They have really comfy jumpers, and awesome complete skateboard decks.
[amazon box=”B07VC4XGMQ,B07T953TKX,B07BQ41S5B,B0081ZD9QI” template=”list”]
How to Choose The Best Skateboard Brand
So, that’s it with the 10 best skateboard brands. So, let’s move on to our buying guide!
To choose the best skateboard brand, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of all the different brands.
Pros
Cons
This is easily done. Just think about what it is you are looking for in a brand.
Generally, skaters searching for a brand tend to look for style, comfort, performance and practicality.
So, let’s jump right in:
Style
Style is obviously really important when you’re shopping around for a skateboard brand.
Make sure your deck is a pattern or decal that you like, and style it all as you like when you pick up different accessories.
Comfort
Besides style, comfort is definitely another important factor when you’re looking for the best skateboard brand for you.
This is especially important when shopping for skateboard branded clothing.
Luckily for you, skateboard clothing is always super comfy, baggy and soft, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
Performance
Performance is more important when it comes to your board.
Ask yourself, what am I going to use the board for?
Is it for bombing hills?
Am I mainly going to be in the skate park?
Do I want to be doing technical tricks or just cruising?
Ask yourself these questions, and have a look at board specifications to determine which skateboard is best for you.
Practicality
Practicality is definitely another important factor when you’re shopping for a skateboard.
For example, does your skateboard fit in your backpack? Does it need to go on a bike, or be mounted on a wall?
Once you know this, it will help you figure out what kind of skateboard brand suits you best.
Best Skateboard Brands For Beginners
As a beginner, it’s hard to know which skateboard brand to go for as your first.
We’d say the best skateboard brands for beginners are those which are more based on making accessible and affordable boards.
For that reason, we’d choose GLOBE and Magneto as the best skateboard brands for beginners.
GLOBE
GLOBE are excellent brand for providing cheap and functional skateboards.
Because of this, we rate them as some of the best skateboard brands for beginners.
Check out their longboards, cruisers and other easy-to-ride boards, pick up the complete set, and get moving!
Magneto
Magneto are basically in the same lane as GLOBE. They produce awesome boards for all skateboarding abilities.
If you’re feeling especially lazy, you can even invest in an electric skateboard like the one we mentioned before.
Skateboard Brands in The 90’s
The 90’s were definitely some of the formative years for skate brands.
Back in the 90’s, however, skate styles and branding were much more rigid and uniform than they now are today.
If you want to learn a bit more about 90’s skate culture, watch VICE’s Epicly Later’d series. Menace is a crew which have been a huge influence on skate culture in the United States.
Blind skateboards, who we mentioned before, are also some of the most legendary skate figures from the 90’s.
Spike Jonze, arguably the most legendary skate videographers of all time, made Video Days for Blind Skateboards in the 90’s.
Final Thoughts on Skateboard Brands
So, with that, we’ll wrap up our article on the best skateboard brands in the world today.
We hope we’ve covered all the bases: Best skateboard brands, skateboard brands for beginners, how to choose a skateboard brand, and skateboard brands in the 90’s?
Still, do you think we’ve missed anything?
What do you think our next article should be about in our complete guide for skateboarders?
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