It is becoming more and more difficult to find locally-made products today, and even less common for those products to be 100% hand-made by a talented craftsperson. Give the complex and soulful process of creating a surfboard or skateboard, one would think these would be aspects of manufacturing immune to offshoring. Unfortunately, the once-sacred art of surfboard shaping and skateboard building is being threatened by large corporations in China and other places who pump out board after board with little to no customization or hand-crafting.
However, in some small pockets of the board-riding world, there are highly skilled craftsmen who have dedicated themselves to producing high-quality goods with a personalized touch. When it comes to skateboards, one such craftsman is Gabe Willis, founder of STRGHT Skateboards in Oceanside, California. Only in his early 20’s, Willis began building skateboards and experimenting with intricate wood carvings in his family’s engraving shop in 2011. After an ultra-successful feature on Instagram, STRGHT Skateboards really took off, and is now working with over 40 retailers throughout the United States, Peru, Canada, and even South Korea.
Aside from being 100% hand-made and featuring the detailed craftsmanship of Willis, STRGHT Skateboards has partnered with Cali Bamboo in order to achieve a specific material composition and visual aesthetic that helps to set STRGHT apart from other skateboard manufacturers. This combination is on full display in the Vista Collection board line (Santa Fe, Primrose, and Townsite), as well as in the various bamboo models such as ‘Skates with Wolves,’ and the ‘Kiana Design.’
If you want a generic, cheaply-made skateboard built by machine in a foreign country, they aren’t hard to come by. However, if you want a skateboard with designed with unique flare and built by the hands of a dedicated craftsman, then STRGHT Skateboards is a good place to start.