Polar Skate Co.

Polar Skate Co. was founded in 2011 in Malmö, Sweden by Pontus Alv, a Swedish professional skateboarder and filmmaker who had previously co-founded the Strongest of the Strange skate magazine. The brand emerged from Alv's two-decade Swedish skateboarding ecosystem and his belief that European skate culture deserved a brand engineered by its own community rather than imported from the American west coast. The Polar vocabulary settled around Alv's distinct artistic voice — hand-drawn graphics, off-kilter typography, the recurring use of a 'crying boy' motif drawn from his Malmö park graffiti, and skate decks designed in close collaboration with his rotating team of European riders (Aaron Herrington, Hjalte Halberg, Oskar Rozenberg, Kevin Rodrigues, and others). The brand's video output — particularly the 'Manhattan Days' and 'I Like It Here Inside My Mind, Don't Wake Me This Time' full-length films — set new standards for European skate filmmaking. Polar Skate Co. remains independent and Malmö-based. The brand operates a flagship store and skatepark in Malmö (the Polarchive), plus a New York retail presence. Alv continues as creative director and majority owner. Few European skate brands have built such a coherent visual and editorial identity — and few have so directly used the brand structure as a vehicle for serious skate filmmaking and team-building.