Powell Peralta

Powell Peralta was founded in 1978 in Santa Barbara, California by George Powell and Stacy Peralta (the legendary professional skateboarder of the Z-Boys and Dogtown era) as a small skateboard-deck-and-equipment manufacturer specifically focused on producing professional-grade skateboard decks for the emerging professional skateboard culture of the late 1970s. The brand became one of the defining companies in the 'Skate-and-Destroy' era of the 1980s-1990s, with the legendary Bones Brigade team (Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Mike McGill, Tommy Guerrero, Rodney Mullen, and the broader 1980s skate elite) anchoring the brand's cultural position. The Powell Peralta vocabulary settled around several iconic products: the iconic skull-and-bones graphic skateboard deck programme (the original 'Skull and Sword,' 'Bones Brigade,' 'Tony Hawk,' 'Caballero Dragon,' and dozens of other defining 1980s skate-deck graphics that have become genuine collectors items), the Bones brand-extension wheels and bearings, the iconic Bones Brigade Video Show 1-8 series (a defining cultural artefact of 1980s skate-video culture), and the long-running reissue programme of original 1980s skate deck designs. The brand is independent and held by the Powell-Peralta family plus the long-time Skate One Corporation parent company (which also operates the Bones brand, the Mini-Logo apparel and equipment line, and several other skate-industry sub-brands). Powell Peralta operates through skate-shop wholesale distribution globally rather than direct retail flagships, with the brand widely-stocked at Supreme, Slam Jam Milan, Civilist Berlin, Dover Street Market, the broader US and European skate-shop network, and the Japanese skate-specialty retailers Beams, Ships, United Arrows, and the Nepenthes network. The 1980s reissue programme has been a defining force in the post-2010 skate-collector secondary-market conversation.