Riding Free - Building the American Dream

[diggity]

Along the same idea of shopping local,  I'm getting ready to get a new setup but i wanted to put the restriction on it that I would like to buy all the parts that are made/built in America. This has turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected, which is both sad and somewhat expected. I found out that I had to cross off Independent Trucks. pretty bummed about that. Powell seems to be keeping it state side and its given me more respect for them. last night I found a blog post where someone had the same idea and posted his results. 

 

https://www.natefegan.com/single-post/2018/01/04/Skateboards-Made-In-The-USA---Saving-The-American-Dream

 

As expected. I've run into problems getting bearings and hardware that are American Made.

If anyone out there has an ideas, let me know.

[misteraven]

Assume you're referring to building a skateboard...

 

I can poke around, but can say that there are indeed few manufacturers left state side. I know that I always paid a premium for the decks we used for 12oz (AKANYC). Those were Chapman blanks that are made in the USA of Canadian maple. I almost ran a new board for the OBS v2.5 release but was stretched pretty thin and didn't think I had the momentum behind me to sell through the boards quickly, so the graphic fell to the side. I then sampled out a board about a year later that again, ended up getting shit canned since I had to reallocate funds to something else and wasn't sure I had the momentum. 

 

I shot the designs to @cruzxctrlso he saw them at the time. I definitely want to start releasing boards on a semi regular basis but need to get a small distribution network going for 12oz so I can bump numbers a bit to qualify it.

 

Sorry, not an answer to your question, but thought I'd chime in on a related subject.

[Guest]

If you’re interested in sourcing American made bearings it may be worth checking out frootbooter bearing companies. 
 

grip tape intended for things other than skateboarding may be another solution

 

new old stock (NOS) wheels on eBay would probably be a good route to go. Maybe the same with trucks. Old shorties trucks made in USA?

 

NOS is general may be a good path to tackle this project. 

[diggity]

for Griptape I went with Jessup. 

 

Trucks seem like they will be thunder.

I found some odd brands for Bearings and have reached out to confirm they are made in the US.

best i can do to avoid poohbear on bearings is by going with swiss. 

 

Hardware is going to be where this idea falls apart. 

[abrasivesaint]

I would look into all NHS related stuff. I believe Santa Cruz boards are made in the US and Indy’s are still made in San Francisco i believe, as well as China. I’m trying to find info on Bronson bearings but i can’t. If their bearings are US made i would definitely recommend the G3s or the RAWs. 
 

edit: Bronsons are China made. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by abrasivesaint

[abrasivesaint]

You could honestly roll the dice on some machine shop made hardware if you want. We used to make them in high school all the time. We called them “Chaos Hardware.” Haha.. They’re super easy to make, the important part is just making sure they’re hardened properly. We snapped many working on that factor.

 

 

edit: that’ll definitely cost you more than the standard like $4 though.

Edited November 6, 2019 by abrasivesaint

[abrasivesaint]

There’s a dude out of Massachusetts that hand carves decks. I’m not sure where he gets the blanks from but i’m sure he’d be happy to tell you. He’s made almost 700 decks for people at this point. 
 

If you still have access to Instagram his account is @petespigs.

 

edit: i actually just asked. I’ll let you know. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by abrasivesaint

[abrasivesaint]

Also, Street Plant (Mike Vallely’s brand) deals in some USA made shit. 

[abrasivesaint]

Visit skateboards (Ryan Gallant) also made in the US