Jim Grey started Acme in 1991 after riding professionally for Blockhead. He brought Ron Cameron along to do the art and got Mark Oblow to manage the team. This would be their first catalog.
Acme's initial claim to fame was that they didn't have any pro models, a concept that was novel at the time and in retrospect rather unusual. They eventually did have pro boards later on. This topic has been discussed to death in the comment section here and elsewhere over the last couple of years.
I think what appeals to me about the company was the graphic design. It has a retro feel, back when retro was not just another meaningless buzzword. The black and white ads, the fonts and the layouts were well done and different from what a lot of the other companies were doing.
Team riders have included Bo Ikeda, Omar Hassan, Remy Stratton, Mike Santarossa, Clyde Singleton, Jason Rothmeyer, Chet Childress, Brad Hayes, Kevin Rucks, Matt Contresas and Robbie Gaskell.
In addition to doing the graphics, Cameron had a little subdivision of Acme called Strike. For whatever reason, I really want one of those boards, but I'm not going to hunt one down on the internet or anything.
Eric Murphy is on the cover in a photo by Eric Matthies. Tom West took the product pictures.
2 comments:
remember their attempt at a one bearing wheel? I never saw it in real life... just a photo somewhere.
iirc, one of Acmes first ads was about the no-pro-models thing and it was someone doing a one footed ollie and the skater was cut out. It looked like Ed Templeton's silhouette.
It totally was Ed cut out doing a one footer. There was also a page in GSD's Skate Fate of Ed doing a nose grind where he was cut out.
I remember the one bearing wheel. I don't think they ever got past the R & D phase because they probably kept falling the truck. That'd be my guess as to what happened to the idea because nobody has tried anything like that since,
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