Tough Destruction.
The turn of the century was a wild time for new trucks. There were so many different brands populating the back pages of the magazines. I actually wonder if Independent, Thunder, and Venture sales were down at this point? I assume Indy was doing fine, but Thunder and Venture were in the back pages as well, with Venture often running one page ads instead of the usual two pagers we are used to.
Of all the types of companies to launch, trucks have to be the biggest risk. Developing a new truck is a difficult process with more steps than a board or wheel so if you aren't prepared to do the work, it might not turn out great. It might not turn out great even if you do the work either. I know most skaters are ridiculously loyal to whatever truck they like the best and the thought of switching isn't an option. Or maybe there are more adventuresome people out there than I realize. I also never factor in the folks who simply don't care about their setup a whole lot, which always strikes me as odd. Here's this thing you're going to spend a lot of time with so you should care a little about how it is put together and what it looks like.
Bam: Transworld - August 2001 Volume 19 Number 8
Mike: Thrasher - October 2001 Volume 21 Number 10
4 comments:
The trucks with the curved hanger, were you thinking of Kreper trucks?
--Rikku Markka
Nope. Kre-per were the scary monster goth trucks by Grind King. I cannot recall the name, but they had a weird concave hanger. I'll look them up tonight.
Having worked in skate shops in this era it was mostly young kids that would buy all these random truck companies, many times cuz of the name, or a gimmick, upside down kingpins moved tons of grind king trucks, more than anything kids wanted to match the color of the truck with their board, I would try to discourage it but yeah, your random trucks would sell cuz they were the correct color, Indy and Venture weren't doing any colors if I recall at the time, so it was just dependent on what the shop order in random colorfast. All of the dudes that had been skating for a while were still just getting INDYs and Ventures sight unseen, so they were selling ok, Thunder had some loyalist so they so they had ok sales. I think thunders probably mostly sold to a hardcore Indy dude that just wanted to try something different.
Yeah, Indy and Venture were almost always silver. Maybe some gold or black for Indy and red or blue baseplates for Venture. That's not cool if you are 13 and have the option to pick a truck with flames or skulls on it.
I feel like Thunders started to take off in the mid to later 2000s. All the kids around here were riding them. The also came in colors so that helped.
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