history of powell peralta american skateboard company

Powell Peralta, originally founded by George Powell, is an American skateboard company.


George Powell studied engineering at Stanford University and started making homemade skateboards in 1957. In 1974, Powell's son came and asked for a skateboard. When Powell pulled an old one out of the garage, his son complained it did not have urethane wheels. Powell became interested in skateboarding again, as he realized urethane wheels improved a skateboard's ride. With this prompting, Powell started making his own skateboards and wheels. He bought urethane and baked his own wheels. He also used some of new materials like aluminum and fiberglass to fabricate his own composite boards. One of the test riders of one of his flexible slalom boards was Stacy Peralta.
When Powell was laid off from his job in the aerospace industry, he packed up and moved from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to start his own skateboard manufacturing business. In 1976, George built the Quicksilver ProSlalom deck which he marketed through Sims. This was followed by the Quicktail.
George started to make wheels too. He developed wheels named Bones because of their white color.
Skateboarding changed and George Powell moved into wood laminates.
In 1978 George teamed up with Stacy Peralta. Peralta was a big name in skateboarding and took over team management and advertising. In 1979 they created a skateboarding team called the Bones Brigade, which included many of the best skateboarders of the era. Powell Peralta developed a signature art style with a skeleton motif and their artwork stood out in the market. Arguably, they were the most popular skateboarding company in terms of deck and wheel sales throughout the 1980s, producing the now famous Tony Hawk Iron Cross deck as well as the McGill Skull and Snake; Caballero Dragon; Lance Mountain Future Primitive graphics and the Ray Underhill cross graphic along with continuing to produce Bones wheels. Powell Peralta went on to produce the Bones Brigade videos which became some of the most influential skateboarding videos of the era.
In the late 1980s, smaller skater run companies like World Industries appeared and took market share from the bigger companies. Powell Peralta suffered as many of their riders defected and either set up or rode for those new independent companies. At the end of 1991 Stacy Peralta left Powell Peralta.
The company was re-branded as Powell Corporation, and despite severe financial problems initially, Powell continues to make skateboard products today, including Bones bearings and wheels, which are very popular with pros and amateurs alike. Powell has also revisited their enormous market success of the 1980s with their new line of re-issue decks under the new brand, Powell Classic. These have proven to be widely popular with the generation of 70s and 80s skaters who remember and esteem the intricate pop art style graphics of the classic decks.
In 2005, George Powell and Stacy Peralta teamed up once again to re-issue some of the original pro models under the Powell-Peralta brand. New reissues include models from Alan "Ollie" Gelfand, Jay Smith, Steve Caballero, Ray "Bones" Rodriguez, Frankie Hill and Ray Underhill. Some of Powells am team has looked promising recently. Such as Mark Suchu who placed high in E.s skate.