I couldn’t take the madness and I thought it would be better to move on than to stay somewhere where I don’t think I necessarily belong anymore. I can’t believe that it’s all happening but I think it will be for the better for everyone. You wonder, ‘Are you going to lose friends? Are you going to lose business?’ It was a tough decision to make and I’m still spun out about it. There’s parts that you like but there’s parts that you just want to move on past. It’s like getting a divorce even though I’ve never been married other than Flip. Why stop now? New knee, new liver, new shoe company, new board sponsor. I changed all my other sponsors, I might as well. I thought they were going to come and chop my legs off but they were very reasonable about it but it’s been a heavy process. It was really heavy but they took it pretty good. In an interview with skateboard journalist Chris Nieratko following his decision (Saari later contacted Nieratko to prevent the interview from being published and the journalist published it on his personal website instead), Saari explained the process of leaving Flip: In what was perceived as a shocking decision by the global skateboard community, long-time team rider Arto Saari announced his decision to leave Flip in 2008. Like myself, personally, I skated a lot with Ed, like, every day, because he lived, like, right across the road from me. we couldn't afford to, at the time, starting a company, we couldn't afford to run through ten boards a month. We had no money, we didn't have any cars, alls we had was the board that we had we couldn't go breaking those. We'd moved to a foreign country where we didn't know anybody. I'd just turned eighteen, Tom was seventeen, neither of us had lived away from home, you know. Because we grew up dreaming of living in California and getting to wake up every day and go out and skate without it raining, and I think that was something that, like, all of the guys, when we first moved here, you know, Rune and Tom, that was something that, you couldn't hold us back in that respect. We had no expectations we didn't really know that many people, and we actually just wanted to skate, really. We were a totally new company moving to a foreign country, and I don't think we kind of expected it to go "boom", and just fly right in. Reflecting upon the company's move to the US: there is no other way to get to the level we are at, without first accepting where skateboarding was born from, and respecting that all the mags are driven from here also, it is hard to gain friends if you aren’t visible.Ī European based company cannot and will not be accepted across the whole of the USA unless they embrace those areas and live them, Flip is strong worldwide for this reason, plus running a business of this nature isn’t viable based in England, too costly. The things Flip/Deathbox did for England and the English skate scene should not be sneered at. People can consider us whatever they want but saying untrue negative things regarding these matters is just downright childish. Any ignorance was small and only served to make us stronger….and faster!!!" Despite the brand's foundation in the US, Rowley stated:Īll the company owners are still British citizens, one runs a large percentage of our workday directly from England for the last five years, I would say that makes us British until death. Rowley stated that Templeton and his company "opened their arms to us, gave us local support, and had our back. The company and its riders received significant support from professional skateboarder Ed Templeton, who owned his own company, Toy Machine. At the time of the relocation, the team consisted of four professional riders: Penny, Rowley, Glifberg and Andy Scott. Jeremy Fox, Ian Deacon and Geoff Rowley arrived in the US first, followed by team riders Tom Penny and Rune Glifberg in the following year. Relocation to the US įlip moved from the United Kingdom (UK) to California, US in July 1994. Tom Penny, Rune Glifberg, Andy Scott and Rowley joined the company while this name still existed. History Deathbox ĭeathbox Skateboards was started in 1987 in the UK by Graham McEachran, Jeremy Fox and Duncan Houlton. Starting in July 2017, the brand is distributed in Europe by HLC. The brand was distributed globally by US company NHS Inc. The company produces skateboard hard goods (decks, wheels, bearings, completes, and hardware), soft goods (T-shirts, tops, sweatshirts, hats, beanies, and socks), DVDs, and accessories. Flip Skateboards is a United States-based international skateboard company, co-owned by Jeremy Fox and Ian Deacon.
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