Celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, we wanted to release some boards to mark this milestone. This is the first series of boards from guest artists, more will be released later this year. We chose some of our favourite artists whose careers we feel are intertwined with us and our history. Picking the first four artists to collaborate with us was the easiest thing in the world. Their work, at different points in time has been an integral part of what we have to offer on our board wall. Each of these boards have completely different aesthetics yet each one is intrinsically relevant. We reached out to Tod Swank and he was on board straightaway…
Tod Swank’s contribution to skateboarding is immense and it is always a pleasure to receive drawings from him like we have many times. He hand gifted us all the Foundation moon and stars graphic and the company itself. We still run with the iconic Star graphic he drew for us and have treasured his past contributions. It was a pleasure watching this drawing of his make it’s way onto a board and it makes perfect sense laid over the wood stain. Tod’s artwork dates back to our earliest days and we are stoked with how this turned out, it was a pleasure working with him as always.
We had to ask Fos to do us a graphic. His early work is synonymous with Slam, from shop tags and ads through to the beginnings of Heroin. What he cooked up for us is perfect. He had this to say about it “My old pals at Slam City were kind enough to ask me to do a skateboard graphic for their 30 year anniversary. I worked at Slam warehouse from 1997 – 2002, and everyone from the shop used to get beers in the summer and sit outside the Diesel store. They used to call em Street Beers, It was something of a shop Tradition, my idea for the graphic really came from this, it’s as simple as that. So raise a street beer to all the Slam Employees past and present, long may that tradition continue”
Don Pendleton has designed some of our favourite graphics over the years, some of those Alien Workshop graphics are embedded in our memories. He had this to say about his graphic “I’m stoked to be involved in doing a graphic for Slam City Skate’s 30th Anniversary. We’ve both been around for about the same time…I’ve had the pleasure of watching Slam City grow and evolve and I couldn’t be happier that they’re still around doing what they do.
With this graphic, I just wanted to do something that was very classic and simple to honor their time in skating and I hope they’ll stick around for another 30 years”
Nick Jensen was another obvious choice. He is our longest serving team rider, sponsored by the shop when he was just 14 and switch flipping the Southbank seven on the regular. Nick’s work as an artist is incredible but it has been amazing watching him hone those skills with board graphics as the medium for Isle. We knew what he came back with would be great. This is what Nick had to say about his graphic “Jake Sawyer asked me to design a one off board graphic for Slam City Skates’ 30th birthday. I was really excited about this because I have been sponsored by Slam for well over 10 years now, and because I do designs for Isle I thought this would be a great opportunity to do something a bit different. I chose to go for a cassette tape with one of my favourite Smiths songs from The Smiths Album written on it. When i got on Slam I would have been listening to this Album skating around with my Walkman”
We made limited runs of these boards. Four other guest artists boards will follow nearer the end of the year. You can buy these and more from Slam City Skates HERE
The Slam City collaborations archive – 2022: Skate Shop Day 2021: Slam City Skates X Oliver Payne, Thrasher X Slam City Skates, Blast Skates X Slam City 2019: Slam City X RaD Archive, Slam City X RaD Launch Gallery, Slam City X RaD Archive – Curtis McCann by Winstan Whitter 2018: enjoi X Slam City with Ben Raemers, Gonz and Toby by Thomas Campbell and Mark Gonzales, Anti-Hero X Slam City with Raney Beres 2017: Dickies X Slam City – Fall 2017 with Tom Knox, Darius Trabalza and Neil Smith, Krooked X Slam City, DC X Slam City, DC X Slam City Southbank Gallery, DC X Slam City: Josh Kalis & Mike Blabac Interview, DC X Slam City: Josh Kalis ‘Memory Screen’ Remix 2016: Vans x Slam City ‘Lampin Pro’ & ‘Native American Pro’, Vans x Slam City Launch Gallery, HUF x Slam City Skates, HUF x Slam City Skates Launch Gallery, Slam City Skates X Spitfire Wheels, Dickies x Slam City Skates (Summer 2016) 2013: Vans Syndicate x Slam City, House of Billiam X Slam City, DC Kalis x Slam City 2012: Slam City x Converse CTS, Silas X Slam City Skates, Real x Slam City Skates, Slam City Skates x Spitfire Classics 2010: Emerica x Slam City “Laced”, Toy Machine x Emerica x Slam City 2008: Penfield x Slam City Skates 2007: WeSC x Slam City Skates 2006: Etnies x Slam City Skates 2005: Nike SB x Slam City Dunk