In the 1980s, Powell-Peralta dominated skateboarding like no other company, before or since. Not only did it have the finest riders in the world—Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero, and Mike McGill formed the core of the Bones Brigade in its heyday—but it was also the skateboard company most responsible for bringing the sport to a larger audience with its forward-thinking marketing and advertising campaigns. Its print advertisements in particular, absurdist works of art in their own right that sold the irreverent culture of skateboarding more than any Powell-Peralta product, did much to make skateboarding the force for creativity it is today.
We recently spoke with Powell-Peralta co-founder Stacy Peralta about the witty, snarky ads he concocted with the company's resident mad genius Craig Stecyk. Read on for Stacy's thoughts on burning cars and embracing bad press, and be sure to catch Peralta's new documentary on the Bones Brigade, Autobiography, available here.