Image via Diamond Supply Co.
Two of the most influential and important brands in skate culture have combined for a historic capsule collection that celebrates their legacy in the bowl.
Diamond Supply Co. and Dogtown Skateboards have shaped skate culture, on and off the board, from the 1970s through to the present day. The two iconic brands, founded more than 20 years apart from one another, have more in common than that which divides them, with both having a reputation for innovation and going against the grain to shape and direct skate culture from its emergence in the 1970s, to its boom in the 1990s, to its current status as street culture's most expressive art form.
The story of Dogtown's legacy starts with the brand's founder, Jim Muir. The Californian pioneer was an original member of the Z-Boys skate team in the 1970s, which took inspiration from the movement, control and grace surfers made on the waves. “Skateboarding was totally underground when we started riding,’ says Muir on the Z-Boys emergence. ‘Our style was completely based on the surf scene; in Hawaii you had people like Larry Bertlemann, Mark Liddell and Montgomery “Buttons” Kaluhiokalani doing innovative things with low to the ground moves and we tried to emulate that."
The Z-Boys switched traditional clay wheels for urethane versions, giving the boards more agility, and they found an entirely new dynamic in the late 1970s. As droughts drained Los Angeles of its water, Muir and his crew took advantage of the city's empty swimming pools and developed a new style of self-expression in skating that has defined it ever since. Their story was immortalised in Stacy Peralta’s 2001 documentary 'Dogtown and Z- Boys'.
Muir went onto launch Dogtown Skateboards in the 1980s – taking its name from the "Dogtown" area of Santa Monica in the 1960s and 70s – and the brand was characterised by handmade boards and full-colour graphics that took inspiration from the street culture of LA at the time, including 'gang culture' and the emergence of multiculturalism. In the same way that Muir reinvented the way people skated 10 years earlier, he was now permanently reshaping how people looked while they skated, stamping the culture with style, attitude, and aggression.
Much like Dogtown, the story of Diamond Supply Co. is also one of innovation and pushing skate culture to unchartered territory. Founded in 1998 by Nick Tershay (a.k.a. Nick Diamond), the brand began from Tershay's one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco as a skateboarding hardware line.
Also producing lines of t-shirts, hats and stickers under the 'Diamond' name, the D.I.Y. brand became a cult legend in streetwear, with Tershay saying demand regularly outstripped production: "I would make 500 of each design and they would sell out right away. That was my problem, because I wouldn’t be able to make any shirts for months after that. But we always worked with what we had."
Nick built up a roster of professional skaters, becoming the official bolt provider for 30 of his friends, who also just happened to be the biggest skaters in the world. Now, Diamond Supply Co. is home to hundreds of skating’s biggest names – including Shane O’Neill, Nyjah Huston, Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, Boo Johnson and Torey Pudwill.
Diamond Supply Co. was catapulted into wider consciousness in 2005 when a collaboration with Nike introduced the brand – and skate style – to people outside of skate culture.
Two brands with such a legacy in skating collaborating on a new capsule collection makes perfect sense. In addition to their shared value of innovation, both brands are two of the few remaining owner-operated skate brands from that era, and both Jim Muir and Nick Tershay have spoken at length about their respect for eachother's work.
Nick Tershay has been looking for a reason to link up with Dogtown for a minute, saying: "Growing up skating in the late 80’s and 90’s, I always thought Dogtown was sick. Cardiel, Wade, Karma, J.J. Rogers, Dressen, Oster and Murray... It’s amazing to do this collab. Street skating and pool skating all transpired from the Dogtown era that came from surfing. They’re basically the founders of skateboarding as we know it today."
The DiamondxDogtown collection is available now online at diamondsupplyco.com and at select stores worldwide.
