SANTA CRUZ
Santa Cruz is one of the first and most successful brands on the skate community. It was founded on the early 1970’s, in Santa Cruz, California by three friends: Richard Novak, Doug Haut & Jay Shuirman. The initial name of the company was NHS Inc. (Novak, Haunt, Shuirman), and it was operating a “raw materials” business in Santa Cruz, California that supplied the materials used to create surfboards. Following a particularly negative business interaction with an unpaying customer, they received what we could now consider a “historic” phone call from McCully’s Bike Shop in Hawaii. The shop requested that NHS create and produce an order of 500 skateboards. They accepted the order and it was in 1973 that Santa Cruz Skateboards was officially born. While the 1970’s could be regarded as a successful period in Santa Cruz history, the skateboarding industry met it’s first real “downfall” in the early 1980’s. In addition to founder Jay Shuirman passing away due to Leukemia, the current skateboarding magazines went out of business, skateparks closed, and overall participation in skateboarding dropped so the brand faced its’ first crisis. But, it managed to rise again from its’ ashes, with the addition of freelance artist Jim Phillips to the team. Last but not least, Santa Cruz has been one of the ancestors in the dissemination of the skate culture by designing not only hard wear material but also fashion pieces with unique aesthetic and quality!
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