Certainly you have heard someone say, “as American as baseball and apple pie;” but neither of those had their true origins in America. In reality, the saying could be “as American as skateboarding and Moon Pies”, both of which originated in the U.S.A., just on opposite ends of the country. Since we cover health and fitness, we’ll stick to the skateboarding and leave the Moon Pies for another day.
Even though skateboarding started in California in the 1950s, much of the production of parts and decks has been moved overseas. SHUT Skateboards of New York City has bucked this tread and continues to produce skateboard decks in the United States from American lumber.
Established in 1986, SHUT Skateboards has a bit of a checkered past. Starting as a garage type of operation by two New York skaters not satisfied with Californian boards, Rodney Smith and Bruno Musso set out to make and market a true NYC street skating board. It was a huge success, but with their success came a price and a detour away from the true goal of making this unique NYC board. Years had past, Bruno was gone and Rodney found himself starting and operating the very successful Zoo York line clothes with the person who drew the original SHUT logo, Eli Morgan Gesner, and his business associate, Adam Schatz. Realizing that their true dream was not street clothing, but skating, they sold Zoo York to Ecko Unlimited in 2006 and restarted SHUT Skateboards.
Priding themselves on producing the finest quality skateboard decks, SHUT Skateboard adamantly touts the fact that they are made in America. Currently they operate from their flagship store in New York City’s historical Lower East Side while their decks are manufactured in Maine from American Maple. Available in approximately 20 different styles and graphics, SHUT produces boards ranging in price from $52 to just under $70. Most have fairly subdued graphics, but there are quite a few by Eli Morgan Gesner that could be hung on a wall as works of art.
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Video: Channel 7 News in New York City did this piece on Shut Skateboards and why they are proud to make and sell all American goods.