+ Art of Skateboarding Articles

GP: [laughter] Is that all? That’s actually a deceptively complicated question. I could probably speak to that for a long time in detail, but let me try to summarize the situation for you.
  When I first began making skateboards in 1976, I named the company, The Powell Corporation. In 1979, after Stacy joined me, we decided to market our company as Powell•Peralta, in honor of our successful partnership, Stacy’s fame, and his contributions to the company. Within a year, skateboarding tanked, and we entered our first "dark ages", during which we shrank to a small skeleton crew of "true believers".
  By 1983, a new generation of kids began to discover skateboarding, and our industry took off on its wild ride of the 1980’s, now known as the "golden age of skateboarding". By the beginning of the 1990’s, the shift in the focus of skateboarding our industry engineered in the mid 80’s was in full bloom, and many new companies were entering the industry to take advantage of the sport’s new focus.
  This caused great internal stresses within the Bones Brigade and Powell•Peralta. Ultimately, Stacy left, most of the original Brigade left to start new companies, and eventually Stacy asked us to remove his name from the company, which I of course did. We became Powell Skateboards and shrank to about 15% of our previous size.
  About 5 years ago, I reached out to Stacy in friendship, and attempted to resolve as many of our previous disagreements as possible, because I had gained perspective on our break-up, and wanted harmony and friendship between us. Since then, we have worked on a number of projects together, re-established the Powell•Peralta brand, and developed a new friendship and mutual respect. In honor of our relationship, the original Bones Brigade, and our mutual legacy, we have agreed to resume using the Powell•Peralta brand instead of Powell Skateboards, and to fold our contemporary products into Powell•Peralta’s offerings. This creates a unique company in our industry, one with both an unequalled legacy and reputation, and also contemporary, industry leading products. I believe we are stronger as one unique brand than as two complimentary brands, going forward.

GP: At the time, it just seemed like Stacy wanted to direct the company in one direction, and I had a different vision for it. Stacy saw a multi-brand manufacturing and distribution entity, and I saw a monolithic, continuation of what we had become. This began to cause frequent friction between us, and to create disharmony within the company, as its’ leaders sparred. Eventually, this polarized our relationship and forced a parting of the ways. At the time, it seemed to me, because of my self-inflated ego and inherent insecurity, like personal attacks and I could not get my mind around the real issues in a meaningful way. I wasn’t willing to reconsider my vision for our company and wanted it to remain as it was. Stacy wanted to provide a continuing ramp for the Brigade, by working with them to start their own brands, and I wanted us to retain our strength as one entity, fearing that by diffusing our marketing efforts, we would be diminished in the process. In retrospect, I believe Stacy was right, and that might have been a better way for us to go, and would have embraced the "camp motherhood" theme we had pioneered.
  After Stacy left, it was a nightmare for me. It was like a marriage breaking up. Suddenly each party has to do both their old jobs, and also the jobs done by their ex-partner. This was overwhelming for me.
  Product design has always been my forte, and I am still proud of what we contribute to skating through our innovative designs. Marketing is something Stacy was inherently gifted at, and he had a good partner in Craig Stecyk. They were sort of like the Prince and Machiavelli, but in a positive way. I loved to brainstorm with them to embellish their video and ad ideas, but I was only peripherally involved in that. I did run the art department though, and so we interfaced all the time graphically.
  The company suffered greatly as a result of Stacy’s leaving, and then from the loss of many of our top team members. It was another period I would characterize as a "dark ages" for our company, but I plodded on as best I could, because skateboarding had become my love and my career.