Top 5 Skate Brand Mutinies

Skateboarders can be a fickle bunch, so it's no surprise that people are constantly jumping between brands. Luckily for us though, some of the best brands to ever exist came from skaters deciding to jump ship and do their own thing.

Have a read below to (hopefully) learn a bit about the tumultuous history of skateboarding. 

Blind

Arguably one of the first major events in the skate industry revolution led by Steve Rocco, Blind was founded in 1989 when street skating pioneer, Mark Gonzales, decided to leave one of the biggest skate brands at the time: Vision. Gonz approached Rocco saying he wanted to start his own brand, and naturally they decided on the name Blind as it's the polar opposite of Vision. Gonz was later joined by Jason Lee, Guy Mariano, Jordan Richter, and Rudy Johnson, who quickly went on to establish their legendary status with their first offering, 'Video Days'. Good things don't last forever though as Gonz eventually ended up leaving Blind, and it's kinda been downhill since then.

Plan B

Founded in 1991 by former H-Street manager Mike Ternasky, Plan B was intended to be a skateboarding 'super team' featuring all the best skaters in the game. When he left H-Street, Ternasky managed to convince a bunch of their skaters to jump ship with him, including Matt Hensley, Danny Way, and Mike Carroll, so their dreams of having the best team were pretty much a reality. When they dropped their first video, 'Questionable', in 1992, it's safe to say they raised the bar for street skating with countless bangers that are still bonkers today. Tragically, Ternasky died in a car crash in 1994 and Plan B later got put on pause in 1998 which was basically the end of Plan B as it was known then, even though it was later rebooted.

Girl

What goes around comes around, as the saying goes, and just as Plan B was born out of H-Street, several Plan B skaters later split off to form Girl. Way back in 1993, Mike Carroll and Rick Howard - with the help of Spike Jonze and Megan Baltimore - made the decision to leave Plan B, and the whole World Industries camp, to form their own brand where they could just focus on skating and having fun rather than having to try keep up with the elitist mentality of Plan B and the chaotic antics of Steve Rocco.

At first, the boys tried to keep Girl a secret from Rocco to spare themselves from his wrath, only teasing the existence of Girl by wearing Girl tees while on a Plan B tour. This didn't last long though, Rocco was obviously tamping when he found out and tried to get them blacklisted from distributors and woodshops causing their first run of boards to get cancelled midway through production. Rocco's brother, Sal, even formed Bitch Skateboards just to have a dig at the Girl crew through their ads and graphics in true Rocco fashion. I guess Girl had the last laugh though as Girl went on to become one of the most beloved brands of all time and they're still going strong today, whereas Plan B has gone seriously downhill.

Sour Solution

For the first time on this list, this mutiny has nothing to do with Steve Rocco or World Industries! Instead, this story takes us to the wintry depths of Sweden where there lived a brand named Sweet. Boasting some of the biggest legends from Scandinavia - including Koffe Hallgren, Daniel Spangs, Josef Scott Jatta, and Gustav Tonnesen - the brand started to get increasingly corporate and wack as the company grew in size and attracted new investors. Not satisfied with the direction of the company, the boys decided to split off and start their own venture where they could focus on skating and basically just do what they wanted. In the spirit of Blind contrasting themselves to Vision, they decided to name themselves Sour as it's the opposite of Sweet. Not bitter at all. Much like Girl, Sour have blossomed into one of the best brands in the game right now while Sweet has faded into obscurity, although apparently they're still big in Sweden.

Limosine

One of the most recent scandals in the skate scene, hot new brand, Limosine, was formed when the Call Me 917 team decided to collectively jump ship. Conflicts arose due to an apparent lack of leadership from 917's founder, Alex Olson, and the fact that he didn't want to let people make their own graphics because he thought they looked shit (kinda ironic seeing the state of some of 917's recent graphics and the fact that Limosine is pretty #OnTrend).

This is probably one of the most thorough mutinies on this list, as almost everyone from the 917 team, including the filmer, went straight over to Limosine (although loads of their other skaters had already been poached by FA/Hockey at this point), leaving poor old Alex Olson very lonely indeed. Kind of a shame because the 917 videos were certified bangers, but luckily Limosine's videos share a similar vibe. Plus, Limosine have Nelly. We love Nelly.

That's enough chit-chat though. Head to the shop to browse the latest skate product and buy now from CSC. Or, check out more Top 5's on the CSC Blog. Safe.