NOTE's Woodshop Guide and Directory
According to Skateboarding’s “favourite” forum Slap Magazine, over 90% of skaters say the woodshop a brand use for their skateboard decks impacts their decision when buying a board. While we wouldn’t normally take Slap Forum users as a valid sample for skaters views, It does beg the question who uses which woodshop and are you missing a trick when buying your decks, do you have a favoured woodshop you don’t know about?*
We thought we’d try and shed some light on the situation.
While there is a lot of mystery around woodshops, having some nuggets of knowledge could make it clear that some decks have traveled a long old way before you’re shredding them, brands are sharing the same shapes with different prices and why your favoured decks may have “fell off” randomly.
There are loads of woodshops out there so we won’t go into all of them but we’ve compiled a handy list of the woodshops the brands we stock use - scroll to the bottom if you’re not down to hear us waffle on about deck manufacturing.
Just a slight stipulation, some brands keep their cards close to their chests. so please take any of these with a grain of proverbial salt.
*All jokes aside we do need to shout out SLAP Forum for providing the majority of the info in this blog - We salute you Slap users.
BBS and Generator
BBS originally Bare Back Skateboards (understandable why they use the initials instead) and their distributor Generator are titans of the skate industry. Surprisingly not loads of information from these guys but based on the list of brands using their skateboard decks the product must speak for itself.
BBS distributed by Generator make their skate decks in Mexico but do their printing, transferring, packaging & distribution in Oceanside California. They have been producing decks for over 25 years. It’s believed that bigger brands will deal with BBS directly (maybe with more sway regarding custom shapes etc) while smaller brands go through Generator and their more standardised shapes.
This explains why some brands seem to have the exact same skateboard decks, in terms of size and shape, as other brands in the industry.
Notable brands:
PS Stix
When skaters think about skateboard woodshops, we’re certain a good majority think of Professor Schmitt (AKA Paul Schmitt - who knows whether he’s a legit professor) the founder of PS Stix.
Yes he looks a bit like a mad scientist but Paul schmitt’s PS Stix has been going for over 35 years and is easily one of the most well known and successful woodshops in the world. Thanks to this longevity but also because he was the head honcho at New Deal Skateboards, you can actually trace back modern shapes and sizes to Professor Schmitt. It’s been said that PS stix produce skate decks in the US, Mexico and maybe China although this isn’t 100% confirmed.
Like BBS (feel free to comment with other things BBS might stand for), PS Stix are a huge provider of decks to the industry, in fact Professor Schmitt and his minions claim to have made over 19 million skate decks - by our standards that’s quite a lot.
Notable brands:
DSM woodshop distributed by Dwindle.
Ok… There’s been a lot of drama surrounding Dwindle of late but from what we could see their woodshop is still very active.
Designed and Built for Skateboarders, by Skateboarders is the DSM motto. We’re sure a few woodshops could say the same, one interesting thing we saw on their website was that they press deck one at a time while an industry standard is 5+. Why does this matter? I hear you peck.
Well, when a shop presses multiple decks at the same time in the same mold this can create 5 slight different variations of the same deck but pressing one at a time ensures that every deck pressed is the exact same. Dwindle also mention their molds are somewhat special but I think that’s enough manufacturing talk for now.
While they’re not rivaling the likes of PS Stix and BBS they are a big woodshop in the industry that produce decks that are good value for money due to (anecdotally) stiffer decks which retain their stiffness for longer. That’s probably enough talk of stiffness too.
Notable brands:
HLC
HLC started in 2000 in Basque Country in Spain. One of main european woodshops producing Skateboard Decks and as of 2023 now produce trucks and wheels.
Checking out their website they’re open about their drive for sustainability using well sourced maple and investing in green energy and even using solar panels to power production.
These guys are a juggernaut in the EU and have been providing european shops and brands high quality decks for over two decades. They have established themselves as one of europe’s leading woodshops and now provide EU manufacturing and distribution for US brands.
Notable brands:
Control (canada)
Founded in 1995 by Carl Savard who, after a car accident, used his compensation money to start up his own skate deck manufacturing business in Quebec. At one point in the woodshops history, they also opened Quebec’s only indoor skatepark. Considering Maple tree are native to Canada, we’re surprised there aren’t more major woodshops in Canda but either Control is flying the flag for the country.
Notable brands:
China
As with a lot of other industries, much of the production and manufacturing in the skateboard industry has moved to Chinese factories and woodshops. This definitely doesn’t mean a decrease in quality but it has added to the mystery of woodshops as brands are even less likely to divulge which company they are working with.
Some people have said that quality control has been lacking in chinese woodshops but the majority of these claims are anecdotal and the truth is people don’t know about their manufacturing process not too dissimilar to the companies using woodshops in mexico.
It is now common practice that brands use different workshops around the world to service different regions and skateboard deck types (entry level quality to pro models).
One woodshop we saw a lot of was Dailan Huahong. Here are some notable brands working with them:
Other woodshops
We could rabbit on all day about all the smaller woodshops but in general all there is to say is that they tend to be smaller operations working at different price points but importantly working in the USA, something the large woodshops can’t say.
Some honourable mentions are both Gnosis and A Third Foot both of which have now ceased trading but were both based in the UK and definitely played a huge role in providing skate decks in the UK and rest of Europe.
Check out the full list of our brands below (list up to date as of 8 July):
Note: For brands with multiple suppliers with a * after their name, any that have changed should have the older one with -2020 and the new one with 2021+ or something similar, which should make it easier to know which is the current supplier. Also for some continents / countries who have different suppliers, they will be shown with (EU) after the brand name.
By Brand
By Woodshop
If you want to see the full list head over to Slap Woodshop Thread.
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