Skateboards and the sport of skateboarding is enjoyed by many children the world over. From Germany to Hong Kong to the kids in your neighborhood, skateboarding is part of the Generation X culture and a physical activity that many kids, and adults also, enjoy.

However, like any other physical activity, skateboarding does have its own dangers. If we do not recognize these potential dangers, and make our children aware of them also, there is a big possibility that our kids can get hurt while they are out riding their skateboards.

In this article, we will discuss three steps that we, as parents, family members, and adult supervisors can take to make sure that our kids are protected to the best extent possible.

Get Your Kids To Wear Pads and Gear

Most kids think that helmets look a little funny, and do not want to wear them because they thing that they look dorky with them on. Also, if they do not want to wear helmets, they will most likely not want to wear elbow pads and knee pads either.

While I do believe that children should be given a say and a choice in many matters that involve them, the decision of wearing protective gear while skateboarding is not an option in my household.

When you see a seven year old attempting big tricks and bombing steep hills trying to do the things that the big boys do, if you are a parent, you will most likely be scared for their well-being. Well, it is a parents personal choice whether or not to enforce this rule, but I do believe in enforcing it fully. I would like to spare myself as well as my child the horror of stitches and broken bones as much as I can.

Help Your Children to Be Modest About Their Abilities

Children often act and feel invincible. They sometimes think that they can do all sorts of stunts and tricks because they often do not have the fear of getting hurt or of falling. While this is not entirely bad, try to help you child see the need to be modest so as to not attempt a stunt that they cannot complete.

It is a bit of a hard thing to have a proper view of this and find the balance between modesty and cowardice for children, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. If the ramp is too steep or the hill too dangerous, there should be no shame at all in backing down.

Be Involved In Your Children’s Activities

It is always a good thing to get together and do activities as a family. The streets and roads in front of your house may not be a safe place for your children to skateboard on. Perhaps you can plan a family outing at a skate park or at a safer place where you can supervise your children while they are riding their skateboards.

Children love to show their parents what they are able to do, and if you take an interest in them, they will be happy if you show them that you are proud of them.

So be conscious of the need for protective gear, help you children to be modest, and be involved in your children’s lives. These are just three small steps you can take to make sure that your child is safe.

Avril Lavigne travels with a bag full of about 30 neck ties. Some of them Avril bought and the rest of ’em she just takes from her dad.

Avril Lavigne broke a record set by Madonna. Yup, the 17 year-old Canadian’s hit song, Complicated, held the number one spot on the Contemporary Hit Radio chart (which tracks air play on the radio) for 11 weeks in a row. Madonna previously held the record with her song Music which held onto number one for 10 weeks.

Avril Lavigne’s hittin’ the tube for an appearance this fall on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. What do ya think she’ll be doing? Performing of course. Avril will rock-out in a nightclub.

Avril Lavigne has a cameo in Treble Charger’s video for Hundred Million. Other groups who appear in the band’s video include Sum 41 and Swollen Members.

Avril got her first kiss one night in grade nine when her parents were away and a boi came over. The best time to catch Avril Lavigne singing her song Losing Grip is when she’s angry. “I really like performing it when I’m mad,” says Avril. “And I’m always mad at boys.”

Avril admitted to Rollingstone.com that she got into some fights one night. “The other night, I got into three fights,” says Lavigne. “I was at a club and some girl was giving me attitude. She pushed me and I got her down on the floor. Security came, and because I was on top, they threw me out.” Yikes! No wonder Avril Lavigne’s getting a bit of a rebel’s rep.

Avril Lavigne usually sports loose Dickies and she’s thin so they often fall down revealing her butt crack. If you caught the 2002 MMVA’s you may have got a glimpse of Avril’s backside again! Yes, Avril Lavigne does skateboard. She may not be Tony Hawk but she can handle a skateboard. Avril Lavigne knew she wanted to be a singer when she was just a little kid. Avril Lavigne was only 12 years old when she wrote her first song. Avril Lavigne also taught herself to play the guitar when she was 12. Avril Lavigne gets compared to Alanis Morissette (although it might just be cuz they’re both Canadian and female).

Avril Lavigne is good friends with Pink, Vanessa Carlton and Fefe Dobson Avril Lavigne enjoys camping, skateboarding, hunting and hockey. Avril is married to Derek Whibley from Sum 41. The couple also share a mansion in California! Avril wrote the Spongebob Squarepants theme song, as well as Kelly Clarkson’s song, Breakaway. In July 2007, it emerged that Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer from The Rubinoos were suing Avril over allegations she copied one of their songs. The pair claim Avril’s single Girlfriend is a copy of their song I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. The case will be heard in a Californian court on August 28, 2007.

Avril appeared topless on the front cover of the Blender magazine’s June 2007 edition, but she was not happy with it because she wanted it darker. Avril released her song Girlfriend with choruses in different languages, including Italian, Spanish, French, and Japanese. Avril sings the theme for the soundtrack of the movie Eragon, titled Keep Holding On.

Avril appeared in Butch Walker’s video for Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty), and Treble Charger’s video, Hundred Million. Avril and Deryck Whibley (of Sum 41) started dating in March 2004. The couple tied the knot on July 17, 2006 in Montecito, California. Avril’s wedding dress was designed by Vera Wang. Avril has been immortalized with her very own computer virus — the so-called Avril e-mail virus, which tries to lure users into opening its infected attachment by promising pictures of the popstar, went into circulation shortly after the Grammy nominations were announced. (January 14, 2003) Avril mispronounced David Bowie’s name when helping announce the Grammy nominees for best male rock vocal performance at Madison Square Garden. She pronounced Bowie’s name like Howie, while it’s supposed to be like “doughy.” (January 8, 2003) Paramount Pictures has optioned the song Sk8er Boi, and hired ER writer/producer David Zabel to adapt its words into a feature film to be produced by studio-based MTV Films and Alphaville. Avril once admitted to never having heard of The Sex Pistols.

Avril has a star tattooed on the inside of her left wrist, applied at the same time as friend and musical associate Ben Moody’s identical tattoo. In late 2004, she had a small pink heart-shaped tattoo featuring the letter ‘D’ applied to her right wrist – thought to be a reference to Deryck Whibley.

Avril wrote a song for her grandpa who passed away. The song, called Slipped Away, is on her second album Under My Skin. The position Avril plays in hockey is right wing and center. She has said in the past that she played hockey better than some guys when she was back in high school. Avril started playing guitar when she was about 10 years old. Avril broke a record set by Madonna. Her song Complicated held the number one spot on the Contemporary Hit Radio chart (which tracks air play on the radio) for 11 weeks in a row. Madonna previously held the record with her song Music, which held onto number one for 10 weeks. During a interview, Avril spotted a picture of herself and ripped it up, allegedly saying “I hate that f***ing photo!” All this happened while on air. According to Avril, she had permission to take the picture down – station personnel encouraged her to take it down.

Following Ashlee Simpson’s disastrous lip-synching appearance on Saturday Night Live, Avril remarked it was pathetic that some young artists don’t sing on their own record or on stage. In 2004, Avril was at the center of a row with bosses at MTV after she stuck her middle finger up live on air on Total Request Live. The origins of Avril’s name are French: Avril means April; La means The; Vigne means Vine. Avril has one dog, a miniature schnauzer named Sam.

Where have we been, where are we now and where is skateboarding going ?

The Beginning

If we’re going to try to figure out the future, it’s probably a good idea to head back first and see how this thing started.

It all began in the fifties, when Californian surfers started attaching roller skate wheels to planks of wood and riding down their local streets. Skateboard manufacturers started springing up in the early sixties and a new lifestyle was born.

Urethane skateboard wheels were invented in 1972 and are still used today. The mid 70s saw the first skateboard parks begin to appear which naturally spawned new styles of riding, new tricks and new boards as skaters went vertical. Also in the mid 70s, a new competitive scene was born when a slalom and freestyle contest was held at the Ocean Festival in Del Mar, California .The famous Zephyr team turned the skateboarding world on its head with their new aggressive approach to freestyle skating. In 1978 the most famous skate trick of all, the “Ollie”, was invented by Alan Gelfand (the 70s were a big decade for skating).

The 80s were a comparatively slow decade for skateboarding although there was a boost that came with the popularity of the VCR when the first skateboard videos were introduced. The Bones Brigade Video Show was particularly popular and made Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, and Kevin Staab household names amongst the skating fraternity.

The first Extreme Games were held in Rhode Island in 1995 and the skateboarding competition received a lot of attention leading to increased interest in the sport and raised its profile in the broader community. Skateboarding was also part of the first Winter X games in ’97 and competitive skateboarding had truly become mainstream.

The biggest thing to hit skateboarding in the 2000s is the massive popularity of the video game console. Skateboarding games lend themselves well to the format and there have been smash hit video games every year in the 2000s. A new generation of skaters was born as kids traded their console controllers for the real thing.

The Future of Skateboarding

Competitive skateboarding will be established as a legitimate mainstream sport in much the same way as surfing and surf culture. Just a few decades ago, surfers were looked down upon as untrustworthy reprobates. These days parent don’t think twice about wandering into the surf stores that exist in every shopping mall and loading up on clothes with surf labels for their offspring, who mightn’t even know what a beach looks like. Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Billabong are all trusted global brands now. Like it or not, watch for skating to go the same way. We’ll see mindblowing tricks leveraging energy and athleticism that would seem unimaginable today. Skate heroes will go mainstream and expect to see a much more advanced global competitive scene. Once again it’s instructive to take a look at surfing’s path. The competitive surfing scene floundered for decades before getting its act together in the late 80s, when the brave step was taken to give ultimate control of the sport to a single governing body. A new man-on-man format was introduced and contests were taken to the best waves at the best time of the year. The overall good of the sport finally overcame parochialism and commercial interest and poor, uncompetitive contests were discarded. Now, surfing has hit the big time – it has sophisticated, multi-tiered competitive scene with massive media coverage. Can skating go the same way ? Yes, if it allows itself to.

When it comes to local ramps and skate parks, expect bigger walls, bigger bowls and more of them. As the current generation of skaters grows up and gets its turn to have a say in council spending and infrastructure, well it’s good news for skaters who like parks and ramps.

Technology will impact skateboards in the same way that it’s hitting so many other products. Stronger, lighter materials will appear and the rapid distribution of information means that board and truck design will advance even faster. The impact of the internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for the local skateboard shop. Ecommerce growth rates are huge and more people are keen to buy skateboards online. The web allows a distribution model that effectively puts the consumer closer to the skateboard warehouse. If you long for the old days of the 70s wooden plank, then this mightn’t do much for you but if you’re kid on a limited budget, it’s all good news. Expect better, more technically advanced products at lower prices.

If skateboarding follows the same lines as other markets, then we might see further consolidation amongst the big brands, similar to Billabong’s acquisition of Sector 9. Other big players in today’s skateboard market are brands like Birdhouse, Girl, Zero, Plan B, Element and Blind. There’s a fair chance we could see a large company buy up a stable of big skate brands to get the pricing benefit that comes with volume, which can obviously help with product pricing but doesn’t always result inoriginal product design and creativity (when was the last time Ford or GM came out with a cool product ?). In any market, if the big get bigger, then opportunities arise for small players to carve out their own niche for local markets and buyers who are less brand conscious.

Maple is still the premium construction material for decks but surely the day is approaching when maple will be superceded, at least for some styles of board. New styles of boards will continue to emerge – the humble skateboard of the early days has already evolved into longboards, cruisers, retro boards, pool boards, old school and mountain boards. As well as lighter, stronger trucks and better quality wheels, there’ll be new deck plan shapes and original artwork.

So there you have it, a quick look at the past and a peek into the future – and the future looks good!

The Fallen legacy began with its creator Jamie Thomas. Jamie was born in 1974, beginning his skating career at age 11 when he allegedly started skating to and from school each day. After developing his skills for some years, Thomas picked up his first sponsorship in 1992 when he signed on to Deluxe. The signing was a catalyst for a move to San Francisco, where Thomas turned pro for Experience Skateboards. The company was short lived, forcing Thomas south to the San Diego area where he began riding for Invisible Skateboards. Fame began here as Jamie picked up parts in Spitfire and Invisible videos, and was even featured on the cover of Transworld. Riding this momentum, he moved on to the film industry with production roles for Toy Machine and eventually Zero Films.

Thomas began Zero in 1996 as a small clothing company. Able to utilize his contacts with Toy Machine’s distribution channels, he began his business career when this company continued to grow, and eventually evolved into Zero skate boards. While working on Zero Films, Thomas performed the legendary “Leap of Faith” in the video “Thrill of it All”. The Leap of Faith features Thomas attempting a melon grab over 20-foot drop to flat ground pavement that eventually became famous in the skating community.

Following his hand in production, Jamie took his career in skating to the next level after becoming the owner and president of Black Box Distribution company in 2000. Black Box is the parent company of Zero, Mystery, Fallen and $lave. Jamie was featured in many of the Tony Hawk skateboarding video games, cementing is place in skating history. Currently, he is the proud husband to Joanne Thomas and father of three children: Julien, James, and Maximus.

Walk into any party store and you’ll find dozens of various birthday party theme ideas, from American Idol to Zoology. But the thing is they’ve all been done a thousand times before. Maybe you don’t want same old, same old. You want something different. More importantly, you’d like the theme to reflect your Christian beliefs – which Hannah Montana or Tony Hawk just can’t do.

Why not throw your son or daughter a Christian-themed party? Since you likely won’t find these themes in party stores, it will take a little more planning. But with some thought and a little extra time, you’re sure to end up with a fun and unique party that will be a hit with kids and parents, alike.

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

NOAH’S ARK. Know someone who has a boat you can borrow or rent for the day? Invite your child’s friends to a party on Noah’s ark. Dress up your child as Noah and have the guests come dressed as their favorite animal. No boat available? No problem! Create your own boat in the basement or party room. Decorate with cut-out animals, rainbows and other Noah’s Ark accessories.

Another option: If it’s a summer birthday and the weather permits, hand out rain slickers and turn on the sprinklers for forty-minutes of fun in the “rain.”

PRINCESS. Who needs to dress up like Cinderella or Snow White? Your little girl is a child of the True King – so treat her like the genuine princess she is! Invite all of her friends to the palace for a royal celebration. Have lots of gowns, high heeled shoes, and white elbow gloves on-hand for dress-up. Tiara’s are definitely required.

BIBLE CHARACTER. Great for any age. Have guests dress up like their favorite Bible character. For the first game, play “ten questions” and allow kids to ask “yes or no” questions to see if they can discover which Bible character their friends are portraying. If you’d rather not play dress up, a game option is to pin a Bible character name to each guest’s back. Then have guests mingle and ask questions about their character to try and guess who they are.

THE AMAZING CHURCH RACE. This is a great party idea for older kids who can drive. If under age, designate a driver for each team car. Have teams race (within the speed limit, of course!) to a few different churches in the area and perform tasks, as they would for a scavenger hunt. Maybe they will have to get a bulletin from the secretary, take a digital photo of a staff member, or get the name of the Youth Pastor. If churches are closed, require a digital photo of the church itself as proof that they performed their task.

POPULAR VIDEO CHARACTERS. With the many Christian videos on the market, some kids are bent on a specific character party. 1-2-3 Penguins, Hermie, Adventures in Odyssey, and Life at the Pond are all video-based themes you can base your party around. And, of course, Veggie Tales is one of those Christian based theme you will find at the average party store.

Use these ideas as springboards for your own creativity. Plan a party for your child that kids won’t only enjoy, they’ll be talking about it for a long time to come.

So, you’ve seen all the tricks, stunts and maneuvers that world famous skateboarders such as Tony Hawk have pulled off over the years, and you’ve decided that you want to be a skateboarder yourself. Congratulations! Not only is skateboarding fun and a great way to stay in shape (really, it is), but, should you become good enough and talented enough, you can actually make a nice and profitable living as a professional street or trick skateboarder. Just imagine when you fill out an application form for a credit card, and you come to the box where it asks for your occupation – and you write in professional skateboarder. That sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Now, before you embark on your skateboarding career, there are probably a few things that you should know about skateboards and the skateboard culture itself. Even though it’s only been around for approximately sixty years (give or take a few), skateboarding has simply exploded from an underground activity into a mainstream pop-culture phenomenon. Terms such as trucks, grip tape, decks, wheels and more are now understood by people who aren’t necessarily heavily into the activity of skateboarding. For the most part, people who skateboard are a fun-loving, easy-going sort who simply love life and don’t take themselves too seriously – even though they take skateboarding very seriously.

In its simplest and most basic form, skateboarding is nothing more than riding or pulling off stunts on a skateboard. That’s it, really. However, as with many other things in life, there is much more to skateboarding that simply standing on a deck and rolling along the street. Skateboarding requires a great amount of skill, strength and balance. Without having strong physical attributes, you won’t be able to skateboard for a great distance or for a great amount of time. In that sense, skateboarding is much like riding a bike – it’s all about practice, practice and more practice. You have to learn to twist and shift your body weight, how to stop, accelerate, turn and more. Remember, nobody picks up anything on the first try, so it’ll take some time before you really are able to master the skateboard. But, with a little practice and a lot of patience, you’ll be able to do it!

Another thing to remember about skateboarding is that the world really is your canvas. If you’re talented, skilled and daring enough, you and your skateboard can literally go anywhere and do anything. From navigating busy city streets to grinding down rails to everywhere in between, a top skateboarder never looks at anything in his or her way as a barrier. Rather, they look at obstacles as opportunities to expand their own limits and skills. And, over a period of time, you can too! The great thing about skateboarding is that, it doesn’t really matter if you’re young or old. If you have a passion for trying and learning as much as you can about it, then you’ll soon be able to – at the very least – attempt all the tricks and moves that your favorite skateboarders perform on a regular basis.

Skateboarding is and can be a very fun and interesting sport to participate in. Skateboarding, can be done on a amateur level or done on a professional level. For instance Tony Hawk, he has made millions of dollars, from just skateboarding.

There are a few different types of skateboards and skateboarding, such as street, park, all terrain or cruising. You can make your own skateboard or you can buy them already made. If you decide to construct your own, it will be something you made with your own creativity. If you decide to buy one that is already made, then you need to decide what type or brand of skateboard you want and what will work the best for you. Skateboarding is all about expression and doing things your own way.

Before you actually buy or construct the skateboard you should be aware of your height or if you are buying it for someone else, you should know that persons height. This helps to determine how long of a skateboard you or the person will need. Most skateboards in general are 7.5″ to 8″ wide but you can buy a wider or narrower board if you prefer.

Once you have the basic size in mind that you want, you can tweak it a little depending on what you want to do with your board. If you want to skateboard transition, or if you want to ride a lot of ramps or spend most of your time riding at the skate park, then a wider board is a good choice (8″ wide or more). If you want to ride around streets more, and do more technical tricks with your board then try to keep it under 8″ wide. If you are looking for a skateboard to cruise around on, and don’t plan on branching into tricks too much, then a bigger, wider board is always better.

Skateboarding can be dangerous and anyone who is going to ride a skateboard should always where protective equipment such as a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads. Skateboarding can cause broken bones so everyone and anyone who is planning on taking on skateboarding as a sport should always take caution and wear their protective gear. If you are planning on trying skateboarding, then you should start out slow. Don’t rush into it because that is how you may get hurt.

There are many places out there where you can find skateboarding amusement park rides. You are in for a great adventure with them as well. Even if you don’t skateboard you should give them a try. They are great fun for the entire family. The one downside that I have noticed are the lines though. When you get to the amusement park head to them first so that you won’t end up having to wait as long.

In Denver Colorado at Elitch Gardens there is the Half Pipe. This is a fun ride that looks like a giant skateboard. There are people strapped in a circle at two different points on the skateboard. As it moves rapidly from side to side and upwards, the people will be spinning. The feeling that you get when you are coming back down is like floating on air. Many people that get off this ride head right back to the line to ride it again!

At many of the Six Flags locations including Arlington and San Antonio in Texas you will find the Tony Hawk ride. As a person that loves roller coasters I can tell you that this is one of the best of them. It adds new elements that go beyond a traditional roller coaster. If you haven’t ridden one of them then you are definitely missing out. Make sure you take the time to go there when you are in Texas as it is something you will never forget.

Instead of getting into a seat for one or two people, you get into a type of cart. There is room for four people, two on each side and facing each other. Then the roller coaster takes off and moves very fast through flips and turns. What is so unique though is that at the same time this top portion is spinning in various directions. So you never know if you are going to see the turn or loop ahead or be going into it backwards. Each time you ride it, you get a new experience.

The Tug and Turn is a concept that is in the works right now as well. The designer is getting lots of interest in it so it is hard to tell where these particular skateboarding rides will end up. You may have to look online to keep up on what is being developed and where they are going to be in place. This should prove to be a very exciting design though that is going to raise the bar for this type of thrill ride.

You can be sure there will be more skateboarding thrill rides added out there as well. They seem to be a huge hit. They help bring some new people to the skating element as well. It is fun to see people of all ages enjoying these rides. Many of them get off and have a new appreciation for the thrill of this particular sport as well.

The response that these particular skateboarding thrill rides have gotten are encouraging designers to come up with more of them. They always want to offer new designs that are faster and more of a thrill for people. These types of attractions can generate lots of sales for theme parks as well. With the economy right now they need to do all they can to get people to come in and spend the day.

With new rides like these children will be encouraging their parents to take them. Some worry though that these new rides will cause the prices to increase. So far though that hasn’t been the case at all.

Skateboarding is a very popular worldwide action sport that involves riding and performing tricks on a skateboard. Believe it or not the skateboarding industry is a 4.6-billion-dollar industry and there’s believed to be over 11 million active skateboarders. Just recently it was announced that skateboarding will be in the 2020 Olympics.

There are two different types of skateboards. There is a longboard and short board. Longboards are very different then short boards because longboards are like the name very long and also have big wheels which allows for cruising at greater speeds. On the other hand, short boards have more of a concave for pop and are smaller and are more ideal for tricks instead of just riding.

It’s been said that skateboarding was created in California but nobody really knows. Skateboarding was created in the late 40’s early 50’s by surfers that wanted to something to do when the waves were flat. The first manufactured skateboard was ordered by a Los, Angeles surf shop meant to help surfers use their surfing maneuvers on land. They used boards shaped like surfboards and carved around the streets and local pools that were empty. The old school boards were a square wooden board with wheels on it. In the 1970’s skateboarding blew up there were more companies that were manufacturing boards and it was becoming really popular. Skaters were riding empty pools like they were surfing a wave which created a revolution in skateboarding. In this time there were a lot of competitions in the California and Florida regions which most of the time the rewards were cash and sponsorships by companies. I would say in the 2000’s skateboarding really took off and became one of the most popular action sports in the world. Also the technology for making boards was better so instead of wooden shape boards with simple designs the boards were becoming more sophisticated. In the sense of the boards were being made with more concave which helps for jumping and grinding rails.

There are two different kinds of skateboarding, street and vert. Vert is the act of riding a skateboard on a skate ramp or an incline which involves transitioning from horizontal plane to vertical plane. The place that skateboarders usually skate vert is at a skate park which is a park designed for skateboarding that has ramps, rails, and other obstacles that skateboarders will be able to hit on a skateboard. The most famous vert skateboarder which everyone in the world knows about this guy is Tony Hawk. He’s famous for getting massive air on huge vert ramps and also he’s the first skateboarder to successfully land a 900 spin on a vert ramp. On the other hand, street skating is much different then vert whereas instead of skateboarding at a skate park skaters use the street as their park.

For example, skaters would try to ollie (jumping on a skateboard) over stairs and attempt to grind handrails that are going down the stairs. As a skater once you have this mindset of the things you can hit you will never lose that thinking. When street skating one doesn’t have to hit stairs but could hit ledges that are everywhere or wall ride a random wall. There is a lot of controversy over this because a lot of skateboarders get arrested or called the cops on because business or people think skateboarders are destroying their property. Which in most cases is not true but I could see why they don’t want skateboarders doing it because grinding down a handrail does leave scratches on the rail. That’s why skateboarders have such a bad stereotype of being destructive savages.

Skateboarding has become a popular extreme sport that is far removed from its days in the underground. Skateboarding is now part of mainstream culture with all aspects of the skating lifestyle infiltrating our everyday lives. From Tony Hawk computer games to The Simpsons movie it has become part of popular culture. One of the big success stories of skateboarding has been the transition of skate clothing brands into high street stores. Skate clothing brands from Vans, Etnies shoes and Volcome clothing can all be found in high street sports shops.

Clothing brands like Volcome clothing and Vans shoes were originally founded by people that were involved in sports like skating and surfing. Thanks to their understanding of these sports it has allowed them to produce skate clothes that meet the needs of the average skateboarder and fit in with the skate clothes style. This has resulted in many of the top clothing brands producing innovative designs that have attracted the attention of those outside of their key demographic.

Etnies shoes are a skateboarding brand that was started by a professional skateboarder from France and Volcome clothing was started by a couple of skate and snowboarding fans. Etnies shoes have gone on to produce some of the most respected and trusted skate shoes whilst Volcome have become the choice brand of the slopes with the Volcome snow range. Both these skateboarding clothing brands are proof that by designing clothes and footwear to increase performance for a specific sport you can create a successful clothing brand. DC Skate Shoes are another skate clothing brand that spends a large amount of research and development of DC footwear.