Almost Skateboards
Original logo
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| Private | |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | El Segundo, California, U.S. |
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Key people
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Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song |
| Products | Skateboard Decks, equipment, apparel, accessories |
| Website | http://www.almostawebsite.com |
Almost Skateboards is a U.S. skateboard company founded by professional skateboarders and business partners, Daewon Song and Rodney Mullen. The company manufactures skateboard decks using 7-ply, 8-ply, and carbon fiber constructions, while the decks are bound with resin epoxy glue. As of November 2014, the brand is distributed by Dwindle Distribution.
Almost Skateboards was started in 2003 by Mullen and Song after both had ceased participating in their previous companies, enjoi and Artafact, respectively. Mullen explained in July 2014 that he knew in his "heart" that the founder of enjoi, Marc Johnson, wanted to leave the company. After he received the news from a friend of Johnson's, Mullen—who had been thinking about collaborating with Song prior to Johnson's departure, as the pair had been skateboarding together over a long period of time—called Song:
I wanted so badly to do something with Daewon [Song]—Daewon was my first call: "Oh man, I have bad news ... but I got some other news. I got this idea—you wanna do something together? Start something new?" And, I could hear the excitement in Daewon's voice. So, that's why it started: I'd been wanting to do it for so long! But, opportunity never really came up—until then.
The initial team also consisted of Cooper Wilt, Chris Haslam, Ryan Sheckler, Greg Lutzka. The Almost: Round Three video featured all of the brand's original team riders and was released in 2004 to launch the brand.
Lewis Marnell was introduced as the company's first amateur in 2006 through a bonus part included with the company's Cheese and Crackers video—the second Almost video release—that features Song and Haslam on a mini-ramp structure—Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" is the soundtrack to Marnell's part.
Sheckler left Almost to join the newly reformed Plan B Skateboards team in January 2007.Torey Pudwill was announced as the company's new amateur in 2007, and both he and Marnell were promoted to the professional ranks in 2008. For Marnell's professional inauguration, Song and videographer Socrates Leal filmed a spoof video part to welcome Marnell. The video, entitled "Almost Filmer Asshole", is shot through the lens of a "poacher" (someone who is attempting to film footage of another skateboarder—usually a professional skateboarder—when that person has not been given permission to do so) who throws Marnell's first professional Almost skateboard deck into the view of the camera, upon being caught by Song and Leal; the video was published on the Almost website and YouTube. Marnell's first board graphic featured a lion waving a Rastafarian flag.
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Wikipedia