Cruising through the years with Lewis…again.

In increasingly turbulent economic times for the skateboard industry people are turning more and more to smaller independent board companies with their consumer dollars, choosing to turn over hard-earned cash to the people in their own scenes rather than the larger more established brands. But while the Polars, Magentas, and Palaces of the world have sprung up in the past few years and risen to prominence, these brands are simply filling in the gaps left by the larger more established companies who have been spreading their own aesthetic too thinly in an attempt to have a greater mass appeal.

Far more interesting to me, and I believe essential to the skateboard scenes in towns and cities across the world, are the truly independent Skateboard companies. Those that are driven purely by the sacrifices made people behind them, at a scale to do only marginally more than provide for those who support what they are doing. These companies do not always turn a regular or substantial profit, they don’t always stay so small and local forever, sometimes they don’t last for more than a fleeting run. But whatever the case may be it is al intrinsically connected to the direct support of the scenes that bore them.

Lewis Cruise is a prime example of one such company, impossibly easy to support with excellent art direction and aesthetic, everything done by hand from screening to sewing, backed by a hard-working and tight-knit crew, standing tall in the face of creative differences and imitators. They are the real deal and they deserve your support but at a minimum they demand your attention.