Independent

Independent Skate Company is a skateboard truck manufacturer based in Santa Cruz, California established in 1978. The trucks are manufactured at the Ermico foundry, in the Bay area of San Francisco. The company was co-founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman, Fausto Vitello, and Eric Swenson in 1978, and the first set of trucks to make a public appearance was the Stage 1 on May 23, 1978 in Newark CA. According to original team rider Rick Blackhart, the Independent Truck (or Indy) was designed as a response to the lack of good skateboard trucks on the market at the time; Blackhart stated that, of the two main other truck companies on the market, 'one broke, and one didn’t turn', referring to Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively. The iconic logo for the trucks, the Alisee (often mistaken for the Iron Cross ), came out in 1979 when Pope John Paul II was wearing the icon on his vestment on the cover of TIME magazine June 18, 1979. It has remained the Independent logo since inception. The current model of Independent Trucks, the Stage X (also known as the "stage 10"), was released in 2008. The Independent Stage 9 Low truck was released on the 9 September 2006, as a lighter and lower profile version of the Independent compared to the regular Stage 9. Eric Koston left Royal Trucks and signed with Independent and helped finish the design of the Indy Low.[1] Independent sponsors amateur and professional skateboarders from all over the world. The Independent Trucks brand is owned and distributed by NHS, Inc. They have a clothing and accessories range, sell spare parts, and released a book titled “Built to Grind : 25 Years of Hardcore Skateboarding” in 2003 on the 25th anniversary of the brand. Lance Dawes is the current Team Manager, Keith Wilson is the current Brand Manager, and Mark Widmann is the current Art Director and Designer.