Ultra Flex Primo Alley Cat
December 16th, 2009 by kilwag
Ultra Flex. I’ve never heard of this company before, but they made skateboards and Primo brand wheels. The parent company was actually Special Products, a division of something called I.I.I., located in San Diego. I couldn’t find anything definite for them via google. They must have spent some cash on this brochure though. In the 70’s you couldn’t get a 1000 full color brocures for $100. You had to have the photos set up in a studio, pay for the color separations, type setting and professional film developing. Plus there was stat camera graphic work too, none of this scanning and resizing in Photoshop, and then emailing a PDF. It was all done mechanically, and this would have been expensive.
This is an eight panel brochure. This is the cover and the back cover. Click to enlarge.
These two panels are the first thing you see when you open it. I love how they stamped “VOID” on the offer to “Buy three and get one free!” I wonder if they actually meant individual wheels and not sets.
Here are two pages of aluminum boards, both made by the Reynolds Aluminum company, you know, the same company that makes Reynolds Wrap! It says triple I beam construction. I’d like to get a look at one of the bottom of these boards. The Primo comes with sealed bearings while the Ultra Flex comes with loose bearings, and is also available for OEM purchases. They like to point out that these aluminum skateboards are reflective at night, as if that would be some huge safety benefit if you caught on the streets after dark.
The Alley Cat is the “value added” lineup, and is available in fiberglass and molded plastic, both with loose bearings. Funny thing about the term “Value Added,” in reality it usually means value decreased. The fiberglass one has neoprene shock pads. I don’t think I’ve seen that combo in the flesh. Primo Cat is their finest fiberglass board featuring the neoprene shock pad and sealed bearings.
I couldn’t find much about the old Ultra Flex skateboard brand. Someone is using the term now, but I don’t think it’s related to the old company. I did find this old advert for an Ultra-Flex floor display targeted at skateshop owners. You can see the full size graphic at Cal Streets.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
wow would of loved an alley cat model for x-mas
nice shorts mom!
December 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I think I used to buy smoke from a dude named primo cat
December 17th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Funny to look back. We’re waaay more sophisticated nowadays.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Look at ultra flash go! Bombin’ hills with his
cape all flowin’ and jumpsuit to boot.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
haha 7990 dagget st. is a few miles from my house!
not that surprising because a few skate companies have been in that industrial/business park area since i’ve been skating. pretty sure Maple and Arcade were, and as far as i know, Osiris still is.
not gonna lie, the primo class and ultra flex do look fun.