In this edition of counterfeits we have a fake Brand-X deck. The original team deck from 1987 was designed by silkscreen-artist Bernie Tostenson. In the late seventies and early eighties Bernie was working for Sims where he created the famous ‘Winged logo’ and Brad Bowman’s ‘Superman logo’. In 1984 he and Bud (a photographer and salesman) started Brand-X. They ran the underground company for about 5 years illegally from Bernie’s garage, where Bernie did all those crazy silkscreens. He said these were the happiest years of his life and they had fun, while the big companies destroyed the soul of skateboarding. In 1988 Brand-X made a partnership with one of their distributors and did well for about one year, but the story goes that the new partner stole the Brand-X name, fired the whole crew and amateur team, hired cheap artists and screeners and let the company die in only a few months. Bernie still designed for Flip in the nineties. He died in 2009. For sale at 2dehands.be.
[Sources: Disposable 1 and 2 by Sean Cliver]
And the OG deck.
3 comments
wall eyed glue huffer
i couldve swore brand -x had a ‘mad magazine’ artist
talentlessquitter
Bril(l)iant!
talentlessquitter
…except in dutch it’s with a ‘j’. (That’s what you get for trying to post smart comments in the wee hours of the night)
Briljant, David!