I just added 20 new adverts to Vintage Skatemag Advert gallery. These are from the January, 1998 issue of Thrasher. Not all of them are entirely interesting, but they’re there for the sake of uniformity. New ads include Antihero, Cadillac Trucks, California Skate Express, California Cheap Skates, Dare Devil Bearings, Freedumb Clothing, FTC, Menace Clothing, Nicotine Wheels, Plan B, Greed Garments, Halo Bearings, Intensity Skates, Recs Shoes, Mad Circle, Beer City, Concert Express, Etnies, Vans, and North Cal Distribution. Oxford comma for life!

Today I added ads for Darren Navarrette on Creature, Jason Adams on Sonic, records and skateboards from Beer City, a long dead wheel company called Circuit, a long dead mail-order house called SSBS, distribution from South Shore, clothing from Fourstar, a Thrasher subscription offer for an H2O CD, and a bunch of Thrasher products with a big goofy picture.

New for today, Thunder Trucks blue bombers with Ben Krahn, PTS shoes with Chuck Wampler, A Blind Skateboards ad with Gideon Choi, A bunch of cartoon sheep heads for Sole Technologies, a retro subscription ad for Thrasher, and the greatest travesty of all 90’s era skateboard company declines, WTF happened to Zorlac?

With the addition of this latest Roller Sports ad from 1975, there’s now 101 vintage skatemag advertisements in the gallery. It’s also easier to sort through the various companies and products available. I’ve added (8) dropdown menus that are visible on the top and bottom of the archive pages as well as at the bottom of single ad pages, underneath comments. I plan on refining the way the previews show up on the archive pages, I’ll probably make the thumbs smaller, possibly ditch the categories and show more per page. Right now they show up just like a blog post, with the latest addition at the top of the page. Use the dropdown menus to sort by company, rider, product type, year, decade, magazine, specific magazine issue, and photographer when credited. At 101 ads, I’m still not finished with the two issues of Transworld and Skateboarder magazine that I’ve taken them from. So far it’s only 70’s and 80’s, but eventually I’ll add some from the 90’s as well. Check out the ski trainer in this Roller Sports ad. I wish there were better pictures of it. I guess I could troll issues of ski magazines from 1975 to see…

Insert Elephant Man video by the Stupids here. Not to be confused with this elephant. Check out the ad for Powerflex Skateboards.

I’m trying to decide how much retouching and color correcting to tackle in the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Advert Gallery. Here’s a comparison for this Zephyr skateboards ad from 1975. Not surprisingly, the forty year old pages are discolored with age. Do you prefer the scanned image with minimal color correction, or the adjusted version that is closer to what the page originally looked like but has a slightly artificial look to it? There’s an enlargement to compare after the jump, but really this is just an excuse to get you to check out Zephyr Skateboards: Young dudes in heavy spots.

Who is this guy riding a Madrid skateboard in mid ollie over a banana in this OP ad?

I’m going to force you to look at the vintage skateboard magazine advertisement gallery.

Although it may look like Kentucky, Ken Henning, took these pictures at the zoo (Tiergarten) in Nuremberg, Germany in 1968. Pictured are American GIs from California enjoying a downhill session. Ken says this was the first time he ever saw anyone on a skateboard. The guys in these photos eventually shipped out to Vietnam, and Ken doesn’t know what became of them. Additional photo after the jump. – Thanks to David Brosch for the photos.

1986 out of Hinsdale, Illinois