5 years ago I found a weird looking board on Ebay. The wacky truck configuration and the fact that it was a promotional board for an auto parts manufacturer made me save the pictures. I just recently found an ad for Hooker Headers in the May, 1976 issue of Hot Rod that had a order form for the Hooker Headers skateboard, and amazingly enough, I was able to find those old pictures among the flotsam on my hard drive. It’s got a metal plate between the trucks, similar to the Flex-trol, but it also adds the ability to change your wheelbase on the fly. Hooker was positioning this as the “ultimate suspension system” for skateboards. Was it a way to build brand loyalty for kids to young to drive yet? I can’t imagine they had a longterm business model that involved skateboarding. Still, it was too expensive of a setup (manufacturing wise) to be purely promotional, especially considering that they offered three boards in two colors as well as the suspension system in two different configurations. Maybe someone at Hooker had a kid who skated. The brand is still around but it looks like it has been absorbed by Holley. You have to wonder if drag racer Bill Jenkins was pleased with having to share his ad space with a child’s toy. He received the nickname “The Grump” from his comrades on the track due to his no-nonsense attitude and general avoidance of chit-chatting with fellow racers.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader zeno01 and some scans from Matthijs we have a little more info on the origins of this board. See the Concrete Wave interview with Steve Alba after the advert.

UPDATE: Reader pics of a Hooker skateboard here.

Here’s three vintage Levi’s print ads from the 70’s. The one on the right is from Salvador Dali’s brief, unpublicized performance art piece where he worked as commercial artist in various ad agencies. Yes, I am making this up.

This is a TDK advertisement shot at Venice Beach circa 1989. I’ve seen this up on ebay before, actually but this one actually comes from the Google Books, repository, adjacent to the digital knoll. It’s from “Spy” magazine… ha. Remember that one? I’m looking at the shape of that board and thinking that might be Dave Hackett. Anyone got any other ideas?

– Thanks to Sandor for the tip.

Hermes style wings fir your shoes. Shoe + wings = shwings. These aren’t intentionally marketed at skateboarders per se, more like marketed with skateboarding.

– Thanks to Josh Burt for the photo.

Double page spread for the Gap in an issue of GQ. Almost looks like it could be 20 years old… Photo courtesy of Aaron Shims, who thinks you should patronize Black Market Skates, skateboard at Marginal Way, and swears he doesn’t actually have a subscription to GQ

Levis wants in on skateboarding. They’ve got a skateboarding collection, a collaboration with Thrasher, and a half baked campaign called Make Your Mark or possibly What’s your approach that features Natas Kaupas. I’ve got nothing against Levi’s. It’s a privately owned company that still makes (a small percentage) some clothing in the USA. Their sweatshop labor controversy is well behind them. They’ve used the Clash in commercials, why not Natas? OK, I do have a beef. If you’re going to post an “interview” with Natas, at least make sure it has a little substance. If you check out the accompanying video, it makes even less sense. I hear him talking, but it’s all chopped up, and in the end it’s like he’s not saying anything.

It’s a weird, weird world we live in, where Mercedes Benz thinks it advantageous to make “a beautifully filmed video pitting man against machine these unlikely four-wheeled allies tango at high-speed on the majestic Franschhoek Pass in the Western Cape.” Are they targeting the desire of older rich males to be associated with speed, youth and danger? It was filmed for Mercedes Benz South Africa, which might explain why there’s no “Do not try this” warning at the bottom of the screen for dumb Americans. There is a “filmed under controlled conditions” message at the end. The rider is Decio Lourenco, and you can read more on Mercedes Benz Life. Because apparently owning a Mercedes Benz is a lifestyle, and not a sport.

– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

We passed Freestyle Pizza near Umatilla, Oregon on our road trip out east. It didn’t occur to us to actually eat there, but we did stop for pictures. We should have checked if they had custom take out boxes. Grover claims he sent me a shot of this last year, but I must have forgotten to post it. You can view larger versions after the jump. Those are some crazy Jetsons-looking trucks.

I made some 7 color, screen printed reproductions of an advert for Nash skateboards Park Rider model. These ads appeared in comic books around 1978. I thought I had posted my copy here, but I must have been thinking of this old Bullwinkle ad instead. The idea of printing these has been in the back of my mind for a long time. I went as far as working on the separation file before sitting on it for a year. Earlier this week I got it in my head that I should try to crank these out in time for the Above Coping art show benefit at Commonwealth Skateboarding in Portland tonight. On Tuesday I called RC Screen Shop, luckily they had four screens stretched that the original buyer never picked up. They were large enough that I could burn two colors side by side on one screen, so I decided to go for it. After a few sweaty late evenings (cutting it down to the wire) I have a finished print run. If you buy one at Commonwealth, all the proceeds will go directly to Above Coping. Original advert and more after the jump.

This is an advertisement for Jantzen swimwear published int the June, 1966 issue of the Life Magazine. It gives Further credence to the idea that skateboarding was not dead by the end of 1965. Granted, the submission deadline could have been a couple months in advance. Also of note, this advert features 3 future Hall of Fame professional athletes in 3 different disciplines. It has NFL football player Frank Gifford, NBA basketball player Jerry West and NHL hockey player Bobby Hull, all admiring the Jantzen “Chemstrand Sharkskin” fabric wrapped around a skateboard and surfboard.