I remember when department store skateboards were just the worst quality skateboards ever made. The plywood was crap and had no concave, the grip scraped off as if it was sand glued onto wood, the bearings were so bad, you would barely roll and the wheels were made out of plastic instead of urethane.
Fast forward to today and you can walk into Walmart and get a line of boards out out by Mike McGill from the legendary bones brigade which I believe are made by Skate One. Target now sells a line of completes by NHS and they are made of good wood, have decent concave and have decent parts made by Bullet. The wheels actually roll! The price I saw on the ones at Target are only about $65 for a complete, ready to ride. Not too shabby! The only graphics I saw available were the “Skateboarding Is Not A Crime” logo.
I was also browsing Walmart’s website and it looks they have added Hawk skateboards, Airwalk skateboards and Kryptonics Skateboards. Wow, well, as long as the boards have the right concave on them, the trucks actually turn and the wheels actually roll, they have got to be better than my first Nash Nightmare skateboard. 🙂 WOW, check this out…Skater In A Box…wow, I’m speechless. 🙂 Apparently it was the biggest selling item for Christmas that year in 2003. Kryptonics has been around forever bringing there legendary smooth urethane wheels and changing skateboarding forever and I’m glad they are making it so parents who were not skateboarders will buy that department store skateboard and it will actually be a decent beginner board.
