Did you used to, or do you skate? I was a pretty dedicated roller skater as a child and young teenager and can still remember the feeling of freedom once I got out of the eye of my dad and could skate with all the safety gear off! We also made regular trips to the city to ice skate, which I was pretty average at, and even had a period of attempting to skateboard. My best friend in high school skated into my life on a skateboard, and I thought she was the coolest person I had ever seen. Skating is now a culture, it is a place some young people can find their identity and their place. Like anything, skateboards wear out, get chipped, broken and rendered useless to the skater.
This is one of the reasons why I love today’s clever company, deckstool and their recycled skateboard furniture, and I know you are going to love this too Recyclers. Jason contacted me late last year after we both liked the same post on Facebook somewhere- funny how social media works sometimes! Recycling and design are very close to his heart, so he knew we would connect. His company named deckstool, is all about recycled skateboard furniture and gifts.
“We turn broken skateboards into fun and useful furniture and home accessories. I own the company, design, make, and sell everything with a couple of employees from our Philadelphia, PA (USA) workshop” he says. Solidly crafted using real broken skateboards harvested from skateshops and skateparks across the U.S.A, every piece of deckstool furniture is one-of-a-kind.
“We use modern manufacturing techniques to create precision parts and skilled skater/craftsman to finish and assemble them with an artist’s touch. Broken skateboards are an unfortunate side effect of skateboarding and are usually destined for the landfill” explains Jason.
The company recycles this waste into unique, high quality furniture and other cool products. “Our designs are inspired by skateboarding and they are engineered based upon how skateboards break during use. The scrapes, scars, and graffiti on the used decks create beautiful patterns over the original skateboard artwork” says Jason.
The goal of deckstool is to support skateboarding and skate-related causes through their recycling program, and continue to turn tons of trashed skatedecks into beautiful, useful products that last. This is one of the most inventive major upcycling projects I have seen in a business model. These guys are taking something that is basically trash and turning it into something beautiful, which also has a social impact – what a perfect chain of events.
Their recycling program collects broken boards from independent skateshops and parks in the US and Canada. By recycling broken boards via deckstool, these small skateboard businesses can raise extra money for their shop or to fund local skatepark projects.
Do you love it as much as me?!! I can see these in a range of homes and the colours and graphic nature of the pieces add that perfect pop of colour. The design of the furniture is slick and sleek, with very cool form. I would love to have a piece in my own home!
You can find out more and shop on their website here. They also have an etsy store and International shipping is available and reasonable. For example I popped this one in my cart as a try out and shipping was $75 to Australia which is excellent.
Do you have some old skateboards lying around that could be upcycled?
Helen
xx
