Brand + Dogtown

Dogtown As a concept has existed since the early 1970's. It was the birthplace of progressive skateboarding, Santa Monica/Venice, California. In the celebrated documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, Venice was a forgotten slum by the sea. Out of the wreckage of Abbot Kinney's dream town gone bad, roamed young surfers searching for outlets after the surf got blown out. They found it through an aggressive approach to skateboarding never seen before.

Venice, California, circa early 1970's, a group of kids rode hand me down clay wheel skateboards, trying to emulate the surf moves of Larry Bertlemann, Buttons and Mark Liddell. They'd speed down the block, bombing the hills and running the stop signs at the bottom with reckless abandon. This group of surf /skate rats soon came to be known as the Zephyr Team. Being poor kids in a mixed ethnic neighborhood made them grow up fast. Low income backgrounds often lead to creativity and ingenuity by necessity.