Twenty-fine years of Independent Truck Company constitutes an anniversary that demands both respect and introspection. The contemporary tendency is to envelop history in an impenetrable containment sphere of numeric details. The human relevance of occurrences and entities becomes lost in a blizzard of data. What real consequence do computations of ballistic rounds expended, X billion burgers served, acres burned. number of units produced, pool size of participants, topographical chart coordinates, revenues generated, reentry duration times, calories used, et cetera, have? What stats could convey the impact of 25 years of Independent Trucks?
The value of Independent far exceeds its performance as a business entity. Granted, Independent Trucks are the de facto standard of contemporary skateboard truck design. Virtually all legendary riders have been associated with Independent Trucks in some way at some time. No professional skateboarder or company owner exists who is not aware of the Independent hegemony. Nevertheless, the true accomplishment here is about people and their discovery of a workable way to live out their lives. Whatever success they ultimately garnered is incidental to that first pure impulse. Independent is proof that the hectic will inevitably push out the hype. The Independent Trucks cartel is very much a family. Once you are in, you are never out.
Every person in this narrative is more or less connected to the others. That interrelation and the expectation of excellence are the primary mechanisms that drive the beast known as independent. It has always been about the truck.
Webster’s Dictionary describes the skateboard truck as “a wheeled vehicle consisting of a frame with a pair of wheels to carry and guide one end of a vehicle in turning sharp turns.” Independent is defined as “not dependent: not subject to control by others. not affiliated: not looking to others for one’s opinions or for guidance in conduct.
Independent Trucks have been around for many years. I have been riding them since I was 12 and I will not switch. I guess my slogan on this list would be Built To Grind. Here is a list of Independent Truck Slogans that have been used in ad campaigns over the last 25 years. Of course the most popular and the one that is my favorite is Built To Grind.
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