25 Years of Independent Trucks
Let’s start this review by saying that this is probably the best book that could ever fill space on a shelf in your bedroom or living room!
Independent Trucks have been and always will be the most well known truck in the planet. There is not another brand in skateboarding that has the history, the slogans, the punk rock adverts, and especially the famous Independent logo that even a few big bands have ripped off for their own benefit out there.
When Fausto Vitello (RIP) and Richard Novak came up with the idea of having the best truck in the business, they could have never have thought that 25 years later they would still be running the show. They supplied a truck with style and finesse that would last a lifetime and this book documents the highs and the lows of how the brand has always stuck to it’s roots and never swayed from the path and is packed with accounts of how Independent has been an extended family to pro skaters across the Globe ever since.
Built to Grind is 320 pages long and is full of the best photographs that include tattoos, stickers, design concepts, and factory shots, but the book is also broken down into five different time periods.1978-81 covers the punk rock aspect of this mammoth journey with the likes of Rick Blackhart, Steve Olson, and Steve Alba ripping up bowls, Duane Peters inventing the Indy Air, many Californian hardcore punk rock shows with bands like the Dead Kennedy’s and D.O.A, the early and late 80’s with the Bones Brigade, Santa Cruz riders, Christian Hosoi, Eric Dressen, Jeff Grosso and many more. Then the 1990’s hit you with various peeps like Danny Way, Ray Barbie, Mark Gonzales, Tim Brauch, etc up to and including modern day rippers such as the amazing skills of Tony Trujillo and Andrew Reynolds, Peter Hewitt, Bucky Lasek, Colin Mackaye and a hundred more skaters that have ridden the Independent Truck for years.
The photography is obviously insatiable but the words that accompany these images come packed with incredible heart to heart accounts about the core of the company, the image, the products over the years, the style and the passion for such a wonderful brand written by various skate industry heads that have been affiliated with the brand for years that include C.R. Stecyk III, Fausto Vitello, Richard Novak, Steve Alba, Duane Peters, Bryce Kanights, Jim Phillips, Gavin O’Brien, Kevin Thatcher, Jason Lee, Jim Thiebaud, Brian Brannon from JFA and more.
If this review does not spell out how good this book is, go check out www.independenttrucks.com and watch the video trailer, as there is only one book you need this week and this is it!
Zac