05/29/2016
I started Half Dead three years ago in response to a need I saw in the skate community for a company that focused entirely on the older generations of skaters. It was never about getting rich (Ha!), but about trying to give back something to the community that had always been there for me, rescued me on several occasions and is still there now. I wanted to make great product in the USA, sell a few boards and establish a brand that I could stand behind and know in some small way make a contribution.
We started with a bang, a flurry of activity and sales in a dozen shops in the USA, followed by eight in the UK and the online store building business steadily. The back end infrastructure was developed for scale, but the sales horsepower was never able to take advantage of the capabilities we'd built. The website was built and made functional with my colleague Katy, who took on mid west sales duties for us. We have an international team of great riders - Neil Danns in the UK, Patrick Backlund, Hans "Puttis" Jacobson and Tony Jansson in Sweden, and the incredible Josh Bridgewater in California. We even had a guest rider - Justin Lynch - ride our Chart Attack to a solid eighth place in the Vans Pool Party! For a small brand we made a big impact.
Fast forward three years, and so much has changed. The community side of Half Dead (at community.halfdeadskateboards.com) started as a safe haven where older skaters could share stories based around the 9 themes of older skating. Facebook didn't even have older skate groups at that point. Now the skaters over 50 group has over 10000 members, and that's just one of them. Safe to say - old skaters are well served with options for social interaction and I'm really happy about that.
Life changes as well, and those three years were rough for me, personally and professionally. Half Dead was only the skating side of my professional life, and the other consulting side was slim pickings. Of course, as life goes up and down, so opportunities present themselves and now I am in a stable job, with extra consulting work happening also. I have to make hay while the sun shines unless I want to be 60 and homeless soon enough.
It's with that in mind and more than a hint of sadness that I would like to announce I am entertaining offers to buy the Half Dead Skateboard Company. I've put too much into this to just close it, and if anyone out there feels they would like to give it a go, please get a hold of me on [email protected] where I can give you more details.