Ever wondered what Quasi Skateboards is? Ever heard of Quasi Skateboards? Here's a brief article on how Quasi Skateboards came to life & how it has influenced the skateboarding community!
You guys remember Alien Workshop? Well, they’re still around and back and better than ever! More or less... Anyways, being one of the biggest names in skateboarding since the 90’s, Alien Workshop disbanded in 2014, leaving skateboarders, especially old schoolers, like “what the fuck?!” But “what the fuck” was correct. It was almost out-of-the-blue. But with the craze of the disbanding, Alien came back eventually in 2016, thanks to Rob Dyrdek reviving it, happy ending right?
Well, we’re not here to talk about Alien Workshop, we’re here to talk about Quasi Skateboards which was birthed from the closure of Alien Workshop. In 2015, a year after the disband, former Alien Workshop team manager Chad Bowers started the Mother Collective. The beginning of this new skateboarding brand was solid, with Bowers recruiting previous Alien Workshop team riders such as Tyler Bledsoe, Gilbert Crockett & Jake Johnson. It was basically Alien Workshop Part 2.0. Mother Collective blew up in due time. After a few weeks of success, Mother Collective faced it’s first roadblock: another company claiming they own the name “Mother Collective”. Bowers received a cease & desist letter from the competition, causing a slew of legal action & money being burnt, leaving Mother Collective Skateboards to lose their name to the claimers. It was a shame of course, but Bowers talked to his team riders and started to brainstorm ideas for a new name. They knew to stay as far away as possible from the old name, eventually landing on: Quasi Skateboards. In an interview with JENKEM Magazine concerning the name change, Bowers stated:
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“At the end it was best to change the name and move as far away from it as possible. I talked with the entire team about names and told them what happened, and after talking to everyone it was just like, fuck it man, if we’re into it lets just change it. We ended up changing it to Quasi… ...And, dude, in this day and age, it’s fucking impossible to trademark anything or own anything. I assumed you couldn’t own the word “Mother,” you know. That’s crazy, but you can. And someone does. There was no work around, you can’t call it Step-Mother, you can’t call it Mom; I tried all that. It’s just a name. The art, graphics, what it’s about and who we sell to – none of that changes. I just wanna pay the riders to support them and make rad videos. It’s all really small and really on the fly. It’s just like that what’s happened. What are you gonna do, go out of business? No, who cares.” - Chad Bowers |
And “who cares” is right! Who the fuck cares what the brand is called, really? The brand itself remains as an underground skateboarding collective that uses psychedelic-influenced designs, made by, and for, skateboarders on both their clothing and decks. Basically old shit, new name. Quasi is a unique brand to say the least, offering both quality shapes and killer graphics. In my opinion, the skateboarding company does a good job at being an all around, quality skate brand. You either want to skate their boards or keep them as wall hangers. Just like its name, Quasi is different. A good different. Their aesthetic and one-of-a-kind style is definitely hard to understand but somehow, it just works. All their art is inspired from direct references to the personal lives of their riders and it has been that way since Mother Collective.
Quasi Skateboards is definitely one of the more unique brands out there, often getting a “what the fuck” reaction or “that’s cool as fuck”- either way, they’ll get a response out of you. Just like their skate video “Mother” featuring parts from Justin Henry, Tyler Bledsoe, Josh Wilson, Jake Johnson, Al Davis, Dick Rizzo and Gilbert Crockett. Undoubtedly, Quasi is recognized as one of the most underground and creative skateboarding brands today.