Atlas Skateboarding is THE mythical skateshop in San Mateo, San Francisco. Since its creation, the company has evolved to become more than just a skateshop. Indeed, it has also become a strong brand through its many collaborations with talented artists and the biggest brands in the industry.
The genesis
“We ultimately chose Atlas because it’s a literal and figurative description of what skateboarding is all about. The thing that takes you to places you’ll never forget and introduces you to a culture that will stay with you for the rest of your life“, its founders tell us.
Founded in 2007 by Mike Franklin and Ryen Motzek, the shop quickly became an international reference. Over the years, it has collaborated on board and apparel collections with renowned artists like Thomas Campbell, Greg Gossel, Allister Lee, Todd Francis or the creative studio Morning Breath to name a few.
In 2019, Atlas Skateboarding is moving to a new, larger location in San Mateo, California. Now, the new store offers more space for events, skate demos and exhibitions. It also features a large selection of skateboards, skateboarding apparel and equipment, as well as a large selection of skate shoes.
The team
Atlas is also known for its skateboarding team. It includes some of the most talented skateboarders in the San Francisco Bay Area. It includes Mark Suciu, Joey Guevara, Chris Athans and others.
In addition to selling to sponsor a top skate team, Atlas is known for its commitment to the skate community. The store regularly hosts free skateboarding events for local young skaters.
It is involved in fundraising for skate-related charities such as the Skatepark Project and Skateistan.
As usual, the famous San Mateo skateshop Atlas Skateboarding produces boards with refreshing graphics. For this time, it is with the designer Dane Nomellini that they collaborated and created “Always fresh”, a graphic inspired by the illustrations of fruit stickers.…
California artist Nathaniel Russell joins Thomas Campbell in creating the graphics for the UMA Skateboards brand. The three boards were published to celebrate Roman Pabich’s time as a pro for the brand. As usual, Nathaniel hits hard with his colorful…
After Element, Zero, Cliché or Magenta, back on the collaboration between Fernando Elvira and Atlas Skateboarding. For this series of boards, the Spanish artist has addressed the theme of travel and photography. His graphics are usually created by cutting out…
The New York brand Politic recently unveiled its ‘Stamp’ series with the most explosive graphics. It is inspired by the look of stamps from the 1900s and each board has a graphic style that is specific to the universe of…
The Californian artist photographer Jai Tanju produced a diptych exclusively for the Atlas brand. The decks are composed of monochrome photographs and were presented during an exhibition. Jai Tanju has not only created these boards but a whole collection of…
American photographer Trevis Jensen has produced a series of boards in collaboration with Atlas Skateboarding for the release of his book ‘Barbary Coast Now’. These ‘Burnout’ and ‘Bike Surfing’ photos are featured on the boards with a black neutral background…
Jake Gascoyne, a member of the Atlas Skateboarding team is also a talented artist. He has indeed made a colorful series with a slightly childish style and perfectly mastered! Games of texture, shape and color ply give a very successful…
The illustrator and graphic designer Allister Lee (whom I interviewed recently) has just seen his “Pack series” made for Atlas released. Created around the theme of travel, the board becomes a backpack filled with patches of places or passions. A…
After seeing several Element boards that challenged me without having the name of the graphic designer, I recently discovered (through Keflione) that Allister Lee was behind them. It was therefore natural to ask him some questions about what he does,…
To celebrate the ten years of the shop, Atlas Skateboarding realized this series of 3 boards with Real Skateboards. The building’s graphic design is of course a representation of the skateboard shop located at 209 2nd Ave, San Mateo in…
