Sidewalk Skateboarding

Unabomber Skateboards has strong historical ties to Nottingham, a city which traditionally has one of the best skate scenes in the UK. Co-founded there in 1997 by Pete Hellicar and Jon Robson, the ‘manifesto’ of the company was to reflect an essentially British attitude to skateboarding rather than borrowing from American culture, all with a distinctly anti-corporate and anti-capitalist vibe.

After a rocky start, Unabomber’s minimalist marketing campaign carved itself a niche in the British skateboarding market, and it continues to produce skateboard hardware, including signature models such as John Bell’s 8.25” ‘Bottle’ deck, bolts and wheels, and clothing such as T-shirts and hoodies. Unabomber is distributed by 12Distribution, also the home to brands such as Lord Clothing and Heathen Skateboards.

Over the years, Unabomber has had many excellent skaters on its team, including Ollie Beeby, Alan Rushbrooke and the always-stylish Scott Whittaker. The current line-up features local hero and tech skating sensation Will Golding, Chris Price, Alex Halford, John Bell, Lewis Mottishaw, Kelley Dawson and Eric Thomas, who was welcomed to the company in September 2011 with a great clip.

Early Unabomber videos included the classic Headcleaner VHS from 2001, which featured parts from Rushbrooke, Mark Channer, Frank Stephens, Paul Silvester and Vaughan Baker. More recently, the entire Unabomber crew flew to the French town of Montpellier in the summer of 2013 to get some footage, and the resulting short film, called Le Bombe, filmed by Phil Harvey and Daz Pearcy, was a blast with a spectacular ender.