To say that Welcome Skateboards have shaken up the global skate industry over the last few years would be a huge understatement. Back in 2010 when California skater Jason Celaya started his fledgling board brand whilst working a full time job, the idea of any skateboard company, let alone a tiny independent one, successfully selling skateboards that stepped outside the assumed parameters of the traditional popsicle shape was virtually unthinkable.

Fast forward a few years and Celaya’s Welcome Skateboards is one of the biggest brands on the market, offering 38 proprietary board shapes of every conceivable variety and giving even the biggest names in the industry a run for their money.

Put simply, Welcome Skateboards tapped into a market that the skateboard industry as a whole had almost completely missed. As skatepark construction boomed across the globe, leading to a resurgence of interest in transition skating with a younger demographic, along with the increased interest in non-standard types of skating and skateboarding history in general empowered by social media – Welcome Skateboards were perfectly placed to appeal to a massive global audience turned off by the predominantly street oriented skate industry of the time.

“The fact that Chris Miller, a true skateboarding legend both on and off the board, is now a fully signed up Welcome rider just serves to confirm the status of the brand further”

Welcome’s rise has been meteoric and shows no sign of slowing down seven years into their reign as the most popular independent skateboard company in the world.

The fact that Chris Miller, a true skateboarding legend both on and off the board, is now a fully signed up Welcome rider just serves to confirm the status of the brand further. Incidentally, Miller’s son Lukas has also previously ridden for Welcome.

This Chris Miller ‘Prequel’ Pro model harkens back to Miller’s infamous self-designed cat-related graphics (with a distinctly Welcome-flavoured twist) during his tenure as a trail-blazing pro for Schmitt Stix in the 80’s and then later as a pro for the company he founded called Planet Earth.

This Welcome pro model is by no means intended to be a wall-hanger though as Miller puts it himself,

“We made a shape that is inspired by my old pro boards, but it’s definitely a modern-shaped board. It’s not a retro board.”

Coming in at 8.75” in width with a longer than average wheelbase of 14.5”, it probably is worth saying that this particular board might be a little too big for the smaller skater but then again, with pint-sized riders like 14-year-old Roman Pabich blasting around man-sized transition on what would formerly have been considered ‘over-sized’ boards, who knows?

The Chris Miller Prequel model also features a medium depth concave for increased board control at speed and a squarer than average tail and elongated nose recalling Miller’s pro boards of the past.

• WELCOME – PREQUEL PRO:
• RRP: £59.99
• Width : 8.75″
• Length: 32.75″
• Wheelbase: 14.5″
• WELCOMESKATEBOARDS.COM