If there’s one skateboard brand that has almost single handedly redrawn the perimeters of what an independently-owned skate company can achieve in the last decade, then that brand is Polar Skate Co.
Pontus Alv‘s Malmö based brand emerged during the early days of the current ‘small brand renaissance’ with team of skaters almost unknown (at the time) outside of Scandinavia, and a graphic identity that simultaneously railed against the logo-driven conformity of the brands that dominated the market, whilst at the same harking back to an early era when graphics were intended to carry some degree of meaning related to the ethos of the brand printing them.
It was clear to anyone who knows anything about Pontus Alv and the drive contained within his head that Polar would succeed but, I’m not sure anybody, maybe not even Pontus himself, anticipated the speed with which this would happen, nor and all-pervasive influence that his post-Cliche project would have globally.
This week’s 30 Second Thursdays pertains to the tipping point of the process roughly outlined above.
Filmed during one of the earliest UK Polar tours (one which also saw a twin demo with fellow brand rule-breakers and success story Palace Skateboards), back in 2014, the names Oski and David Stenström were already known but, they were yet to ascend to the levels of skate stardom that have happily befallen both subsequently.
Anyhow, suffice to say that if Polar were to have a spiritual home in the UK then said home would more than likely be Stockwell skatepark, otherwise known as Brixton Beach, a concrete oasis with decades of history that nurtures one of the most interesting of all of UK skateboarding’s micro communities.
Have a gander at this, check the 30 Second Thursdays tag for all the previous ones, then go and remind yourselves of the genesis of the aesthetic and approach to skateboarding that defines Polar via a re-watch of Pontus Alv’s fantastic film ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ which you can find below.
Whilst we’re at it, here’s another little clip filmed in the UK during the same tour.
