Behind the Brand: Prism Skate Co.

The story of Prism Skate Co. starts with a group of friends who were able to take their passion for downhill longboarding from casual meet-ups to legitimate exposure from some of the biggest brands in longboarding. Through their travels scaling up and sliding down the California mountains, the crew eventually set their sights on forming a company of their own to represent their vision and riding style in a way they were never previously able to. In 2016, Max Myers and Liam Morgan leveraged their years of riding experience and working with the industry to form Prism Skate Co.  

The brief history of Prism has largely been centered around their proud position as a skater-owned company. In support of the riders that have welcomed Prism onto the scene thus far, Co-Founder and Blood Orange icon, Liam Morgan reflected, 

“When you’re a skater and you own a business, you owe a bit more to the community because it’s yours and you’re a part of it… I look out for my guys because I used to be there and I want to look out for my community because it’s something I’ve been a part of for years and years.”

Although this community and industry served as the breeding grounds for Morgan and the crew to make names for themselves in, the parameters of working for other brands proved to limit their creative capacities. As such, Prism became an outlet to express those ideas and visions. Whether through art, photo or other media, the prospect starting a company from scratch provided the perfect canvas to express their interpretations of how to properly capture some of the most visually stunning downhill skateboarding around. From there, the potential to create their own functional board shapes provided the experimental platform to bring their ideas to life. 

As a shining example of what the crew has been able to do with their newfound freedom, the Prism Theory V2 has become one of the brands top performance downhill boards. With a dropped platform that keeps the riders feet locked in, the board also provides the rider a non-intrusive w-concave, rocker and precise flush mounting. Supported by stellar team feedback and a positive response from their customers, the latest Theory V2 sits proudly alongside the Prism Origin V2 as the anchors of the company’s downhill and freeride-centric “Core” Series. 

While the high quality components of these boards are easily identifiable to seasoned riders, the Prism boys needed a way to figure out how they could keep their lineup appealing and inviting to less experienced skaters. To do so, Morgan recalled his days as a beginner by stating,

“I know when I was a beginner, I went a lot based on how the board looked: [specifically] graphic and shape. I don’t think beginners look a whole lot at actual specs [so] we designed our performance downhill boards around good looking, clean graphics that any kind of young person would look at and say ‘That’s a cool looking board.’ That makes it easy for them to pick up but then we made sure all the tech stuff wrapped into that was all friendly to high performance downhill.”

Beginner or not, a quick look through Prism’s collections presents a varied array of graphics and styles, ranging from the patterned creatures of the Mulga series to the edgy collages of the Space Bat Killer series. With no in house art department, Prism prides themselves on these feature artists. Not only do the guest graphics allow their style to keep from becoming repetitive, it allows them unique opportunities to celebrate the art and artists that they happen to come across. With a bounty of available artwork and a diverse lineup of boards to pair with, the bounds of Prism’s ability to collaborate appear infinite. 

Going forward, Prism’s future is not only destined for growth in the art department but also in expanding their high performance lineup. For this, they are shooting to build a lineup of around five different models with sizing to fit larger and smaller riders. In creating a more holistic offering, they aim to be able to accommodate as many different styles of riding as they can.

Of course, the crew also has their sights set on new travel destinations and compelling storytelling to accompany their journeys. In pursuit of new horizons, they hope to enable the creatives that fuel the brand on and off the board to continue their media creation efforts and further their downhill longboarding abilities. If the skaters behind Prism Skate Co. can accomplish this and use their endeavors to give back to the longboarding community that enabled them to grow, they will have done their job. 

To check out our collection of Prism decks mentioned in this post, click here and feel free to reach out to us here for any comments, questions or concerns.

All photos authorized to use by Tom Flinchbaugh