MX
Some may call me....Tim?!?
please ask questions, I want to talk about it if you do
@cohibasurfer
Through all of it, I never stop being a skater.
I have a street setup in Iraq. I have a longboard in Afghanistan to get around base. It isn’t about image. It’s about staying level. Holding onto something normal when nothing else is.
When I come back to Colorado and spend time in the local scene, I see it clearly. Kids out there every day on decks that are razor-tailed and soft. Trucks that have seen three owners. Bearings that barely spin. They aren’t complaining. They aren’t quitting. They’re learning kickflips on warped plywood and pushing through it like it’s normal.
That hits me.
Because I know that kid. I was that kid. Building my first board out of hand-me-downs and whatever parts showed up because that’s what we could afford. No backup setup. No spare anything. If something broke, you figured it out.
That’s where DNTRODDEN comes from for me.
Not from hype. Not from a master plan. From the decision that if I build something, it has to mean something. It has to be responsible.
No debt.
No fake scale.
No pretending.
I am starting lean. Wax first. Small batches. Cash-funded. I make a batch, weigh it, skate it in the cold, leave it in a hot car, drag it across painted curbs and raw concrete. If it fails, I figure out why. If it works, I repeat it to make sure it isn’t luck. I’m not reinventing wax. I’m building consistency.
That same mindset drives the brand.
DNTRODDEN’s graphic philosophy is structure, restraint, enforced hierarchy. Every element is governed by proportion and spacing. Black and white operate as discipline. No texture. No noise. Geometry and negative space carry the weight. Nothing ornamental. The DN monogram functions as structural mass. The wordmark reads as a unified block. Typography leads. Symbols support. The brand is architecture.
Inside that system, DRLCT operates as subordinate. Controlled expression that connects to skate culture without compromising structure. The skull is reduced to essential form. Angular. Stable. Cracks show pressure endured, not collapse. The expression remains neutral. The sideways cap signals cultural grounding without romanticizing it.
Flat icon. Skull. Full character. All of it legible. Scalable. Built for permanence, not trend. Even when reconstruction marks introduce tension, the structure holds.
Reduction creates strength. Discipline builds identity.
I am not trying to be the loudest brand in the room.
I am building one that lasts.
So, those of you that know me; know me. Sorry about the AI gen garbage, while I do use Gen AI a lot to save time, I never put it out as a final product, except my current business plan, and funding forecast, because they are numbers and the numbers are currently correct.
So, Backstory before we get to the why
in the mid 80s all the way to 1997 when I joined the Army, I was a skater, I was around 10 or 11 when I started, it was not until 1990-91 that I started getting free product (called Flow) from local shops. They gave me boards, trucks, wheels, and I wore their shop shirts, I represented the stores, pushed stickers and all sorts of stuff. They paid me in gear to be a marketing asset.
Before that, I rode broke shit, hand-me-down shit, gear that I glued and tapped back together, I Frankenstein’d parts and assemblies to be able to go skate, I didn’t have the money, and my parents didn’t have the money, but I wanted to skate, so I found a way.
Now, fast forward to 2025, I am scrolling Facebook and come across my youngest son, with his son at a skatepark, and that was al it took to relight my flame, at 52 and after not really skating for almost 22 years, I decided I needed it in my life again….my wife is thrilled (insert sarcasm)
The difference is this time I make adult money.
So, I go through, am still going through, all the things to buy and change and tweak skateboard set-ups, don’t like the size of this, buy a new one, don’t like the look or sound of that, buy new ones. No problem, I can afford it. Well, it’s not a problem until I show up at the small local skatepark close to my house, I roll out of my truck with 3 complete skateboards to try out, knowing that I may scrap them all and start over, and that is when I see me, 20+ years ago, couple of young kids ridding broke, passed down skate stuff, and I am sitting on $300-400 worth of kit that I will put in a closet.
Then I did some research, there are a few small local brands in the greater Denver area, to include all the way down south to the Springs. The cost and barrier to entry is not that heavy. $10k and I can run my lean, very lean, start-up for 2 years and not have to make a profit. So that I s what I am trying to do.
I am not looking to get rich; I want to feed the next generation of DNTRODDEN (downtrodden) skater. I want to build a community, use my military discipline and order, to maybe move the scene forward in my town.
Stopping it here
There is a lot that we could talk about if you want, I have nothing to hide at all.
I am sure there are things that I may need called out on, I know this is the family to do that.
There are systems in place for the graphics, the Icons, the visual message, because I am Army, and I need the structure, but also it keeps it unified.
I hope this is better
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