Marwood Supplies High-Growth Sapient Skateboards Pushing Outreach in Chicago

Marwood, a leading provider of hardwood veneer, offers skateboard shops an opportunity to buy needed wood product for their own unique skateboard series, and regularly supplies these types of customers across the US and overseas. Skateboarding and skateboard creation has increased during the pandemic, creating and expanding outreach throughout the country to shops interested.

In 2021, the worldwide market for skateboards is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 2.1% over the next five years, will reach 170 million USD in 2024, from 150 million USD in 2019, according to a new research study from 360 Research Reports.

“We love to meet with skateboard shop owners, showing them a path to the product they need to make create skateboards they can be proud of. We give tours of our facility when each customer comes to visit and we look to provide the personal service and the quality they expect,” said President Jim Martin of Marwood.

North America has a market share of 28% and is still the largest supplier of skateboards, second to China.

For Will Stephan, owner of Chicago-based Sapient Skateboards, coming into skateboard production began first with a love for skateboard racing, and then working in skateboard distribution. In 2019, he began to dream of owning his own skateboard production company and completed his first prototyping of a board. Then he moved into branded products more recently, expanding his relationship with Marwood. “All of our boards are hand-designed and crafted and made to order. We have custom graphic options and we are moving into stocking inventory for some of the local retail shops,” Stephan said. He mentioned that shaped boards – wider and shorter– are making a comeback, a throwback to the ‘80s. “I love the craft aspect of what making a board is. Most of our sales are from Instagram and we are becoming a Midwest brand. There’s a fantastic skateboarding community here (in the neighborhoods of Chicago) and we are looking to activate that scene further.”

Many of the Sapient boards are hand-painted on the boot with airbrushing, stencils and freehand lines to give them an original graphics finish from Thaddeus Zurawski. The cave-inspired lettering of their Sapient logo is complemented by a two-color gradient. For the main color, they chose the oldest naturally occurring pigment in the world — red ochre. As you make your way down the gradient of the logo, it eventually fades into a bone white. This was achieved by taking a direct color swatch from a human skull.

Stephan was excited to find Marwood for his boards and recently paid a visit to Martin. “I love being around the energy of the entrepreneurs we meet. Will and I enjoyed connecting and he gave us a fabulous board to go into our collection,” Martin said.

“We find that the age range of interest runs from 4 to 60. The main target audience is about 15-to 35,” Stephan said.

About Marwood

Indiana’s premier skateboard wood veneer source, Marwood, is a leading provider of domestic, imported hardwood veneers for both the U.S. and overseas markets, serving a variety of industries. Marwood has a wide variety of veneers available, including exotics and domestics. From quartered and highly figured to flat cut and no figure, the company’s wood veneers have the texture, color, thickness, and shape you need to finish any of your project needs. www.marwoodveneer.com

Contact:

Jim Martin – President – jim@marwoodveneer.com – (812) 288-8344

Source: Marwood Sales Company