Start Your Skateboard Journey with These Filipino Brands

So you’ve seen an absolutely insane trick in a skateboard film and are thinking of joining the fray. There’s a real appeal in the freedom that it gives you: you can ride anywhere, turn the city around you into an obstacle course, and flip in, flip out.

And you don’t have to look far to find gear. Skate culture has become so integrated in the Philippines, giving rise to a growing number of incredible, high-quality brands. From decks and trucks to wheels and apparel, you can build your setup locally and start hitting the streets ASAP. 

The Deck

Skateboard decks are the most common of locally made parts, which means you have lots of styles and sizes to choose from. The baseline size recommended is 8 inches, just big enough to firmly plant your feet on the board, while being light enough to start practicing your kickflips.

Pop-out Skateboards, based in Caloocan, uses industry-standard hard rock maple for its boards and still has some stock of the limited-edition Lokal Legends line, featuring artwork of sports showstoppers like Manny Pacquiao and Hidilyn Diaz on the underside of the deck. 

The best part? It comes with free griptape. Every new skater needs to learn how to install it themselves. It’s the equivalent of a chef learning how to sharpen their first knife.

Trucks

What started as a way for surfers to get the feel of the waves on concrete, skateboard trucks slowly evolved into a mechanism for locking into gnarly grinds on ledges and railings. An easy pitfall when buying your first skateboard is to buy a cheap complete set from a toy store with cheap parts. If you’re even thinking of getting one, look up online how many times these bad boys can disintegrate on a mere ollie.

Above all else, the most important thing to look for when building a skateboard is a set of hard steel trucks. Enter Polish Trucks and the hollow-light axle. You have the durability of the material, but the axle and kingpin are hollowed out, making them much lighter and easier to pop the board into a grind.

Polish Trucks, alongside other Pinoy skate brands under Bodega Distribution, frequently release skate videos not only to promote their products but also to give back to the community by filming local skaters hitting awesome tricks, which in turn inspires new blood to buy the home boards and parts. Everybody wins.

Wheels and Bearings

These two go hand in hand, and no single part rolls without the other. For bearings, ignore the race for the highest ABEC ratings; instead, look for durability and lubrication, especially when you’re cruising and hitting spots over and over. For skating purposes, Kalibre Bearings offer specialized aero-synthetic oil for rust-resistant, smooth pushing that’s sure to last.

For wheels, it depends on the type of ground you’re rolling on. Unfortunately, most companies only offer the hardest 101A material, which means they roll fast on smooth terrain but struggle on the Philippines’ rough concrete.

Thankfully, local wheel brands like Origin Wheels offer versatile 54-mm rollers so a pebble won’t be too big a problem. Still, getting caught on one and face-planting on the floor is a rite of passage that every skater, no matter the skill level, has gone through at least once.

Extra Steeze

All power to you if you skate in skinny jeans, but it helps to have the comfort and flexibility of baggy pants when practising your tricks. Why not complete the look and buy from STRAP? This Cebuano skater-led brand offers basic sweatpants in Moon Blue with its logo, which are light and airy.

It’s the perfect pairing for the LABEL Sunburst N1 shoes, made of genuine leather that won’t immediately rip a hole after you attempt a kickflip and the shoe hits the grip tape over and over again.

You can buy each of these parts at skateboard shops and even online. Some even offer complete sets made entirely of local parts, saving you the headache of sourcing them individually. Don’t be afraid to walk into a store, ask for tips, and start shredding. Any skater would be happy to have another person join the growing FilipinoFilipinoThe national language of the Philippines, widely used for communication, education, media, and culture.Go to Filipino Glossary community.