Art of Board Press Room
May 12, 2011
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bruce Boul/Director of Public Relations
Phone: 412-965-9913
E-mail: bruce@artofboard.com
Web: artofboard.com and irideirecycle.com
ART OF BOARD TURNS BROKEN SKATEBOARDS INTO TILE DESIGN
Launches first-ever national skateboard deck recycling movement
HANOVER, PA – Art of Board (AOB) has given one of the biggest action sports industries in the world a good reason to start recycling.
Turning the colorful scraps from broken skateboard decks into wall and surface tile, AOB provides residential and commercial spaces and retailers with unique, sustainable design solutions to help them reach an audience, sell products and create a defining style or experience.
The company has launched I Ride I Recycle, the first-ever skateboard deck recycling movement to help fulfill AOB’s stockpile of broken or unwanted decks. I Ride I Recycle is calling on skateshops, skateparks, skaters and manufacturers throughout the U.S. to join the movement.
“Our goal is to keep broken or unwanted skateboards out of landfills and provide sustainable design solutions,” says founder Rich Moorhead. “If we can enhance social consciousness and achieve high design at the same time – giving ownership to the skaters, shops and manufacturers – then it’s a 360 degree win.”
AOB started in 2004 with a simple picture frame. Since then, the concept has taken on many forms including mirrors, tables and now mosaic tile, which the company is touting as its main product.
AOB and I Ride I Recycle has also participated in Tony Hawk’s 2010 Stand Up for Skateparks events in Los Angeles and Las Vegas to help raise money for public skate parks in low-income areas.
“AOB and I Ride I Recycle are all about giving back,” says Moorhead. “As passionate skaters ourselves, it’s important to us to support skateboarding, action sports charities, local skateshops and parks, and create an eco-friendly world.” Since launching it’s line of tile surfaces, the company designed a kitchen backsplash for a LEED-certified recording studio in Hollywood, CA called the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios, a wall and countertop surface for the headquarters of Life Rolls On, a subsidiary of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in Los Angeles, a wall surface inside K-Coast Surf Shop in Ocean City, MD and the world’s firstever retail shoe display made from 100% recycled skateboard decks inside a Pittsburgh, PA skateshop.
With the help of scroll saws, ban saws, routers, drills and sanders, AOB channels its creativity and passion for skateboarding into fashioning colorful and vibrant interiors for retailers and customers’ homes.
“The skaters help create the art, too,” Moorhead says. Every scratch, scrape and gouge is kept in tact – making each piece unique and just as original as the skaters who destroyed these decks.”
AOB’s I Ride I Recycle movement will provide skate shops with a toolkit making them an official “I Ride I Recycle shop.” The kit includes window decals to help skaters recognize that the shop is an I Ride I Recycle “drop off site” and pre-paid shipping labels so the shop owners can send their broken decks to AOB at no cost.
Today, AOB works with over 40 shops around the U.S., as well as the nationally recognized Woodward Camp in Pennsylvania.
With its sights set on becoming a major player in the commercial tile surface industry, AOB has acquired major distributors in Hunt Valley Tile and Stone in Hunt Valley, MD, Decorative Materials in Denver, CO and a distribution partnership with noted tile designer Erin Adams.
AOB has also garnered the support of action sports giant, Volcom, which will be launching a video on I Ride I Recycle for the Volcom New Future Blog as well as rolling out the deck recycling movement at their corporate offices and skatepark in Costa Mesa, CA this year.