American skateboard truck manufacturer
Independent Truck Company is a skateboard truck manufacturer based in Santa Cruz, California. Established in 1978, the company is owned by NHS, Inc. and sponsors an extensive list of team riders.
History
The company was co-founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman, Fausto Vitello, and Eric Swenson and the Stage 1 model was the inaugural product, released on May 23, 1978, in Newark, California. The Independent truck (or "Indy") was designed as a response to the lack of high quality skateboard trucks on the market at the time. In reference to the two other major truck companies on the market, Blackhart stated that one broke, and one didn’t turn (Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively).[1]
Independent trucks are manufactured with:
- high quality aircraft grade T6 aluminum alloy
- high tensile SAE 4130 Chromoly alloy steel axles
- high rebound formula stock bushings.
Product releases
- Stage 1 - 1978
- Stage 2 - 1979
- Stage 3 - 1982
- Stage 4 - 1984
- Stage 5 - 1986
- Stage 6 - 1991
- Stage 7 - 1993
- Stage 8 - 1997
- Stage 9 - 2003
- Stage 10 - 2009
- Stage 11 - 2012
Logo
The logo for the trucks was based on the Iron Cross according to the author, Jim Phillips. It has remained the Independent logo since the company's inception and was derived from the French variation of the Cross pattée.
Jim Phillips says in his 2007 book "The Art of Jim Phillips":
...I began toying with the iron, or Maltese cross which was long dead as the old 60s surfer's cross, and even longer dead as the biker's cross. I used a beam compass to make it into a round shape, which looked completely different than the old square iron crosses... I took my idea into the NHS office the next morning and it went on the wall as usual. Jay and Rich each stared at it for a while, and they both thought that it looked a little too "Nazi". My sketches were rejected and I was sent back to the drawing board. I went back to my studio determined to use it, knowing it was the one. I searched my archives and scrap file for some justification for using the symbol. I found a firefighter's logo, symbols on the knights and Columbus sails. Then in my scrap file, under the letter P, I found a Time magazine cover of Pope John Paul from the June 18, 1979 edition. It was amazing; there was a cross on his vestments almost the way I designed mine. I marched into the office the next morning with the magazine to show what I thought was proof of acceptability. They both looked at each other and said, 'Well, if the Pope has it, it must be okay!' That was that, and the Independent cross was born.
In 2021, after many vocalized opinions that the cross was indeed too "Nazi-like", the main logo was changed and they now only occasionally use the iron cross logo.
