I try to keep my brand close to my friends as much as possible. Lucky Lefty’s in Sacramento California stocks Mash, DQM, In4mation and Leilow. All these brands are close family and friends, so when Lucky Lefty’s hit me up about carrying the brand I was excited. Stop by to let them know you are also.

My good friends Darin and Georgia Howard got married recently. They rented out a local venue and invited all of us to come celebrate with them. Darin and I both moved to San Francisco around the same time. It’s amazing to think of those times together as kids skating the city and now attend his wedding 10 years later. Not much has changed  - Darin is still a kid skating the city with his friends and is lucky to find a great person to spend his life with. Congratulations! Being married is awesome. I am really happy for them!

Check out more photos from the night over at Joe Brooks blog on Slap.

Mazel Tov!

Kingdom holds me down straight up. They are a great store in Stockton California owned and run by really nice people. They just got my new line in and made this great window display for the release. WOW!

Some of you know that Mash was currently in New Zealand. They asked me to design the tour shirt for the trip like the one I created for the the Texas adventure. The fern leaf is the universal symbol for NZ. I used the same shapes from the shield to create the fern leaves and substituted it for the lighting bolt. The stars and colors come from the New Zealand flag. Have a great trip guys! I wish i could have made it on this trip also.

Here is the first drop of Summer 09. This seasons collaboration is with San Francisco fixed gear movie / brand Mash. I have been helping Mash since the beginning with their branding but “Gold Sprints” is our first official collaboration. I am really excited about it!

The “We Buy Gold” shirt is a high quality b&w photo print of NYC pawn shops. The gold in the photos are printed as metallic highlights. My long time friend and NY Times contributer Michael Simon supplied all the photographs for the shirt. The logo stripes New Era is a follow up to the success of the paper plane pinstripe cap a couple seasons back. It is available in 3 color ways and the details are really nice in person.

The mailman dropped off a few really nice packages for me today at my office. The nice people at Gravis, The Hundreds and Johnny Cupcakes hooked me up with some promo gear. Thanks so much! If you are curious why these 3 brands hooked me up, it’s because iI have projects in the works with all 3 of them. More on those projects later.. promise.

It’s important to support small brands especially with the economy the way it is. There are no loans or banks behind the line. Everything that is put into getting our product out is backed out of our pocket and time. It takes a lot. Here is a picture of my wife packing the striped summer fitteds in our apartment. It’s a family operation and we appreciate the support!

Good friend, eternal skate rat and mentor Jim Thiebaud has recently started a twitter account. His updates are great and let’s you into the life of a veteran professional skateboarder, smart business owner and just great guy. Follow what DLX and Jim are up to here.

and.. if you are interested I also have been updating a twitter account. You can follow me here.

The past few weeks have been busy getting the summer line printed, packed and shipped. It’s almost out the door and into the shops. Between client work and the line I need a vacation or at least a few solid skate days.