14 Things you didn’t know about Alien Workshop Skateboards!
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The brand was started by Mike Hill, Chris Carter, and Neil Blender, who had all gotten to know one another through G & S skateboards. The brand is named Alien Workshop based off of their love for Conspiracy Theories, especially one which noted that the US stealth Bomber plane had actually been developed in an Alien Workshop.
The Alien Workshop logo was designed by Mike Hill in his basement. He designed the logo with inspiration from the Denny’s Logo and the Marathon Gas Stations logos.
Now, Rob Dyrdek has launched many tv series with MTV such as Rob and Big, Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness. Rob Dyrdek also played a large part in launching Street League Skateboarding.
Alien Workshop releases their first movie Memory Screen which came out in 1991, and Mike Hill did most of the filming. For the video they bought a bunch of super 8 cameras and filmed everything they thought was cool.
The Alien Workshop team was composed of many iconic figures in skateboarding: Jason Dill, Anthony Van Engelen, Josh Kalis, Heath Kirchart, Dylan Reider, Grant Taylor, Anthony Poppalardo, Brian Wenning, Rob Dyrdek, Fred Gall, Bo Turner, Duane Pitre, Tyler Bledsoe, Jake Johnson, Gilbert Crockett, Arto Saari, Ted De Gros, Steve Berra, and Mikey Taylor.
Dinosaur Jr front man Jay Mascis was introduced to Hill and Carter through Neil Blender. And was down for the brand, letting them use his music. It has become very tied into the brand over the years with songs from Dinosaur Jr in Memory Screen, Timecode & Mind Field.
In the latter half of the 90’s Alien is growing fast and the “second phase” of Alien Workshop starts to take form: Jason Dill, Ave and Danny Way, join Dyrdek, Kalis, and Fred Gall on the team, they start working on another video. Habitat skateboards is originally introduced in 1999 and led by Joe Castrucci.
In 2000, Photosynthesis is released, a video by Joe Castrucci. This video features: Anthony Papalardo, Anthony Van Engelen, Brian Wenning, Danny Garcia, Danny Way, Fred Gall, Jason Dill, Josh Kalis, Kerry Getz, Mark Appleyard, Pat Corcoran, Rob Dyrdek, Rob Pluhowski, and Tim O’Connor. Jason Dill has his iconic last part skating to Radiohead, and this part solidified him as a legend in the skate world, amidst his struggles with addiction, fading in and out of the limelight. This video also features additional filming by William Strobeck, who you might know from his Supreme videos.
Alien Workshop then releases Mind Field: a video by Greg Hunt, with music scored by Duane Pitre, an OG Alien team rider. This video features standout parts by Jason Dill, Arto, Grant Taylor, Heath Kirchart, amongst others.
Then, there was the mind-altering Alien Workshop section for The Cinematographer Project in 2012. This project represents an assembled 13 teams of skateboarding’s finest filmmakers to each produce their own original three-to-five minute short. We definitely think the result was a truly creative and diverse take on the current world of skateboarding, and featured infamous parts by Dylan Rieder, Stefan Janoski, Dennis Busenitz. Alien Workshop’s section also featured the pro debut of Jake Johnson and Gilbert Crockett, and one of the most iconic clips of Dylan Rieder as he does an impossible over a picnic table. In 2013, Alien partnered up with Alex Jones and the info wars crowd to release a “Divide & Conquer” deck. Hill said in the book Agents Provocateurs by Seb Carayol “the graphic was kind of speaking to that fact that no matter who you vote for it doesn’t matter.” “It’s like the super bowl, where people pick one of two teams and get worked up in a frenzy around them”
On Feb 5, 2008, the world is shocked when Burton announces they have purchased DNA distribution, parent company of Alien Workshop, Habitat and Reflex. During this time, they did do some really cool stuff including partnerships with Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring, that now sell for loads of money online. Jason Dill & Anthony Van Engelen leave to start Fucking Awesome, a brand that Dill had already been running for a couple of years. At this time the workshop kind of crumbles. Grant Taylor leaves for Anti Hero, Heath retires (2010), Steve Berra and Mikey Taylor get the boot, and Dylan Reider leaves for Fucking Awesome. Eventually, Rob reacquires Alien Workshop, giving the brand back to its original owners: Chris Carter, Mike Hill, and Joe Castrucci.
These days, Alien Workshop is still thriving under the careful guidance of Mike Hill. The Alien Workshop headquarters is back safe and sound in Ohio again, built into an old nuclear military bunker. It’s actually a bunker where they worked on the detonator for the Manhattan Project!
DEEP DIVE INTO THESE SOURCES:
chromeballincident.blogspot.c...
www.thrashermagazine.com/arti...