Monday, December 17, 2012

Its official

  This is official, and it does hurt to write this and make it public, but I have decided to shut down Cooper Skateboards.  There are a multitude of reasons that we are closing our metaphoric doors, and I won't get into that here.  I wish to focus on all the positive things involving this baby of mine, but if you are uber curious and must have a reason, I'll just say this:  its tough right now for small companies to thrive.  And  after a while I just realized that without movement, without growth, without progression, we're just moving backwards.  We had a good run and I will never regret doing any of this.  I met alot of rad people and alot of them are still my good friends.  I regret nothing and enjoyed everything.    I can't stop thinking it, we had a good run.  I just want to thank everyone who was involved with us.

I want to thank the artists that we worked with: Grayson Castro, Sasha Barr, Cole Pittman, and Curt Crocker.  You guys helped define us through diversity.  And your work is pretty damn beautiful to look at.  thanks for working with us for table scraps, it says alot and don't think that I haven't noticed.  Thank you.

I'd like to thank all of the filmers and photographers that have ever helped us with photos of footage:  Matt Henry, Brandon Hayes, James Pierce, Jordan Bradley, Jordan Whitten, Tyler Nelson.  without you guys, everyone else would have that much less to look at.  you gave some content to our little project, and I thank you. 

I want to thank all of the team riders past and present that made Cooper what it was:  Austin Beard,  Zach Galinis, John Willingham, Luke Steffenhagen, Jack Carlson, Mark Patrick, Joe Dowling, Darius King, Johnny Younger, Taylor Bradley. 
You guys made this venture so fun to do and I appreciate anything and everything you did to make this dream of mine a reality.  Each and every one of you.  you're all still my friends and you won't see the last of me.

I also want to thank Grant Hopkins for putting in all of the time helping out and not taking a damn dime for any of it. 

I want to thank all of the shops, especially Cheapskates, for taking a chance with an unknown company and helping us get to where we got. 

 Last but so very not least, I want to thank Everyone who ever supported us in anyway.  If you bought a board, shirt, sticker, or just repped the brand.  Even if all you did was put a sticker on your car, you're rad!  You made this possible for all of us.  I appreciate every last bit of support you gave us.  You will never know how much I really do appreciate it.  I could talk all day about it, but I must be short and simply say Thanks!

If I missed anyone, I really am sorry.  Its kind of a big blur of awesomeness.  But i still appreciate everything. 

There will be a few boards left at Cheapskates starting tomorrow, so if you just wanted to get one last board, that's where you need to go.  Also, Im leaving the website up until the time on it runs out, so you guys can still check the videos and what not, and the Vimeo account will always be up.

Thanks to anyone and everyone who made this possible for me.  This is the raddest thing I ever did and hopefully one day I can do something like it again.  Remember to support your local shops, and support your scene.  don't be all bitter and too cool for the next guy.  We're all in the same boat and need to get along and move forward and the only way to do that is to give back to the scene.  I hope  to see you all out there, whether it be at Tobey, Al Town, at some coffee shop, or out in the streets.  Thanks again for all you did

–Christian Westphal, Owner and operator of Cooper Skateboards.  

1 comment:

  1. Sucks bro! I guess im gonna hang one of the decks on the wall lof the shop. We still have a few left!

    ReplyDelete