Vintage Skate Mag, Flyer & Catalog Scans: California Cheap Skates

Part 2 of a look into a collection of various skateboarding memorabilia from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Every week (or so), we will pick a couple items to go over and give them high-resolution scans. This week, a California Cheap Skates Catalog.
California Cheap Skates was a very popular mail order company in the late 80's and early 90's. Based in San Luis Obispo, CA, they started in 1985, but according to some of their ads, they state they had been "Serving Skaters Since 1975". California Cheap Skates ran ads in all the skate magazines and put out a free catalog about twice a year. The catalogs were full color and ran about 30 or so pages. They were very popular. To get a catalog, and be put on the list for future catalogs, you just sent them a letter with your address or called the phone number they put in their magazine ads.

As the years went on, skateboarding went through several changes, California Cheap Skates eventually rebranded itself as CCS. Then in 2008, the company was sold to Footlocker. This was when Footlocker was trying it's hardest to get some of the "extreme sports" money. Up until then, CCS was mail-order and online only, but in 2009, Footlocker opened up 22 brick-and-motar retail stores. They lasted just 4 years, with the last one closing down in March 2013. The popular catalogs were discontinued as well. And in 2014, Footlocker decided they were going to completely shut down CCS, they already started diverting customers to their Eastbay site. Fortunately some skate industry people up in Portland, OR, heard about this and bought CCS and are currently working on returning it to it's former self. They felt such an iconic company like CCS shouldn't die. Whether you ordered from them, or just read through their catalogs, CCS is a company that has created amazing memories for millions of skaters.

Here is a California Cheap Skates catalog from 1988 (possibly 1989, there are no dates on it). Like all their catalogs, it's roughly 5" wide by 10" tall.

This is one of their dual catalogs, one half being their skate section, and then you flip it over and the other half was their apparel section, which they called California Surf Style. Tony Magnussan was on one cover, while Tony Hawk was on the other.

Opening the California Cheap Skates side, you find a selection of skateboards. The boards were placed in a random order it seems. There's the price for the deck and for the complete under each one, along with the name of the trucks and wheels it comes with.







Next section was the individual components, a page for trucks and then for wheels.


Next up were the accessories.

Many of these items have disappeared from skateboarding completely. Like those plastic coppers that went on the trucks so that you grind them instead of grinding down your trucks, and the Cell Block riser pads that were supposed to absorb the stress of landing jumps.


The prices of those VHS tapes seem ridiculous today.

The center of the catalog has the order forms. One side is for the Cheap Skates side of the catalog and the other is for the Surf Style side.
Flip the catalog over and there's the California Surf Style side of the catalog , where all the clothing is featured.

Some really odd clothing, but back then, it was (probably) cool.












That's all of for this catalog. Will have scans of another item next week.

Part 1: Vintage Skate Magazines, Catalogs, Newsletters & More...

Vintage Skate Magazines, Catalogs, Newsletters & More...

Part 1 of a in depth look at a collection of various skateboarding memorabilia from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Every week (or so), we will pick a couple items to go over and give them high-resolution scans.


The late 80's and early 90's, back before EVERYTHING was on the internet, skaters had to rely on magazines to see what was going on in the skate universe. While there were skate videos, every few months or so one of the big companies would release their team video, on VHS tape, it was the magazines that kept you up to date. Luckily, there was no shortage of magazines. There was the two main ones, Transworld and Thrasher. Then you had Poweredge, WARP, Big Brother, and a couple others, as well as a variety of free zines. These skate zines ranged from regional scene zines, to the skate company produced zines, to the home-made photo-copied DIY zines.

Here we have a magazine from Europe called R.A.D. This was the UK's main skate magazine, the initials stood for Read And Destroy. Next to it is a couple issues of Poweredge Skateboard Magazine, which was created by Makaha Skateboard's founder Larry Stevenson.

Strange Notes was a free 'zine by Santa Cruz Skateboards that showcased their products and team. Strange Notes was also a video magazine, the first skate video magazine. It launched in 1987 and they are still making videos today releasing them on the Strange Notes Youtube Channel

That is the first issue of LowLIFE Magazine. It was Powell's answer to World Industries infamous Big Brother Magazine. It came out in 1993, right after Stacy Peralta had left the company and it re-branded itself from Powell-Peralta to the Powell Corporation. Unlike Big Brother, this mag was free. Also in the photo above is the first issue of Kor Magazine. Based out of San Diego, Kor was a free skate/surf/snowboard/music mag.
There's Jay Adams on the January 1989 issue of Thrasher Magazine. Next to the magazine are a pair of Thrasher Calenders.

Another thing skaters would look forward to was the mail order catalogs, just like the kids used to do with those Sears' Christmas Toy Catalogs, you'd get these catalogs and drool over all the stuff you wanted. In the photo above is one of the California Cheap Skates mail order catalogs. That's Tony Magnusson on the cover. Also in the photo above are some random flyers and letters, including a sponsorship letter from G&S, several H-Street newsletters, a Powell-Peralta Intelligence Report, and other various letters from Skull Skates, Swatch, and Acme. Also a couple contest flyers, one is for joining a shop team for a Los Angeles, CA shop that was called Rail Slide. We'll be scanning all these items (plus a ton more) and putting them in upcoming posts.

To be continued...