wow, its unbelievable, but sub-stance just turned ten (whois: Created On: 1999-07-22 15:26:45 GMT). still many things kept the same, which is good.

so, what’s up with sub-stance?

since the beginning sub-stance was more of a project i did with the kind support of my friends. it started out because i got aware of the slave-like production conditions in the third world, and the fact, that more and more skateboard companies offshored their production to these countries for more profit.
the endless recycling of design clichés lend from punk, hiphop and skateboard traditions was another reason to do something more personal.

it’s not aimed to be profitable. i think the problems arise with being profitable. you have to act market driven and do things you don’t wanted to do in the first place. so the idea is not to sell but to give away stuff for a donation or trading.
because i have a regular job to earn money for a living, i don’t have to meet any standards but mine.

we are to small to produce our own blanks, so we searched for a really good, sweatshop-free factory.
our decks are blanks made by jart, which are produced in spain using canadian hard rock maple with the most advanced production processes. they are very nice folks with quality products.
since the beginning our shirts are made by american apparel sweatshop free in the usa. that was at a time when aa was only a startup blankshirt provider. as an option we have fair-trade shirts.

every shirt or deck is individually handmade for the donor. we have no stock. because of this we don’t use silk-screen printing which makes more sense for high volume productions. instead we use various other technologies like heat transfers, vinyl cutting, hand sewing and stamping…

i encourage everyone to make his own stuff. the scene would be much more fun and individual, and this would overcome all the generic crap we see today.

this year wasn’t very productive because of my main job, but i’m looking forward for much new stuff and posts in 2010!

many thanks for your kind support all these years. keep up keeping it up 😉