We all know that wood is beautiful design material, but how often do we think about where the tree our wooden products came from or why it was felled in the first place? Dutch start up Woody Skateboards gives this material a more personal touch by creating old school cruiser skateboards with trees felled for city renewal in Amsterdam as well as in Utrecht. Each board comes with a certificate describing the timber’s species, origin, age and the exact location from where it came.

The species origin of each board gives it a unique material character and dictates the way each individual board looks. Urban tree species used include elm, ash cherry or oak. The boards themselves are hand-formed within 5 kilometer’s of the trees original location, where patterns for the grip are also CNC milled.

For Woody Skateboard’s founder, skateboarding brands are boards are overly commercialized. As a result, skateboarding has lost its concrete surfer roots, characterised by a DIY spirit of homemade boards and backyard innovation. With their material philosophy, Woody Skateboards hope to bring some of the original spirit back by using 100% locally grown timber handcrafted into boards that derive their shape from the early wooden boards of the sixties and seventies.

You can check out a video about bringing wood back to the streets here.