MADE IN GERMANY BOARD FACTORY:
On the Grind- the ‘Made in Germany’ board factory When we started Quinboards back in 2011 we did not really have a master plan worked out. We had already been enjoying building longboards for ourselves and people we knew since 2010, while taking master classes in Sports Engineering at the German Sport University Cologne, using what we learned within our early board design and construction. The story of our quinboards is well known and has been told multiple times but is not so important to this article other than to help identify ourselves.
What is important is that we have been building decks for more than 6 years and have not stopped, during this time we have got to know a lot of great people in the scene, partying and working with them and learned tons along the way. We have witnessed the rise and fall of the longboard market over the last few years with the sudden decline in sales hitting us hard like everyone else in the business.
By the end of 2015 we were down but not out, and we were not willing to give up and then the unexpected happen. Earlier that year during ISPO 2015 we got to know Fun4U Sport production, a big sporting goods distributor that has been in the skate business for years, successfully manufacturing boards in China since the early `00s whose headquarters were close to our workshop. It turned out that Fun4U also had a dream to have their top end board brand AOB – Area One Boards ‘Made in Germany’ for some time so we had much to talk about. After a few months of planning we all decided to work together and build a new workshop in Cologne with modern machinery and a lot of space to build boards.
The prime goal for us was to be able to stay independent with our own brand quinboards while benefiting from the support and financial guidance from the team at Fun4U. Secondly, for healthy growth we had to expand our business area. This is where we are today. On the Grind (our workshop business name) is now fully up and running and open for business. We would now like to offer our service, experience and production simply based on moderate minimum order quantities and fair prices to all those awesome existing or new rider owned or independent brands out there looking to take the next step. Of course, everything we produce stays 100% ‘Made in Germany‘.
Building boards is the most important thing for us and we are still deeply passionate about it. It would be great to help others in any way we can. We are still convinced that having a large variety of brands on the market will help in keeping our sport interesting for the riders. Narrowing it down to 3 – 4 large brands would be the worst thing to happen. Whatever the next years might bring, we will stay On the Grind!
We still have some leftovers from our trip to Osnabrück back in July. Boom bap trick trick pow pow! Riders: Jan, Joel, Azim Music: Suff Daddy – Bad Glaucoma Skit Deck: quinboards Dancing Green