Some skateboard products come back because retro is fashionable. Others return because skaters never really stopped wanting them. Powell Peralta’s Cross Bones wheels fall firmly into the second category. After years of old-school skaters searching for original sets, rebuilding period-correct completes and asking Powell to bring the Cross Bones back, the wheel has returned for 2026 in a classic 64mm x 35mm configuration with 97A urethane, original-style graphics and unmistakable Powell attitude.
The story behind the Cross Bones goes much deeper than one wheel. It reaches back to the beginnings of Powell Peralta and an era when skateboard equipment was changing almost as quickly as the tricks being invented on it. George Powell established Powell Corporation in 1976 and introduced the first Bones wheels the following year. In 1978, Powell joined forces with professional skater Stacy Peralta, combining George’s engineering and manufacturing background with Stacy’s understanding of skating, team building and promotion. Powell Peralta was born, and the partnership would become one of the most influential in skateboard history.
George Powell approached skateboard equipment like an engineer. Wheels, decks and components weren’t simply accessories; they were problems that could be solved through materials, shapes and testing. Stacy Peralta brought the other half of the equation. He understood what skateboarders wanted because he was one of them, and he had an exceptional ability to recognize young talent. That combination helped build the Bones Brigade, a team that would eventually include Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Mike McGill and Tommy Guerrero. Their skating didn’t simply advertise Powell Peralta products. Their progression forced skateboard equipment itself to progress.
By the middle and later years of the 1980s, skateboarding was moving in every direction at once. Vert was becoming faster and bigger, freestyle was exploding technically, and street skating was beginning to establish an identity of its own. Powell Peralta was right in the middle of it. The company’s videos brought that progression into living rooms around the world, while its decks, wheels and instantly recognizable graphics became part of the visual language of the era. The Bones Brigade wasn’t a team built around one type of skating either. Hawk and McGill were redefining vert, Mullen was rewriting freestyle, Guerrero was helping establish modern street skating, Caballero could seemingly skate anything, and Lance Mountain brought creativity and personality to everything he touched.
That environment is where the Cross Bones earned its place. Cross Bones appeared during the period when skaters needed wheels capable of handling the changing mix of ramps, concrete and emerging street terrain. By the late 1980s, Cross Bones were being offered in multiple hardnesses, including 90A, 95A and 97A, showing just how important the wheel had become within Powell’s lineup. The Cross Bones name became instantly recognizable, and decades later original sets remained desirable among collectors, old-school riders and anyone rebuilding a period-correct Powell setup.
Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain are two of the riders closely associated with Cross Bones during that era. Vintage Powell material connected Lance Mountain directly with Cross Bones advertising, while period completes featuring Tony Hawk were also sold with Cross Bones wheels. That connection matters because these weren’t skaters simply maintaining established styles. They were actively changing what could be done on a skateboard, and the equipment underneath them had to keep up.
Hawk’s progression on vert became almost impossible to separate from the Powell Peralta story. He joined the Bones Brigade while still extremely young and developed into one of the defining skateboarders of the decade. Lance Mountain represented something equally important: versatility. He could skate pools, ramps, curbs, jump ramps and whatever else happened to be in front of him. Alongside Caballero, McGill, Guerrero, Mullen and the rest of the Brigade, they helped establish the idea that skateboard equipment had to perform first and foremost. The Cross Bones came directly from that performance-driven period.
The new Cross Bones reissue captures that history without turning the wheel into a display-only collectible. Powell has brought back the 64mm x 35mm Cross Bones configuration using its classic 97A urethane formula. The wheel uses a symmetrical double-radial design, medium riding patch, classic OG sidecut shape and centre-set bearing position, while the original-style Cross Bones graphic appears on both sides. Powell has also returned to the original colour approach, with the wheels manufactured at the Skate One factory in California.
At 64mm, these are unmistakably old-school wheels by modern street standards, and that is exactly the point. The larger diameter carries speed well and suits the bigger decks, wider trucks and longer wheelbases associated with classic setups. The 97A formula keeps them firm enough for ramps, parks and harder skating while retaining the feel that helped make Powell’s classic urethane so memorable. The 35mm width and medium riding patch prevent them from becoming unnecessarily bulky, making the Cross Bones a practical wheel rather than simply an exercise in nostalgia.
There is also something fitting about seeing a wheel like this return because skateboarders kept asking for it. Over the years, original Cross Bones became increasingly difficult to find in good condition, while collectors and riders continued searching for old sets and calling for a proper reissue. Plenty of skateboard products disappear and are eventually forgotten. Cross Bones disappeared and became more desirable.
That is what makes this reissue significant. The Cross Bones aren’t simply another graphic pulled from the Powell archives. They represent the point where Powell Peralta’s engineering, graphics, team and rapidly evolving skateboard culture all came together. They were there during the period when the Bones Brigade was helping transform skateboarding, and they became part of the setups ridden by skaters such as Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain while that transformation was happening.
Nearly four decades later, Cross Bones are rolling again. For anyone building a classic Powell complete, restoring an ’80s-inspired setup or simply wanting a larger 97A wheel with genuine skate history behind it, the new Powell Peralta Cross Bones deliver the look, dimensions and attitude that made the name memorable in the first place.
Some reissues are destined to spend their lives hanging on a wall, preserved as reminders of another era. The Cross Bones deserve something different. They were created during a time when skateboarding was progressing at full speed, when riders were pushing higher, faster and into completely new terrain, and these wheels were made to be part of that progression.
