POWELL BONES BRIGADE SERIES 17: FIVE ICONS, ONE LEGENDARY LEGACY

Powell-Peralta has always stood at the centre of skateboard history, and the Bones Brigade Series 17 drop taps straight into that legacy. Founded by George Powell and Stacy Peralta in 1978, Powell-Peralta helped reshape how skateboards were built, how skaters were promoted, and how skate culture was presented to the world. The company did not just sell boards, it built an identity around innovation, graphics, video parts, and team storytelling that still echoes through modern skating. The Bones Brigade became the clearest expression of that vision, turning a group of young, wildly different riders into the most influential team of the 1980s and one of the most important squads the culture has ever seen.

What made the Bones Brigade matter so much was not only contest results or product sales. It was the fact that the team helped define whole categories of skating at once. They dominated vert, pushed freestyle into another dimension, helped lay the foundation for street skating, and changed skateboard media through landmark videos that are still studied and celebrated today. Stacy Peralta’s leadership and George Powell’s product vision gave the team structure, but it was the riders’ personalities and progression that made the group mythic. Their influence stretched far beyond the 1980s, and even decades later the Bones Brigade name still carries a kind of gravity that few brands or teams can match.

Series 17, as shown here, puts the spotlight on five essential Bones Brigade names: Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, and Steve Caballero. Each one represents a different lane of skateboarding history, which is exactly why these releases hit so hard. Rodney Mullen was the freestyle wizard whose technical creativity changed skating forever. His flatground invention and discipline helped open the door to what modern street skating would become, and his presence in any Bones Brigade collection reminds people that progression does not always arrive with noise; sometimes it arrives with precision, obsession, and total originality. Rodney’s graphic has always carried that same strange, intelligent, unmistakable energy.

Mike McGill brought raw power and contest dominance, and his name is permanently tied to one of skateboarding’s most famous tricks, the McTwist. He represented the explosive, all-gas side of the Bones Brigade, the rider who could take ramp skating and make it look both dangerous and controlled at the same time. McGill’s skull-and-snake imagery remains one of the most instantly recognisable graphics in skateboarding, and every time it returns it feels less like a reissue and more like a flare shot into the sky for anyone who remembers that era.

Tommy Guerrero gave the Brigade its style, cool, and street credibility. While the team is often remembered for ramp innovation, Tommy helped point skateboarding toward a looser, more urban, more creative direction. He made the everyday environment feel skateable, and that way of seeing the world became central to street skating’s evolution. His graphics have always had a different flavour from the heavier fantasy and skull-driven imagery around him, and that contrast is part of what made the Bones Brigade so strong: every rider felt distinct, but together they formed a complete picture.

Tony Hawk became the global face of vert skating, but in the Bones Brigade years he was the young phenomenon pushing the limits in real time. Long before video games and mainstream celebrity, Hawk was the kid on the team redefining what could be done above coping. His rise through Powell-Peralta is one of the great stories in skateboarding because it shows how the Brigade developed not just stars, but generational figures. His graphic remains a pillar of the brand, and every new release reminds collectors and skaters alike that Hawk’s legacy started in this exact world of skulls, wings, chrome, and progression.

Steve Caballero brought longevity, style, technical brilliance, and one of the deepest visual identities in skateboarding. Cab’s influence reaches across vert, street, art, and product culture, and he remains one of the most enduring figures Powell-Peralta has ever had. The dragon imagery tied to Cab is more than a classic graphic now. It is a symbol of how some skate identities never fade, they just keep finding new generations.

That is why Bones Brigade Series 17 matters. It is not simply another nostalgia drop. It is a reminder that Powell-Peralta helped create the blueprint for modern skateboarding, and that these riders were not just team members, but architects of the culture itself. When these graphics come back, they bring the whole story with them: the rise of skate videos, the evolution of skate art, the birth of modern trick progression, and the era when one team seemed to define the future all at once. For collectors, Series 17 is pure history on wood. For newer skaters, it is a direct line back to the source. Either way, it proves that the Bones Brigade still has teeth.