Arbor

Arbor didn’t start out as a skate brand — it started out making snowboards. Bob Carlson and Chris Jensen set it up in Venice, California in 1995 around an idea that sounded odd in the industry at the time: sustainability as a construction principle rather than a marketing label. Skateboards followed in 1998, and they are now the bigger side of the business — cruisers, longboards, surfskates and street decks.

History

Arbor’s first board was a snowboard with a Hawaiian koa topsheet instead of the usual plastic. Carlson has said that early on “we got called hippies a lot”. They survived the brutal late-90s consolidation by changing the model — licensing deals with international distributors, and the collective idea the company is named after — and the brand is still independent and still run by its founder out of Venice. The skate line, started in 1998, is the part that has grown most.

Sustainability, with numbers

This is where Arbor genuinely stands apart, and it’s documented by press well outside skateboarding. The wood comes from an Ohio supplier, M. Bohlke Veneer, which harvests most of its material within 500 miles of the factory. The brand uses bamboo, bio-plastics, bio-urethane in its wheels, and recycled and reclaimed materials. The Returning Roots program puts a share of sales into the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, which replants koa forest in Hawaii; Snowboard Magazine put the rate at roughly 75,000–80,000 trees a year in 2021. Arbor also works with the Conservation Alliance and the Surfrider Foundation.

The team

The street side stepped up recently: in September 2025 Alec Majerus left Flip and signed to Arbor. Alongside him are Ace Pelka, Sean Imes, Amelia Brodka, Noah Holmes, Will Mux and Logan Mosey. On the downhill and longboard side, Antonio Madariaga, Tyler Howell and Axel Serrat. Thrasher and Free Skate Mag have been running the brand’s recent edits: “Triad” in 2025 and the “Check Engine Light” tour in 2026.

Decks, cruisers and longboards

The catalog splits cleanly, and it’s worth knowing which half you’re buying from. Street: pro models for Ace Pelka, Alec Majerus and Amelia Brodka, plus the team series (Whiskey, Shuriken, Legacy), in widths from 8.25” up to 9.75” on the wider shapes. Cruisers: the Pilsner family, including the Bamboo Pilsner XL. Longboards and downhill: Axis 37 and 40, Dropcruiser and the Performance series. Plus CX surfskates. If you’re coming from longboarding, Arbor is one of the brands that helped define the format.

Who it’s for

If you want a cruiser or a longboard made of real wood, with actual woodwork on it and an environmental record you can check, Arbor is one of the soundest buys on the market. It works for straight street too — the team and the decks are there, and the level has gone up — but if what you want is a core-brand popsicle with a huge graphics catalog and stock in every shop, there are more obvious options. Line it up against the rest in the deck catalog, and if you’re unsure about width, start with the sizing guide.