Element

Element is one of those brands almost anyone who has set foot in a skatepark recognizes on sight, thanks to the tree logo. It started in 1992, though not under that name or with the identity it carries today. Andy Howell founded it in Atlanta, Georgia, as Underworld Element, with a hip-hop-influenced cartoon aesthetic that had nothing to do with nature. Howell ran it until around 1994, when Johnny Schillereff, who had come on as a graphic artist, took over, dropped the “Underworld” and rebuilt the brand from the ground up.

History

Schillereff’s pivot explains most of what Element became. He reoriented the brand around the four classical elements (wind, water, fire and earth), leaned into the idea of the board as living wood, and set the “rooted in skateboarding, inspired by nature” line and the tree logo that still marks it today. That reset gave Element a clean, recognizable identity that carried well beyond decks into apparel and footwear.

In the 2000s, Element broke into mainstream visibility largely through Bam Margera, whose pro models sold in huge numbers during the MTV era. In 2003 the brand signed Nyjah Huston as a child prodigy, around age seven or eight, before he became one of the most decorated competitive street skaters ever. In that same period it also built a video legacy, headlined by its 2007 full-length This Is My Element.

Element has been part of Boardriders (the former Quiksilver group) since 2018, after opening The Branch, its creative headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, in 2014, where it keeps design and its main office; it also runs a European office in France. In early 2025, Liberated Brands, which operated Element’s retail, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed stores. That situation is recent and still developing.

Decks and construction

The decks are maple with standard 7-ply construction. Element’s own calling card is the Featherlight line, a lighter build meant to cut weight without giving up strength. On the graphics side, alongside the long-running nature series, the standout is the Star Wars collaboration, a run of dedicated models (Darth Vader, Yoda, the Millennium Falcon and 80s droid artwork) that widens the range for anyone after something beyond the tree logo. If you want a deck with a logo everyone knows, you can compare deck models by size and construction.

Team, then and now

Don’t confuse the history with the current roster. Names like Nyjah Huston (who left around 2021), Bam Margera, Chad Muska, Ray Barbee, Mike Vallely and Bucky Lasek belong to the brand’s past. The more recent pro team includes Brandon Westgate, Madars Apse, longtime pro Mark Appleyard, Donny Barley, Tom Schaar on transition and vert, and Chris “Cookie” Colbourn, with ams and newer faces such as Funa Nakayama, Nassim Guammaz and Julian Davidson.