Habitat

Habitat launched in 2000 as an offshoot of Alien Workshop, and the two brands still travel together. Joe Castrucci runs it — a Cincinnati designer who came out of classic graphic design and has shaped the house look from day one: nature, illustration, clean type, no shouting. The brand puts it this way itself: “we are inspired by our team and the intersection of skateboarding, art and the natural world.” It is the opposite of a loud-graphics company, and that has always been the point.

History

The early years were expansive, and the videography defined a decade: Mosaic (2003) and Inhabitants, which premiered on 1 November 2007 with parts from Stefan Janoski, Danny Garcia, Raymond Molinar, Tim O’Connor, Fred Gall, Silas Baxter-Neal, Austyn Gillette, Guru Khalsa, Ed Selego, Steve Durante and Kerry Getz.

In May 2014 it all fell apart. Habitat and Alien Workshop sat under Pacific Vector, a holding company that stopped paying for board production and then stopped paying the riders; both brands vanished overnight. As Brennan Conroy (filmer and team manager) told Jenkem, Rob Dyrdek paid off the accumulated debt — around a million dollars — to pull the brand names back out of Pacific Vector’s hands. By July of that year Habitat was running again, distributed by Tum Yeto, on a cut budget and with the whole team taking pay cuts to stay.

Today Habitat and Alien Workshop are independently owned and operated under the “Sovereign Sect” banner, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The team

Current pro models belong to Mark Suciu, Silas Baxter-Neal, Stefan Janoski, Brian Delatorre, Marius Syvanen and Kauê Cossa. In 2025 Thrasher premiered Jiro Platt’s first part for the brand, and Zac Coyne shows up throughout the recent videos. The alumni list reads like a map of 2000s street skating: Fred Gall, Kerry Getz, Tim O’Connor, Rob Pluhowski, Danny Garcia, Brian Wenning, Mark Appleyard, Ed Selego, Danny Renaud, Raymond Molinar, Austyn Gillette, Guru Khalsa, Al Davis, Steve Durante, Daryl Angel, Flo Mirtain and Kevin Lowry.

Boards and collaborations

The range is built around named shapes — Sect, Agile, Era, Glendale, Mantis, Solo, Twin Tail, Xenia, Metal Shovel, Psych — spread across widths from 7.75” to 9”. The graphics are the draw: Castrucci has done projects with Twin Peaks (2017), NASA (2019), naturalist illustrator Charley Harper, Animal Collective, Smokey Bear, GX1000 and OJ Wheels, alongside outside work for Pink Floyd, National Geographic and Converse.

Who it’s for

If you want a pro-grade maple deck with a graphic you can look at every day without it yelling at you, Habitat is one of the best buys out there. If you want giant logos, jokes or trend graphics, look elsewhere. Get the width right with the sizing guide first, then compare it against the full deck catalog.