Isle

Isle is British and started in March 2013, set up by Paul Shier and Nick Jensen, two names out of Blueprint — the company that had defined English skateboarding since 1996. The brand is known as much for how its team skates as for what Jensen does with the graphics: he’s an art school graduate who has shown work in galleries, and it comes through in every series of boards. Jenkem calls it one of the most popular “homegrown” European board brands out today, with art direction running through everything.

History

The first boards hit UK shops in June 2013, in the Studio and Push Pull ranges. That December the brand put out a run of short films for Dazed Digital directed by Jensen himself, built around the idea of reflections and opposites: Stop | Start, shot on Super 8 across Wales and London with Chris Jones; Light | Dark, which already featured Casper Brooker; and Left | Right, with Knox and Jensen skating in sync. The first year also brought a pop-up shop with Casio G-Shock, team trips to Valencia, Lyon and Berlin, and the first Artists Series, with graphics by Lee Marshall. The first full-length, Vase, directed by Jacob Harris, premiered on 14 November 2015 with two screenings at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. In 2023 the brand restarted with Dreamers, a Jensen promo shot on 16mm by James Coyle.

The team

In 2013 the team was three pros — Jensen, Shier and Sylvain Tognelli, two models each — and three ams: Chris Jones, Tom Knox and Jon Nguyen. Casper Brooker, who came from Heroin and wasn’t part of the founding line-up, turned pro in January 2018 on a board Jensen designed from shapes he’d been carving in his back garden. The line-up Free listed alongside Dreamers in 2023 was Nick Jensen, Paul Shier, Sylvain Tognelli, Chris Jones, Mike Arnold and new addition Kyron Davis.

Boards and art

Isle’s series come with names and concepts: Studio, Push Pull, Material, Artists Series. Lee Marshall illustrated the first Artists Series, which included Jensen’s Clockwork, Shier’s Sticks and Tognelli’s Pipes. That way of working has taken the brand somewhere unusual for a board company: in 2016 it made Paving Space with Carhartt WIP and sculptor Raphaël Zarka, a run of exhibitions linking maths, art and skateboarding; in 2017 it went to the West Bank with SkatePal; in 2020 the Nike SB x Isle Blazer landed with a Jacob Harris edit; and in 2022 Jensen curated a capsule with Slam City Skates.

Who it’s for

Isle suits anyone who wants a board chosen on graphic merit, from a company with a body of work behind it rather than just a logo. Runs are short and graphics don’t turn over quickly, so don’t expect a big brand’s release schedule. If you just need a cheap spare deck, there are more obvious choices. Line it up against the rest in the deck catalog and in the European brands guide.