Krooked

Krooked is what happens when Mark Gonzales gets his own company and nobody tells him no. The Gonz founded it in 2002 under the Deluxe Distribution umbrella in San Francisco, after years riding for Real, with backing from Tommy Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud. He has been the creative director ever since, hand-drawing the vast majority of the graphics, ads and promo art himself. That loose, wobbly line is why a Krooked deck reads as a Gonz original from across the shop, and why plenty of them end up on walls instead of under feet. The brand calls itself “The Brand With The Two Eyes”, and those two eyes have become as recognisable as any logo in skateboarding.

History

Krooked was born in 2002 inside Deluxe, which meant it shared a roof from day one with Real, Antihero, Spitfire, Thunder and Venture, all distributed out of San Francisco. That founding move set the tone: a rider-owned house built around Gonzales after his Real years, with Guerrero and Thiebaud behind it. Deluxe doesn’t publicly confirm which woodshop presses Krooked decks, so we won’t speculate on construction specifics. What is on record is the founder’s standing: Transworld ranked Gonzales number one on its 2011 list of the 30 most influential skaters of all time, and he still draws virtually all of the brand’s artwork himself, which is why the identity has barely drifted in more than two decades.

Boards: the Zip Zinger and beyond

The Zip Zinger launched with the brand in 2002, a cruiser shape borrowed from 1970s slalom boards, reissued ever since in new sizes with fresh Gonz art (there’s also the Zip Zagger variant). It covers the cruiser/retro end of a range that otherwise consists of standard street decks. On top of that sits the Guest Board program, limited-run pro models for skaters on other companies, like the Alexis Sablone board, plus collaborations such as the Slam City Skates Zip Zingers and Zip Zaggers made with Gonzales and Blondey McCoy. If you want to line the shapes up against other brands, browse all decks here.

The team

The current roster mixes lifers with newer blood: Gonzales himself, Dan Drehobl (a longtime pro for the brand), Bobby Worrest, Mike Anderson, Brad Cromer, Ronnie Sandoval, Una Farrar, Tom Knox, Matt Gottwig, Andrew Wilson, Cyprus Blanco and Eddie Cernicky. Historic names include Sebo Walker and Van Wastell, a standout of the Kronichles/Gnar Gnar era who died in 2008. The Converse CONS link-up gave Mike Anderson his CTAS Pro shoe alongside the “Middle Earth” video in 2022.

Videos worth digging up

Krooked has always put out videos at a steady clip, and the back catalogue is full of collector oddities, from limited VHS pressings to a full-blown 3D experiment. The complete run, title by title, is laid out in the videography section below.

Who should ride one

Anyone who wants a deck with an actual point of view: graphics drawn by the founder, a genuinely core brand with a paper trail to prove it, and, if city cruising is your thing, a shape in the Zip Zinger that has earned its twenty-plus years in the range.