Polar

Polar Skate Co. is what happened when Pontus Alv, Malmö pro, filmmaker and artist born in 1977, stopped waiting for the industry and started his own company in 2011. He had already spent years building his city’s DIY scene by hand and making acclaimed independent videos that laid down the brand’s aesthetic DNA before the brand even existed: creative street skating, lo-fi 16mm-flavored footage and hand-drawn everything.

History

Alv’s pre-Polar résumé includes actual concrete: Malmö DIY spots like TBS and Savanna Side were shaped by his own hands, starred in his films, and are now a pilgrimage stop for anyone skating through Sweden. Once the brand got rolling in 2011, Polar spearheaded the mid-2010s no-comply renaissance and did as much as anyone to establish European skateboarding as a creative force outside the California bubble. Its full-length videos are widely cited among the most influential of the decade, a filmmaking legacy that still defines the label’s identity. Alv also kept expanding the family, co-founding sister footwear brand Last Resort AB with Sami Tolppi in 2020, while Polar itself stayed independent and skater-owned throughout.

Who rides for Polar

The current team: Aaron Herrington (13-plus years on the brand), Oskar “Oski” Rozenberg, Nick Boserio, Paul Grund, Shin Sanbongi, Jamie Platt, Emile Laurent, Román González, Kiki Kakitani (who also rides for Last Resort AB), Nathan Clancy, Ebou Sanyang and Dylan Mills, a former Polar warehouse worker who got put on the team. That promote-from-within streak runs deep: warehouse manager Robbin de Wit was even made a guest pro. Oski’s arc says a lot about the company; he joined at 13, won the 2017 Vans Park Series World Championships, took the 2018 finale at home in Malmö, and skated the Tokyo Olympics for Sweden while staying on the same independent Malmö brand. Historic names include Hjalte Halberg, Kevin Rodrigues, Dane Brady, David Stenström, Jacob Ovgren (rider and graphic artist) and Alv himself, who skated in the early videos.

Boards, graphics and Big Boys

Polar graphics are unmistakable: Alv’s own drawings and paintings, Jacob Ovgren’s dark-humor illustrations and work from the AMTK collective, with the happy/sad face motif recurring across boards, apparel and collabs, plus running series like “Everything Is Normal”. Alongside standard popsicles, Polar keeps shaped decks in the line, such as the P9 and Dane Brady’s “Dane 1”. On construction, retailers report 100% Canadian hard-rock maple, though Polar itself doesn’t publicize which woodshop presses its boards. Then there are the Big Boy Jeans: heavyweight (~435 gsm) baggy denim Alv dreamed up while watching ’90s clips at a time when slim chinos ruled, and which ended up reshaping skate fashion industry-wide. Collabs back up the crossover appeal: Converse Cons footwear since 2014 (designed by Alv, later a Jack Purcell Pro collection), a ‘90s-inspired Carhartt WIP capsule with four artist decks, and sister footwear brand Last Resort AB.

Who it’s for

Polar suits skaters who want a premium deck with a genuine identity behind it: skater-owned and operated, art-house to the core, and still a functioning skateboard company rather than a fashion label. For the wider scene it belongs to, see our guide to European skate brands.