Theories

Theories is Josh Stewart’s board brand — Stewart being the filmer behind the Static series — and also the public face of Theories of Atlantis, the distribution he runs out of Brooklyn. The distinction is worth keeping straight: a deck reading “Theories” is the in-house brand; “Theories of Atlantis” is the company that also gets other independent brands into shops. Both come from the same impulse: putting out things the big industry wouldn’t carry.

History

Stewart started filming Static in 1998, out of Florida, convinced that skateboarding at the time only looked at California. The series closed in 2023 with Static VI: six videos and twenty-five years documenting raw street skating from the East Coast, Europe and Japan.

He created Theories of Atlantis Distribution himself in 2010. It began as a way to sell other people’s independent skate videos and give them a platform, then friends’ brands got added until it no longer fit in the back room of his apartment. Today the office and warehouse are in Brooklyn and the catalogue includes Magenta, The Killing Floor, Evisen, Traffic, Picture Show, Dial Tone Wheel Co. and Hopps, alongside the Static back catalogue. The in-house boards came later, and the brand’s first video pieces — Escape from New York (2015) and Escape to LA (2016) — date from that stretch.

The team

Current pro models belong to Nyle Lovett and Connor Noll. The house videos have featured Nick Rainey, Jordan Trahan, Brian Delatorre, Christian Maalouf, Josh Feist, Hiroki Muraoka and John Baragwanath, among others. The brand videography keeps the same unhurried pace: Theories of Atlantis in Chicago (2017), Jupiter (2020), The Fourth Turning (2021), Conduit (2023) and Remote Viewing (2025), plus the Ace x Theories collaboration (2023).

Boards and graphics

The graphic identity all points one way: conspiracies, the paranormal, odd symbology. Models like Paranoia, Tentacles of Destruction, Lights Out, Bridgewater Triangle, Not What They Seem and Mystic Advisor set the tone. There’s also a fairly developed apparel line — pants, flannels, hoodies — and collaborations with Lakai (2018) and State (2019).

Who it’s for

Theories suits people who care where a board comes from and who is behind it. It isn’t a big-distribution brand, it doesn’t post content weekly, and the graphic won’t register with anyone outside the scene. If you want a deck people recognise, look at other options in the deck catalog; if this kind of small independent operation is what appeals, the European skate brands guide covers companies with the same philosophy.