Tired

Tired is a joke that is completely serious about itself. Californian Brad Staba — the Skate Mental guy — and Dutch artist Parra (Piet Janssen) started it in 2014, and the audience isn’t sixteen-year-olds stacking hammers. In the brand’s own words, it’s for “the guys breathing heavily after one ollie, the people that are sore for three days after skating for one hour, and the guys that are the same age as the security guard kicking you out of the spot.” That line explains about ninety percent of what ends up on the boards.

History

The first video landed on Thrasher on Christmas 2014, and December 25th has been the company’s fixed date ever since. Thrasher put it best in 2016: “The Tired Video on Xmas is a tradition as old as time, and by that we mean like 2014 or something.” The list is long enough to be funny on its own: Video Two and Video 3 (both 2015), To Hell and Back (2016), Tired and Destroyed (2018), The Tried (2019), the 2020 video, NEIN (2021 — video number eight, though it felt like nine), CHUCK™ (2022), Tired & Forgotten (2023) and Solo (2024), a Thrasher x Tired holiday special built around Mike Condello. In the catalogue drops Thrasher ran between 2014 and 2017, Tired always shows up alongside Skate Mental and 3D, distributed by Big Time Distribution — Staba’s house.

The team that refuses to be one

There is no contest roster here. In the credits for NEIN, Thrasher noted that “in an attempt to protect the innocent, all participants will remain anonymous,” and Tired & Forgotten lists names like Bob Reynolds, Mike Condello, Sven Barth, RJ Kellman and Will Mowry mixed in with friends of the brand and Parra himself. Condello is the one who has stuck around most visibly: he split The Tried with Sven Barth in 2019 and got a full part on Thrasher at Christmas 2024. If you want a signed roster with contest results, this isn’t the company.

The decks

Classic 7-ply maple, mellow concave, and stains that come out a different colour on every board — shops warn that the stain colour is random. Widths run from a normal popsicle — 8.25” with a 31.875” length and a 14” wheelbase — up to genuinely odd shapes like the 9.9” Workstation, which is built for rolling more than for flipping. The graphics are all Parra: everyday objects, pastel colours, deadpan jokes and not a single skate photo. It’s one of the few brands where the drawing, not the rider, is the product.

Who it’s for

For someone who already knows what they want and enjoys a board with real graphic identity. If you’re starting out, take a standard popsicle instead: Tired’s wide shapes are unforgiving and a poor place to learn ollies. If you’re not sure which width suits you, read the deck size guide first, then compare everything in the deck catalog.