As we continue to coast in the website world, we want to keep heads notified of what’s deadly and what’s fresh in areas of the unknown. We decided to bring in another new section called “Raw Product”. This is going to be a section about some hidden gems you can ride, you can wear, and you can support. I mean if tomorrow Krooked and 5boro drop a collaboration, we’d also like to notify heads. Maybe you specifically out there know about some fresh products, send me a shout out so we can post it on the what it [dot] be for review. Today, I got word of some company that’s just sprouting out in the northeast called Voyage Skateboards. We at the [dot] thought we would see what’s good with this company, considering it resides only 2 hours south of NYC in Philly. The east coast always needs support and that’s why I had Bill the owner of Voyage come through and answer some questions. Check it…
words by Alex Raspa
Interview with Voyage Skateboard Co. Owner — Bill Reeves
So Bill, how long have you been skating for?
I have been skating for 10 years or so now.
Bill Reeves
And What exactly made you want to come out with a board company?
Actually my original intent for the name Voyage was a wheel company. A few years ago my good friend Rob Williams started a wheel company based out of Philly called Pusher. I really was excited for him and didn’t want to step on his toes by doing my own wheel company so I changed it up to boards which is great because Rob and I work very closely together and even ship our product together if the shop carries both Pusher and Voyage. We have a little two company distribution thing. A lot of our riders ride for both companies which makes it easier on everyone.
I know it’s hard to produce a board company considering the fact that there are so many out there, what makes Voyage different?
Well right now, the team is something that I think is going to make us stand out once people start to hear about us, a bunch of really good underdogs. All the guys who ride for Voyage live in Philadelphia and they are all guys who should have been hooked up a long time ago but we all know how hard it is to make a name for yourself on the east coast. I’m not one to find all these things about how different and unique our little company is, cause to be perfectly honest, we are a skateboard company. I am just a guy who always wanted to start my own thing and I finally got the balls to do it.
Voyage Skateboard Co. Flyer
Bill Sands 360 Flip
Can you tell me a little bit about the indivduals that you have on your board squad? And where can people catch footy of them at?
We have 5 main guys on the team right now who are Bill Sands, Brian Douglas (who you can catch killing Love Park every night), Chris Fireoved, Pat Heid and myself. We are all really good friends and that’s how I wanted to start the company, as a homie thing. If it works out and catches on a little bit, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it. You can see footage of all of us in any given Chris Mulhern video… “I’d rather skate Cecil”, “Few and Far Between”, and his new video “This Time Tomorrow”.
Bill Sands
Chris Fireoved
Brian Douglas
Pat Heid
Bill Reeves
Yeah, tell me anything you might know about Chris Mulhern’s new video “This Time Tomorrow”?
Well first off, it is amazing. It is the first concept video I have really seen. It is focused on the time of day that the footage was shot. So one part starts in the morning and ends at night, and the next part vice versa so it looks like one long continuous week or so of footage. What normally would have been your last trick in any other video is randomly in the part because of what time it was filmed. It is an amazing way of mixing it up as far as skate video formatting. Check out his site for premiere dates and footage.
Back to the boards, what kind of wood are you guys using?
Our wood is from the same manufacturers as 5boro, so it’s good wood.
Where did the name Voyage come from?
I always wanted to start my own company, even when I was in high school. I would sit in class and write down what I thought would be cool names for a company. Some were good, some were whatever and some were awful. I don’t remember when I actually thought up Voyage and I’m not sure why I thought of it but I have been sitting on it for at least three years now and finally decided to do something with it. I am really happy with it and I have always had a fascination with the ocean and ships, which is where I came up with the ship logo. Although we are not going to hold our graphics to strictly a nautical theme, we intend on using other forms of transportation like trains, airplanes, who knows. Voyage is about moving and traveling and not staying stagnant, because if you stay in one place for too long you stop learning and experiencing new things.
So I imagine you put the logo together and are doing the artwork too?
Yeah, I came up with the ship logo and think it came out really well. Nice and simple, but people sometimes apparently mistake it for a fist which I don’t see but I think it’s pretty funny. Right now I pretty much do all the artwork but some of the guys on the team have thrown ideas at me. Bill and Pat who ride for us are very artistic as well and I always want anyone involved to stay involved so the whole team should have some more involvement down the road I’m sure.
Is there any direction that you are working towards with the boards themselves, are there any other graphics coming out?
I think everyone that has been skating for a while is more concerned about the wood and the shapes of the boards they put under their feet, but everyone still likes to see a cool graphic as well. As a company, we need to have all three and if I didn’t care about graphics, I probably would not have started Voyage. I just like the whole process of putting in time to create a graphic, then seeing it on a wall at a skate shop, then maybe coming back a few days later to notice that it’s gone and someone is out there skating and destroying the graphic and the wood simply for the fun of it. That concept is very interesting to me, and I love it. Anyway, besides the graphics that you see on the site, we have two new graphics coming out, hopefully around mid-March at the latest.
So you stated eariler about “stepping on toes”, how do you avoid stepping on other board companies toes, especially other ones based out of Philly?
We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, that’s for sure. If anything we want to work together with other local companies because the smaller guys need to stick together. Ricky has been doing Traffic for a while and he is certainly an inspiration to what Voyage is doing. Everyone knows Ricky put Philly on the map and the younger guys like us are just trying to make the map bigger and keep it going. With Traffic and Totally and us being rather small companies, we can only help out so many guys. Ricky has his group of guys that he takes care of and Voyage has ours, and we all get along. Hopefully people just see our skating, footage and our products and like what they see, that is all I can really hope for. There are a few other companies around the area and it seems to work out pretty well because everyone has their own little niche of skaters and supporters. Philly is such a tight nit skateboarding community, I think everyone just wants to help each other out to keep it growing.
Voyage Skateboard Co. Flyer
Who are some of the skate shops in the U.S. carrying Voyage?
Right now we are psyched because most of the shops we are in are heavy hitters in the northeast. Nocturnal, they have been helping us a ton, Exit, they always have an event or if we aren’t skating or working, we are hanging out there. Chris Cole’s new shop, Reign where Justin and Skip take care of us. VU in Baltimore, Gary Smith hooked that up for us, and Autumn, we are excited to have a small presence in NYC. We are always looking for new shops as well, we want to get the name out there.
Brian Douglas with a SS Backside Tailslide
Word, that can only mean good for you to have NYC in the house. How long have you guys been up and running ?
We have had physical product in shops since the end of December, so we are still very much a baby.
And do you have any last words, any thank ya’s?
I would like to thank my family most importantly, Laurie, Gengles, Rob at Pusher, Mark at Nocturnal, Steve at Exit, Grandpa at Autumn, Kalvin at Shelter, Justin and Skip at Reign, Gary Smith, Focus Mag, Chris Mulhern, All the Voyage and Cecil boys, they are the big supporters. It’s hard to remember everyone who has helped us out but you guys know who you are… and if you see any of us skating around, please come and say hi, we like meeting new people.
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raw product conducted by Alex Raspa
designed by Bradley Cushing
Questions by Alex Raspa
