Tech deck
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A tech deck is a miniature skateboard, with which a skateboarder can complete various skateboarding tricks with his/her fingers. The index finger acting as the front foot and the middle finger acting as the back foot.
There are three sizes of tech deck: a 57 mm mini, a 96mm fingerboard and a 27cm hand board.
[edit] History
Teck Decks were actually invented by a 12-year old Californian skateboarder boy named Steven Asher on a rainy day in 1998. Obviously unable to skateboard outside, his idea was to bring it inside.
With his imagination, he created 3-inch cardboard replicas of real skateboards and drew graphics on the bottom to enhance their realism.
Steven's father, Peter Asher, coincidentally was a toy industry veteran, and used his son's idea as a brand new toy wave, and thus Tech Deck was born. Steven insisted that Tech Decks were to represent the real thing; real metal trucks, real grip tape, real graphics and real wheels.
The top brands were identified by visiting local skate-shops, though actually contacting the brands themselves proved to be quite a challenge, though another coincidence occurred. An administrative assistant in Peter's office noticed that Steven owned a Chet Thomas signature board, and mentioned that she went to school with the skateboard pro. Chet was contacted and was able to arrange contact with World Industries, ending up with a licensing agreement.
Since then, more than 4,000 different real pro-model graphic designs licensed from top skateboard manufacturers such as Cliche, Plan B Skateboards , World Industries, Blind, A-Team, Birdhouse, Creature, New Deal, Element, DGK, Black Label, Santa Cruz, Alien Workshop, Zero, Stereo Sound Agency, Maple, Zoo York, Darkstar, Baker and Foundation have been added to the Tech Deck line.
From Thanksgiving of 1999, when first introduced in limited distribution, until now, more than 35 million Tech Deck mini-replica skateboards have been sold. And interest in collecting Tech Deck mini-replica skateboards continues to increase.
Tech Decks come in many different real graphic designs and colors.
Tech Decks used to have generations 1-12, but now they have series.
The new Tech Decks compared to the old ones have bigger wheels and rougher griptape and also have a larger logo on the griptape.
There are figurines called Tech Deck Dudes available. They are plastic figurines with magnetic feet that stick to the magnetic skateboard.
