USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia-S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 20, No. 4
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
January 22, 2020
1 Section, 10 Pages
Bear Walker: Turning pop culture 360
“The texture started out as basic line art, but now it’s kind of evolved into this background texture I created,” Walker said. “I also use it as an intricate focal point somewhere on the board for when the design has a lot of details like a portrait or character.” By Gina Castro
What started out as a project for his senior year at Clemson University quickly developed into a passion and then a business. Bear Walker is a premium skateboard designer based out of Daphne, AL. Walker’s boards have been widely accepted in the realm of pop culture. Walker has partnered with Legendary Television to create a limited edition collector’s board for the company’s Netflix series Lost in Space. Among some of his fans are DC Comics’ Aquaman Jason Momoa and The Flash’s Grant Gustin. Walker grew up surfing in South Carolina, but once he started college, he wasn’t near an ocean anymore. So, he started skateboarding. Walker designed his first skateboard as his final project for his graphic design degree in 2011. He said he enjoyed the process but didn’t think anything more of the project until he started working at a company that made high-end wooden signs. “After working for a sign company for a few years, the idea kinda clicked to carve artwork out of the top of boards to create grip,” Walker said. “I made one for myself, and people started asking where I got it, so I moved from there.” But that wasn’t Walker’s first time working with a wood medium. He spent years with his dad building custom homes. After receiving praise for his first few boards, Walker decided to start his first skateboard shop in Charleston, SC. The business unfortunately failed. Walker said that his first business failed because he wasn’t creating what he is passionate about. “Back then, I was trying to do this whole surfing and beach vibe kind of thing,” Walker said. “I thought it was what I wanted to create, but I wasn’t even going with my passion, which is pop culture.”
So, Walker started from scratch. He moved from Charleston to Daphne, where his parents are originally from. His parents moved back to Daphne when Walker went to college. From there, Walker saved up money, harnessed his craft and discovered his passion for pop culture. In 2016, he started the skateboard shop he is known for today. Walker’s process for designing the boards has evolved over the years, especially his process for creating the texture of the top layer of the board. Walker said that developing the texture was the most difficult aspect. The texture is important because it gives the skateboarder grip. “The texture started out as basic line art, but now it’s kind of evolved into this background texture I created,” Walker said. “I also use it as an intricate focal point somewhere on the board for when the design has a lot of details like a portrait or a character.” Walker said that the process for making his designs come to life really depends on the board. If the board design he has in mind calls for a “hand drawn feel,” he will sketch the design on paper, scan the sketch and then program the design to come out of his machine. His other route is rooted in his graphic design
background, so he will draw his design on Illustrator and then program the design into his machine. Once the product comes out of the machine, Walker spends a couple of hours cutting and sanding the board and then airbrushes the board by hand. This tedious process can take anywhere between 2 to 30 hours. It all depends on if the board is one of his mass production boards, which takes about 2 to 3 hours to make, or a custom designed board, which is about 20 to 30 hours of work. Although creating custom boards is more challenging and costly than designing mass production boards, Walker enjoys the process more. You can order custom boards on his website bearwalker. com. “It’s definitely more difficult than mass production, but it’s definitely where innovation comes from,” Walker said. “New ideas spark from trying to create someone else’s vision. I actually make way less money making custom boards than I do making mass production boards, but it keeps it interesting, and it’s where my next line of mass production comes from.” The majority of Walker’s designs are inspired by pop culture, such as Marvel’s Iron Man, Rick and Morty and the horror flick It.
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So, naturally, he has partnered with artists and actors within pop culture. One of his favorite collaborations was creating a line of boards with Zachary Levi, the actor who plays Shazam. “One of my favorite things we do is collaborate with different artists and companies constantly,” Walker said. “Collaborating is like another realm where I can innovate. A lot of the times, the artist I’m working with think about something I’ve never thought of doing because I know the process. Someone who doesn’t know the process will think of something, and I’ll go ‘Oh, wow. I hadn’t thought about trying that before.’ It helps me create new ideas.” Walker will be opening his second custom board skate shop in LA in 2020 and then, eventually, open up more locations around the world. He also plans to implement more environmentally friendly aspects into his business. As of now, each skateboard purchased plants two trees. Walker plants a single tree and his packager plants the second tree. Walker also uses all of the saw dust waste to help grow local food. He plans to use the compost from that to grow more gardens in the future. For more information about Bear Walker, go to bearwalker.com or follow him on social media @ BearWalkerOfficial. •
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