TOWN & COUNTRY
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TOWN & COUNTRY *
Pearl City, Hawaii
Founded, mid-1980s
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1 skateboard in collection
Overview
Town & Country grew out of Hawaii’s surf culture and carried that bright, easygoing identity naturally into skateboarding. By the mid-1980s, T&C Skate Designs had become a recognizable part of the skate world, producing colorful decks that reflected the same surf-and-skate crossover that defined the larger brand.
Artist Steve Nazar became an important part of that identity. His cartoon-driven graphics brought together comic-book energy, humor, tropical color and imaginative characters in a style that felt immediately at home in the 1980s.
T&C’s skateboards could be playful without feeling lightweight. Their graphics captured the freedom and fun of skating while still belonging unmistakably to the shaped-deck era.
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My first real connection to Town & Country came through my friend Greg. His first serious board was the 1986 Primal Urges team deck, and that Steve Nazar graphic has stayed with me ever since.
There was something refreshing about it. The colors were bright and tropical, and the caveman skating a stone transition was funny without making skateboarding itself feel like a joke. It captured something pure about skating — taking whatever was around you and turning it into something to ride.
I also liked the collision of primitive and modern. We were coming out of things like The Flintstones and that whole cartoon world of cavemen interacting with modern life, and Primal Urges had some of that same playful logic. It felt whimsical and almost comic-book-like, but completely at home on a skateboard.
Town & Country always felt more surf-and-skate to me than a traditional skateboard company. The Hawaii connection, the bright graphics and the easygoing attitude gave it a crisp, free feeling.
It also stood in sharp contrast to the Dogtown graphics I liked from the same period. Dogtown felt dark, eerie and desolate. Primal Urges felt sunny, funny and alive.
For me, Town & Country is remembered largely through that one graphic. It was bright, funny and imaginative, and it captured something about skateboarding that still feels fresh to me.
TEAM
1986
Primal Urges!