Roller Derby Skate Board thumbnail 1
Roller Derby Skate Board thumbnail 2
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Roller Derby Skate Board

Skateboard
1959-1960 (manufactured)
Artist/Maker
Roller Derby Skate Corp (manufacturers)
Place of origin
La Mirada (manufactured)

5-ply rectangular board painted red with the name in white on the upper surface. The board has one straight and one curved end. There are two sets of steel double wheels attached to the underside of the board, one at each end.

Object details

Categories
Play
Children & Childhood
Outdoor Games & Toys
Object type
Skateboard
TitleRoller Derby Skate Board (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Painted plywood deck with steel wheels and trucks
Plywood
Steel
Painting
Brief description
Roller Derby Skate Board made in the USA in 1959/60
Physical description
5-ply rectangular board painted red with the name in white on the upper surface. The board has one straight and one curved end. There are two sets of steel double wheels attached to the underside of the board, one at each end.
Dimensions
  • Length: 48.2cm
  • Width: 11.5cm
  • Height: 7.3cm
Style
Mid 20th Century
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
'Roller Derby / SKATE BOARD' (Painted on deck)
Gallery label
(01/06/2017)
Skateboards

Many of the earliest manufactured skateboards had plywood ‘decks’ (boards). These designs, made of simple cut-out sheets of flat ply, could be easily recreated at home by attaching repurposed wheels to a sawn piece of plywood. Board shapes changed to suit new styles of skateboarding, most obviously in the late 1980s when they started to be moulded with kicktails at either end. From the late 1970s skateboarders began to build large, plywood-clad DIY ramps so they could skate in the freestyle way that increasingly defined the sport.

1. Roller Derby Skate Board
1959–60
Manufactured by Roller Derby
La Mirada, California, USA
Painted 5-ply plywood; steel trucks and wheels
V&A: B.9-2017

2. Junior Flyer Skate Board
About 1969
Manufactured by Mettoy
Solihul, Britain
9-ply plywood with printed graphic, steel trucks, rubber wheels
V&A: B.10-2017

3. Homemade plywood skateboard
About 1975
Maker unknown
Trucks re-used from a Pro Class skateboard, with Free Roller wheels
9-ply plywood, steel trucks and polyurethane wheels
USA (possibly New York)
V&A: B.11-2017

Plywood: Material of the Modern World
V&A 15 July - 12 November 2017
Production
The Roller Derby Skate Board was the first mass-produced skateboard. After 1963, when Roller Derby Skate Corp had begun to release newer models, a '#10' was added to its name.
Associated objects
Collection
Young V&A Collection
Accession number
B.9-2017

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Record createdOctober 13, 2016
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1370577/roller-derby-skate-board-skateboard-roller-derby-skate/
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