Peter, our founder, started skateboarding at age 12 on a wooden deck. The more he skated, the more boards he destroyed. Chipping, razor tail, snapping, going soggy—it was infuriating. And every brand sold the exact same thing—there was no alternative. He thought: „There must be a better way to build skateboards." When he was 20, Peter emailed skate brands asking to buy an old press so he could make his own boards. Not a single one replied. That’s when he uncovered the industry’s secret: these brands don't even make their own boards. They just buy cheap wooden blanks from mega-factories and slap logos on them. So Peter took matters into his own hands. On February 1st, 2014, Peter and his dad built their first board press out of scrap metal in their garage. The first Kape skateboard was born. Year after year, he experimented with every material he could get his hands on, pushing every board to be better than the last. His friends started buying them, then their friends, and soon thousands of skaters across Europe were riding kape decks. But good wasn't enough. Wood was still the flaw. In 2019, Peter made a radical decision: break free from wood completely. He stopped selling skateboards entirely and poured 100% of his time, money, and energy into creating something entirely new. It took 5 years and over 1,000 broken prototypes to turn that risk into reality—creating The Vanguard, a full composite deck engineered to be extremely strong, chip-proof, and keep its pop forever. On August 31st, 2024, The Vanguard was officially released. Today, kape operates out of its own factory in Salzburg, complete with a private skatepark— where every new prototype goes straight from the press to testing. We’ve grown as a company, but the mission hasn't shifted an inch: Make the best skateboards possible—and ignore the rules of a lazy industry.