Droors clothing started in the early '90s and was initially not easy to differentiate from other brands at the time—graff-inspired T-shirts, baggy triple-stitched jeans, etc. As the company expanded into footwear with DC Shoes (allegedly, DC stands for Droors Clothing), the styles got cleaner and more influenced by sportswear—DC was one of the first brands to make mesh jerseys for the skate consumer. For awhile, Droors was synonymous with the loose, Polo Sport-chomping style of skaters like Josh Kalis.

Acme had a rad, thick-lined, tilted crown logo and all you really needed back in the '90s was a decent wordmark or two so kids would want to plaster their shit with your stickers and draw your logo on their binder. Acme was a semi-anonymous company that, unlike most other skate brands during the slick-bottom deck era, didn’t have pro boards associated with the skaters they sponsored, just eye-catching art, like 1994’s comic book graphics from Image Comics. Noah recently released a T-shirt riffing on another Acme logo, and the Hundreds even did some proper collaboration gear.

In '90s America, both skateboarding and an interest in anime marked you as a weird kid. Hook-Ups indulged both, slapping buxom anime characters on tees and then decks. Pro skater Jeremy Klein embraced the identity of anime fetish creep and thousands of teenage boys were on board while thousands of moms rolled their eyes. Hook-Ups even had shoes for awhile. Klein has stayed in the industry and you can still buy Hook-Ups style decks from JK Industries and Etnies recently resurrected a Hook-Ups shoe.

Some eras of skating were also eras of privilege—you had the money for skate gear and the space to build a backyard ramp, or to live near a concrete skatepark and afford the fees. Kareem Campbell’s Menace portrayed the L.A. kids coming up skating schoolyards and emphasized the crew angle of skating, unafraid of gang associations (an early ad showed a bullet-riddled wall). It gave a voice to kids who were underserved by the suburban California-focused market at the time. Deck graphics included sports jersey riffs and a Wu-Tang logo rip.

Savier was a small shoe brand bought by Nike to try to get back into the skate shoe business. Nike is one of the biggest names in skating now, but by the end of the 1990s skating had mostly resisted the big boys’ attempts at breaking into the industry (see: the Don’t Do It campaign). At a time when the concept of retros was beginning to take over, Savier was making forward looking skate shoes that weren't merely beefed up classics, like Dunks.

Aesthetics in a way represents an evolution of the Menace attitude, but with a little more finesse and sans-serif fonts. They even bit the Ruff Ryders logo and Midnight Marauders album art. Founded by skate legend Sal Barbier (namesake of maybe the greatest skate shoe ever), Aesthetics put out deck graphic series that rival the best ever: the racing series, the handheld gamer series, the MVP series, etc. And they had a great logo, a stylized “A” in a shield.

Mad Circle capitalized on a design sense based on skater Justin Girard’s vision and art by Twist aka Barry McGee to make some great ads and deck designs in the mid-90s. That particular graffiti style has since gone from skateboard decks to art galleries worldwide.

Blind is still around, but the initial vision of skate visionary Mark Gonzales and the early years of this World Industries sub-brand are subjects of constant reference in skate culture. Their Spike Jonze-directed promo video Video Days remains a classic, and deck art like Jason Lee’s Foghorn Leghorn deck design and Blind’s psychedelic wordmark have popped up in places like Alex Olson’s 917 and Supreme’s denim. And if you miss Blind’s truly iconic wide-legged skate jeans? Well, Blind’s brought 'em back.