UMA – new skate brand from Evan Smith

If you are the best in some area – build a business! An unusual start for a skate-themed article, but previous experience with the missile defense world of skateboarding clearly confirms this statement.

To date, a large number of PRO skaters have opened their brands and are doing quite successful business:

• Primitive – the brainchild of Paul Rodriguez, which he was able to quickly pull out to good turnover and popularity (even in the Russian Federation);
• April Skateboards – being in Primitive Shane O’Neill decided to make his own Australian “office”, which has not yet been able to reach the turnover of “Primitive”;
• Thank You Skateboards – a project by Torey Pudwill and Daewon Song with a very unusual name, which came out after the two previous examples;
• etc.

This brand-building scheme is not new. The release of quality products under the slogan from riders, for riders (which is how you can describe any brand launch from a professional skater) works and brings some dividends to the founding father of the company. Well, the success of a business already completely depends on the goals set, development strategy, ways of implementation and much more.

Who is Evan Smith?

1. Date of birth – February 4, 1991
2. Place of birth – Orlando, Florida, USA
3. Sponsors – DC Shoes and Apparel, Element Skateboard, Independent Trucks, Bones Wheels, Swiss Bearings, Creative Life Support.

The PRO brand carries a strong product association with the rider who made it. Therefore, let’s throw in a shortlist of characteristics that Evan Smith can describe:

• lazy-style of skateboarding in any of its manifestations;
• no major victories in the skateboarding contest (Evan made his way to the finals of such contests as SLS, Tampa PRO, etc. many times, but he did not manage to take the podium);
• In 2018, within the framework of KOTR, Evan became the best MVP, gaining the maximum number of points for his team.

UMA – what did Evan do for his fans?

Let’s make an important clarification on UMA Landsleds right away. This is a brand that is not only led by Evan Smith. The second person in the company is Thomas Campbell. Thomas is responsible for the graphics of the company’s products, i.e. makes designs. Many riders were thrilled that Thomas Campbell would be designing the decks for the UMA. Nathanial Russell is also participating in the development of skateboard design concepts.

At the start of its launch, the brand launched 2 things, which today are difficult for any business to do without:

• Online store – https://www.uma-landsleds.com/
• Instagram account – https://www.instagram.com/uma_landsleds/

The UMA Skateboard Collection includes both fairly standard models in the usual popsicle shape and interestingly shaped models in fairly standard sizes.

In addition to skateboards, the new brand is also releasing T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise. Most likely, in the future, the company will be more overgrown with the release of some things and expand its line of skateboards. This is the standard path for this type of brand.

UMA Team

The brand’s current lineup includes the following riders:

• Evan Smith – the first line-up of the team could hardly do without PRO, who decided to open the company itself;
• Cody Chapman – an interesting PRO skater from the states;
• Maité Steenhoudt is an unusual addition to the team. Young girl (born 1999) from Belgium.