StrangeLove Skateboards has been catching our eye for a little while now – cool graphics with a classic feel, our friend Ben skates for them, Ted Barrow had a guest model, legendary skateboard artists are involved – they seem to be doing it right. With the release of their own Nike SB Dunk today, they also dropped a video featuring some of our friends and skaters we love seeing skate in San Francisco. We got a hold of legendary skate artist and Strangelove head honcho Sean Cliver to pick his brain about the brand and their wild new shoe.

So StrangeLove doesn’t seem like your typical board brand - how would you describe Strange Love Skateboards?

It all comes down to motive, I guess, or a reason for being, because it’s not like we came out swinging with a roster of heavy hitting pros or veteran war dogs. All my partner Nick Halkias and I had was a lifetime love for skateboarding and the culture thereof. I’ve been an artist in the industry since 1989, working my way through Powell-Peralta, World Industries, Blind, 101, Birdhouse, and many other freelance hit ’n’ runs along the way, so I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the creative side of the board and all the nonsense that can be gotten away with there. The horror stories for artists run deep throughout the industry, so we wanted to provide a foster home of sorts where our like-minded creative friends could be treated in a more respected and beneficial manner while going back to the screenprinted roots of skateboard graphics. But while the arts ’n’ crafts may have been our starting point with StrangeLove, it was never intended to solely be an “art project brand.” I’m a firm believer that if you’re going to make a deck its first and foremost purpose should be for skateboarding purposes, so we enlisted our friend Rob Sissi to help cultivate a squad of guys to support in their love and pursuit of skateboarding.

Chicago’s Timmy Johnson is about as smooth as it gets. Switch backside tailslide big spin

Where is the brand based out of? It seems like there is a strong Midwest connection with Ben Narloch, Timmy Johnson and Max Murphy representing the brand.

You could say we are more of a nebulous entity, because I’m based in California, Nick is in Florida, and Rob is out of Minnesota. While this may not always be optimum for efficient working purposes, I think it does allow us a broader perspective of skateboarding, because what happens in California is definitely not the end all be all. Plus, I’m originally from Wisconsin myself, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the Midwestern skaters… every area presents its challenges, but I do think it takes a special perseverance for anyone who gets into and remains to be a skater there, because there’s a lot going against you—and I’m not just talking about the seasonal weather bouts.

How did Ted’s board come about?

I was once an editor on the staff of Big Brother skateboard mag, so I of course appreciated what he was doing on Instagram with his @feedback_ts account. The satire was, I think, lost on many, so it really was an interesting social experiment of sorts and I honestly couldn’t believe how many words he was flushing down the toilet of social media. He really would have been an asset to the pages of Big Brother back when magazines were king and pages were tangible and permanent. Anyway, and really by coincidence, he went off on a tangential tirade related to the Grateful Dead at precisely the same moment we had a similar story theme in the works for our 2019 summer drop. One of my ideas in particular was not exactly “pro-Dead”—I’m not nor ever have been a fan of the music but I do appreciate the art and imagery—so I approached him with the idea of doing a ‘zine to accompany this one graphic incorporating his famously appropriated character. Since then we’ve had him do another ‘zine for us that will be coming out soon.

Is there a target audience you’re going for with the brand? Looking at your graphics and IG it seems like you have very specific references .

Both Nick and I were heavily influenced by counterculture books, comics, cult television and movies, underground art, music, and skateboarding as kids—that could be said for anyone, I guess, but back then in the ‘80s, pre-Internet, to be the nerds that we were (and still are) it really took a lot of effort and ran contrary to the mainstream, especially in our anti-weirdo necks of the woods. So a lot of what we do now is all inspired by those teenage kicks with a love for the oddballs, outcasts, and creative fringe dwellers who thrive on the absurd and running out of step with what everyone else is doing.

Strange Love Nike Dunk out 2/1, good luck! Image via IG.

So let’s talk about this new shoe - where did the inspiration for this come from?

When the proposal of a collaboration with Nike SB scheduled for February 2020 first came about, it was hard to ignore the whole Valentine’s aspect what with our being StrangeLove and all. And any lifelong skater knows that it is indeed a strange love… I don’t think anyone on the outside looking in can truly fathom or even begin to understand what the relationship between a skater and their board is like. So on one hand I wanted to have some fun with the shoe—it’s like the ultimate Build-A-Bear thrill—but also still make it functional for skating; hence the mixed bag of crushed velvets and durable suede. If there’s one thing that Nick and I have dragged all through life, too, it’s our love for the little extras and added efforts that made things mean that much more to us, so that’s where the drive to create a custom box came in… especially since it reminded us of grade school and how we had to bring in old shoes boxes from home to decorate for Valentine’s Day in our classrooms. So we added a few Valentine’s cards to our packaging as well to round out that aspect of the story.

This sole looks crazy, are their sprinkles in there?

Hearts. Lots and lots of little blue and red hearts. For me it’s been a hoot learning all the ins and outs of how a shoe comes together and the bells and whistles that can be slipped in along the way. I’d originally hoped to add red heart-like shapes into the translucent pink rubber mold, but then the SB design team came back with this other idea for the construction, which I didn’t even know was possible. So it was fun as shit to work with them and get their specialized insight.

Maybe it is the hearts in the soul? Ben Narloch getting creative in SF.

What can we expect from you guys in 2020?

Honestly, this whole project turned out to be much more complex and bigger than we’d even anticipated, so maybe once we make it through this release then I’ll have time to think about what’s coming next?!?

Sean Cliver ripping a wall. Support brands you are stoked on.

Thanks to Sean Cliver & Rob Sissi

Gif in description: Dave Ruta

Getting to know Strangelove with Sean Cliver