Brand Spotlight: DNA Skateboard

DNA skateboarding is now available on Street Kingpins.

Sponsor yourself with DNA skateboard gear by cashing in your Street Credit on the Street Kingpins app. DNA skateboards is a skater owned company based out of Pennsylvania. They have a skate team of humble assassins that put their boards to the test every day. Tune-in on the app to see some of the skaters at work. Your DNA is who you are, it represents you as an individual. Be what you want to be and do what you want to do. Be positive, creative and most importantly just be who you are.

We are here with D.J, the owner at DNA skateboard company. How you doing D.J?

D.J. Tokar @djthegreat25

I'm doing just fine, trying to live as close to the dream as possible out here you know. Working, skateboarding, having fun, trying to push D.N.A daily.

Thats whats up!

D.N.A is out of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Did you grow up in Pittsburgh?

Yeah yeah, I grew up around Pittsburgh. I pretty much lived here my whole life. I moved a couple places just to check it out to try to get a feel of different environments and a different skate scenes. Then I ended up coming back to the homeland.    

There is a wicked skateboard scene out in Pittsburgh. I have been tuning in on the app a little bit with some of the skaters on the DNA team and some of the other skaters representing PA.

Yeah it's definitely growing in this area and there are a couple local guys that skate for DNA. I am really excited about the social media and the whole app aspect that Street Kingpins is bringing to the skateboard world and just where the scene has been going. To have the opportunity to work with the Street Kingpins app and to be able to earn prizes and credit in your skate scene is a cool concept in general. There are people talking about the app here locally. The skate scene itself has definitely grown out here the past 3-4 years.

What is DNA and where did it all spawn from?

DNA is basically who you are. When I was 21 years old a couple of my buddies and I thought about starting a company. There was no skateboard shop in our town at the time because the local shop had just closed down. It was this hiatus point where we were all having to buy our boards online. So we decided, ya know, let’s just make our own brand. We started selling them at the skatepark for a couple years. Then a skate shop opened up and they were like, hey man, could you stop selling your boards at the park? I understood that coming from a business aspect, but it did kinda helped us get our foot in the door to expand our manufacturing and operations. So we just ran with it from there.

LaNeal Toney @Ltyadigg

D.N.A. stands for Design New Art skateboarding. It's just kind of like who we are and what we want to do. It's more about going out and having fun. It's not about stressing about mainstream stuff. Just do something new and different. Have fun with it and enjoy yourself. We try to promote positivity, individualism and creativity through everyone skateboarding on our boards and on the team.

Design New Art. I love that.

So what is your local skate shop nowadays?

We have a couple local skate shops now. I live really close to FlatBar skate shop. Those guys are really cool. Definitely stop by if you're ever in the area. I actually work at another skate shop called Overcast Board Shop. I work over there a couple days a week and work on their website stuff. Then there is Plank Eye skate shop and One Up skate shop. They are all with-in about 10-15 miles of Pittsburgh. They all seem to be doing pretty well, especially since the skateboard scene out here has been growing.

How about any favorite skateboard spots or parks? I have seen that cool indoor park, Switch and Signal.  

Oh yeah Switch and Signal is really cool. It's actually a new park. Growing up, we really didn't have any indoor parks around. There's was one out near the airport that was called BQ2. I was always bumming rides to get there back in the day. It no longer exists but I spent a lot of my winter weekends there growing up in middle to high school. That's where I learned all my basics and started working towards more advanced stuff. We had a lot of good times out there during the winters. In the summer we would mostly just stick to the streets, because that's where it’s at and you don’t have to pay to skate. Like I said, for like the last 3 or 4 years especially, or really the last 10 years, there have been a lot of skateparks and skate shops popping up and the scene keeps growing.

Team edit from Switch and Signal:

How about some inspirational skateboarders that have pushed you to skate.

I'd say probably Tony Christman, Shane and Doug Plezia, Paul but everyone calls him hell-nah Bobby.  and our boy Ryan. Nobody ever really knew his last name everyone just calls him black Ryan, he is a super good dude. They definitely showed me the ropes when I was younger and now I want to pass that down and do the same for the younger skaters on the team.

Tell us about the team. You guys just took a team skate trip that looked real fun.

D.N.A Skate Team

Yeah check out the full skate team at DNA: Josh Mangold, LeNeal Toney, Thomas Wagner, Devin Weatherlow, Dominic Russo, D.J. Tokarczyk, David Ethridge, Grant Grdunac, Christopher Garrett Karr, Mateo Butler, Zach Natale, Doug Urbanek, Ben Crawford, Jesse Livingston, Cody Scoggins, Michial Scruggs.

The Philly trip was a blast! We got 1300+ clips to go through off of my camera, not including the GoPro. I love VX but we usually shoot with the canon t3i. We completely filled all the memory cards. So, I've been spending the last couple of days going through that, we have a bunch of pictures and clips to sort. Lots of good stuff.

Everyone really enjoyed it. First trip to Philly for some of them. We flew Devin Weatherlow up from Tennessee and his buddy Garrett came along. We actually just put Garrett on because he’s an amazing dude and they are one heck of a duo together. They go back and forth and collecting footy together and trying to push each other. So at the end of the day everyone in the van voted Garrett on. We also flew up LeNeal Toney from Tennessee. Real great guy and skater. Everyone on DNA is awesome. Obviously it's all about skating and that's our lives. We want to push ourselves, but it's more about being that guy that person that is supportive and fun to be around. We are only complete savages some of the time. We like to just have fun and shred. It's all about having good times.

I have seen some pretty Savage stuff out of all of you, I beg the differ.

Haha thanks.

D.N.A Team Rider

Doug Urbanek is the Street Kingpin of Pennsylvania. He is always posting on the app and representing the skate scene out there in Pennsylvania for DNA.

Yeah Doug came out to Philly with us. Doug has been such an amazing supporter of DNA since he has been on. Even before he was on the team he was a big supporter and always showed us love. Plus he tears it up on a skateboard. It is a pleasure to have him on the team.

DNA skateboards made history on Street Kingpins by finding and sponsoring the first skater through the app. You guys discovered Ben Crawford on the Street Kingpins app, correct?

When I first came across Street Kingpins, I was just like, wow this is an amazing concept. I was just looking at other people around me that use the app and it was really cool. I noticed all of the skaters on the app were just hungry for it. They are the ones that want to take their skating to the next level and are actively getting their skating out there. These kids want to be sponsored, they want to represent a brand and are working to take their skating to the next level. I was just looking at who was around me on the app that was ripping. You don't have to live in PA to be sponsored by DNA, It was just that day you know, I just ran across Ben Crawford’s profile on the app. I started talking to him a little bit, got in contact with him. I told him that I noticed him out there pushing it.

He was already on this new app trying to get noticed by whoever, and I mean I took notice. So we reached out and sponsored him. We brought him up to Pittsburgh, I think he lives about 2 hours away. He made the trip up with his family and we skated all day with some of the team and one of his buddies he brought with. It was a pleasure to get to meet him and his family and welcome him onto the team. Street Kingpins is what brought us together and that was really cool.

Check the video, Ben Crawford:

It’s so inspiring to hear that. The whole purpose of the app is to promote underground skateboard talent. To see this come full circle, we are just absolutely thrilled to be a propeller for skateboarders anywhere in the world. Thank you D.J. and thank you DNA for making it happen and for being a humongous supporter of the app. That goes a really long way.

Awesome man. Thank you guys for making the app, it's great.

Where can we get DNA skateboards?

We are still a small but growing company. Please ask your local shop to order some in for you. There are quite a few shops that carry us in Pennsylvania and we have started to make our way down the East Coast a little bit. There is Skyview skatepark in Kentucky. There is DaVille skate shop in North Carolina. We also have a dealer map on the website as well. All the local Pittsburgh PA shops. We only support core skate shops because that’s what it’s all about. Do not shop at corporate mall stores. Your local skate shop cares about your community. If you don’t have a local shop. Order online at www.dnaskateboardcompany.com  Feel free to DM us for a discount as well.

Find DNA skateboards on the Street Kingpins app. Make sure to subscribe to them, check out some of their posts and sponsored products. DNA has sponsored products that you can earn with your Street Credit through the app. Also, make sure to click through to their website to check out everything that DNA has going on through the app.

Definitely, and you never know where that can go too. That is how we found Ben, ya know. It is kind of like who wants it the most? Who wants to put the work in for a spot on the team? Next Philly trip a new skater from Street Kingpins might be on their way with us.

That's so cool. It looks like you guys are all having fun out there and pushing each other to keep skating better. We love to see it. Thank you so much for being part of the Street Kingpins app and experience. Make sure you check out DNA skateboards on the app and if you stack up your Street Credit be sure to claim some sponsored rewards from DNA.

D.J I'd like to thank you for everything you've done and for taking the time with us to tell us more about DNA skateboards and everything that you are all about. We really appreciate it and we are stoked to see more from DNA into the future.

Absolutely! We are happy to be part of it and we are excited to promote skateboarders and skateboarding in general.

Do you want to get sponsored by DNA? First, subscribe to them on the Street Kingpins skate app and then submit your video by following this link: https://dnaskateboardcompany.com/pages/sponsor-me

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