Awards : California Start-Up Vies for Prestigious Smithsonian People's Design Award with Innovative Self-Illuminating Skateboards

Southern California based Sunset Skateboard Co. has been nominated for the 2013 People's Design Award, presented by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, for creating a first-of-its-kind, motion-powered, self-illuminating skateboard. 

Sunset Beach, CA September 25, 2013 

Southern California based Sunset Skateboard Co. has been nominated for the 2013 People's Design Award, presented by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, for creating a first-of-its-kind, motion-powered, self-illuminating skateboard. The innovative Sunset Skateboard design combines a transparent polycarbonate skateboard deck with Sunset's patent-pending, self-illuminating Flare LED wheels. The end result is a head-turning "glowing skateboard" that lights up the nighttime sidewalk whenever it's in motion. The spinning LED's inside each wheel are powered by kinetic energy, meaning no batteries are ever required.

The skateboard is one of only 20 design works to be voted on by the public via Smithsonian Magazine's website (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/design-awards). The public can vote once per day through October 11, 2013. The winning design will be announced live on October 17 at the National Design Awards Gala in New York.

Sunset Skateboards were conceived and developed by company Co-Founders Jeremy Fissell & Scott Winn, two long-time college friends who were looking for a fun way to pass along their love of skateboarding to their kids. "Jeremy and I were both really into skating growing up and in college...

We reconnected after a bunch of years and found out we were both married with two boys. That's when we started kicking around some skateboard ideas," according to Winn. "We thought it would be cool to try to put a modern twist on the cruiser boards of the 70's. Something different, but still easy to ride," adds Fissell. "When we added the LED wheels to the clear deck prototype we were working with and saw the board light up for the first time...

It was definitely one of those magical moments." After creating a few working prototypes, they quickly realized they had a hit on their hands when all the neighborhood kids - as well as skaters of all ages and skill levels - had an equally huge reaction upon witnessing these never-before-seen, glowing skateboards. Sunset Skateboard Co. was born.



Many months of development later, Sunset Skateboard Co. is growing fast as their boards are now sold in hundreds of retail surf and skateboard shops across the US, with international expansion plans in the works as well. Their YouTube video is picking up steam with over 35,000 hits in the past few months (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVtLziT85KE) and their Facebook page is also gaining "likes" rapidly (http://www.facebook.com/SunsetSkateboard) as word is spreading. Skaters of all ages can purchase Sunset Skateboards on the company's website: http://www.SunsetSkateboards.com. With a "board-builder" feature offering a wide array of brightly-colored deck and wheel combinations, the customization options are endless for these "must-have" new skateboards. As for the prestigious Smithsonian nomination, the guys both summed it up quickly with a single word: "Stoked!"

By press release