OUR STORY
What’s your canvas?
This is the story of ADM Skateboards.
ADM Skateboards is founded in loving memory of my younger brother Austin David Myers.
Two of the things Austin loved most in his life were drawing and skating. There isn’t a time I can remember when he wasn’t doing one, the other, or a combination of both. I knew I had no future in skating the day my younger brother ollied higher than me and I always knew my artistic talent was peanuts compared to his cosmic imagination.
When I went through my brother’s art studio/garage after his death, I found 15 blank skate decks. I also found three of the coolest custom painted decks that he had completed: Hand, Clouds, and Mouths. I knew Austin had done a t-shirt design for Meta Skate shop in Boulder where he went to school at the University of Colorado, but I didn’t know he was painting on decks. They were brilliant and perfect. Most of the designs out there show a brand and represent a team but Austin was painting his own ride. The part that struck me most was that he had 15 more. For a college student the cost of 15 blank decks must be hungering but for an artist he must have been starving. I saw what he did on his first three, I can’t even begin to imagine what he would have done to the other 15. At that moment ADM Skateboards was born.
On the night of December 19th 2006, after a night of heavy drinking, my brother injected himself with a fatal dose of heroin. It was the third time he used the drug. He fell asleep, and never woke up. The autopsy revealed that the combination of alcohol and heroin was the cause of death. It was a small amount of heroin but since his body was not acclimated to the drug, he could not keep up with its effects. Austin will no longer paint a picture for us to enjoy but it’s okay because he already did; he made many of them.
ADM Skateboards is my way of showing my brothers amazing art to the world, but I am also doing something else. The main goal of ADM Skateboards is to promote the artist and the creativity therein. We want this to be a company that gives young artists, like my brother, a platform to express their artwork and ideas, using clothing and skate decks as their primary utensils. Furthermore, we want to be a company that educates the young generation of skateboarders about the dangers of a small dose of any drug. We use these two goals as the inspiration of our mission: To combine great artists and philanthropy to progress the sport and youth community across the nation. Austin’s spirit will always be alive in his artwork. As a company, we are committed to being a productive and inspirational member of our community. We will donate 5% of our gross revenues to drug awareness foundations, primarily focused on the youth of America. We will also sponsor the development of skate parks across the USA. All artwork, boards, clothing and accessories featured on this website are created or inspired by Austin.
