Skate Bylines

Following the announcement of Isle Skateboards closing shop, in an exclusive interview with Skate Bylines, Nick Jensen reflects on the brand’s story and realities of running a board brand.

Story by Farran Golding

Photography by Henry Genualdo Kingsford

Headline: Nick Jensen, switch kickflip, Liverpool Street, London

Isle Skateboards, the company that propelled the careers of Tom Knox and Jacob Harris and raised Britain’s profile in contemporary skate culture, ceased operations last week.

Co-founder Paul Shier thanked Isle’s team riders past and present, artists and supporters, including skate stores and distributors, for their contributions to the brand over the past twelve years in a statement on February 23rd, 2025.

Isle’s closure comes a decade on from the release of their acclaimed video, Vase. Crafted by videographer Jacob Harris and Isle creative director and co-founder, Nick Jensen, the production earned Isle ‘Brand Of The Year’ and ‘Video of the Year’ at the 2016 Bright European Skate Awards where Harris was also anointed ‘Videographer of the Year’. Tom Knox took ‘Video Part of the Year’ for his section in Vase, which, after being hosted by Thrasher Magazine, sowed the seeds for an international skateboarding career and set Harris’ Atlantic Drift series in motion.

“It was probably naïve going into it in the first place but that naïvety sort of drove it,” says Jensen, speaking to Skate Bylines over the phone from his home in London. “If you’re too practical at the start you’d probably think, ‘I’ve run the numbers, it’s not worth it.’ But being enthusiastic and getting carried away, in a similar excitement to growing up as a skateboarder, that’s what compelled the company.”

Launched in 2013, Isle was one of a number of new brands which proliferated in skateboarding during the mid-2010s as upstart European companies — the likes of Polar Skate Co. (Malmö, Sweden), Palace Skateboards (London, UK) and Magenta Skateboards (Bordeaux, France) — instigated a paradigm shift. Skateboarding’s collective attention swayed from legacy brands and an industry long-focused on California towards smaller companies with geographical ties and singular artistic identities. Jensen’s background in fine art set a precedent for Isle’s visual language where minimalism, paintings and tangible creations took precedence.

“I was running a gallery out of my flat when Isle started and I was used to documenting artists’ work on the wall. I thought, ‘Why can’t that exist [on a board]?” Instead of where you just think “graphic design” and then “computer”, I thought why not do that? Not as if I’m really clever but more ‘Let’s see if it looks good.’ After we did the first boards it felt like there was a wealth of things to explore. It was manifesting in my head what can be made three dimensional.” Perhaps most notable of Isle’s graphics was their ‘Curiosities’ series featuring various objects of personal significance to the rider. (In 2016, Isle produced a special instalment of the board series with the charity SkatePal, of which Chris Jones is an ambassador, and an accompanying video and article for Free Skate Mag, ‘Pieces of Palestine’.) 

Isle was also a company born out of another defining trait of the skate industry during the early-to-mid 2010s: people departing long-standing sponsors to form new brands. Following turbulence behind the scenes, Shier quit riding for Blueprint Skateboards in 2012, resulting in an exodus of riders. He set up shop with Jensen (also formerly of Blueprint) and Chris Aylen — a lifelong friend from Shier’s days of skating Croydon’s Fairfields Halls and the founder of online sneaker publications, to form Isle. The company was formally announced in March 2013 with a series of digital advertisements, ‘We Are Isle’, showcasing the inaugural team of Jensen, Shier, Knox, Sylvain Tognelli, Jon Nguyen and Chris Jones. In an interview with Slam City Skates, published three months prior, Shier had alluded to new pastures through “a short trip to Valencia with [London-based skateboarding magazine] Grey for something me and others are working on.” The result of which would be a debut Isle article in Grey and footage in Jacob Harris’ 2013 independent video, Eleventh Hour. Widely lauded and boasted impressive sections from Chris Jones, Tom Knox and Jensen who carried the momentum of Eleventh Hour into their following production alongside Harris: a full-length Isle video.

Vase rallied widespread anticipation throughout the UK after a lack of tentpole video productions since Sidewalk Magazine’s In Progress (2011) and Blueprint Skateboards’ final video, Make Friends With The Colour Blue (2010). At the principal premiere of Vase at London’s Prince Charles Cinema, Tom Knox received his first pro board on stage and announced he was soon to become a father as he thanked his teammates and partner. The video was widely celebrated and later voted the tenth most significant full-length video of the decade in the inaugural Quartersnacks ‘Readers Poll’. Although Isle created hard copies of Vase, Knox’s section was hosted by Thrasher Magazine with an impressive reception leading to Thrasher owner Tony Vitello commissioning a web series from Harris with Knox as its star. Underpinned by Harris’ auteurship, the first episode of Atlantic Drift was released in January 2017. Early instalments focused on Isle’s riders skating in London, progressing into an episodic series filmed over the course of international trips that welcomed Americans including Cyrus Bennett, Max Palmer and Nik Stain to its cast.

In 2021, a portion of the Isle team departed the company to evolve Atlantic Drift into a hardgoods brand. Shier clarified that Isle would continue in another interview with Slam City Skates published in February 2022, speaking amicably of his friends and former riders. “I believe in what we did, helping the team in part of their journey to who they are today. I personally know that it is the skateboarder first who is the workhorse. With the help from their sponsors, they can grow to something much bigger which I have watched […] it came to light that a few people wanted to grow past where they were with Isle and do their own thing. Whilst at the time it came as a shock, I spoke to everybody and respected their decision,” he said.

However, due to health issues, Harris felt unequipped to manage a larger operation and pulled the Atlantic Drift board brand prior to launch. “The skateboard-deck market is on its absolute arse at the moment,” he wrote in a 2023 Thrasher article documenting the Drift crew’s trip to Bangkok. “Also, we don’t lose Max [Palmer] or Nikita [Stain], which is hugely better than some skateboards with jellyfish painted on the bottom of them.” From here, former Isle riders Tom Knox and Casper Brooker would turn pro for Krooked and Baker, respectively. Whereas Chris Jones, Sylvain Tognelli and Mike Arnold returned to Isle, who welcomed Kyron Davis as a new pro, earmarked by a promo ‘DREAMERS’ directed by James Coyle in 2023. “It’s all down to me,” Jensen jokes, regarding Knox and Brooker securing sponsors from two of skateboarding’s esteemed legacy brands. However, his “biggest regret” surrounds Davis joining Isle only for what would, ultimately, be a short and final stretch. “That was an immature decision,” says Jensen. “I love Kyron and wanted him on the team, but I couldn’t give him anything and then I shut the company down. It was pretty unfair.”

Jensen notes the disparities between being a professional skateboarder during his time coming up and today’s landscape. “It was like, ‘Oh cheers for the free board.’ That’s an old school mentality compared to what skating is like now where people can get good contracts and can see it as a proper career. Whereas it was more of a lifestyle and subculture before. To run a company, it’s disingenuous to not be able to provide more stability.” Jensen notes that the support from larger footwear companies, through mutual riders, enables “younger, smaller brands” to keep momentum (a trend which emerged around fifteen years ago with Isle’s generation of brands as skaters with the financial cushion of endorsements from the likes of Nike and Converse, were able to break from larger existing board sponsors and takes chances on new ventures).

The scale of a company like Isle was part of the allure for some of its audience. “A ‘niche’ company is freer to be artistic and explore a specific visual identity, rather than a big company who make something ‘safe’ and accessible to as many people as possible,” says videographer, Joe Allen, who has been making independent scene videos in the north of England since 2018. He considers Vase and Polar’s I like it here inside my mind, don’t wake me this time as formative influences. “It’s down to Jacob Harris’ and Nick Jensen’s vision with Vase. It’s defined, unique and so well put together. The great soundtrack doesn’t hurt either.” He considers Isle and Vase notable examples of the era’s emerging new guard of brands whose mentality was geared towards being expressive, as opposed to what he calls the preceding “Pretty Sweet vibes” of grandiose but flat-feeling video production.

“There was a moment that Isle was the best brand in the world,” wrote Josh Stewart, Static maestro and owner of Theories of Atlantis who distributed Isle in the USA, in the comments of Paul Shier’s Instagram post about the brand’s end. “Team, design, purpose, history, originality, incredible full length video…and all done with class [sic]. You guys all have a ton to be proud of.”

This reception by videographers, both grassroots and well-known, evidences Isle’s appeal to a certain type of skateboarder, perhaps those keen on creating things themselves and inspired by others executing unique ideas fluently albeit with an underdog’s resources. However, although appearing on the walls of stores in the UK, Europe and USA, the company didn’t secure a market foothold like that of Polar and Palace. “I bought a couple Isle products near the time Vase was released but not really after that,” says Allen. “There was also a notable absence of full-length videos after Vase and videos for me are such a big part of a brand’s identity. Not having much output, not counting Atlantic Drift, maybe led to them getting left behind. Polar on the other hand have consistently put out new full-length projects over the years since I like it here inside my mind and are still going strong, says Allen. “That said, Polar also had ‘Big Boys’ going for it, I guess.”

Soft goods supplementing the finances of hard good companies is nothing new as clothing offers a greater profit margin than skateboards across wholesale and direct to consumer trade. “I just don’t think we were cut out for that mentally. The appetite to be capitalist isn’t in our innate DNA, as we learned. I want to be in the studio painting and to engage with artists and skating. But when you need to go factories, talk about runs, materials and where to save costs, I couldn’t convince myself to be interested in that. Shier was also team manager for adidas [Skateboarding], so it’s, like, where’s the time? You need to employ someone but we couldn’t. We were making premium boards [ed note: Isle were one of the few, if only, British brands pressed by BBS MFG] and videos but not the greatest clothing,” says Jensen. He speaks of regularly hearing anecdotes from companies of similar scales to Isle who have struggled. Last year, East Coast contemporaries Alltimers and ScumCo & Sons also called it quits with the latter citing the post-pandemic retail landscape, with skate shops overstocked, and the increased need for constant marketing, primarily via social media, as a hurdles in running a small brand.

Jensen also acknowledges a personal move into further artistic endeavours playing a significant role in the company winding down. “Deep down I was getting more into painting and less so skating. It feels sad because the younger me would be like, “Don’t say that!” but the truth is you can’t deny your reality and mine was becoming more so thinking about painting when I go to bed at night rather than skating. That shift had been happening over ten years, more and more, which is exactly the opposite mentality you should have in owning a company. You need to have that brain for the brand.” As candidly as Jensen speaks about the end of Isle, it’s not dour reflection; semi-joking that he can still picture going on a skate trip at age 60 with his friends and former teammates. (Preferably to Mallorca, an amusing call back to Blueprint Skateboards’ favourite destination and their ethos of “We skive on cold winters”.)

Although Isle may not have garnered notoriety in the fashion world like Palace or navigated a changing team lineup like Polar, their impact on skateboarding is felt strongest through what is perhaps skateboarding’s most cherished medium, the skate video. Vase presented a singular depiction of British skateboarding that romanticised those familiar streets beyond the house door, turning them from a blur of grey into a dreamworld of bricks, cobblestones and distinct, enduring architecture. It served as a tightly produced introduction for new audiences beyond the UK and a pride-instilling feature for those at home. “Jake [Harris] and I would go to prop shops and get giant balloons to hang picture frames off,” says Jensen, on creating Vase’s aesthetic. “There are so many fun avenues we explored which we never would have done without [the company]. Isle is a moment in time, a beautiful thing we were all involved in.”