About this project
Rolkaz hemp skateboards - quality, performance and sustainability.
Our hemp skateboards are a complete change and innovation in the way skateboards are made. We crafted our boards with the belief that skateboarding and the care for our planet should go hand in hand. Discovering great properties of hemp and flax fibers we challenged ourselves to create a skateboard with that extra feel good quality. Nature is at the core of our philosophy - empowering all of us to drive positive change.
Whether you’re a serious sunset shredder, a daily street nomad, or one that simply loves to cruise the earth, we’ve carefully crafted the boards to fit you all. We present our Rolka hemp series; two cruiser shapes with slightly different characteristics, both with the same construction and high end components.
Drifter takes you places you've never been. It's an all-round cruiser with many characters hidden within. Ride it around the city, push it to your favorite skatepark, carve down any line or just charge it hard. Ride for the future!
The 28 inch Drifter combines features like mellow concave, kick on both ends and slightly wider shape that make this board multi functional, fun and easy to ride.
The mini-cruiser has never been greener and more progressive. Meet Mala! This 24 inch mini boasts snappy performance due to a mellow concave and shorter wheelbase, ideal for carving, cruising, and commuting. It shares all the performance genes with her bigger brother, while still being easily portable.
Pick a shape. Pick a colour. Pick your reward! Don’t miss this special opportunity to be one of the first to own and ride a hemp skateboard!
We use solely natural and sustainable materials from renewable resources, 100% natural hemp and flax fibers as well as high performance plant based resin. The combination of raw materials with superior mechanical properties makes our board completely different from anything you’ve ridden before, yet it looks and feels like a regular skateboard. All the materials are locally grown and processed in Europe.
We love hemp! As one of the earliest known cultivated crops grown by mankind, hemp has had an important role in social and economic growth. Revival of its production and use can help care for the planet.
Hemp is a renewable, fast growing and recyclable material. It also happens to be one of the strongest natural fibers. Hemp production is a zero waste, low energy process, where all byproducts are used.
This drought resistant plant requires no chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides to grow, cleans the air we breath and enriches rather than depletes the soil. Even better, hemp can yield up to four times of dry fiber per acre compared to forest.
Fibers twisted in yarn provide increased resistance to bending and hold the flex over time, while preserving excellent skateboard performance.
The addition of flax fibers increases damping properties for shock absorption and a smooth ride.
Its huge potential in sports industry has already been proven. Flax fibres have the highest specific stiffness of all natural fibres. They add to the strength-to-weight ratio, natural aesthetic and provide great fit and finish for our boards.
Fibers are bound together with high performance durable plant based resin derived from sustainable sources. The raw materials for plant based resin are produced by green chemistry techniques employed in biorefineries. The resin comes from oil distillation with no deforestation traces. Biomass material used as a source does not compete with food sources or displace food-based agriculture.
The result is a unique skateboard construction with awesome characteristics and enhanced performance, which proves there is a sustainable and responsible choice.
Trees take around 60 years to mature before they can be cut down to make skateboards. Growing hemp only takes 12-14 weeks.
Natural fibers • Plant based resin • Sustainable resources • Locally sourced • Environmentally friendly • Conscious design • Water based colors • Minimal waste and emission • Smaller carbon footprint • Responsible manufacturing • Care for the planet • Positive impact •
Sustainable in both design and manufacturing in order to reduce the environmental impact and to ensure highest quality.
For us at Rolkaz, being less destructive to nature with every decision we make is what makes everything more simple and more relevant.
Many months in the making, we are stoked to finally present our hemp skateboards. Inspired by nature and designed for the future, our goal was to combine high-quality natural materials with modern design and a heavy dose of performance. From day one, the main goal was to experiment and innovate through freedom of creating with adventure in mind.
Rolkaz hemp skateboards are an innovation in terms of processes and materials researched, tools invented, technologies used and design perfected to create the kind of unique skateboard that we created. We worked really hard to replace traditional skateboard materials with their sustainable alternatives to design the construction that we envisioned.
We tested as many different skateboards as we were able to find, which helped us set and define qualities we wanted our new boards to have. Following test, reviews and discussions we determined the best characteristics of our favorite rides, optimized the shape and refined its construction. All in order to deliver a cruiser skateboard with premium riding experience.
At the beginning we were working on one shape but soon we realized we want to create a cruiser series. We called it Rolka Hemp Series (rolka meaning literally skateboard). Drifter got a smaller more stashable sister Mala (mala meaning small).
The huge breakthrough was proving that innovative alternatives to standard materials can maintain the highest level of performance. Our research showed that hemp fibers were incredibly strong and have all the desired mechanical properties.
Finding the right local supplier with quality materials was a challenging process. Sustainable local sourcing and manufacturing is something we are all very passionate about. Therefore we chose materials and processes that are the best in the industry from the environmental perspective.
Our boards are ready! The funds we are raising will go directly to material orders, tooling and upfront manufacturing costs.
Now that we have ridden and tested our prototypes thoroughly and proven our best supply and manufacturing preferences, we invite you to support the production of our hemp skateboards and become part of our story.
The 60 mm regular shape wheels combine longboard wheel softness with traditional skate wheel shape. Made of soft 78A urethane with super high rebound formula that provides excellent grip and is perfect for cruising, carving and freeriding. The wheels are stone ground with round edges for super slides right away.
Paired with Paris Street trucks, one of the most versatile trucks out there, they take our board to new levels. They carve great, can be set to handle high speeds and you can even grind them. The board in combination with loose trucks gives a surf feel to the ride, while tighter trucks offer more control for tricks and speed.
All our completes are pre-gripped with Jessup clear grip that gives you a stable platform for ultimate control. Ordering just a deck you’ll receive a griptape sheet to apply it yourself. Natural fiber surface texture of our decks provides an adequate amount of grip for those who like to ride barefoot.
Hey! We've already received so many requests for other shapes. To help us decide what shape to make next, please let us know.
Rolkaz Collective was created to raise awareness that more sustainable materials and responsible processes could and should be used to make great skateboards.
Deep-rooted passion for board sports and our environment taught us how to push ourselves beyond our limits and develop projects that matter.
Our ideas are brought to life by creatives and designers, artists and activists, outdoor enthusiasts, skaters and surfers but most importantly true believers.
Thanks a ton: Alfredo, Amelia, Carlos, Elvis, Hugu Studio, Ivo, Lenart, Longboard Famara, Marko, Nestor, Niko, Ondu, Rafael, Sebastian, Špela, Toni, Val, Waterman Lanzarote and Zoran.
Join us on this journey... And ride for the future!
Don’t miss this special opportunity to be one of the first to own and ride a hemp skateboard!
Pick a shape. Pick a colour. Pick your reward!
Risks and challenges
We’ve set ourselves on a really ambitious plan to create a skateboard with the materials and processes we believe in. Our goal is accomplished. Now we are reaching out to the Kickstarter community to fund our first major production run. Manufacturing a new product is the riskiest and most expensive phase.
Through intensive preparation, knowledge exchange, successful communication with our suppliers and manufacturers, we have done everything we could to lower the risks of unpredictable events. It must be noted, though, that a larger production than expected might require a longer time to complete.
We believe your new ride will only be experienced and enjoyed once under your feet so we will work our best to meet our proposed timeline. Rolkaz hemp skateboards will be locally manufactured and assembled in Europe.
We are looking forward to share all news, updates and fresh media content we are constantly creating. We’re excited to widen our collective and community, to boost the creativity and release our new products soon.
All details like shipping information and color preference will be collected via survey after this campaign has ended.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support this project
Funding period
- (45 days)