How To Get Free Skateboards, Longboards Gear, And Swag

If you are a skater or are into skating, you know that it can get rather expensive. However, if you are trying to be money-savvy, there are some things you can do to try and get some free skating gear, swag, or a skateboard, so let’s see what they are.

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The 7 best ways to get free skateboards and gear are below.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• How To Get Free Skateboards, Longboards Gear, And Swag
  • 1. Look At Places Like The Yocaher Skate Shop
  • 2. Look At Joining Social Media Giveaways
  • 3. Look At Entering A Skateboarding Competition
  • 4. Get Old Skateboards Or Gear From Friends And Family
  • 5. Look Out For Garage Sales In Your Area
  • 6. Look On Facebook Marketplace And Craigslist
  • 7. Look Into Trying To Get A Sponsorship
• Related Questions
  • How Do I Get A Sponsorship As A Skater?
  • How Do Skateboard Sponsorships Work?
  • How Do I Up My Game To Get Noticed?

Key Takeaways

• You can get free boards and gear by entering online competitions through supply stores that try to promote new gear.
• You can get your fix of boards, merch, and gear on social media platforms while staying in the loop with the current trends.
• Second-hand gear can still be an upgrade from your current equipment, so watching your community websites can help you upgrade even if the gear is not new.
• You can up your game while earning new kit by competing in as many competitions as possible.
• Regularly competing in competitions is a good way to up your game and get noticed by a sponsor.

How To Get Free Skateboards, Longboards Gear, And Swag

If you seam to be struggling to afford your skateboarding gear you can take a look at these seven methods and potentially utilize them to get yourself some free goods and gear.

1. Look At Places Like The Yocaher Skate Shop

Yocaher is a California-based skate shop that sells everything to do with skateboarding, including skate apparel, hardware, grip tape, wheels, skateboard decks, longboard decks, and fully assembled skateboards & longboards.

If you want to find out if you can get one of Yocahers’ awesome skateboards for free, you should look at the Yocaher Instagram page. Once you are on their page, you should see that they have frequent giveaways.

You can track when they are doing the giveaways by following their Instagram page and looking at the highlights story. You can almost certainly get a skateboard or longboard by joining these giveaways.

However, if you don’t win or don’t feel like taking part in a giveaway, you can wait until Yocaher has one of their seasonal sales, where you can get boards, wheels, grips, hardware, and apparel for far cheaper than usual.

2. Look At Joining Social Media Giveaways

If you currently have a favorite skate brand (for instance, DC or Element), then an easy way to get some free merch or gear is to go and follow them on all of their social media accounts but the most important page to go and follow is their Instagram.

You have to follow the Instagram page because big brands with a lot of visual and aesthetic appeal will generally have a more prominent social media presence on Instagram than other apps. They will sometimes do giveaways that you can enter to promote new merchandise.

3. Look At Entering A Skateboarding Competition

If you are slightly new to skateboarding, you may be interested in trying to get some free gear or merch. However, what is even more exciting than getting free stuff is that you can become a better skater and show that you are a new up-and-comer to the scene by joining a skate competition.

You don’t need to be an up-and-comer to join, so don’t get discouraged. Most of these skating competitions have events for people of all skill levels with different prizes for the winners of each skill level bracket (Most often beginner, intermediate, and advanced). Join mailing lists for event organizers like Boardr or Skate4life to get started and never miss an event in your area.

Even if you don’t win, the exposure and experience you get when you do well will bode well for future events. However, if you land up winning one of the categories, you can expect to get anything from a fully assembled quality skateboard and swag to a decent cash price.

4. Get Old Skateboards Or Gear From Friends And Family

Unfortunately, this does involve letting go of your ego. However, if you don’t mind swallowing your pride, this is one of the easiest ways to get some free skateboarding gear.

You need to go to some of your friends and family that you know used to skate and ask them if they have any old gear or an old skateboard that they are no longer using.

The best scenario would be that you get a barely used skateboard and maybe some gear or merchandise, and the worst scenario would be that they say they don’t have any old boards or equipment for you to have.

5. Look Out For Garage Sales In Your Area

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get anything for free unless the person running the garage or yard sale is feeling particularly nice. Alternatively, you can try and come to an arrangement with the seller, where you buy a large number of their items to get them at a great discount. Doing this can essentially make the skateboard or gear almost free.

6. Look On Facebook Marketplace And Craigslist

Places like Facebook marketplace and Craigslist are good places for you to go and look around for a free skateboard or some free skateboarding gear. It might take some time for a deal to pop up on your radar, and if you do find a deal, you may need to go and fetch the gear or board from whoever is giving it away.

7. Look Into Trying To Get A Sponsorship

I understand that most people trying to get free boards and gear and equipment aren’t at the skill level required to get a sponsorship. However, once you manage to get a sponsorship, it is a testimony to your skill and a confirmation that your tricks are some of the best.

Related Questions

You may have a few more questions now that you are kitted out with the info about where to go and what to do to get free skateboards and gear. We have you covered; let us clear up some of these questions for you.

How Do I Get A Sponsorship As A Skater?

Seven things you can do to get a skateboarding sponsorship.

1. You Need To Have A Winning Attitude

When trying to get a skating sponsorship, your attitude is more important than your skill level. Don’t be mistaken; you have to have enough skills to catch the attention of potential sponsors.

However, according to the professional skateboarder Jamie Thomas only about 40% of the job is skating. The rest of the 60% of the job is being the ability to remain positive and motivated while still having a good attitude no matter what. This means that having a winning attitude can make or break your career as a skateboarder.

If you have a negative attitude and can’t or don’t want to get back up on the board after you get criticized or after you lose a competition, you will make a bad impression with any potential sponsors.

2. Make Connections And Start Networking

If you have a particular skate team that you would like to join in mind, you should do whatever you can to contact them. You can go about this by making friends with the current team members so that when you send in your sponsor me video, you will have someone on the inside voguing for you.

Alternatively, you can ask your friends if they know anyone on the team or someone that knows the team, or better yet, ask if they know the team manager and then see if they would mind posable introducing you to them.

Even if your friends don’t know someone on the team you want to join, ask if they know anyone on any other teams; it’s always good to do networking. Remember, the more contacts you have and the more people who like you, the better.

3. Be Passionate About Skating

When skating, the most important thing is that you have fun. If you are passionate about skateboarding and have fun doing it, you won’t care only about the sponsorship; you will be happy for every opportunity to be on your board. That attitude is exactly what potential sponsors are looking for in their new skaters.

Sponsors want to see you having fun while skating rather than getting into your own head about it and making yourself look good. Sponsors can see when you are trying to hear to get noticed because it comes out in the quality of your skating.

Getting sponsored is always going to be in the back of your mind. However, you don’t need to fixate on whether or not you get one; all you need to do is just let it happen naturally. If you are good enough, you will land up getting noticed.

4. Style Is Very Important

When a sponsor is looking for a new skater to add to their team, they will pay a lot of attention to your tricks’ style, fines, and originality. Galilea Momoly once said, “it’s not who can kickflip the most stairs; it’s all about style.”

This means that when you are skating, you need to forget about what other skaters can do and instead focus on what only you can do. The best way to do that is by letting your personality come out in the way you skate.

5. Get Noticed And Start Promoting Yourself

When promoting yourself as an up-and-coming skater, you must present yourself as a Rolex with diamond inlay. Let me explain a little; you have to present yourself as something of value that any sponsor would be lucky to have.

You can accomplish this goal by:

Attending and participating in any and all competitions, parties, and events that have anything to do with the brand or company you want to be represented by.

Make yourself known as someone serious about skating in your local community and your local skate scene.

The best thing you can do to make yourself known is by creating a profile on all of the social media platforms you have axes to, then upload all of your skating videos and pictures.

6. Make An Extremely Badass Sponsor-me Video

First impressions are crucial when trying to get sponsored, and a lot of the time, your sponsor-me video is the first thing a potential sponsor will see, so you have to make that first impression a good one.

How Do I Make An Extreme Skate Video?

One: record your videos in many spots and be outgoing and bold with your tricks

Two: when editing your video, use only the best of the tricks you have to offer, and try to keep the video to a maximum of roughly 2 minutes.

three: If you intend to use transitions in your video, you have to keep the transitions simple and use them as sparingly as possible.

Four: If you plan to use any music in your sponsor-me video, you have to be extremely discerning with what song you choose. A better alternative is just don’t use any.

Once you are done editing your sponsor-me video, you can upload it to your YouTube profile and all other social media accounts, especially your Instagram. After that, you should email a link to the video directly to your preferred sponsors.

Those in the know suggest that you use the following formula when composing your email.

• Here’s who I am and what I can do – (tell them who you are, your age, where you are from, and what you are capable of).
• Here’s how I can help you – (give them several examples of how you can help them. Think along the lines of it’s not about what they can do for you but what you can do for them).
• Here is what I would like to happen – (tell them that you would be very grateful if they were to sponsor you).

7. Constantly Practice And Improve Your Skills

When skating, whether you are already sponsored or are still trying to get sponsored, the most crucial thing you need to do is stay relevant. Staying relevant means learning new tricks, getting better, and living, breathing, sleeping, and drinking the skateboarding lifestyle.

How Do Skateboard Sponsorships Work?

 Getting a sponsor is definitely going to get you free gear, but you will not be able to give up your day job. As a sponsored skater, your gear is provided, and your entry is paid, but you do not get paid. The sponsors may cover some of your expenses but do not count on an income.

There are also different types of sponsorship. You need to be sure of what the company does before approaching them. Do you want to promote a shoe brand, or do you want to show off the best wheels on your board? Perhaps you want to be seen in the latest skate clothing brands. Once you know the answer to these questions, you can start looking at getting sponsored for the free gear of your choice.

How Do I Up My Game To Get Noticed?

Learning new tricks take imagination and could mean more than a few falls and bruises, but nailing a new move brings satisfaction and can get you noticed at competitions. So how do you learn a new move? Check out videos with instructions and then get out there and practice. Combine moves and create your own unique style and moves.

When attending competitions, watch the competition and get ideas for new moves. Think about how to do things differently. Make up your own moves. Most importantly, have fun doing it, and you are sure to be noticed.