It has been two long years since we first interviewed Mike Sinclair about the birth of his company, Slappy Trucks. And to be honest, we weren’t sure if those hunks of metal would be six feet under by now.

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In my eyes, Slappy has been very successful in a short period of time. Have you got any threats from other truck companies yet to make you disappear?
[Laughs] All of them have been very welcoming. I was talking to Jim [DLX / Thunder Trucks] about some other stuff, and he complimented the trucks, and he’s been really cool and supportive. We had a trade show booth beside them one day, and they were making fun of our giant truck, like, “You can’t miss the curb with these on!” I was like, “Yes, yes. That’s the point.”

So you’re not embracing the “Ride the best, fuck the rest.” mentality?
If that’s your vibe, that’s cool, you know? But if you listen or watch one of their videos and then watch one of my videos, it’s a different vibe. They have rock and roll, I have R&B or 80s, and will always switch it up. It’s just about your taste.

Why do you think people like your brand?
It started in a time where nothing new was happening. Covid was still whatever, and it was something new that people were actually willing to give a try. No one ever wants to change their trucks, but now I feel like people want to try new shit and that’s helped a lot. People who have tried them seem to have liked them and stuck with them.

You made some big ass trucks for your company Slappy, and they seem to be doing oddly well? Can you give me a little back story about how those big trucks came about?
I started getting tagged in all these photos of people on big boards, all these Heroin boards. And I’m like, “Man, so many people who have these giant egg boards are buying Slappys.” It was like the brands were connected somehow. The whole idea behind Slappy was to have fun. That’s what it’s all about. We’re not here to be the gnarliest or to be the best. And then, coincidentally, those egg shaped boards are all about fun too. So they work together.

So we did the wide boys truck together, which was 11 inches, and that’s been doing super good. And then I sampled a 13 inch, which is fucking ridiculous, right? But we made it and those have been doing really well too.

Before I even talked to Fos about the big trucks, before I even did the 11 or 13, I asked the factory, “How big of a truck can I make?” And they were kind of confused. I was like, “20 inches?” They’re like, “What, why?” You know how Vans has the big Van shoe in the store? I wanted to put a 25 inch truck in the store [Laughs].

If you had to guess, what percentage of the truck market does Slappy own?
Oh, I don’t know. I’m just lucky to be here. Two percent [Laughs]? That’s what I think.

Will the next Slappy truck be more functional to smoke weed out of?
[laughs] I don’t smoke weed or cigarettes, but somebody was asking me, like, “Can you smoke weed out of them?” I was like “I don’t even fucking know, probably.” It’s the hollow king or the hollow axle. If you can smoke weed out of an apple or a can, probably out of a truck, right?

Can’t you sneak a gram or two of weed through airport security under a truck’s baseplate?
I haven’t heard about that in a while. [laughs] Didn’t people used to FedEx everybody else drugs in the mail and shit? I don’t think you can do that anymore. Maybe I should make a Muska stash pocket on the bottom of our trucks [laughs]. There are all these drug references with Slappy, but I don’t think I’ll ever be making any of this shit.

You recently launched a truck with an inverted kingpin, but didn’t Grind King already do the inverted kingpin like 30 years ago?
Yeah, they did for sure. It’s not new. I always liked what Grind King did with the inverted Kingpin, but I didn’t personally like the way that Grind Kings turned when I was younger. I’ve tried them all [trucks], I bought every truck and I set them all up on the same style board. Same wheels, same bearings, same grip and the thing that bugged me is always these fucking kingpins that got in the way on some grinds. If you have the kingpin in the way, it sucks. It’s like a skate stopper on the bottom of your board.

I didn’t come up with the inverted kingpin, this is just another option, and people are talking about it because I think having that grind clearance is important, and I think a lot of people are paying attention to it now.

For people who don’t know about trucks, how might an inverted kingpin help their skating?
If you do a slappy feeble on one of these other brands trucks, you’re touching all kingpin. That’s what I hated. So basically, the new ultra low inverted [Slappy truck] removes the kingpin. You can slappy fucking feeble grind. You could slap into a hurricane. You can do a back smith, dip it all the way to the ground. So that does help.

If I said I own the rights to that old brand Krepar trucks and you could buy it for $10,000 would you do it?
No [laughs], but they also had a great inverted kingpin.

Besides Slappy, you are a team manager and judge a lot of contests. Would you say you see the most new talent out of anyone in the industry?
I don’t know about that, we all get sent the same shit, you know? I look on Instagram, obviously too. But with contest stuff I see a lot of up and comers, and even current day pros, that’s how I met half the people I know in the skateboard world. Alexis Sablone, Jereme Rogers, Zered Bassett, like they were all Woodward kids. But there’s also the word of mouth kids, the ones who aren’t able to travel, who stay local, and I’m like, “Dude, there’s something really cool about this kid right here.”

I asked a friend who worked in skateboarding a long time why he stopped and he said, “The fact that all these kids think that it is going to lead to a lot of success and money, and I knew in my heart that only 1% would ever make money skating. It’s a false expectation and I started to feel bad about it.” Have you seen that or feel similar at all?
When I first started working as a team manager, I thought back to when I was a sponsored kid and what confused me. It’s all communication.

I just hooked up this person recently, and I told him, “Don’t ever be scared to ask me where you’re at or what’s going on. No stupid questions.” You have to communicate with the riders and give them directions, and also let them know, “Hey, there is a one in a million chance that your career could go to this level, but you can lean on me and I’m here to help you.” Because I’ve seen it time and time again for different people’s careers. There is a common path that happens for most of these skaters, you know?

What is that common path?
Most of them, they start getting hooked up. They get to the point where everybody in skating knows their name, and then they might get a little check. Then budgets at brands get fucked, and checks aren’t there as much as they used to be. And then the skater can’t afford a room in somebody’s apartment or whatever. And it’s like, there is no big career, and now they’re 28 or 30 like, “Damn, my biggest month in skateboarding is behind me.” It’s all timing. It’s also the market. There are so many good skaters that I work with that I wish I could pay. It would be awesome, you know?

But skating doesn’t owe anybody anything, so if you’re lucky to get it, just run with it and do your thing. On the flip side, there are also a lot of skaters that don’t feel like they deserve it. And that’s heartbreaking too. Your heart breaks for the ones that tried so hard but didn’t get much. It also breaks for the ones that have this awesome opportunity because of their style or personality, but they don’t feel worthy for whatever reason, like, “Just kick me off,” and they fade. It all goes away.

In the 2000s when I grew up skating, why were there so many truck brands?
There was so much extra money going around and skating was huge during that era, and the distributions were huge, and there was room for it and lots of people started companies. But if you look back at all those brands, they all came in with an okay truck, but they spent all of their money on marketing and this fancy team that you knew wasn’t organic.

With Slappy, I wanted to do the opposite. I wanted to make a good product that I like first, and then I’ll get team riders, but I’m not gonna try to steal 10 riders to start, just prove to the world that we’re doing something. That’s so fucking dumb. I want the product to be good, and then the team will come eventually.

Why are some old models of Independent trucks so highly sought after?
Because everybody’s fucking crazy [laughs]. It’s a memory. It’s a feeling. I’ll compare it to shoes, like I used to work for different shoe brands, and people always have nostalgia towards them. Some people have nostalgia for say 2005, and they want the Jamie Thomas shoe that they had the best kickflip in. You’re going to want that back. But does it really help? Who the fuck knows.

When I was growing up, I heard a rumor that pros get different quality wood in their skateboards. Like some improved or higher quality wood. Is there any truth to that, that you know of?
Yes and no. Some of these companies have different molds that they don’t even sell, but they’ll have a team rider where it’s like, “Oh, you want the really steep concave. We don’t even sell that. But we’ll make all your boards in a certain mold for you.” It’s just about trying to help the rider feel comfortable with what they’re used to. Brands will try to accommodate each of their riders’ needs. But it’s really tough, because then everybody tries to get something different, and then it turns out the team’s not riding anything that the company has in stock, they all have personalized stuff.

So there’s no such thing as, “Oh, we hold back these boards because they’re premium wood boards.” Nothing like that?
No, no. Like an example of what I’m talking about: I think James Hardy used to ride 8 ply boards from Real (instead of industry standard of 7), but I don’t think Real made an 8 ply board. He just would break and snap boards often, so he wanted a different model than what was available to everyone. But that was just because he was so gnarly, you know?

You keep innovating on trucks, which I wasn’t sure was possible in a real meaningful way. Do you think there’s room to improve boards too in 2025?
100%. It’s not that they can be better, but just like with the trucks, there has to be something else that people like. When you go into a shop, let’s say they have 50 brands on the wall. I would say 80% of them are the exact same wood, the exact same molds. There’s nothing that different out there. When I was a kid, you know, Vision, Powell, Santa Cruz, H Street. None of those were the same, not even close. It’s like, what if everybody’s T-shirt was the same? That’s boring.

They are. Most of them are all printed on fucking Gildan or Alstyle.
I know. But remember when American Apparel was really popular? That was all fucked up. Especially for a guy with my body type.

How would you describe your body type?
[Laughs] In an American Apparel t-shirt? In trouble.

Interview by: Ian Michna
Intro and editorial assists: Ben Komins
Transcription help: Caleb Espinoza
Photos courtesy of: Billy Childress and Yannick Wijgman
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