Tyniesha Thompson, Apache Team, Tuba City AZ , Photo by Douglas Miles Jr.
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From Rez to Retail: The Rise of Apache Skateboards and the A-Team

Just past the turn of the millennium, Douglas Miles took his teenage son to buy a skateboard at a mall.

“He was skating a lot and starting to crack them,” he recalls.

Douglas didn’t have the money to buy his son one of the designer brand boards on the wall. So he paid for a blank board and promised to paint it. His graphic design of an Apache warrior was a hit with the kids at the park as well as the museum crowd. He made 100 copies of the original design and Apache Skateboards was founded in 2002.

Today, Apache Skateboards IS one of the name-brand designer boards on the wall at the mall. Zumiez, an international retailer of sports gear and clothing, began selling Apache Skateboards and streetwear earlier this year.

People can buy Apache Skateboards in select locations including Arizona Mills, Superstition Springs, SanTan Village and Scottsdale Fashion Square and as far east as New York City. Douglas is surprised by the excitement for the products and how people are posting it on social media.

“Anything that creates positive exposure for Apache Skateboards is positive exposure for San Carlos,” says Douglas,“and a big boost for the people of San Carlos.”

An Artist’s Path

“In my family, there were always creative people doing creative things,” Douglas says.

His mother was a dressmaker. His Dad played guitar. One of 13 children, art was possibly a way for Douglas to stand out, or simply, communicate.

“When you’re making art, you’re really just trying to communicate better with people,” Douglas says. “The most important thing that I’m trying to communicate is that we are all part of a community and that our communities, our families, our histories, and cultures are all important.”

Douglas started creating art with works on paper in colored pencil. By the late 90s, he was selling drawings and paintings. Obscura Gallery in Sante Fe handles his photography. TurnerCarroll handles his fine art, and is currently featuring the Forced Removal Series – 15 pieces of spray paint and applique on vintage luggage. His artwork has been displayed in a 23-piece exhibit at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University and his vision featured on NBC News. There’s a limited edition “You’re Skating on Native Land”  skateboard for sale on his website for $1250.

“That’s called a museum board,” explains Douglas, “because that board has been featured in two museum art shows – Phoenix and Denver and is currently on display in a university art museum in Indiana.”

Like great artists of the Renaissance, Douglas creates in many forms. A highly regarded photographer and fine artist, his art is finding its way into new forms, from spray paint and murals to designer shoes, a graphic novel, documentary and feature film and a cultivated social brand. Skateboards, he says, are a new way to talk about Apaches, to the younger generation.

“The fine art of Douglas Miles and the work of Apache Skateboards are inextricable,” says Douglas.

A skating event here.  An art show there.  Like two ends of a half-pipe, Douglas sees them as part of the same expression — envisioning Apache freedom, resistance and creativity in the face of centuries of settler colonialism.

“That the land was taken is glossed over in American history and lost in American exceptionalism, or whatever you want to call it,” says Douglas.

Native Americans, he points out, were the first to realize the importance of the environment and water sources. The Apaches were one of the last tribes to fight the western expansion.

“Some people say oh, why do you have to dwell on the past,” says Douglas. “But this past is in who we are, and it can influence the future.”

He’s currently curating an art show at the College of the Desert in Palm Springs with nine different artists.  Last month he painted a mural in White River. In early October he introduced Grammy award-winning rock artist Beck at the FORM Arcosanti festival. The key to success, he says, is not quitting. He advises artists to keep their day jobs.

“The best artists are the most stable,” he says. “People with families and jobs.”

Douglas studied graphic design at Mesa Community College and made a living through counseling and social work. Though he’s racked up many accomplishments, Douglas has dreams to pursue. He wants his own cartoon.

Tray Polk, Laine Williams, Downtown Los Angeles, Photo by Douglas Miles Jr.

Building Community
Apache Skateboards is sponsoring Skate for Democracy, a voter awareness event on Friday, October 18 from 5-8 p.m. at the San Carlos Skate park.  They will also hold skateboard demonstrations during the Apache Jii Festival in downtown Globe.

“So many more good things could occur in this town, in this region,” says Douglas, with a nod toward the New San Carlos SkatePark that opened April 1, 2022.

Douglas skateboarded some when he was young. Not anymore. He’s 60. His son, Douglas Miles Jr., took to the sport in the early 2000s and became a professional skateboarder.  He’s also a film producer, product designer and dad. One of the consultants on the San Carlos park, Doug Jr. is on a committee to get a skatepark built in White River and an effort is underway to build a skate park in Bylas.

Two decades into his business endeavor, Apache Skateboards remains a small rural business. On the rez. Douglas Miles likes it that way.

“People don’t understand the high level of creativity and time it takes to make these things, “ he says. “To make them something that’s shareable.”

Once Douglas had the idea to create a skateboard brand – to sell skateboards and t-shirts with original Apache Skateboard designs, he knew he needed to have a skate team and make videos to build the brand. He formed the A-Team, a band of Native skaters with a DIY flair. The A Team has been featured in promotions by the Phoenix Suns, Red Bull, Kia, Smart Water and showcased in the Mystery of Now (2019), and Apache Leap (2021), both co-produced by Douglas. In recent months, they’ve held skateboard competitions in Tuba City and Fort Defiance. The San Carlos tribe sponsors a big competition over Veteran’s Day weekend.

“We get hired by different tribes to do skating workshops, and competitions. Sometimes we work with partners to promote their event,’ says Douglas, “If we feel like it’s something we want to support.

If the company or brand is potentially dangerous to the environment or young people, Apache Skateboards says no. Timing is a challenge. Everyone on the A Team (ages 13-30) have daily life schedules with jobs, families, school.

Zumiez approached Apache Skateboards because they liked what they were doing.

“We see that you’re involved in the community,” they told Douglas. “We want to support that. We want to carry your product in our store.”

Zumiez is the biggest retailer to feature their brand, but not the first. They are currently working with Etnies to design a new skateboarding shoe.

“Grip, flexibility, all the things a skateboarder needs that are not in other shoes,” explains Douglas. “Durability. Sometimes extra padding. “

Because a skater is a lot like an artist, or an entrepreneur. They find their own style of doing things, and never quit.

Tyniesha Thompson, Apache Team, Fresno CA, Zumiez

About Patti Daley

A traveler, Patti Daley came to Globe in 2016 to face the heat, follow love, and find desert treasure. She writes in many formats and records travel scraps and other musings at daleywriting.com.

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