Here's our man! Jay sent over a bunch of pics, but I liked this one the best. Classic frontside smith. It doesn't get any better than that...!



Who are you, and what's your position at American Nomad...?

My name is Jay Kelly, and I'm Bill Danforth's partner at American Nomad.

How long has AN been around?

We started getting the ball rolling almost six years ago now. Probably five and a half, once we had product in hand.

How/why did you guys decide to start a company...?

We were all sitting around after skating at Skaters' Island (RIP) one night, and the topic of board shapes came up. And at that time, trying to find the stuff that you wanted shape-wise was few and far between. So, what started as sort of a joke got rolling pretty quickly, once I knew that Bill and Fred Smith were on board. Most of my skating life, I have been a huge Fred Smith and Bill Danforth fan. Fred pushed me in the direction to become a tattooer… seeing his tattoos and punk-rock-ness as a kid had a strong impact on me. Bill pretty much did the same thing. Never following the crowd, and living how he wanted to live. So, to do anything with these guys makes it all worthwhile for me.




Here's the whole crew. From left to right: Fred Smith III, Bill Danforth, and Jay Kelly. Respect these dudes; they've earned it.


Where are you guys headquartered at?

Split location between my place in Hartford, Connecticut, and Bill's place in Detroit, Michigan.

Manufacturer of wood?

Pennswood, and PS Stix.

What role does Bill [Danforth] play at the company? It's obviously kinda named after him (Bill being "The Nomad" and all...)

He is part owner, and full-time traveler. Bill still travels nonstop between demos/tours, and a summer full of skate camps.

Who else is on the team?

The whole team is Bill Danforth, Fred Smith III, Monty Nolder, Bill Tocco, John Schultes, Nick Bratko, Chris Hamilton, John Hinkle, Ward Kramer, Dave Slivers, Justin Harter, and Abe Towery.

Who does the graphics...? (Who did the Svitak guest, and the new Danforth fade...?)

I did some of the early stuff, but it's busy juggling doing graphics, and being a full-time tattooer. Pat B. and Vinnie Maccioli do the majority of them now. We do have some guest artist boards coming out soon, with the first one being from Bart Saric. The Svitak was Vinnie, and the new Danforth was Pat.


The Svitak "guest" board... it kinda looks like an old Powell-Peralta Per Welinder street model. Wasn't that Kristian's first board? Was that "look-alike" intentional...?

Yeah, the Welinder-looking shape was fully intentional. Kristian told me that was his favorite board when he was a kid… so, we did a little tweaking, and came up with something that looks similar, but has a bit more of today's feel.

The new Danforth looks like a mash-up between the old [spray-faded] Alva decks, and a Brand X. Bill used to ride for Alva... but, what's the Brand X connection...?

The Brand X connection was all me. I was looking at some old boards when Pat was staying at my place, and told him that I loved that old Brand X skull and crossbones [Editor's note: This graphic was drawn by the late, and great, Bernie Tostenson]. That night, he whipped that one up.

Brand X decks were some of my favorites, graphic-wise, when I was a kid. So, it's sort of my tribute to them. And, the faded rails just had to be done to add a little "Alva" to the mix [Editor's note again: Alva was Bill's old sponsor, back in the 1980's]. We had a completely different graphic for Bill's new board… but, this graphic fit the shape of his new board so well, that we just had to use it…!