Independent

The company was co-founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman, Fausto Vitello, and Eric Swenson and the Stage 1 model was the inaugural product, released on May 23, 1978, in Newark, California. The Independent truck (or "Indy") was designed as a response to the lack of quality skateboard trucks on the market at the time. In reference to the two other major truck companies on the market, Blackhart stated that one broke, and one didn’t turn (Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively)