Venture Trucks was born from the minds of Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello. These were the men behind Independent. They had been working on an inexpensive truck, that would be plain and simple, but have the design qualities of a higher-priced model.

At the same time, skating was evolving at mutant speed, freestyle and vertical skating smashed together and out of the big bang came street skating. While the established brands offered standard sized freestyle and vert trucks, street skaters hungered for boards and trucks that met their needs.

Venture Trucks released its first truck right when this all went down and became known for producing the first ‘street’ truck. The simpler truck with a rougher appearance, perfectly mirrored street-skating’s attitude. “Right from the get-go, we geared toward the street team,” says Keith Cochrane. Keith was an original team rider, who became co-owner and team manager a few months after Venture started.