Skateboard, manufacturing

In the 1950s and 1960s, teens often had to make their own skateboards. This was done by taking apart a pair of metal roller skates and fastening each half to the end of a 2-inch by 4-inch piece of lumber. These homemade skateboards were crude versions of the manufactured skateboards available today (Figure 16-1). 

FIGURE 16-1 Skateboarding has become an internationally recognized sport partly because of improved materials and manufacturing technic ues. 

FIGURE 16-2 Many steps are needed just to manufacture the skateboard deck. 

FIGURE 16-3 New products have been developed and manufactured to support skateboarding. 

Skateboarding has created a demand for other new products such as helmets and wrist and knee pads. New manufacturing plants have opened to meet this demand. Manufacturing is an important part of our society. Society comes to depend on manufactured products when they are available (such as cell phones). But society also creates the demand for new products to be manufactured, as in the case of protective gear for skateboarding (Figure 16-3). 

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