Custom Skateboard Decks: How to Choose Where to Order

You can get a custom skateboard deck made five ways: an online deck printer with an editor, a local skate shop, a print shop you send a finished file to, an artist you commission, or paint and vinyl at home. What decides it is the wood, how the graphic goes on, what arrives with the deck, whether you see it before paying, and what you pay at the door.

This guide is written by Skateboard Personalizado, an online deck printer, so we are one of the five routes and not a neutral party. The questions work for any seller; our own answers, and the cases where we are the wrong choice, have their own section further down.

If you live in the European Union, one question outweighs the rest: does the deck ship from inside the EU? From anywhere outside it, Great Britain included, the parcel is an import, and import VAT, customs duty and a courier's clearance fee can be added at your door.

Where can you get a custom skateboard deck made?

Five routes. They differ in who makes the design, when you first see the result, and how much of the work is yours. Named shops that print a single deck and ship within the EU are compared, with their prices, in custom skateboard decks in Europe: shops compared.

An online deck printer with an editor

An online deck printer puts the design step in the browser: upload a photo or type a name, place it on a drawing of the deck, check the result, pay. The same tool is sold as a custom skateboard builder, designer or generator; print-on-demand marketplaces are the variant where you buy someone else's design. You never touch the deck before it arrives, so every question below applies. No image yet? Where to get artwork for a deck covers photos, open-access archives and licences.

A local skate shop

A skate shop gives advice across the counter and, usually, help setting the deck up. Some take custom orders and pass the printing to a supplier; others sell blank decks to paint. Ask independent shops near you whether they take custom-print orders, and who prints them; after that, the questions are the same as online.

A print shop, with your own file

Some sellers take payment first and ask for the artwork by email afterwards, to a template and a resolution, often 300 dpi. It suits designers with finished artwork, but you pay before seeing the result, and a file that misses the specification means another round of emails. Our print template lets you design in your own software and still see the deck before paying: the finished image goes into the editor like any other.

An artist, by commission

A painted or hand-drawn deck is a different object from a printed one: every mark is made by hand and can't be repeated. Time and price depend on one person's queue and the detail you ask for, and paint needs a clear varnish to survive handling. For a wall piece or a one-of-a-kind gift, that is the point; printed, hand-painted or vinyl weighs the three against each other.

Doing it yourself: paint, markers or vinyl

Painting a blank deck with acrylics or paint markers, or covering it with a printed vinyl, puts the result in your hands. Sand the underside lightly so the paint grips, then varnish it; a vinyl stays a sheet you can feel on top of the wood, and tends to lift at the edges once ridden. The process, step by step, is in how to paint a skateboard deck.

What should you check before you order?

Eight questions, the same for every route. Each has a section below; our own answers are in a table after them.

1. What wood is the deck, and how is it built?
2. How is the graphic applied, and how will it wear?
3. Does it arrive bare or as a complete skateboard?
4. Which widths and shapes can you choose?
5. Can you see it before you pay, and will anything warn you about a blurry photo?
6. Is there a minimum order, and can one order hold several designs?
7. Where does it ship from, and what will you pay at the door?
8. Can you return a custom deck?

What wood is the deck, and how is it built?

The standard deck for riding is seven thin sheets of maple veneer, glued and pressed in a mould; that is all “7-ply maple” means. The mould sets the concave, the shallow dip from edge to edge that your feet lock into, and the kicked nose and tail.

“Canadian maple” names the wood, not a grade: North American hard maple, the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) that the US Forest Service notes is “sometimes called hard maple or rock maple”, which grows from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into the eastern United States. How well a particular deck was pressed, you judge on the deck.

In the description, look for a ply count and a species, a concave and two kicks, and truck holes if the deck will ever be ridden. A flat panel cut to the outline of a deck looks the same in a photo, but it has the shape without the construction and shouldn't carry a rider. When it arrives, the plies along the edge should be even and closed, and the deck shouldn't twist when you sight down it.

A printed graphic doesn't change how a board rides: a skate brand's pro-model deck and a custom-printed one are the same pressed maple underneath, and are judged the same way. Ours is 7-ply Canadian maple, a real deck rather than a decorative panel; the process is in how a custom skateboard deck is made.

How is the graphic applied, and how will it wear?

The common methods are screen printing, heat transfer, UV inks on a transfer film, printed vinyl, hand painting, and laser engraving, which burns a single tone into the wood. The method decides what kind of image works, whether one deck costs the same to make as fifty, and how the graphic ages; how a print gets onto a deck, and what skating does to it, is in how a custom skateboard deck is made.

Whatever the method, a graphic on the underside wears once the deck is ridden, edges first; a deck on a wall keeps its colour far longer. We publish no lifetime in years for our print, because it depends on how the deck is used.

Skateboard Personalizado prints with UV inks onto a transfer film that is applied cold to the underside of a new deck. Nothing is set up per design, so a single deck is an ordinary order.

Does it arrive bare or as a complete skateboard?

Check which one the price is for. A deck is the board alone; a complete adds griptape, trucks, wheels, bearings and hardware, fitted. When two quotes look far apart, compare that first.

A deck without griptape is the right way to buy one for a wall. To ride it you need griptape and the four parts, and fitting them takes about twenty minutes with one skate tool, as the beginner's guide explains.

Ours ships bare: 89 € for the printed deck, delivered in Spain. What can be added, per deck:

• Griptape, 9.95 €. The grip on the top face. It arrives fitted.
• Trucks, 39.95 €. The pair, sized to your deck.
• Wheels, 29.95 €. Set of four.
• Bearings, 14.95 €. All eight, two per wheel.
• Hardware, 4.95 €. Eight bolts and their nuts.

Everything needed to ride it comes to 188.75 € in Spain; the parts arrive loose, for you to fit. Not on sale yet: complete kit, assembled · wall mount. The arithmetic is in what a custom skateboard deck costs.

Which widths and shapes can you choose?

Decks are sold by width, measured across the middle in inches; most street decks sit between about 7.5" and 8.5". Length and wheelbase mostly follow the width, so width is the number you actually choose.

Shape is a separate question, and not every seller offers a choice: the double-kicked popsicle is the standard street shape, while cruisers, old-school shapes and longboards are different boards, printed from different templates.

We sell one shape, a popsicle, in three widths: 8.0" (20.3 cm), 8.25" (21.0 cm) and 8.5" (21.6 cm), all at the same price. No width is preselected: you pick one before the order can go through. If you need another shape, we are the wrong shop. Which width suits which rider is in the size guide.

Can you see it before you pay, and will anything warn you about a blurry photo?

You should see your design on the deck's real outline before paying, and a good editor tells you when a photo is too small for its print size. Those two checks prevent the problems no return will fix: an unexpected crop and a soft print.

A 3D view also shows what the concave and the kicks do to the design. The nose and tail curve away from whoever looks at the deck, so faces and text belong in the middle third; the full method is in how to design your own skateboard deck.

Resolution is arithmetic: pixels across the image divided by inches across the deck. At 300 ppi, what our print template asks for, a design that covers the deck needs 2,400–2,550 pixels across its width, depending on the size; at 150 ppi, 1,200–1,275, and below that a photo looks soft at arm's length. What a deck-sized print needs from a photo is in where to get artwork for a deck.

No preview can promise that colours on a backlit screen will be the colours on maple: a screen gives off light and a print reflects it. Treat any preview as a check of layout and sharpness, not of exact colour.

In our editor, selecting or enlarging a photo shows the resolution it will print at and flags anything under 150 ppi as likely to print blurry. There is no proof by email and no physical sample: a paid order goes straight into production, so the 3D view is the proof.

Is there a minimum order, and can one order hold several designs?

Transfer and digital printing need no setup per design, so a single deck can be an ordinary order; screen printing pays for its screens across a run, which is why it tends to come with minimums. Ask for the minimum, whether the unit price changes with quantity, and whether different designs can share an order and its shipping.

Ours: one deck minimum, and 1 to 19 decks per order at the same unit price, with shipping charged once. There is no published volume discount; from 3 decks you can write to us about quantity, and above 19 it is a quote. One order is one design in one size, so different designs are separate orders. Team orders are covered in custom skateboards for your team or office.

Where does it ship from, and what will you pay at the door?

For anyone living in the EU, where the parcel ships from decides whether the price you see is the price you pay. Inside the EU there is nothing more to pay on delivery; from outside it the parcel is an import, and three charges can be added:

• Import VAT at your country's rate, on every parcel whatever its value, since the €22 exemption ended on 1 July 2021. For parcels up to €150 the seller can collect it at checkout (IOSS); otherwise the postal operator or courier collects it on delivery.
• Customs duty, as a rule: from 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028, a flat €3 for each type of item in parcels worth up to €150, and the normal rate above that.
• A clearance fee that postal operators and couriers may charge for handling customs, which varies from company to company.

The United Kingdom counts as outside the EU unless the parcel ships from Northern Ireland, and a seller outside the EU is expected to explain these charges before you buy (European Commission factsheet). If the checkout says nothing, ask.

Skateboard Personalizado's decks are printed and shipped from Spain, inside the EU, so an order to another EU country carries no import VAT, customs duty or clearance fee: our prices include VAT, and the only addition is 15 to 25 € of shipping per order, depending on the country. The countries we ship to, and the territories we don't, are in where we ship.

Comparing two quotes, step by step

1. Put both on the same footing. Deck alone against deck alone, or deck with griptape and parts against the same.
2. Add the shipping. To your address, and check whether it is charged per order or per deck.
3. Add what the border adds. If it ships from outside the EU: import VAT at your country's rate, the customs duty and the courier's clearance fee, unless the seller says it has already collected them.
4. Split the timing. Production and transit are two figures; note which of them the seller actually publishes for your country.

Can you return a custom deck?

Not because you changed your mind, but a faulty one, yes. EU law excludes “the supply of goods made to the consumer's specifications or clearly personalised” from the 14-day right of withdrawal (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 16(c)), so no seller in the EU has to take back a deck printed with your photo because you'd rather not keep it.

What that exception does not touch is the legal guarantee. Under Directive (EU) 2019/771 the seller is liable for any lack of conformity that exists at delivery and becomes apparent within two years, and EU countries may set longer periods (article 10). A deck that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is the seller's problem, custom or not.

So check the design properly before paying, and read what the seller does when something goes wrong: reprint or refund, who pays, and whether the deck has to go back.

Our own policy: no withdrawal for a change of mind, and an order can be cancelled while it has not gone to print. If the deck arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size, the legal guarantee applies, as it does to any seller in the EU; a parcel lost in transit is the seller's risk until it reaches you (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 20).

How Skateboard Personalizado does it

The same questions, answered for our own decks with the figures our checkout uses; the product page lists the main ones too.

When we are the wrong choice

• You need a shape other than a popsicle.
• You live outside the EU (the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway or the United States, for example) or in a territory we don't serve, such as the Canary Islands.
• You need a published delivery time outside Spain: we don't have one yet.
• You want a hand-painted, engraved, holographic or bare-wood finish.
• You want it delivered assembled: the complete kit isn't on sale yet.
• You want to approve a proof by email before printing.

For a gift, the delivery address at checkout can be the recipient's; ideas are in custom skateboard gift ideas.

What are the red flags when ordering a custom deck?

Seven signs a quote will cost more, or disappoint more, than it looks:

• Vague material: no ply count, no species, “premium wood”.
• No preview before payment, or a proof that only arrives after you've paid.
• No resolution check: any image accepted, with no word on how sharp it will print.
• A delivery promise you can't check: one figure with no split between production and transit, or no word on where the parcel ships from.
• A price without its extras: shipping left out or, from outside the EU, nothing about import VAT, duty or the courier's fee.
• Reviews you can't trace: testimonials with no name, date or source, or star ratings with no review platform behind them.
• “No refunds under any circumstances”: a custom deck has no change-of-mind return, but a damaged or misprinted one is covered by the legal guarantee.

Frequently asked questions