Stevie Williams

Skateboarding has always made the outsiders shine. That’s one of the miracles in riding one. It’s a pastime that lives and breathes to see the underdog rise up. From their inception as a skate crew at LOVE Park in Philadelphia during the mid-’90s, Stevie Williams and The Dirty Ghetto Kids were outsiders amongst outsiders—marginalized from society for being skateboarders—then marginalized by local skaters for simply being dirty kids from the hood. After embracing their outcast status, and repurposing the very name originally intended to dismiss them, the DGK crew all but took over the LOVE Park scene only a couple of years after their formation. While the original crewmembers slowly packed up and moved on, the name DGK, and everything it had come to represent, was forever etched into Stevie’s heart and carried with him over the course of his early career and sponsors, through Underworld Element, Fit, and Profile.

Following his meteoric rise to stardom in ’99 with a part in The Reason, his Big-L-backed last part in The Chocolate Tour, and first pro shoe from DC the following year, most would have been content (and prudent) to rest on their laurels and enjoy the ride. Instead, Stevie took a huge gamble in ’02, quitting Chocolate—arguably the most respected team in skateboarding—and once again become an outsider (this time on the industry level), in hopes of building his own board brand based on the name and spirit of his former skate crew. Partnering up with Troy Morgan to launch an entirely new distribution house called the Kayo Corporation in Carlsbad, California, Stevie’s ’02 decision not only launched DGK, the company, but ultimately provided backing for Organika, Expedition, and Gold Wheels.