Dead Pawn Skateboards

One thing Leander Begay is terrible at: remembering people’s ages. One thing he’s great at: making skateboards.

Leander Begay, owner and founder of Dead Pawn Skateboards, is from Steamboat, Arizona. Steamboat is essentially, one of the most centrally located places on the Navajo Reservation. Steamboat is approximately fifty miles west of Window Rock, Arizona; 140 miles Northeast of Flagstaff; and about a five-hour drive from Leander’s home and Dead Pawn Skateboards headquarters, in Mesa, Arizona. 

Dead Pawn officially became a brand on July 7, 2015, but its story begins much earlier in an art class, in a border town high school, taught by a man no one really liked, except Leander. The late Mr. Bedford was a strict and disciplined teacher that kept young Leander in line. Leander learned more than just forms and color palettes in Mr. Bedford’s class, he learned about philosophy and work ethic, about always turning in your best work—which remain firmly entrenched in every detail of every art piece that Dead Pawn produces. 

In the last few years, Dead Pawn has gained tremendous ground throughout Indian Country mostly as a result of Leander travelling month after month, year after year, to powwow after powwow all across the U.S and Canada. The regular trips marked by thousands of miles driven, gallons of gas purchased, numerous nights on couches, nights under the stars, days walking in scorching heat, in and out of thick crowds of people, hauling a wagon-loaded down with over 300 pounds’ worth of skateboards, withstanding freezing wind chills and sandstorms that can’t be mitigated in any way whatsoever by a wall-less canopy tent, all while maintaining a full-time gig back in Mesa. Leander’s hustle is real. 

Dead Pawn is dedicated to its customers, especially the Native youth in the various Nations on Turtle Island. Oftentimes, Leander “hides” a skateboard in a skate park or public space knowing the board will find its way to a well-deserving owner. Someone who will not only appreciate the gift itself and the beauty of the artwork, but the story that it tells.

The stories the skateboards tell, transcend the concept of “traditional” in their execution. The art pieces depict a way of a way of life, a way of being, and a way of interacting with the physical world yes, but the designs are modern and fresh. Graphically designed with technology that only now can mimic the precise, expert geometric, shape-making that is iconic in Navajo designs, the boards are moving pictures—moving through time. They guide and bridge generations together in an everyday-purpose item. The oral tradition of storytelling combined in a single artifact that can be both a fine art collectible and a teenager’s first set of wheels. It is what Leander calls “storytelling for the next generation.”

From its inception that began as a single skateboard painted over with some acrylic paint and sold off to a friend, to his first prototype that arrived at his front door, to where the Dead Pawn brand stands today, it is no wonder Leander refers to Dead Pawn as “an out of control locomotive.” Dead Pawn has expanded beyond skateboards to include longboards, apparel, collaborations with First Nations fashion designers, and the “sickest grip tape ever seen by human eyes.” 

Dead Pawn boards are easily recognizable. The boards are exceptionally beautiful, intricate, and made of quality materials. They are sent away for, from as far away as Lithuania, Spain, Finland, and France. Art owners send Leander photos proudly displaying one, or a series of boards, they’ve purchased as a new design is revealed. Each piece, a single moment, or concept, expertly drawn from the memory of a young boy who listened to the stories his elders would tell.

In his rare free time, Leander enjoys working little by little, over the last fourteen years, on a spacious hogan, an eight-sided traditional dwelling, on the same homestead that his grandparents lived. 

-DezBaa Nakai Biwhoxosh, July 23, 2020
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