Ok I'm very sorry for that obnoxious title, but are eskaters just not bothered about their grip tape design? Non-electric boards often get chosen/customised as if how they look is important, an extension of the owners own style. But from what I see it looks like most electric board owners wouldn't change something about their board if it were purely for aesthetic reasons. Am I just weird for finding that strange?
Tbh, changing the grip tape wasn't a purely aesthetic thing for me. I don't like the spongy grip tape it came with. But even if it wasn't for that, I'd still have had to change to a different grip tape design because...
When I was deciding what board to get, a massive pro of the Exway X1Max is that it looks amazing and that it can be made to look like a regular longboard. Obviously a long look at it gives away that it's electric, with maybe the first visible evidence being the hub caps on the rear wheels. There are also other things that might make people suspicious, such as the deck being thicker than a typical longboards, the rear truck having wires stuck to it, the magic acceleration even though the board is going uphill, and how awkward I must look when I'm carrying it and trying to not look like I need help because it's so heavy.
But I think what would be BY FAR the most likely thing to make a regular longboarder/skater go from having a quick glance at the board to needing to take a longer look to see what's weird about it is the stock grip tape design. It didn't look bad, in fact it looked good for what it is. It's just that I can't imagine a regular longboard company/shop selling a longboard with that type of design on the grip tape. Like, it'd be either plain black, or something really fun. Most eskates seem to have what I now call the stock eskate style of design, often resulting in a mostly black grip tape with some plain/geometric greyish bits and some plain-font text. I'm guessing it's a deliberately unique-but-boring design to not alienate any potential customers and because customers can change it to what suits them anyway (like stock bushings being cheap, because they'll probably get changed by the end user anyway) but does no one change the grip tape when they've got their board?
When I was buying an electric board, I probably spent longer deciding what grip tape to buy for it than what board to get. I'm not even exaggerating. And this red camo is the third grip tape I've put on it, this one's a keeper tho. My next board is going to be some big long all-terrain scary looking thing. I'm already thinking about what style grip tape to buy for it to make it more friendly looking. I'm both exited and dreading the decision. Is big decision.
Although, on the rare occasions that I've randomly irl seen an electric board whizz by, it's always put a massive smile on my face (regardless of the level of board personalisation) and whoever's on it always looks like they're loving life, so maybe grip tape style just doesn't matter.
If I'm overthinking it, well, whatever, at least my board looks fabulous af!
If I am being silly, it's ok you can tell me, I can take it. But don't insult my boards aesthetic or comment on how dirty it looks atm, that would make me mad like incredible hulk lol