Teak Tuning | History, Comp Ready Completes & Future Plans | S3 E129

 Live from the Philly stop of the USAFBL Tour, we sit down with Matt and Geraldine from @teaktuning! We dive into the history of Teak Tuning, from Geraldine’s early DIY days in South Africa to the company’s growth into one of fingerboarding’s biggest retail names. We cover their role in helping beginners transition from Tech Deck into higher-end fingerboarding, the launch of the Session brand, and the new Comp Ready Completes designed for entry-level competitors. We also get into future product leaks, including ramps and obstacles in development, and what’s next for Teak’s Rochester headquarters. If you enjoy the show, please like, follow, and share! 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12.238)
Welcome to USAFBL fingerboard podcast. I'm your host of Mike Cunningham. Today I've got Matt and Geraldine of Ttuning. Today we're live here at the USAFBL fingerboard tour stop Philly aka Allentown. Welcome to

Thanks, thanks, Ruth.

Man, I am excited to have you guys here. We have been doing stuff together for quite some time, but I feel like we just don't ever get together in person and kind of do stuff. So this is kind of what we think for.

Yeah, this is awesome. This is actually, you know, I think our first time actually vending. We've, you know, tended different vends over the years. This is awesome being in person here.

It's been great so far.

Speaker 1 (00:58.126)
So you guys are basically like this massive retail giant. So then again, person, this is a little different, little outside the comfort zone, I would say.

Yeah, it's actually been really cool. We have a lot of relationships with the community online and in person, but it's been so different actually, like being able to talk people through all the different products we have and be able to show off all of our cool... We got a bunch of new stuff with the Session brand launching last month.

We also have some prototypes on the table, so people have been skating those and giving feedback. So that's been great.

That's one of the cool things that I love about having you guys on tour because you guys are so knowledgeable. You guys have been in the game for a long time. You guys are able to like just answer all these questions in person. People have tons of questions and you have all walks of life. You got people that just started from the boarding like two months ago to people that have been doing this for years and you guys have enough knowledge to be able to guide people through everything. I love that.

Yeah, is the cool part, right? To be able to see the kids who are even they're getting their younger siblings into fingerboarding and don't even have fingerboard. They might have bought their first complete gear at the Philly stop to people who have been fingerboarding longer. Then it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (02:22.734)
So I like how you guys are able to basically kind of help get people started and introduced into fingerboard. Like we're talking about the entryway in the fingerboard and you guys do it so seamlessly. Like it's like people are looking for a way to get in. A lot of people start with tech techs myself included.

and you guys have this pathway of getting people in and keeping people through their whole finger boarding journey with all of these unique products we're talking about startup completes to actually complete hand pressed decks to literally be best rails in the game. Like look at these things. They're heavy duty. They don't move. These are the most underrated rails like top tier stuff.

Thank you very much. Yeah, no, that's kind of, think our intent is to, know, most people enter through tech deck, right? They find it at Walmart or Target or something like that. And then they want to try what's next. And we want to be that offering, that solution to them to make it accessible from the time they go from there all the way to, you know, we have handmade split-ply decks that are comparable to any in the world. But really,

We're also trying to showcase other brands too, trying to get more collabs, more partnerships, because the community is what makes this so much fun and successful.

the so let's backtrack a little bit so like I know Geraldine has been on the pod once before I can't remember what episode we've done so many but kind of introduce yourselves let people know kind of like what role how you got started with Teague I know that you are one of the founders but for the people that don't really know the history of Teague kind of fill us in tell us what's going on

Speaker 3 (04:10.478)
My name is Geraldine. currently live in Arkansas, but I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. When I moved to the US, I started fingerboarding around 2007 with TechX. Then I found the pro side, the online side around 2009. Ever since I started, I loved modifying things and making my own things.

Started out with cardboard ramps and melting tech decks to make the kicks higher. And then in 2014, I started teetuning as I was going to college. And it started with just two little shoe boxes that I would put under my bed. And I did that all the way through college. And then a little bit after I graduated, that's when I met Matt and some other folks who really just helped take it to the next level and make it into what it is now.

Speaker 2 (05:08.526)
Yeah, so I'm Matt. I got my start in fingerboarding actually when I met Geraldine. So I was familiar with Tech Tech's growing up and I'm sure I rode a few times but I was not into them growing up and then got connected with Geraldine and it somewhere 2017-2018, I think 2018. And it's just been a wild ride since then. So figured out how to try to take it from the shoeboxes under the bed to

you know, trying to get into all the different phases of fingerboarding and really grow from there. So I run mostly the business side of things and have been since 2018. But yeah, it's one of the like prototyping and doing the R &D and like doing the market research and like actually just talking to tons of fingerboarders has been the most interesting and fun part of it for me. Yeah, and now

Speaker 1 (06:26.478)
That's an awesome experience. So you actually have an advantage because I'm aged a little bit. You're probably getting aged a little bit as well. But the youth, I mean, 14, I have no idea what a 14 year old is thinking. I have no idea what a 14 year old thinks is cool. I don't know the slang, the new terms. You have all of that in your pocket. So like you could just be like, hey, is this cool? Is this dope? He's like, or yeah, that's awesome. Like you got a you got a fact checker. I love that.

Yeah, it's super interesting, right? So we've started to do annual design contests for our graphic decks. And we have voting and all those aspects to it. And I'll pick a handful. like, these in my head, these are really cool. These are the best. And I'll show them to Aidan and he'll look through them. And be like, no, I'm not really into it. And then it's exactly the same thing in all of our polls. like, OK.

Well, this is it. I need to make sure we talk to more people than just ourselves. But it's been really

I love that, I love that for you guys. Alright, let's talk about Rochester, the headquarters. So you guys are based out of Rochester, kinda tell us what happens there, what does that mean for T2?

Yeah, so we're, right now we're maybe 15, 20 minutes outside of Rochester. So we run both our manufacturing side. So we have a whole wood shop producing decks, ramps, like wooden obstacles. Yeah, we have our monument series, the concrete. We make the rods and cut all the wheels and do all that stuff. And we are at some point in the future, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (08:12.544)
at gonna have a retail event space in the same place because we have some room to do it but right now our priority is kind of trying to scale up our manufacturing side here and yeah so I grew up in Rochester and that I met Geraldine in Rochester and that's kind of why it's headquartered up there but it's a really cool space and we're excited to get to a point where we can maybe even have it starting tours there I don't know we'll see to be determined at some point in the future.

the Well, let's talk about the current things that you're doing now. Like we just launched the comp ready completes. So originally I reached out to you guys. I'm like, we need a pathway for entry level people who don't necessarily know all of like the higher end like finger boarding.

markets, just so many brands to pick and choose through. And I'm like, can we literally put together the best components at an affordable price where it's literally pull it out of the box and it's competition ready? But you can come out here to a USA up and event, put this thing together and you've got a high tier competition ready fingerboard complete. And I was like, we need to go do that. Let's talk about that.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So the deck on the complete, it's a graphic deck, but it's transparent so you can also see the bottom plie. And that is a Session deck. Session is the brand that we just launched under Ttuning, where all of the products are handmade by the same artist actually. She is incredibly talented. Like I don't think I can explain just how talented she is with woodworking. So it's a Session deck. Then you also get Gen 2 Prodigy trucks.

Speaker 3 (10:03.118)
Those are the trucks on our website. And then what's different about those is that they have pre-installed Pro Duro bubble bushings. So those are our custom molded bubble bushings. They're modeled after real skateboard bushings. So it comes with a set of those on it too, and they match. And then for wheels, we went with the 61D urethane wheels, which we make in New York. So overall, the complete just has a lot of really good components that we have tested for ages and...

they work really well so when you get it you don't have to think what deck do I need, what trucks will match it, what wheels should I get so that was sort of the line of thinking about.

No, I love it. I got to test these things out. I thoroughly enjoy these things. So we actually have one of these here. We had a bunch of these here. I don't even know why I'm acting like a super limited. So we got a bunch of these here. I'm going to pull one of these out here for you guys. We've got the comp ready completes here at Philly. We're also going to have them here at all of the stops as well on tour. So it'll come in this box.

Looks like it's just a deck but it's super super heavy, got all the components and stuff inside.

And then the ones that are on the tour, they actually have a different set of wheels. So these are a limited edition one of them. So these actually have the ATP wheels. They're 65D and they're really good for outdoor use.

Speaker 1 (11:32.718)
So all your components come straight in a little assembly is going to be required. But these things are good. These things are good to shred straight out of the box.

And then extras of course. I know Brian really likes this especially, but everyone also comes with a diamond encrusted grip file. Pretty good job, it's going to make that a lot easier.

These are literally the most underrated files too. I have not seen any file that out shines this thing. This thing is gorgeous. Diamond plated it looks like it's pretty crazy.

Yeah, it makes a big difference. mean, the menu files work too to get the job done, but these are so much more comfortable. We have them out at our setup station and everyone who's used it is like, wow, this is so much better than the little ones.

Speaker 2 (12:46.358)
We do have the, I mean, if you're at the Philly Stop, we do have prototypes of our upcoming wooden ramps that are all to be made in-house. So that's probably the next thing and maybe some larger wooden obstacles or parks perhaps. that's to be continued on that. okay.

about any leaks that we can get on the pod.

Yeah, maybe coming to a USAFBL stop in the future.

Awesome. Well, thank you guys for sitting down with me. We've got Matt and Geraldine with Ttuning. Until next time.

Speaker 2 (13:28.748)
You can limit flipping tricks, hide in the sky

Speaker 1 (14:12.718)
Take tight, I'm soaring like a bird Every trick or every slide a word Climbing on the edge, I'm breaking the mold Fingerboardin' I'm hear the wheels scream In this fingerboardin' dream Fingerboardin', I'm fighting free

you

Speaker 1 (14:32.844)
With every flick of my story On this board I'm never alone In the sky

you

Speaker 1 (14:57.667)
as they scream in this finger-boding dream

With every flick of light Exploding on this board I'm never alone

Speaker 1 (15:20.898)
You

you