Who is Fos?
If you have never heard the name Mark ‘Fos’ Foster, but you’ve been skateboarding for more than 3 minutes, it’s more than likely that you will have at least bumped into one of his many graphics or products that adorn most skate shop walls and websites.
Fos has been in the skate industry since the ’90s. Moving to London from Lancashire to study art and ultimately getting a job at Slam City Skates was the beginning of it all. His first big break as an artist in the industry was facilitated by none other than Ed Templeton, who, after being sent artwork from Fos, faxed him his phone number and gave Fos the green light to do a whole pro-series of decks. Shortly after the success of his first run of graphics for Toy Machine, other brands such as Zero approached Fos and let him do his thing for them as well. Nowadays, the list of brands that Fos has worked alongside is extremely long and distinguished.
Outside of creating art for other brands, Fos also started his own deck companies over here in the UK. In the late ’90s, Fos started Heroin Skateboards, a brand that, to this day, grows in popularity, both in the UK and across the world. With an initial goal of positioning itself outside the then-clean and minimalist graphics that were predominantly around during the time, Heroin Skateboards found a cult niche in the skateboarding world that still shows no sign of regressing anytime soon.
In 2003, Fos then started Landscape Skateboards, another brand that was very well received during its time, with an incredible roster of skaters on the team and full-length video ‘Portraits’ being one of the most popular UK skate videos of the 2000s. Since relocating to the USA, Fos has also started his own wheel company, named Snot Wheels, another brand that implements the classic Fos aesthetic and attention to detail, which separates it from the rest.
There’s no other way to describe Fos other than an absolute legend, and we can’t thank him enough for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for us! Thanks, Fos!!
Recent happenings and general chat
I saw you recently put on an egg-based art show in Portland (June 21st). How did that go?
It went really well. It was with Tactics; they wanted to do something to launch our collaboration with them, and I’ve been wanting to do an art show of all the egg original graphics in one place for a while now, so it came together really well. People came in from all over for it; some people even flew over from New York. That’s pretty wild.
Do you do them often?
Not as much these days, it’s a lot of prep work as far as putting the show together, and it’s a pretty big outgoing paying for all the framing and then having to fly out to a place and rent an Airbnb or hotel. I am actually driving down to San Diego tomorrow to set up an art show at a shop down there for Saturday. I’ve been working on framing all the stuff for that this week. It’s time-consuming, so I think this will be my last show this year. I have a video that I want to finish, so I need to focus on that.
Have you seen WU LYF since they got back together?
I was coincidentally in Manchester for their very first reunion show, which was amazing. I know them and was actually out for breakfast with them the day before at Cafe North and they said are you coming to the reunion show tomorrow? I couldn’t believe it. Me and my wife fell in love with that first album, and I’ve seen them play in Manchester, London, San Francisco, Coachella, Los Angeles. It was a magical show, completely amazing, and I loved all the new songs. I can’t wait for them to release that album.
I saw a photo of you with Nick Cave, both wearing Heroin t-shirts. What’s the story behind that photo?
Andrew Reynolds said he wanted to do a Nick Cave board when I was the art director of Baker. I had friends from College that had directed some of his videos. I reached out to them for his contact, and we started talking a bit, he was down for us to do a board, and then we met at one of his shows, met his kids who skate, and I invited them to Baker Boys, so they came over to Baker. I actually ended up taking Nick and his son Luke to the LA gun club and shot guns with them too. We’ve stayed in Touch and I’ve sent him shirts and he’ll call when he’s in LA and we’ll take him out for dinner sometimes. Nick rules.
How come you found yourself in Vancouver for GSD?
I actually didn’t, I just did the poster.
I saw on your Instagram that you were eating a Milky Bar in California recently. How do you get your hands on treats from the UK?
There are a few spots where you can get the good stuff. Most American chocolate is garbage; it’s really greasy because they make it with vegetable oil, it’s pretty disgusting. There are a few Indian stores that carry the UK stuff, so I get Crunchies, Maltesers and the like from there.
“Most American chocolate is garbage”
How often do you come back to the UK?
I came back in April, before that, it’d been seven years. So not too much. I don’t have a place in New Cross anymore, so last time we were back I just stayed at my mum’s in Rawtenstall. I’m pretty busy so I don’t get back much.
What makes a perfect skatepark for you?
Stockwell is pretty much the perfect skatepark. A lot of it is about the people you’re with, though. I like Garvanza because it’s got a good vibe there, might not be the best as far as stuff to skate, but that area of the town is great and the people there are always cool. But Stockwell is all-time. Just a wavy, cruisy park that you can blast around.
“Stockwell is pretty much the perfect skatepark”
Your favourite clip? Of yourself/that you’ve filmed yourself.
I’m pretty happy about the last trick I learnt, it was a switch no comply flip over a parking block, I can’t remember if I filmed it myself or me and my mate goofy were switching off with skating and filming, but we pretty much learnt them the same day. I just did one against him in a game of skate, and he replied with one and didn’t get a letter which was pretty impressive. Hard trick, give it a go.
Skateboarding and having a “quiver”
How often do you set up new boards?
About once every six weeks. I’m pretty light on them, and I’ll get a new one when we get some new graphics in. I had one board for about three months last year, though.
You said in an interview with Slam that your friend Simon True believed that having more than one set-up was “fundamentally wrong”, due to it being a great way to make excuses as to why you can’t stick certain tricks. Now you have a few completes on the go at the same time, do you find yourself doing exactly that?
I was running my egg complete and a double shovel for a while. I was trying Varial Lein to tails at G park on the little quarter and tail on the shovel really helped on that trick , but I’ve really gone back to just using an egg. I have that set up and a couple of filmer boards.
Do you think board craziness gets worse the more you know? Before I cared about wheelbase, etc, I would just pick a board off the wall and see if I liked the shape. Nowadays, I need to know every detail of the board or I’m convinced it’s going to skate like shit.
Oh man, I used to always buy boards based on the graphics, I’d get a train to Leeds if they didn’t have the boards we wanted in Manchester, I’d really get into something and whatever the shape was I’d make it work, I’d love to see some of those set ups now, they were probably terrible, trucks not fitting properly, super short awful wheelbases from the early 90’s.
Do you stick to a certain brand of trucks? Or do different setups have different trucks?
I like Ace and Slappies. I kinda go between the two. I rode indies for about 25 years, but it seemed like Ace were more down to help my riders out like Dead Dave, Nolan and Swampy, so I tried some out and really liked em. Slappy recently did a Heroin Skateboards collab Wide Boy truck though, so I’ve been using those on the oversized boards; they work really good. It’s just really those brands that I ride.
The pioneer of “Egg” boards
You weren’t initially sold on egg-shaped boards until you set up a 9.125” and did a first try nollie heel on it. I would have guessed it would have been a certain slappy trick that convinced you. It did make me wonder, though, do you now have a street egg and a curb egg set up?
No, I used to have a 9.125 and a 10” egg set up, but I only have one set up now.
Is the 9.125” egg still the most functional shape for you?
I love the 9.125, but I’ve been skating the 9.5 for a couple of years now, and it’s perfect for me. It’s maybe the perfect cross between the 9.125 and 10.
When you first released the super wide eggs, did you expect them to be skated in the way someone like Cameron Markin skates them?
I had no idea; he and Terry Kraus are really pushing what’s possible on those. I love it. All those people that whine and said “how do you even flip that?” Should watch those two on those boards.
Heroin gets a lot of comments as a brand name. What’s the worst brand name you’ve seen in skateboarding? Or outside of it tbf.
Remember those old 411s? Bike skateboards and Zimbabwe skateboards always had ads, those names were pretty bad, but then I remember them like years later so maybe they were actually good, I mean, who knows? . In the mid to late 90s, there were loads of lame weed reference names, “dank” springs to mind, but there were a lot coming out around then. Also, I thought names like “finesse” and those kinds of egotistical names referring to style were kind of terrible too.
Brand name of Heroin in the modern world… Instagram accounts being deleted etc… How do you deal with that?
I just get to have two weeks off where I don’t have to post anything, it’s like a little vacation for me… I’m just kidding, it’s stressful, you build a community on a platform for 15 years and then wake up one morning and your 6000 posts are all deleted, and for no reason, you can’t talk to a human about it at all and explain anything. Luckily, someone over there skates and hears about our problems and jumped in and fixed it, I met him in Portland recently when I was up for my art show. Thanks Jamie.
The early years and being creative
How much has the skate industry changed since you first started Heroin?
Well, when you wanted to get boards made, you needed to call factories in America and find one that would do low minimums and then mail them a hard drive or a CD with your artwork on. Now everything seems a bit easier with the internet. I mean, it’s always changing, in so many aspects. VHSs and mags were the thing back when I started the brand, but now it’s social media. We used to have trade shows, printed catalogs, skater-owned shoe brands, but those are getting less and less common.
Ed Templeton gave you your first big break into skate graphics. How was it getting an opportunity like that from such a big brand?
I’d pitched graphics to my favorite brands, Scarecrow, Spitfire, Anti Hero and Toy Machine and they all wrote back and were cool but weren’t into what I’d pitched but then I sent that series to Ed and he was super down and weirdly faxed me his number at slam when I was working there and I called and we did that series. I didn’t really know what I was doing as far as the technical aspects of it all goes, using illustrator etc, but I figured it out. That changed things for me really. Once you’ve done a graphic for a brand like that and it did well, people assumed I knew what I was doing and started asking me to do stuff for them. Jamie Thomas hit me up to do zero stuff and that was an honor because of where that brand was at the time.
“Jamie Thomas hit me up to do zero stuff and that was an honor”
How do you maintain your level of creativity?
Keep having fun with it all. Like our crew, all watch movies and listen to new music and send each other songs and film and comic book recommendations, inspiration comes from all those kind of things.
With your dad being an artist as well, what did you learn from him? Are there any similarities between your styles?
No, he was super discouraging, he didn’t want me to do art at all, he said I needed a trade, I should be a plumber or electrician. I never had any interest in that stuff. We laughed about it years later because he once said, “You’ll never make a living drawing monsters”.
You hold a lot of roles within Heroin. How often do you consult with others (be it team riders or friends within the industry) before making big decisions?
Usually never, it’s really my vision of skateboarding, and I work it all out myself. I’ll work on graphics with riders, like me and Swampy go back and forth on a graphic usually, but I feel like any of the big decisions the riders all trust me with. Anything major I’ll run by the missus though.
Has anyone ever been bummed out on a graphic you have done for them?
If they were, they haven’t told me. I think Craig didn’t like a series of Toy photo graphics that we did years ago, that’s about all I can think of. I do like to kind of reference stuff that the riders have going on in their lives, but I think things through pretty heavily before putting anything out.
How often do you skate with team riders?
Every weekend, sometimes in the week too. Busy working on a new video called Mutate or Die, so we’ve been trying to finish the filming up for that.
We recently interviewed Ira and he claims he is definitely not pro. Do you agree with this?
He isn’t. We found a hack in the system, those are guest boards. We’re going for the world record of who can have the most guest boards on one company; we’ll be hitting 8 this holiday. We love Ira.
How did the Slappy x Heroin trucks come about? Who hit up who first?
Ira wanted to do a curb killer truck, and so we jumped in on that and let them use his graphic, then the idea came for a Wide Boy. I think it was Mike Sinclairs idea.
You started Landscape to help elevate Snowy (amongst other reasons) and Snot Wheels for Dead Dave. Is there anyone else out there that you are tempted to start a company for?
No, starting a brand is a big endeavor, I’m happy with what I have going on right now.
Ever tempted to bring Landscape back?
No, the shops weren’t supporting it towards the end, so it just wasn’t viable. It had a really good run, and I was sad to see it go, but we put out one last video, and it ended on a high note. I mean, we made Portraits, which stands up as one of the best UK videos. I’m proud of what we did with that brand, but it’s good that it ends with some dignity.
Why aren’t there more UK-based skate companies?
Maybe the ones that there are now are good enough now that they fulfil the need?
I started Heroin because I didn’t relate to blueprint or panic (which were the big ones at the time) or what they were doing, I liked Death and Unabomber but I wanted to do my own thing with my own influences, and share my vision of skateboarding. It’s come a long way since I started this thing spraying over Shortys boards in my back yard in New Cross.
“It’s [Heroin] come a long way since I started this thing spraying over Shortys boards in my back yard in New Cross.”
Making skateboard wheels is hard
Are you still doing Snot wheels through your garage at home?
Yep, I love it. I just added Jason Adams and Franky Villani to the team.
How many sample wheels did you go through before you had the correct urethane etc. for Snot?
I used creative urethane, which made all our early 2000s wheels. People loved that formula, and I think they missed skating those. Snelling and Dave loved those. So we had that factory going and then another one in Texas that could make really great cored wheels, so we ordered alternatively from each factory. There was a shortage of urethane during the pandemic, and we looked at some samples from China, but they were absolute trash. Creative got sold a few years back, they had been making wheels for 40+ years, but I noticed after they got sold, their quality and attention to detail started to suffer and bit and they closed down last year. Wheels are hard to source; we have some good ones coming through.
In previous interviews, you have said that wheels need to be as skinny as possible, and you don’t like wide wheels. Later interviews have you riding Snot Wide Boys. What changed your opinion on skinny vs wide wheels?
Yeah, I used to like the super skinny ones, they made my board feel really light, I liked that about em. The wide boys were inspired by ’80s budget complete wheels, but a modernized take on those. I’m actually running some classic shape Franky Villani samples right now, the dead Dave conical 52 or 54 is really my go-to though.
You seem to have a lot of projects going on at the same time. How do you keep on top of it all?
I knocked off doing a lot of the little freelance projects that I was doing. I find it’s better to invest my time into my own brands.
Baker Boys needs new graphics from me every 90 days, and even if I work with another artist like dead Dave or Craig, then I have to oversee and art direct the series, and everything that is submitted goes through me, so yeah, it’s busy. I love it. Beats working in a factory.
What’s next for you and your brands?
Mutate or Die video for Heroin!! Super hyped on that, I’ve been putting everyone’s parts together on the timeline and chipping away at it all. I’m really happy with this one.
Got about another month on filming, and then going to work on the final edit and figure out how to release it.
With Snot, we’re announcing Jason and Franky and going to start pushing that and doing a bit more stuff with it all.
Thanks Fos!