The Best PSStix Alternative for Growing Skateboard Brands
PSStix has been pressing decks in San Diego since 1987. Professor Paul Schmitt is not just a manufacturer; he is part of skateboarding's history. He founded New Deal Skateboards, shaped the modern deck geometry that most of the industry still builds from, and his factory has produced over 19 million boards for brands that include WKND, Welcome, Fantasy and New Deal. If you are looking for a PSStix alternative, the first thing to understand is that PSStix is not the problem. The ceiling is.
Brands searching for a PSStix alternative typically find themselves at one of three places. The first is product range. PSStix makes decks. When a brand is ready for trucks, wheels, helmets or a matched complete, PSStix has no answer for that. The second is logistics: PSStix OEM customers are responsible for arranging their own freight forwarder and collecting from San Diego. For a brand outside California, or outside the USA entirely, that is a meaningful operational burden on every order. The third is economics: US manufacturing has a cost floor, and at 300 or more units per order, the gap between San Diego pricing and China production pricing is significant enough to change what a brand can invest in growth.
The PSStix alternative we recommend: 2HEX. German-managed, China-produced, full component range, ships directly worldwide. Not because PSStix is inadequate. Because 2HEX was built for the chapter after PSStix.
PSStix Pricing and Why Brands Look for Cheaper Alternatives at Scale
PSStix does not publish OEM pricing publicly. Orders are quoted directly and vary by quantity, shape complexity, print specification and other factors. What is publicly confirmed is that PSStix is a US-based manufacturer with US production costs, and that OEM customers are responsible for their own freight from San Diego. At small quantities, those two factors are manageable. At larger volumes, they compound.
The economic case for a PSStix alternative becomes clearest at 300 units and above. China manufacturing costs are substantially lower than US manufacturing costs. International freight from Guangzhou to your door adds cost back, but at 300 to 500 units that freight is amortised across enough units to make the total landed cost per unit significantly lower than a comparable US order. At 1,000 units, the difference is substantial. That difference is money that stays in your brand, funds your next product launch, or makes your retail pricing more competitive.
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Photo to add here
A flat-lay showing the full range of 2HEX components side by side: deck, trucks, wheels, bearings, griptape, hardware, helmet and branded box. All in a coherent colourway that demonstrates matched visual identity. Clean background, professional product photography.
ALT TEXT: "2HEX full skateboard product range alternative to PSStix, custom decks trucks wheels helmets and packaging from one manufacturer"
The 2HEX product range. Decks through to packaging, from one supplier.
PSStix Review: What Brands Say About Working with PSStix and Why Some Switch
A PSStix review from an OEM customer perspective tends to centre on the same strengths: quality is consistent, Professor Schmitt's knowledge of deck construction is unmatched in the US, and the woodshop heritage is a genuine brand story to tell. For established US brands with steady deck orders and their own logistics setup, PSStix works.
Where brands begin looking at PSStix competitors or replacements is almost always the same story. The brand grows. A retailer wants a complete. A distributor in Europe or Japan asks if they can order directly. The brand wants to match the wheel colour to the deck. These requests require a different kind of manufacturer, not because PSStix does anything wrong but because these requests are simply outside what a woodshop does. The separation between what the brand wants to build and what their current factory can build widens until the search for a PSStix alternative begins in earnest.
Similar Manufacturers to PSStix: Where 2HEX Fits the Comparison
When brands search for manufacturers similar to PSStix, they are usually looking for one of a few things: the same quality standard at a different price, a manufacturer who can handle more than decks, or a factory with a similar culture of genuine craftsmanship rather than commodity production. 2HEX answers two of those three directly.
On quality: 2HEX is managed by a German team from Ulm applying European production standards to Guangzhou manufacturing. The Berrics trusted them during a global pandemic when most manufacturers could not deliver. Brands across 20+ countries have received and approved samples before committing to production runs. China production does not mean lower quality. It means lower manufacturing cost.
On range: 2HEX is the only manufacturer in the PSStix, HLC, BBS comparison that produces every skateboard component from raw material. Decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, helmets, packaging. If your search for a PSStix alternative is driven by needing more than a deck factory, the comparison ends here.
- PSStix: decks, US-based, real deck customisation, collect from San Diego, heritage brand
- HLC: decks plus catalogue trucks and wheels, Spain-based, European brands, PE-owned
- BBS: decks, US-based, closed to new customers
- 2HEX: full component range, custom molds, matched colourways, helmets, packaging, German management, China pricing, ships to 20+ countries
- Under 200 units, decks only, US brands, no logistics complexity: PSStix may still be the right call
- Scaling past 200 units, need more than decks, shipping outside the USA: the conversation is with 2HEX
Not sure yet? Fill in the contact form below. Tell us what PSStix gives you and what it does not. We will reply honestly, including the cases where PSStix is still the better answer for your situation right now.