Skateboard GB has secured its largest ever sponsorship deal, which will help fund skateable spaces, including DIY community projects and city centre skate spaces.
Habito, the online mortgage broker, lender and home-buying service, will be a principal partner in 2021. In addition to the new skate spaces, the partnership will invest in a skateboard awards scheme to help facilitate more people taking up the sport, with a structured programme to help youngsters learn to skateboard.
Chris Lawton has been appointed as skateboard community development officer to lead the project. Lawton, who spent recent years developing the Lady Bay Skatepark, Radcliffe Skatepark, and helped to reinvent Nottingham as a skateboarding hotspot, will work with groups to develop skateboarding destinations, with the aim of creating a number of skateboard facilities over the next 12 months.
Habito has supported the UK Skateboard Championships since 2019 and sees the sport as fundamental in helping make communities stronger.
“We recognise the impact that skateboarding has in the regeneration and urban development of our towns and cities. As well as all the many physical and mental health benefits for individuals, a flourishing skateboarding scene can add to an area’s sense of community, to its culture and make somewhere a great place to live,” said Abba Newbery, chief marketing officer at Habito.
