Recent Nike SB art department quitter Michael Leon has set up his own studio. The artist, renowned for his repeated recycling of his skull-in-shades icon, has left a trail of excellent work in his wake, including that for the Girl Skateboards group, Rasa Libre and his own Commonwealth Stacks project.

He managed to give Nike SB some good looks in spite of the notorious bureaucracy at 1 Bowerman Drive, so we can only expect this uncaged bird to sing very sweetly.

—Chris Noble, 04 September 2009