‘The main difference in my rails versus most others on the market is that I CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machine all of my parts.’
Corey Littlejohn
LIL JAWNS
September 2025
Corey, thanks for joining us here at Backside skatemag. When did you start skating and what was that first set-up?
My pleasure, Nik. I started skating around 4th or 5th grade (which would have been 1997-98), and my first set up was a Nash. My first legit set up, however, was a Birdhouse Heath Kirchart board.
Nice. What is the difference between your plastics and the others in the industry? We’ve tested out a lot of rails and yours are definitely the slipperiest and sliddiest rails that we’ve tried, if that is a word!
The main difference in my rails versus most others on the market is that I CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machine all of my parts. Most other brands are injection moulded, and mass produced. Injection moulding weakens the quality of the material, therefore fabricating and machining them keeps the quality from the raw material.
Quality comes from experience, I guess. You’ve been in the plastic fabrication business for over 15 years, Corey. When did it first occur to you that you could make better rails than what everyone else was making?
Correct, I have been working in the plastic industry full time for 15 years, Nik, but I’ve actually been around the business ever since I can remember. During COVID-19 was when I really got into curb skating and noticed a lot of the guys out in Cali were using rails. I looked at a few materials that I had at my shop and figured I’d make some for myself. It started out as just a hobby with me making them for my friends and myself but later turned it into my own brand.
‘I didn’t start using rails until I started making them for myself.’
You actually have a curb set-up at your work. How often do you get to hit that?
Yes, I do, Nik! I have a parking block out behind my shop. Try to hit it during my lunch break whenever I can!
What is your favourite curb spot so far?
The Costco curbs in Los Angeles is by far the best curb spot I’ve ever skated.
Those are nice! Corey, for you, what makes for a perfect curb?
Slightly banked, Sharp edges, smooth and long.
‘The Costco curbs in Los Angeles is by far the best curb spot I’ve ever skated.’
Lil’ Jawns have so many unique sizes and shapes, including some that mimic many old-school favourites from the past. How did you come up with these, or moulds for old 1980’s and 1990’s styles?
The vast majority of the shapes I have made are from customer requests. People send me their ideas and I try to make them. A lot of the 1980’s and 1990’s style parts were before my time so I have reached out to people that had OG parts, and they let me borrow them to try to replicate. And to be honest, rails in general were before my time. I didn’t start using rails until I started making them for myself.
It is interesting how things change in the skateboarding industry and culture. What do you like most and least about the skateboarding scene today?
The diversity and inclusiveness in skateboarding is what I enjoy the most right now. It is hard to say what I don’t like about it right now as I’m having a really good time with it. If I had anything negative to say, it would be the lack of brick-and-mortar shops and how hard it is for them to survive these days with how accessible everything is online. We must support our local shops in order to keep a local scene.
One last question, as a curb skater and a fan of curb skaters, I wanted to ask your opinion on this controversial subject. While John Lucero of Black Label Skateboards invented the slappy in the 1980s, and Jef Hartsel made them cool in the 1990’s after World Industries ‘”Rubbish Heap” video release in late 1989, and Film Trucks’ Jérémie Daclin has now been elevated to being called the “King of Slappies” with him even creating an annual international curb skating festival celebrating his favourite trick in the Slappy Challenge, who do you think has the best slappy?
Hard to say who I think has the best Slappy. Jason Adams and Ace Pelka are two names that come to mind. But Abe Bethel is my favourite curb skater. Style for miles and can pretty much do every trick in his bag switch. He’s always posting mirrored clips, and I think that’s pretty sick.