Inventor William Back is helping lead Vibronic Wheels toward a hemp revolution
By Joy Beckerman
The tagline “Rolling into the 21st century” couldn’t be more fitting for Vibronic Wheels, the Ohio-based company that unveiled its hemp rubber roller skate and skateboard wheels recently in Denver.
Vibronic Wheels is a small, family-owned skate company that designs, manufactures and distributes technologically advanced skateboard parts and wheels using materials such as titanium, carbon fiber, and most recently, industrial hemp. Vibronic Wheels, a division of Rubber-Tech, is a recognized authority in the skateboard industry, widely known for precision, state-of-the-art composition, and for custom wheel designs with interchangeable inserts that allow for personalization such as a laser-engraved name or even the insertion of diamonds.
Rubber-Tech was founded by Forest Back Sr. in 1972 and three generations of Renaissance men and strong businesswomen in the family have carried on his tradition.
The newest inventor in the family, William Back, is responsible for Vibronic’s research and development with industrial hemp, but it was the work of another Ohio native — Don Wirtshafter — that sparked the original idea.
Wirtshafter, an attorney and eco-social justice activist, was largely responsible for pioneering the revival of the hemp industry in the U.S. by providing hemp textiles, seeds, oil various manufactured goods starting in 1990.
“What first got me thinking about the use of industrial hemp was an article I read sometime around 1994 or 1995 about the Ohio Hempery and the different products (Wirtshafter) was selling,” William Back recalled.
“I had just started working with my family at Rubber-Tech, and I was looking for ideas when I came across the article,” he said.
William is following directly in his father’s footsteps.
Forest Back, Sr. is a self-taught genius who has been issued four U.S. patents, including a magnetic tape cartridge and system, a disk drive assembly with vibration dampening pivot, and — you guessed it — a technologically-advanced skate wheel.
“My father and the rest of them were starting to play with wheels a little bit back there in the barn, and I needed an idea. The tensile strength of hemp is stronger than other crops, and easier on the Earth,” William said. “I thought that would be a good sell. Henry Ford proved that hemp is stronger than steel back in the ‘40s when he made a bio-composite car using hemp. Anyway, the renewable/sustainable aspect intrigued my father.
“He’s a visual guy. I had to make the first hemp-incorporated wheel myself and show it to him to get him to sign off on it for Rubber-Tech R&D. He’s always trying to reinvent, improve and make things work better, so of course, he had feedback.”
William and his father have experimented with nearly all parts of the industrial hemp plant, from the protein to the seed oil to the inner woody core of the stem (known as hurd or shiv). A close inspection of the latest version of Vibronic’s hemp rubber wheel, which contains a little more than 10% hemp at present, looks to the naked eye as though crushed hemp seed hulls may be a part of the recipe.
William is excited about what the future holds for hemp wheels.
“Now that we’ve introduced the product to the market, we’re getting ready to collect hard data and get real facts. Until now, we’ve been limited to field experience and feedback from the field — all of which has been great,” he said. “They’ve been happy in the field so far. We’re also working on hemp rubber longboard wheels, and hope to release those this summer.
“Durability is a major concern for rubber skateboard and roller skate wheels. Coal products are the most durable, but they’re made from coal. We’re trying to offset this carbon footprint through the use of hemp. We’re continuing to try to increase the amount of hemp that’s in there, and we’d like to get the content up to 40-50%.”
Proving himself and demonstrating his ingenuity in the family business was important to Back. As a young man, inventiveness came naturally to him and he took inspiration from his family’s work ethic and ingenuity.
“My grandma Irene started the company with my grandpa, James, in 1953,” he said. “She was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. She worked 12 hours a day for 58 years until she was 90 years old, and she ran circles around the 20-year-old workers.
“My grandpa had a bunch of patents back in the early ‘50s. He started out in his two-car garage working for McCauley painting propellers, and went on to invent from there.”
William’s grandfather, James Back, was issued three U.S. patents, including one for the invention of a dual-side-bristled glass washing device often known as the “backwasher,” which can still be found in some form in nearly every bar in America. James died shortly after William was born.
“My mom, Barbara, helps out with everything and was the vice president. My sister, Leah, is our executive liaison, and my brother, Forest, Jr., takes care of our sales department. Forest, Sr. is my father and he’s just pretty amazing. He does everything around here.”
William and his family are optimistic about the changing political climate concerning industrial hemp cultivation in the U.S. With the federal passage and signing into law of the Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research amendment within the Agricultural Act of 2014, Vibronic is looking forward to a supply of American-grown industrial hemp in the foreseeable future for its rubber wheels. William knows and feels strongly that hemp “needs to be legalized federally, and it needs be legalized in the state of Ohio. We would love a local source of hemp.”