Jessup Manufacturing 2815 W. Rt. #120 McHenry, IL 60051-0366
http://www.griptape.com/

So, griptape is griptape, right? Sort of. The kind folks at Jessup sent me a couple of sheets of their griptape to test. They claim their grip was different, because it is made with extra hard silicone carbide grain, which means it won't break down under the wear of skating like normal griptape would. They've been making griptape for over ten years, so they must be doing something right.

First off, the packaging is very cool, you get four almost-square sheets of tape, with an arrow cut in one of them. This gives you lots of possibilities to customize your grip into all kinds of crazy designs.

After slapping on the tape, I went out skating for the first time with it. It was great, just how it always was when I first got new tape. The real test would be how it held up in the long run, and, while the grip lost a little of its newness, it remained really grippy, noticeably bette than your average griptape. I wouldn't say the difference was phenomenal, but after skating three or four weeks on it, and getting it wet and muddy without a loss in grip, I knew Jessup was really onto something. So, the tape can't be ordered directly from them, but you can definitely tell your local shop to carry it, and I think that'd be a pretty good idea.