From left, Dave Benson, Jeff Taly and Greg Benson sit in Loll Designs' chairs. The three came up with the concept of crafting chairs out of excess materials that remain after making skateboard ramp parts.

First it was skateboard ramps. Then it was cutting boards.

Now Duluth, Minn.-based TrueRide Inc. is using scrap material from those endeavors to make a line of outdoor furniture.

Loll Designs is the label TrueRide puts on the Adirondack chairs, benches, picnic tables and other outdoor furniture it began making last summer.

It's the latest venture for a fast-growing company that sold $4 million worth of products and services last year — in addition to moving into a new manufacturing facility in a tax-free zone, building an addition to it, adding employees and starting the furniture line.

TrueRide has done little marketing of the Loll products — so named because it's "furniture for the modern lollygager." That effort will be stepped up in coming months as the product is moved into markets where people have plenty of disposable income, such as the Twin Cities, Chicago and other large metropolitan areas.

Loll products are made of the B\,-inch black high-density polyethylene used in the custom outdoor skateparks TrueRide builds. The pieces are held together with stainless steel fasteners, and they should last indefinitely, co-owner Dave Benson said.

The furniture has a sleek, modern look, even for traditional pieces such as Adirondack chairs.

Retail prices range from $150 for a small table to about $600 for a picnic table and benches. Chairs are about $300 each.

Comfort was uppermost in the mind of designer Jeff Taly, who also designs skateboard parks for TrueRide. He said the Adirondack chair was refined through about 20 prototypes.

"We've heavily tested them on humans," Dave Benson said.

The line does have some competition in stores, however, said Lynn McComber, patio buyer at Energy Plus. Loll is sold in her store alongside another environmentally friendly brand called Polywood. Similar products are available elsewhere, too. But customers seem to like the Loll products, especially when they find out they're made in Duluth, McComber said.

Well-known Duluth architect David Salmela — co-owner Kara Salmela's father-in-law — bought a Loll chair a while back and likes many things about it, including that it's maintenance-free and can be left outdoors all winter.

"The designs are somewhat traditional, but yet they have a twist to them that makes them modern," he said. He also finds his chair comfortable for people of any size, he said.

The idea of making furniture came up at TrueRide about three years ago as a way to use waste material from skateboard ramps the company builds. It was the same concept that led to the launch of Epicurean Cutting Surfaces, a line of cutting boards made from a woodfiber-composite laminate also used in the ramps.

The cutting board line has now become a separate company that ships 30 to 60 orders a day throughout the nation and to eight other countries, Dave Benson said.

Change seems to be a way of life at TrueRide. The 10-year-old company was located at the former Bomark Missile base north of Duluth until November 2005.

TrueRide bought the former Polaris Wilbert Vault property, which required $350,000 worth of contaminated soil cleanup — most of which TrueRide paid for, Dave Benson said.