I Tricked Out My Miata With A Bespoke Shift Knob And You’ll Never Guess What It’s Made Out Of

One of the most tempting things to do the moment you bring a car with a manual transmission home is to swap out the boring stock shift knob for something that fits your style and personality. The world of shift knobs is practically endless, from the classics like skulls and 8-balls to weird ones like flight sticks and swords. But I think I found the shift knob to rule them all. My Mazda MX-5 Miata just got a shift knob made from layers of an unexpected kind of wood, and it might be the first shift knob I think of as art.

Truth be told, I’ve never really cared for doing any intense mods on my own fleet. I appreciate a good build, but my personal vehicles are pretty mild. I’ll do little things like window tint, speakers, wheels, or a trailer hitch. If I’m feeling spicy, I’ll do a catback exhaust and an intake. That’s it. You aren’t going to see me dropping in turbos or doing engine swaps. So many things divide my attention that I just know if I take a car apart, I’ll never get it back together again.

The exception to that rule is when I buy a car that has already been modified. My 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is one of those cars, and the original owner did some really tasteful mods. I love the peanut butter-colored leather seats and the aroma they give off. I adore the metal accents and the leather interior trim that’s replaced the factory plastic parts. The original owner also gave the car a throaty HKS exhaust and some clear side marker lights. I even adore how the windshield trim is silver – possibly from a Fiat 124 Spider – rather than the black plastic that Mazda used.

I feel the car is just about perfect as it is, except for the floormats and shift knob. The original owner did have neat mats and a custom shift knob in the car, but took these pieces with them when they sold the car. I feel like it’s time to make my mark.

My solution for the floor mats was to click over to Carbon Miata for a set of full-coverage floor mats that match the seats. Unfortunately, Carbon Miata is notorious for rather insane wait times as its products ship from China, so you’ll have to wait to see those later.

The shift knob, however, is here. It’s some pretty sweet wood, right?

Not Just Any Kind Of Wood

I was overwhelmed with the frankly absurd number of choices of Miata shift knobs. Honestly, I probably didn’t even see a quarter of the options available to Miata owners, and I don’t know how Miata owners stay sane figuring out which one to buy.

At least I had an idea of what I wanted. I thought that a shift knob made out of a light-colored wood would be a tasteful complement to the seats. I also wanted a splash of color. At least to my eyes, my Miata’s paint looks sort of blue-ish under certain lighting conditions, so I thought I’d go with a splash of blue.

Most of the Miata wood knobs out there are just the color of the wood. They’re great, but didn’t quite have the pop I was looking for. Then, I sort of just stumbled into a Reddit thread where someone mentioned a shop called CDIY that makes custom knobs.

I clicked the link, and I was stunned. That Redditor really undersold just how awesome CDIY is. The shop, which is based in Lithuania, is called Commune DIY. It was founded in 2014 by lifelong skateboarders who decided to give back to their local community by rescuing discarded skateboards and turning them into beautiful art and practical objects.

Here, I’ll hand CDIY the mic, because their story is heartwarming:

CDIY started as a shelter indoor skate park for skaters to hide from the bad Lithuanian weather. Seeing that the space was too small, we have put aside the skate park idea to grow and started to experiment with broken skateboards that were laying around. Tool after tool – we have come up with something. And that something led us into believing we can do a world-wide impact on the skateboarding culture. Our mission is to inspire new generation of skaters, make better conditions for them to grow, create a space for a non-formal education and spread the benefits of skateboarding. To make that happen we are using the power of recycling.

As we know today there are more than 20M skateboarders in the world and counting. Everyday around 200K boards are broken and go to the landfill. We surely leave a bad mark in global pollution by basically throwing away broken boards that last around a few months. Skateboard recycling is a must. And as they say– start from yourself. Commune DIY stands for a better and stronger community, for skateboarders that takes matters and initiative into their own hands. Same as jumping off a ten stair – only you’re able to do it.

Here, in CDIY workshop we are now able to recycle hundreds of broken boards and produce all sorts of products for different markets in the world. Our production goes from bulk business orders to very delicate and one of a kind custom orders. We also experiment in the workshop and have some goods of our own available to buy instantly. The passionate skaters working with CDIY bring all their hearts into making great quality products out of recycled skateboards.

I love creatively reusing and repurposing old goods. It’s why some of my favorite motorhomes are retired school buses that have been given a second life. Things that seem like they are trash or used up might have an entire future left in them if you just get creative.

A big part of CDIY’s business is converting sheets of broken skateboards, typically consisting of pressed boards of Canadian maple hardwood and the colored layers the skateboard had, into car enthusiast pieces. CDIY describes this further:

Recycled skateboards material have some unique features to become a great new product:

Made out of strong and durable Canadian maple hardwood. Skateboards consists of 7 wood plies pressed and laminated together that usually have from 1 to 7 coloured layers and some natural wood colour plies.

The shop will happily make you a custom shift knob and a custom handbrake lever shroud for whatever car that you drive. While most of the knobs that the shop makes are for manual transmission vehicles, it has done some shift knob projects for cars with automatic transmissions, too. The shop can engrave logos into the knob, produce a variety of shapes, give you just about any color you want, and so much more. Your shift knob will also have a nice, hefty stainless steel core.

While shift knobs are a major focus, CDIY has also turned skateboards into Bluetooth speakers, flash drives, lamps, phone cases, trophies, earbuds, drumsticks, and even GoPro handles. The company takes custom orders, so if there’s something that you think would look cooler if it were made out of a skateboard, CDIY is the place to go.

My Knob

My request wasn’t that crazy. I requested a round shift knob with some exposed metal and a good mix of natural wood with splashes of blue. The CDIY folks were refreshingly straightforward and transparent right from the jump. I got an immediate price quote, a production time estimate, and even got to pick from some color samples – I chose the third, below.

From there, I just waited. CDIY gave me weekly updates, and in them, I got to watch a block of wood become a shift knob. Here’s what it looked like in the beginning:

… and after shaping:

Then came the final touches. CDIY added the classic ‘M’ logo on top:

Then, they added a cream filler to make the ‘M’ pop:

CDIY had it done exactly 20 days after it all started. Technically, they did it even faster than that because I accidentally took a few days to respond to a couple of emails. Without my delay, I bet it would have been closer to two weeks.

Shipping then took another two weeks. This was not CDIY’s fault. My knob left Lithuania and reached Chicago with gusto. I also prepaid CDIY for Customs duties, so there wouldn’t be any problem. Unfortunately, Customs held my knob for about two whole weeks. I never got a reason for it, but eventually, it left Chicago and finally reached my mailbox.

CDIY’s presentation is top-notch. The knob comes in a protective cylinder that’s made out of wood. The base the knob sits on could be used as a display stand if you’d rather look at the knob than use it. Honestly, I sort of expected some bubble wrap and maybe tissue paper, so this was excellent.

My photos don’t do this knob justice. It’s not just a blend of natural wood and blue. The blue parts of my knob shimmer in sunlight. The colors are bold and rich.

Every layer shines just a little bit differently, and I can spot the unique, intricate details in every part of the many coats of wood. I hate using the term “one of a kind,” but that’s exactly what this is.

Even if someone copied my exact idea, their knob will come out slightly different. Maybe the rings of natural wood would be in a different place, or the blue might have a different tone. The wood itself will be naturally unique.

I won’t lie, I actually put the knob on display in my bedroom for a couple of weeks before I even put it in the car. It looks just that good.

Installation was easy. The factory Miata knob just unscrews right off, and this one screwed right on. Immediately, I was stoked that the knob gave me the look I was going for. I think it complements the seats and adds just a touch of color. At least, I don’t think it’s obnoxious. I just need to move the shift boot up a little, and it’ll look nice and flush.

I Definitely Recommend These Knobs

As for driving with it, I’ve always been a fan of round knobs, and I like my knobs with some heft to them, and my knob does it in spades. It feels as heavy as the stock ND knob, which is great. I like it when I feel like I’m shifting with purpose, even though my normal style is pretty relaxed.

I paid €124.25 ($152.79 at the time of purchase) for my knob. That covered making the knob, tariffs, and shipping. I think every penny was well spent. I’ve never put much thought into shift knobs. Nor have I ever really thought of a shift knob as anything other than something to grab to shift.

This one has me thinking it’s functional art. So, CDIY will probably see me again because I have more cars I want custom knobs for. If you’re looking for a cool knob, send CDIY an email. This isn’t a sponsored post or anything. I just love the knob that much. The fact that it helps the local economy in Lithuania and keeps some material out of landfills is just icing on the cake.

All photos: Mercedes Streeter