Skater or Poser

How many of you skaters out there go to Zumiez, Pac Sun or any other corporate chain store location to buy your skate gear? So how many of you also get the wrong gear handed to you by some kid who hasn’t been alive as long as some of the specialty shop owners have spent on the toilet? Good question eh? Do you really think that these kids know what’s best for you? 

If you are a true skater I mean eat sleep and breathe skating than you would never be caught dead in a mall shop that sells sporting goods gear or ghetto wear next to it’s skateboards. What are you really thinking by doing that?

I’m sure you have taken a good look around at just how many new mall shops are opening to grab your money, that’s right I said grab your money. Once you leave the shop you’re a profit margin not a skater who is loyal to his or her shop. When was the last time you saw ANY mall shop do anything for the local skaters?

Mall shops are just that, Mall shops who now carry corporate branded brand name Skate /

Surf / and Snowboard products at an outrageous price to you the consumer.

In the past at one point companies took pride in their ability to be a “Core” product line, and denied access of their products to the Mall shops and mail order companies.

Now it seems all that has changed? And the lure of profit margins and good old boy get rich quick schemes rule the industry. It’s a shame when you find high quality lines like certain shoe lines (who I can not name due to fallout) in the local mall? Once a “Core” product line, $#@! has taken its profits to a record high by selling its brand name out to the Mall market and EVERY POSER ON THE STREET!

Where do we go from here? My guess would be Acme with World Industry completes or how about Liquor Stores selling skate and surf wax? Oh and how about the best one yet, Wawa and 711 Corner food marts with racks of Volcom and Element apparel for sale? Where does it end? You can get Element, and Roxy at Marshall’s and Ross for less than retailers pay at a Wholesale cost? I think that is imperative that our industry needs to look deep within it and see where the industry started from and just how they plan to keep the core skater from having to do mail order or visit their local mall to get their products.

Not to mention, how do they differ from the kid who just wears the gear and can’t even skate?

Companies need to drive the skaters back to the shops that support them the specialty stores located in YOUR "hood".

Most every specialty shop owner has been boarding at a high level of expertise for almost their entire lives, which gives them an edge over the mall shops with adolescent salespeople.

One of the biggest changes over the past twenty years is that the attitudes of the younger athletes themselves that have taken a nosedive. It seems that almost every kid that does our sports belongs to the (WIIFM) school of skating. For those that do not know what that means it’s the (What’s in it for me) train of thought that destroys almost every person who gets it. As I told a group of 65 students at a past years Career day speech I gave, only one person on several thousand are even given the chance to live the dream of making a living at what they do as a professional.

Ever wonder why Pro athletes make so much these days?

Think it has to do with having such short careers?

Again WIIFM, what happened to the soul of our lifestyle?

Not to long ago we had Wildcats, Boozy the Clown, among others who were Professional

Snowboarders and they put out some truly Funny videos, but never had the youth riders live what they where doing, in fact they put a disclaimer saying just that; “We don’t condone this behavior”. But the video was very entertaining, and also helped to launch several careers from the exposure. Now we have every brand name company following the trends and no one to actually lead the youth of our sport in a positive, clean, and driven direction for the future. Where do we go from here?

I have a shop directly across from a skate park where I teach skateboard lessons, have contests, and just plain keep our kids busy and out of trouble. My biggest rant is that due to the influence of Mall shops, certain brand Name companies marketing plans, and media advertisements, these kids are almost all carbon copies of the next kid on a board. In AJ Kohn’s article (one skateboards) about freestyle approach to skateboarding he even said he has seen a major lack of creativity among the up and comers. Of course there are a few exceptions but really, when was the last “REAL” standout skater like Tony Hawk, or Rodney Mullen been around your shop? These guys defined skateboarding among others, so where do we go from here?

The influences of the Media, marketing and company Sales Reps, and even the Pro skaters themselves have created a great void in the way we can reach these kids before they become a problem and get hurt. Hey guys, put the fun back in the industry, enough megabucks events, help us who reach the skaters everyday face to face and support our efforts to bring back the soul of the industry

“I know it hurts your sales goals but take back the industry get it out of the wrong hands at the mall and give it back to the experts!”