As Skate Shop Day approaches, here are five reasons to support your local skate shop.
Supporting your local skate shop is one of the most important things you must do as a skateboarder. Artist Henry Jones has a beautiful breakdown of his top five reasons below. Just take a minute and think about all the advantages you have walking into a real skate shop with skaters actually working there.
You can learn everything and anything from these institutions. Now imagine a world without ’em—only able to order online? A mall shop with someone who doesn’t know how to grip a board? A streetwear boutique where you can’t switch out your bearings? Yuck!
1. You can actually touch and feel the product
Some of us can look down the barrel of a fresh deck and see if the shape and concave are right. A lot of us need to throw it down and stand on it. Either way, your local shop should be cool with this. Can’t do this through a computer screen. I was even regaled by a funny tale back in the day of a certain boutique where the employee didn’t want to get a deck down off the wall for a skater to stand on. But that’s another story in another book…
2. You might get free grip
Once upon a time, before this savage inflation, a deck purchase came with free grip. Nowadays, grip might run you anywhere from $6–$15 (y’all love that graphic grip, huh?). As Henry Jones posits in his IG carousel, hang out, spend your time and money at a shop, and they’ll probably flow you free grip once in a while. They probably have a stack of used decks in the back room or behind the counter if yours is snapped and you’re broke, and if you need one bearing or one bolt, they might hook you up there as well.
3. Animals are welcome
A bonus to watching the new vides, flipping through a new issue of Closer or North Skate Mag—there might be a four-legged friend happy to see you. Who’s a good boy?
Doggos welcome at Sixes and Sevens in San Diego.
Sixes and Sevens Skateshop
4. You can watch the new videos with fellow critics
Every skate shop worth its product offering will have good videos playing in the shop. It’s a great way to kill time and get stoked for your next session or while you’re setting up a board. Sixes & Sevens has a vintage VCR with a stack of classic VHS skate videos—epic setup. Kinda like Shinners.
5. You can help keep your scene alive
This is what it’s all about. You might not realize it at first, but these shop owners took a big chance opening a skate shop, and they did it strictly for the love and the culture. “No one’s retiring from owning a skate shop,” Jason Carney of Slappy’s Garage once famously said. So, all you have to do is just continue to get your boards, shoes, and gear from the one nearest you. And post about it and spread the word!
Blair Alley is the Content Director for TransWorld SKATEboarding.
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