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Common misconception, Australia is not America and until it happens in the US it ain’t real
Don’t get me wrong either, I love OZ. Just not spider season.
It won't happen in the US because, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a skater-run shop that would be willing for Zumiez to buy them out and use their brand name to uphold the guise of "core" while opening franchises in malls across the country.
Say what you will about him, Sean Pablo pulled his clothes out of Fast Times once he learned it was effectively a zumiez-in-disguise. Older personnel at fast times (from when it was PSC) do a good job of fostering a sense of skate-shop community with prems, hooking people up, and supporting local skaters. But the zumiez buyout and the opening of new stores is still a pretty dangerous trend for smaller shops - especially when they have accounts with brands that are very hard to access elsewhere. I think there's a disconnect between smaller US/International brands and Aus Shops about who they're opening an account with but it is a large market so who can blame them really. Brands like Passport wouldn't be able to thrive on skaters alone buying their clothes and boards, and Fast Times brings in a steady stream of people with cash who are adjacent to/interested in skateboarding aesthetics.
was good to see bryce golder, callum paul & half the team quit once zumiez bought in.
huge respect to public skate shop when they broke away and formed.
the disconnect between usa brands and aus shops is real.
definitely a double stand or being fooled on the premise of fast times being a core store.
Totally, and it's a shame because public skate shop would've done much better if it had exclusive accounts with smaller brands like Polar, hockey/FA, Dime, 917, Palace, Frog, etc. - but it had to compete with all these brands being available at a zumiez right in the city centre. As I said though, I understand because it is a big account and international market for these small-ish brands. Public had a really cool image while Fast Times has almost none - and their shop stuff seems to just be lukewarm polar/passport knockoffs.
Also, this disconnect may be furthered by the fact that Casey Foley, who champions underground skating, is a store manager and does ordering. Similarly, it's easier to come off as core when you can point to a team with guys like tom snape, geoff campbell, quayde baker, gabbers, etc. (https://fasttimes.com.au/teamriders). But it is again a totally different dynamic to the US.
We have one of those so called core shops in our city: Bonkers (
https://www.bonkers-shop.com/de/), which has one of those exclusive accounts with Nike SB. Bonkers is mostly a fashion store, which sells limited edition products to Japan and Hong-Kong. The shop does one skate event a year and employs skaters, though. I feel that brands like Nike and adidas mostly use these small stores as marketing for their product lines. The stores will give their coolness capital to these large corporations and in turn get to peddle some exclusive shoes (which are cheap to produce for companies like Nike anyway). These drops, which are widely discussed in the scene of the shoe fetishists, are great marketing for Nike SB and Nike in general.
All the owner of Bonkers ever worries about is his status on the Nike SB list of cool retailers. He's now number two in Germany behind the civilist store in Berlin. Most of the things he does as the owner of the shop reflects his fear of losing that rank. He will not sell local brands that are deemed not cool enough and his store looks like a little fashion boutique.
Granted, I am pretty old but the concept of the exclusive core shop like Bonkers is some bull shit. For me a core skateshop is a shop that mostly sells skateboards and that skaters actually go to and like to hang out at. A good skateshop also chooses its products not by exclusivity and coolness, but by quality and skateability.
I don't blame Bonkers and shops like them. If Bonkers didn't go the exclusive route it would probably be out of business. There are two large skateshops in the city with good connections to distributors, who would make it very difficult for them to get some of the regular skate products.
Topic: HOCKEY & FUCKING AWESOME IN ZUMIEZ MALL STORES (Read 16617 times)