Anyone else have a wack local skateshop?

[Tuna]

infinity in st. louis is garbage and run by the most arrogant dipshit i’ve ever met in my life. great inventory and nice location, just run by an absolute kook.

Stopped by Infinity last summer on a road trip and hung in there for a little while. Your review of them was not my experience whatsoever. Jason was super helpful and clued me in on spots and other things to do around town while I was there. Everyone who came into the shop while I was there left super satisfied and dude was extremely patient and helpful.

[Krile]

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I got mixed feelings on the shop I consider to be my local. They used to be closer but moved to the city. I don't go out of my way to buy from them cuz I feel they abandoned my area. They are still the sickest shop in Ontario though.

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which ontario?

Canada

[Hevonen]

Mine was pretty wack. The first owner was some longboard/wakeboard type of dude who never skated, which is weird since the shop was strictly a skate shop. It was alright aside from the shop always having pretty outdated selection of brands, so you'd have to order online unless you wanna rock a full circa kit.

Next owner was some junkie creep who turned the place into a graffiti/skate shop. The skate brand selection got even worse and I'm pretty sure it was used as a drug front for a few years, as it was always filled with sketchy looking people who never seemed to buy anything

[Lou Strux]

I live in SF, but still head to the east bay just to support the homies Dandy & Jerry at 510. Shop is awesome: great selection, friendly/helpful folks, super supportive of the scene, etc.
Never had caught any vibes what so ever there. I like ‘em enough to buy gear when o have absolutely zero need for it, just to help keep their wheels moving through the COVID thing.
Over on my side of the bay, the guys at the DLX shop are also always super cool to me, even when I bring a toddler in with me.
Both places have offered me OG/family discounts even though I’m not family at either of them. Love those two shops & feel fortunate to have access to them.

[GlenSuggittsflexfit]

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I got mixed feelings on the shop I consider to be my local. They used to be closer but moved to the city. I don't go out of my way to buy from them cuz I feel they abandoned my area. They are still the sickest shop in Ontario though.

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which ontario?

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Canada

Newmarket community centre local?

[blueskynoise]

Detroit City Skateboards is the worst, by far.

Ha, no lies told here. I found an Alltimers there on a whim a couple years ago, right after I broke a Baker board in one session. I’ve never seen anything there worth buying since. It’s sad

[Krile]

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I got mixed feelings on the shop I consider to be my local. They used to be closer but moved to the city. I don't go out of my way to buy from them cuz I feel they abandoned my area. They are still the sickest shop in Ontario though.

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which ontario?

[close]

Canada

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Newmarket community centre local?

yea, I wasn't good enough to bother asking for sponsorship and couldn't really afford to skate seriously but thats where i 50-50'd my first kink rail (flatbar) etc..

[DarthDingusMaximus]

I live in SF, but still head to the east bay just to support the homies Dandy & Jerry at 510. Shop is awesome: great selection, friendly/helpful folks, super supportive of the scene, etc.
Never had caught any vibes what so ever there. I like ‘em enough to buy gear when o have absolutely zero need for it, just to help keep their wheels moving through the COVID thing.
Over on my side of the bay, the guys at the DLX shop are also always super cool to me, even when I bring a toddler in with me.
Both places have offered me OG/family discounts even though I’m not family at either of them. Love those two shops & feel fortunate to have access to them.

I believe there’s a certain uprightness that exhudes from east coast shops like a competitive vibing with other’s and shop’s.


Whereas on the left coast the shop’s aren’t as cliquey and try to vibe someone out, if it did happen I wasn’t aware of it damn sure I wasn’t going to tolerate it neither.


From McGill’s & Church of Skatan to 510 shop’s I haven’t had any issues. If there was a sketchy biker/Nazi kook shop I wasn’t going to even bother with it.

Oregon the kook shop is Cal’s best shop is Shrunken Head barnone.

[Krile]

Blue Tile was sick at the time though, I was too young to really know any better but knew they were gonna be around for a while. Never would have expected them to get this big though. Baby Blue was better than anything I could have hoped for back in the day.

[Coco Santiagos Kitten]

713 Inc calls themselves a skateshop but they mostly do graffiti bullshit also the owner is an asshole to people and has screwed people over many times. This kid asked for a tool once and they didn't even have one. Selection is crap anyway.

There are so many better shops in Houston if you don't like who you're dealing with. Shop at Beantooth over on Canal. They're in the same neighborhood and if they don't have something and they can get it from South Shore, Josh will get it within 24 hours.

[hashbrowns]

Skate shop is no easy business. Most skateboard decks run at a 25-30% profit margin and that is really difficult to make work. We are limited in the brands that can be carried either because some brands want you only carrying certain products or just won’t even open lines of communication. Have any of you tried to open accounts before?  It’s like high school all over again, you carry them well you can’t carry us and so on.  Not to mention skateboarding is rapidly moving as to what is cool and not and keeping up with something for everyone is difficult. If the owner doesn’t skate then absolutely don’t support the shop, that would just be another person looking to cash in on the culture. Whereas, with our shop it costs me an arm and a leg to keep open and if I didn’t own a legal cannabis farm I wouldn’t be able to do it. the doors Stay open because I love skateboarding and it saved my life, I am forever indebted to it and want to support the culture and feel that the community as a whole benefits from it. We sponsor local kids and try to get them flow from other brands. Yet it’s super difficult to offer something less expensive or more choices than what is available online, but if you want your community to grow and you want to see local skate events contests/premieres/demos then please go help out your local shop, we need the love.

This. No matter how wack your local shop is (short of not being skater owned) the folks behind it are there for the right reasons.

[thebacker]

one of my locals is now the back wall of a CBD shop

[ok boomer]

infinity in st. louis is garbage and run by the most arrogant dipshit i’ve ever met in my life. great inventory and nice location, just run by an absolute kook.

Really? Jason always been super cool to me/friends over the years.

[DaCeLeRyMaN]

If your shops sucks you can heckle them by calling to ask if they have the Nike SBs Dropping this weekend.

[Little Debbie]

Filter is the go-to shop in ABQ. i really wouldn't waste time elsewhere.

[Solid bowlcut]

Mine was pretty wack. The first owner was some longboard/wakeboard type of dude who never skated, which is weird since the shop was strictly a skate shop. It was alright aside from the shop always having pretty outdated selection of brands, so you'd have to order online unless you wanna rock a full circa kit.

Next owner was some junkie creep who turned the place into a graffiti/skate shop. The skate brand selection got even worse and I'm pretty sure it was used as a drug front for a few years, as it was always filled with sketchy looking people who never seemed to buy anything

Since i noticed your finnish username, dare i ask what was the name of the shop?

[HeadInLionsMouth]

I feel very fortunate to have had a great hometown shop early on, but the one downside is that now I find myself judging all skateshops against it, perhaps unfairly

[rosemaryBB]

Fortunate enough to have a local shop that really backs the community and has helped get some skateparks built (shout-out Dogwood). Luckily I also live near some other great shops like NJ and Nocturnal.

I don't have time to scroll this whole thread but do also wanna say shouts out to the three shops you mentioned plus Kinetic. Great fucking people at each of them. I started going to the NJ in Sayreville when I was coming up after Small Empire got fucking weird and that was the first place I ever really felt any sort of community in a skate scene.

Exit was chill too even though I always heard the owner was weird I always had good experiences with the people working there. Went by maybe last year and it looked like it turned into a fucking CBD shop with some decks hanging on the back wall? No idea what the deal is with that.

[Kooky_Monster]

I live in Detroit and have two shops I visit. Ironically, they can be defined as one being "upriver" and the other being "downriver".

The upriver shop caters to rich suburban kids and the younger crowd, where as the other shop has a "dirt/punk" vibe to it. Both owners are clique-y and play favorites, as most shops do, but both guys have been in the community for a long time and are genuine good dudes.

I support them both.

Also, and as mentioned before. Detroit City Skateboards is wack.

[coldbrew]

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Fortunate enough to have a local shop that really backs the community and has helped get some skateparks built (shout-out Dogwood). Luckily I also live near some other great shops like NJ and Nocturnal.

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I don't have time to scroll this whole thread but do also wanna say shouts out to the three shops you mentioned plus Kinetic. Great fucking people at each of them. I started going to the NJ in Sayreville when I was coming up after Small Empire got fucking weird and that was the first place I ever really felt any sort of community in a skate scene.

Exit was chill too even though I always heard the owner was weird I always had good experiences with the people working there. Went by maybe last year and it looked like it turned into a fucking CBD shop with some decks hanging on the back wall? No idea what the deal is with that.

Exit was great in it's prime. Nocturnal is my local but I have zero desire to ever be on south street so Kinetic gets all my money. Brannon is a good dude too.

[Shalom Iginla]

The closest skate shop to me is 80 miles away.

[ndsr]

The closest skate shop to me is 80 miles away.

Welcome to the Midwest

[shmazz]

My local skateshop has been sitting on dead stock for years now and it's kind of depressing. Last time I went there just a few months ago this abomination was still hanging on the wall. With the exception of some new Anti Hero decks and some sets of Indy x Fucking Awesome trucks, they've been offering the same products for five years or more. Not that I care much about riding the latest shapes and graphics or whatever, but I wasn't interested in buying an Arto Saari emoji deck or a Rob Dyrdek AW pro model back in 2015, and I'm not interested now.
Apparently they got new boards recently so I'll take a look around sometime next month.

[must be nice]

im interested to know if your local is ruined by shitty team riders that hang out there. young clique kids can have terrible vibes.

[Shalom Iginla]

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The closest skate shop to me is 80 miles away.

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Welcome to the Midwest

Born and raised.

[cucktard]

Hot take: Antisocial is a funny one. Preaching inclusivity to death but quick to vibe out anyone who isn't a homie or fits their bill of how to dress/skate. I understand that's not uncommon with a skate shop but pretty hypocritical. Internet presence does not match the in person attitude. Will continue to support because Rick McCrank but Michelle Pezel gets more credit than she deserves.

MENU also caters to the sneakerhead/FA crowd too hard and could stop selling hardgoods without missing a beat.

Lived in Van for a year and could never bring myself to go there. Skull Skates definitely has a ‘cool, low-energy’ vibe, but I never felt it to be ‘too cool for you’.

[Just Giver]

My actual local skate shop is amazing, and I love it.  About an hour's drive away -- where I was living for a year due to work -- there is a combination skate shop and vespa repair place called Bethesda Boards.  They sold anything "X-treme" they could get their hands on to sell.  They had an indoor ramp, and it was the only indoor place, asides from parking garages, to skate in the area.  It was well below freezing everyday for a month when I was living down there, so I ventured in to skate their ramp a few times. 

The owners of the kooky shop kind of reminded me of Kenny Power's bartending friend who sold him drugs in season one of East Bound and down -- big hippies who get fucked up all day.  I was skating the ramp one day, and one of the owners was there drinking beers.  He asked me if I partied, and I said yes because I thought he was offering me a beer or two.  Well, this motherfucker pulled out a can of gas and took a big huff off of it.  Then he offered me the can.  I just made some lame excuse and left. 

Lot's of sketchy stories about that place from other people I know. 

[Krile]

I checked out all the Toronto skateshops except Adrift which seemed like more of a clothing store.

I liked the store layout of So Hip the best and their staff was very helpful

Hammer was really friendly and offered great advice pretty consistent with Slap, their online shipping is really fast too they run a smooth operation over there.

BTL is definitely the cool kids shop and it felt that way but they put up with my annoying questions and demands which is all that really matters.

For best Toronto skateshop I vote BTL but for beginners or people getting back into it after a long time I'd say Hammer was the most helpful.

[Utopos]

Is it just my experience or are most shops that are paired with an indoor park somewhat kooky?

[Circaskater420]

Is it just my experience or are most shops that are paired with an indoor park somewhat kooky?

The one in my city is awful I don’t even consider it a skateshop.  It still has a better selection than my local but the owner is a major kook and doesn’t even skate