Anyone else have a wack local skateshop?

[Circaskater420]

Look, I’m all for supporting my local skateshop, and I really want to.  But my local shop just.....sucks.  They don’t carry any good brands.  It’s all shit like street plant or Almost.  If you’re really lucky you can get an antihero.  The only sizes they carry are between 7.75 and 8.25. Sometimes they’ll have an 8.5.  And the shoes they carry are fucking garbage.  It’s all shit like Fallen. The other shop in my city is 10x better in every way but the people who are associated with it/run it/work there are huge insufferable douchebags.

[formula420]

Detroit City Skateboards is the worst, by far.

[Davethedavedave]

not my local but Labor in nyc really sucks balls

[Jabootie Bootie]

i've only been in a couple that weren't.  all that support your local shop shit is driven by sponsored skaters and the shops that sponsor them, or otherwise affiliated broyos.

[Larry Sportello]

not my local but Labor in nyc really sucks balls

Really Labor's pretty lauded? I've had great experiences every time I've been in the city.

[munchbox]

Labor is so overrated. dead vibes there. its aight if you just want to go in and out, but i wouldnt hang out in that shop

[WeirdBeach]

kingswell,lotties and non-factory are all tight. i used to live closer to two felons, the nazi shop in whittier. fuck that place.

[stokedtrout]

There's one near here that is way too family-friendly and scooter and blade-friendly for my liking. I'm sure the guys who own it are cool (wouldn't know - I'm never going there) but their store is just lame.

[NBD4ABD]

Yea I hear you dude, The skate culture today just sucks period. The people running it are just children that never grew up very cool guy like. Most shops I have bein too in my area either cater to what THEY think is relevant and sells or what THEY want to sell or what THEY like. We used to have a shop run by this old head it was a snowboard shop he was cool and took all our feedback for years we had a good group of dudes with very humbled egos that would even hook you up if you were getting into it. But the skate scene after Zumiez came in to my town crumbled at the same time. So they just went back too selling snowboards.

[EdLawndale]

Shop at McGill's

[Tear Up a Trick]

My local shop is the all time wackest.  It's called Supreme. 

[Giza Butler]

I'm having the trouble that if I find a skateshop worth supporting, usually never has the stuff I'm looking for.

That makes it super hard, settle with something you might end up regretting, but supporting your local, or getting something you're stoked but from a unreliable/non core source?

For example, DLX boards are weird to find in Europe or specifially Spain, somewhere worth supporting.

[Uncle Poseur]

i've only been in a couple that weren't.  all that support your local shop shit is driven by sponsored skaters and the shops that sponsor them, or otherwise affiliated broyos.

Agreed. If your local doesn't have what you need, fuck'um. My local sells a bunch of kook longboard shit (college town.) So, I've found a couple smaller shops online and just support them instead.

[HugeBodBoyle]

My local shop is weird. There's an odd tension between two of the old dudes that work there. One seems to genuinely hate the other and the other seems unaware of being hated. It's uncomfortable.

[Far from relevant]

if your local shop sucks, then buy stuff online.

[Chatbot]

You're not obligated to support a local shop like people preach. Sure, it's nice and helps the "culture" but if they don't want to listen to buyers feedback and act like assholes, fuck them. They'll learn the hard way when they go out of business with 10 excuses that it's not their fault

[givecigstosurfgroms]

Yup skater owned.  Im friends with the owners but we ve had our differences.

[JANUS]

I’m not sure if they’re whack, or if I think they’re whack because I’m a loner who hates the cool kids yet secretly longs to be one.

[heckler]

Labor is so overrated. dead vibes there. its aight if you just want to go in and out, but i wouldnt hang out in that shop

Labor is literally the size of a walk-in closet, why would you want to hang out in a closet?

[Jimmy Two Tits]

The shop in my town doesn't even sell shoe's. And everything is expensive, a board is normally $70.

[doctorkickflip]

Eh I like Labor. Sure you can't really chill there, but that's because it's insanely small. There also used to be this real bummer of a man that worked there, he sometimes pops up in those Transworld "New York Times" videos. Dude was such an asshole and it really comes off in any video you see of him. But he's gone as far as I can tell and everyone that works there currently is cool. I moved away just as I was getting to know people there and honestly kind of miss it. My current shop in the DC area sells like one shoe and 2 boards I have no idea how they stay in business.

[pizzafliptofakie]

My hometown's shop is super kooky. It was originally supposed to be like a hip hop boutique shop, but the space they rented was formally a different skate shop, so when skaters kept walking in looking for the shop they just kinda rolled with it. The people that run it are huge cornballs that have never skated and I'm pretty sure at one point they had a scooter division in their store. I don't know if they're still doing it, but for awhile they were trying to start beef with other legit shops who have been around for at least a decade longer than them who aren't even in the same county as they are, so it was pretty telling how they felt about the skate "community".


My local now rocks though.

[sfa]

Those of you that named names, at least you have some balls.

I'd like to ask though, for a lot of you not having the right "thing" is a problem. What are you guys looking for that they don't have?

[Cuban_Lynx]

Nah, Uprise rules.

[Saint Coke]

Atlas. Mike is rad.

[Ok]

My local shop is weird. There's an odd tension between two of the old dudes that work there. One seems to genuinely hate the other and the other seems unaware of being hated. It's uncomfortable.

This sounds amazing.

[90sDamiano]

Look, I’m all for supporting my local skateshop, and I really want to.  But my local shop just.....sucks.  They don’t carry any good brands.  It’s all shit like street plant or Almost.  If you’re really lucky you can get an antihero.  The only sizes they carry are between 7.75 and 8.25. Sometimes they’ll have an 8.5.  And the shoes they carry are fucking garbage.  It’s all shit like Fallen. The other shop in my city is 10x better in every way but the people who are associated with it/run it/work there are huge insufferable douchebags.

This sounds all too familiar, I want to ask you what city you’re in but that just seems creepy. Don’t feel obligated to spend your hard earned money anywhere you’re not satisfied with. A successful skate shop and douchebag employees go hand and hand and its probably one of the biggest problems with skateboard culture imo.

[mtvic]

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.

[throwaway187]

Atlas. Mike is rad.

You must be from San Mateo

[Miller92]

i live near a great shop in the midwest but the owner doesnt even skate anymore and he plays favorites like a school teacher.  gives people a hard time if they want to buy grip for a board NOT bought at his shop.  called me a "piece of shit" for selling 30 boards out of my truck with dope artwork on them from a friend.

like thanks for running this dope shop but can you not be a total fuck wit?