Candy Stores for Hardcores

When not at the skate park, the local skater communities tend to congregate around the local premium skateboard shops, where every conceivable type of gear for board and body can be compared and purchased at a premium price.

Many shops practice crossover with other board-oriented extreme sports, stocking equipment for similar forms of recreation like surfing, snowboarding, water sport,s dirt biking, and roller blading. But for the serious skater, none of these variety stores can match the selection and staff of a dedicated skateboard shop.

While general sporting goods might have a rack of boards and a shelf of shoes next to the T-shirts and hoodies, they aren’t likely to be able to help with customization. The boards will be commercial models, which are sold as complete sets without options. The staff will probably lack knowledge about such subtleties as the different needs of street and vert skaters. While the prices will be lower, the quality will be too. Unless you’ve already decided on your board and see it on the shelf for a bargain, skip the “all-purpose” store and focus on skateboard shops where they speak your language.

Plenty of skateboard shops sponsor their own teams that compete in big skate matches. Skate team Zephyr, named after Zephyr Surfboard Productions Shop, were the first sponsored skate team to achieve widespread fame, and brought quite a bit of recognition to their benefactor.

Skate shops have a reputation for being active in the general community as well. PUSH Skateshop, for example, has become a creative hub in North Carolina. Beyond selling a carefully selected array of the highest quality skateboard parts and supplies, PUSH sponsors their own award-winning skate team as well as up-and-coming artists, providing a venue for the creation and distribution of rising stars in the iconic contemporary art world.

Because the skateboarding community is still skating by on the fringe of acceptable society, skateboard shops also function as critical hubs of activity for those who don’t fit in so well at the coffee shop or the library.

Cal Skate Skateboards, one of the oldest and certainly the largest skate shop on the north coast, also runs Zeitgeist Art Gallery and helps to maintain a number of local skate parks. Cal Skate produces its own line of political as well as more abstract artistic skateboard decks, providing local artists with an opportunity to get their art flying all around town under the feet of countless skaters.

Skates on Haight, now known as SkateboardSF, has been doing a lot for the skater image since they opened their first store, called Skateboard City, on world-famous Haight Street in 1974. They’ve changed their name a few times, but are still located in the heart of skater country, hilly San Francisco, and stick to their same old-school ideals.