The longboarders are worried, has Hop gone mainstream? Is the Hopshop selling out to street skating?

We are not selling out but we are expanding our range!

We have renovated the shop over the holidays and put up a big street and vert section. The warehouse ramps have been sold and replaced with glass cabinets. One of our regulars was worried we were going down the stale, vanilla corporate road like a Skooter HQ mall store … NEVER.

We are still a chill place to hang out, get good advice and watch skate videos. We are just expanding the  range.

Why
The Hopshop is in St Leonards, 5km from Sydney city, the biggest city in Australia.  Our shop is located in the middle of three skateparks – Lane Cove, Chatswood and Neutral Bay. However, there is no dedicated skate shop in the area, except the Hopshop! We have a few surf shops that have a skate section but no real skate shop. So the word is out, there is a new skate shop in town. One skater tells another. They find the shop. The few street skaters has become the many, demanding product and service. So we have listened and are adding mainstream skateboarding products to our shelves. Those Powell SPF wheels look tiny next to inHeats .

The reaction
The response from distributors has been positive. Most of them, and their representatives,  dont believe there is a skateshop in St Leonards. Imagine that. If I was a distributor and my sales rep did not know there was a 90 square metre retail skateshop in their territory, I’d fire them.
We still get distributors refusing to deal with us, which is hysterically funny. For anyone not in the industry, this is how the skateshop/distributor dance works. First you have to find them, they have a bad or no website, missing links, misspelt urls, or no contact details on their website. You find them, call them, so you can convince them to let you sell their product. Some dont return calls, or emails, just ignore you. I dont know the rationale behind this strategy. Keeping their brands exclusive? Protecting a nearby surf shop? Scared you might put it online? (psst dont tell skaters about internet) Protecting online US skate shops?
So who has been difficult? Lush Productions is number one. They sell Independent Trucks, which I have on my pool deck, so I would like to carry them in the shop. Sometimes you feel these distributors think they are going to hurt your business if you dont get their brand. Lush, here is a reality check. Most skaters dont ask for Independent Trucks, seems like their poor distribution strategy is working. We get asked for Theeve, Ace, Thunder, Ruckus, Tensor, and Destructo. You’ll see all these good brands in the hopshop soon. Looks like I’m going to have change truck brands on my pool deck, those Ace trucks look nice. A better independent truck you say? I heard about it on the internet, shhh, dont tell the kids.

This week’s challenge
Want to know what it is like to have a skateshop? Try Hop’s “find this distributor” challenge.
Your challenge this week is to search for the Lush website, and then only using their website find out how to contact them.

Rant over, I feel better now. I’m going to go try these Theeve trucks at Balmoral.

I have so many things swimming in my head, this could be a big blog post. I’ll be kind and break it up over a few days.

Newton’s Playground is close, we are getting some amazing people drop into the Hopshop. (if you follow my twitter you’d know who they are).
My favourite people are the customers. Having a website is cool, skaters around Australia can buy online, get their product within a few days, but I never get to meet them. Some of my best customers I have never met! We do have our skateshop (the Hopshop), so it is always fun when skaters drop in, back to the blog post topic …

We have started up Saturday trading at the Hopshop. Today was something special. We had skaters from 12 to 18 years old in the shop.
First up a young kid, 12, buying his first downhill board. He brought his dad in, and dad walked around and picked out the skateboard, from my collection, he first started skating on…”back in the day.” Meanwhile Robbo, set up his new deck. His first longboard. His first skateboard. He was about to start a journey I wish I could start again, but he was starting on a longboard! Off to skate his local neighbourhood.
Later in the day, the shop groms arrive. The local crew of 14 to 15 year olds. Hanging out at the shop, picking up some supplies. These guys are already pimping out their decks with new freeride wheels, most have a quiver of a few boards for different occasions. Their main purpose, to coax Jackson out of the Hopshop and have a skate session (Jacko was out of there real quick).
Finally Gabe turned up, in his late teens, looking for some shop gloves, arriving late for the skate session. Totally addicted to longboarding. He’d probably sleep on his deck if he could.

It got me thinking. Three young generations of skaters were in the Hopshop today. All on their skate journey, I hope lasts them a lifetime. All of them passionate about longboarding and skateboard racing.

I might have met the next Australian champion today.

Here is my rant of the week.

Where are all the half size skate shoes in Australia? I drop into my local skateshop and it is all size US 10, size US 11 and size US 12. Where are the half sizes?
My true size is US 11.5.
I am forced to squeeze into an 11 or go Ronald MacDonald in a size 12. Who wants extra rubber poking off the side of their deck?

One of the great things about owning your own skateshop, if you see a niche you can jump on it. When Goliath sent me their Dekline shoe catalogue the first thing I looked for was half size skate shoes. And guess what? They have them. I would never inflict a bad brand on my customers, we test and ride everything we sell in the hopshop. We are all about the best not the biggest. So I bought a few pairs of the dekline shoes. They walked out the door and for the first time I found a perfect fit for my unconventional size feet.
I am now the proud owner of of a pair of US size 11.5 Dekline Cinto skate shoes. They fit perfectly, just like a half size skate shoe should.
If you can not find the right size shoe, send us a message with what you are looking for and we will try and help. We only put up online the stock we have in the shop, so there are hundreds of different dekline shoes available, there would be one out there perfect for you.

I have been skating on my new shoes all week. Footbraked on the dervish at 30km, and they still look brand new!! Robbo used his Dekline Melcher shoes all last week bombing Keira, footbraking at 70km. He wore the sole down a bit but they held up, there still a lot of tread left. We dont recommend you do this but these are the lengths we go to when we test our new gear. If you are going to footbreak at high speed, please put some extra rubber on your soles. Sounds like a good blog post idea = how to put on footbrake rubber. Maybe next week.

Go longboarding this weekend. There is heaps on, check out the ASRA website for all the sessions.