10.11.2007
Skate shop to open downtown
A couple weeks ago, two business partners were walking around downtown Statesville with a new venture wheeling through their heads.
Jason Martin and Ryan Dillard, owners of the Computer Shop, were considering opening a new skateboard shop and wanted a second, maybe even a fifth, opinion.
The shop didn’t have a name, a location or even an inventory list when Martin and Dillard approached a group of teenagers hanging out at La Dolce Vita Cafe and Olde Towne Sweets.
“They lost their minds, and said ‘We would love to have one,’ ” Martin said.
Even with its built-in clientele, the new shop, slated to open before Christmas, is still missing some elements, like a name and a location.
Martin said when he and Dillard returned to The Computer Shop, they were still on the fence.
A few days later, 13-year-old Jonah Bogeart walked into the store with a four-page report on the top-selling skateboard, clothing and equipment brands and a few surveys he gave some of his classmates at Statesville High School.
Martin said the document was the last thing they needed to sway them.
“(Jonah) really took the time to break it down,” he said.
The men plan on keeping the shop on Center Street.
It’s the store’s name that is still a mystery.
Jonah’s report gave Martin and Dillard at least eight name ideas, and then it hit them.
The shop Martin and Dillard are setting up is gear toward local skaters, so why not let them name it?
For the next month or so, the Computer Shop will hold a contest to name the skate shop.
Martin and Dillard will pick a name and keep it a secret until the grand opening.
“Give me 70,” said Jacob Johnston, 11, eager to fill out forms to suggest a name for the store. He was skating downtown Wednesday afternoon. “I’ll pass out 10 and have the rest for me.”
It might be a little hard to keep it a secret. Since the downtown skateboarders found out about the store, they’ve become regulars.
Martin’s wife Lisa said she has a group of teenagers coming into the store almost every day now asking when the store will open and what it will sell.
The Martins and Dillard are taking advantage of the captive audience by asking the skaters what they want the store to sell.
One thing they have settled on is a custom sticker machine for all the stickers skaters put on their boards.
“If there is going to be a skate park here, you have to sell them something,” said 24-year-old skateboarder Jaime Bueno.
Marion Karr with the Downhillbillies said skaters in Statesville don’t have an outlet for equipment.
Statesville is probably one of the most active skateboarding towns in the state, he said, and a lot of guys have to drive to Exodus in Winston-Salem to buy their equipment.
Karr said he hopes Martin and Dillard consider carrying some of the skateboarding products made locally.
“They have an opportunity to create a positive image for the sport,” he said.
Want to name Statesville’s Skate Shop?
Starting Monday, you can pick up a flyer, or several flyers, at La Dolce Vita Cafe and The Computer Shop. The winner of the contest will receive a $300 skate shop gift certificate.