Whereas many young skateboarders are restricted from pursuing their hobby by their parents, local small business owner Scott Leming was encouraged by his family to pursue skating from a young age. Leming is the owner of Kick Flip Skate Co., located in Glendora, on Route 66. Growing up in Pasadena, Leming got into skateboarding culture through his older brother.
“Skating primarily is going to stem from being introduced to things from my brother. My brother was always into all kinds of different art, music, and sports. And so, basically everything that I’ve done, it’s because I’m following my older brother.” Leming said. “And then, through the introduction to things with my brother, skating came along.”
After being introduced by his brother, Leming’s father helped further enable him to chase his passion for skating.
“My Dad built us ramps and rails for us to skate on growing up. He didn’t make us fear getting hurt while skating.” He said. “These days, I really get inspired seeing other parents have the same attitude when they allow their kids to skate since this is known to be a dangerous sport.”
For Leming, owning and operating the sole skate shop in Glendora was for the community. His clean and brightly lit 1,000 square foot storefront situated on the north side of Route 66 offers not only the skate products available for sale, but also mini skate park set ups in the shop and a couple of lounge areas where skate videos play around the clock.
“My main objective for opening this shop was to build a community space that was inclusive to all skaters without being intimidating,” Lemming said. “I wanted it to be a welcoming place for those continuing their skate journey or even just getting started.”
A few of his repeat customers stopped by and shared not only skate stories but personal ones, including a trip one of the shop locals took on a motorcycle to the Sequoia National Park in California. Scott was excited to hear these stories, as he spends most of his time at the shop. Before he owned a skateshop, Scott had worked a corporate job and had little to no retail business experience.
“I left a 10-year corporate career that dealt with aerospace and decorative plating and the job previous to that was management at an outsourced call center, I had for the previous 10 years. Learning about the retail business has been challenging for sure but I am still here, I love my place in this community.” He smiles as customers show him a new board they enjoy in the shop or even make an effort to tell him goodbye before leaving. Leming prioritizes customer relations in store, but that does not stop him from branching out.
“The retail skate industry is competitive, and there are some skate shops in neighboring cities that have been around, but I do my best to focus on just my own and watching it grow a little every month. We do local delivery within 10 miles of the shop and offer in store pickup. Online, we’ve shipped products domestically as far as Rhode Island.”
Selling new or replacement parts isn’t the focus for Kickflip. They do in-shop repairs, clean ball bearings, rethread axles and kingpins when possible. Adding grip tape to boards, or “gripping”, is another service they offer at the shop. Skaters sometimes perform tricks by the desk or the retail racks are moved to allow them to have a quick sesh for a video. People have shot videos and commercials in the shop over the past couple of years as well.
In the past, he has coordinated events for the shop, where he has had up to three live bands outside. For these events, he made the effort to clear it with the neighboring businesses and gather the necessary permits to do so with the City of Glendora. Leming is willing to open the shop for such things in an effort to help get the word out that skating is still an active community, and to deepen the shop’s ties to the community.
Kickflip Skateshop is located less than a mile away from Glendora High School, right along many students’ route home, and in front of one of the nearest bus stops to campus. Despite this, Leming has credited very little of their financial success to the schools location in correlation with the shop. “We’ve received some skaters from the high school, but the connection between where we are and the high school, I don’t think it’s really generated enough traction,” Leming said.
In an effort to branch out, he has talked to a few students in an attempt to get a skate club started at Glendora High. He has not had very much success on that front. “Young children are very hesitant; they are not interested. they don’t see the benefit of starting a skate club, so I still have to work on that.… There are not as many kids skating as there may have been 10 years ago.”
For those students who do come in, Kickflip offers a welcoming environment to just kill time and hang out. “I’ve seen a lot of non-skaters come in and hang out. It is a community space, I’ve made it that way, and that’s all by design to basically either introduce skating to non-skaters or provide a safe environment for young adults or children so that they can feel welcomed in the state skate community if they’re skating, and if they’re not skating to introduce them to skating.”
Leming makes an effort to appeal to all young skaters and potential skaters, but some new skaters may feel discouraged from entering an already fleshed-out community as a beginner.
“I think sometimes skate shops and skaters in general can be intimidating. Either because their skill sets are way better than a beginner or they’re a little bit rougher than maybe somebody that’s just looking to get introduced to skating, there’s a style in art that I think can be intimidating. You know, sometimes people don’t feel included.”
To these beginner skaters, Leming offered some words of encouragement.
“In order to get better at skating, you gotta put the time in, you have to be willing to, to kind of sacrifice your body, you can’t be afraid. I mean, you can be good, and you can be respected, but in order to get better, you gotta really kind of put the time in.” Leming said. The best skaters are gonna be skating every day, maybe five hours a day. challenging themselves.”
Leming himself has his own struggles to get out and skate more, just like any young skateboarding-casual might.
“An individual like myself, I skate. I’m trying to skate more than I have in the past, but in order for me to get better is just to skate more.” Leming said. “So the words of encouragement are to have fun with it first. I always tell people. If you’re not having fun with skating, don’t do it. You gotta go out and have fun. There’s an adrenaline rush and a challenge.”
With summer on the horizon, Leming looks forward to an upcoming skate expo in Long Beach to check out new products to consider or expand on for the shop, as well as the influx of business that comes with the season outside of the December holidays. For this business owner, his primary focus is not only to sustain a business but to keep the skating community growing.
The store can be found on Instagram @kick.flip.skate.
