Retail Profiles: Ronnie Creager’s Happy Skateboarding

adamsullivan

• April 04 2009
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• 3 comments

“30 Shops In 30 Days” is our way of keeping a close eye on what’s happening with retailers across the country. Over the course of a month, we’ll feature a new in-depth shop profile every day. Is your shop interested in being profiled? Contact us at business@transworld.net.

Ronnie Creager’s pro career is longer than most skaters are old. And in between filming his bangers for Blind’s upcoming video, he’s at home in Phoenix, Arizona, packing boxes for Happyskateboarding.com, his online retail store. Transworld Business caught up with him in between skateparks to pick his brain on the state of online retail.

RC: I hope I have some good answers for you. I just drank a cup of coffee, and I was watching old skate videos on Youtube.

TWB: Oh sick, what were you watching?
Well, I just watched Koston and Dyrdek on the Berrics, but before that I was watching Pat Brennan and Adam McNatt.

Oh, from Celebraty Tropical Fish? [SIC]
Yeah, and some Hot Batch.

Okay, first of all, when did you move out to Phoenix?
Um, I’d say about three years ago. Well I’ve had a place in Arizona for about three years, I’ve been out in Mesa pretty consistently for the past two years.

What brought you out there?
All the skateparks, and real estate, I guess.

Where are you originally from?
I’m from Orange, California.

Have you been skating ditches out there
Yeah, we went and skated one yesterday, actually. It’s hard not to skate them.

How’s the video part coming along for the Blind video?
It’s good, we’ve got a couple weeks left. I’m trying to kick a cold right now but I’m gonna head back there [California] on Wednesday, I’ve got a couple spots I want to try some tricks at. But for the most part it’s pretty finished.

Okay, onto the shop. When did you first launch the site?”
It was in sometime in 2006.

What gave you the idea?
Well when I started the site it was just photos and stories and stuff, and I had a little shop on there. I’d sell a little bit of stuff, and then instead of having it be just my own page, I’ll turn it intohappyskateboarding.com, the online shop. I’ve always wanted to do a skateboard shop. A couple years earlier, Chet Thomas, Steve Rocco, and I and a couple other people were gonna get together and do an online skateboard shop, but it kind of fell through, and it just stuck with me, so I decided to run with it.

I know you’ve had the logo in your graphics for a while now. Did you ever work retail before you were pro.
I worked at Hotskates in Orange when I was 16—a long time ago. I basically worked at the shop for store credit, so I could get boards and keep skating.

Was that your first job?
Yeah. Well, my first job was a paper route. I really don’t have any experience in retail, but I learn something new everyday. Its all basically customer service, and as long as the people are happy, I’m fine.

Where are most of the orders coming from?
Kind of out on the East Coast, and Texas, some from Maryland. Nothing really too close. I have about ten customers in Arizona, It’s mostly on the East Coast and Midwest.

Do you have a lot of repeat customers?
Yeah, that’s a lot of it.

Do you do international orders?
We sell to Australia and Canada. And I just found out that my merchant account, the security is set too high. Because we’ve been getting a lot of abandoned carts from Australia. So the security won’t let them order, so I have to go fix that.

Do you have a warehouse for the product?
We have everything in a house, with shelves build in and everything. trying to keep it neat. We’ve talked about getting a brick-and-mortar location, but right now I still want to pursue my skateboarding career. It’s already a full time job.

You mentioned you had a partner?
Yeah, his name is Burt Neal. When I have to travel, he makes sure all the stuff gets shipped out. I usually handle all the customer service, all the phone calls come in to my phone, and when I’m in Arizona I make sure everything gets shipped out, and when I’m gone it’s his duty to do it.

Are you traveling a lot?
I haven’t been traveling too much. The last few years a lot of my travel was going to contests, and I haven’t been doing the contest thing because it just takes so much out of me, and I’ve been trying to film.

How do you guys split up the responsibilities?
When I’m in town its basically my responsibility. I get a big kick out of it. Bert has a full time job, he works for a non profit organization. So anything that happens after five, he takes care of. But I like doing it.

So if a kid orders a complete, it will likely get gripped by you?
Yeah, pretty much.

Are you planning on expanding?
We’re gonna get into shoes next. I’m ordering new stuff all the time, I add about 5-10 SKUs a week. But right now it’s all hardgoods. Clothing, I’m kind of afraid to get into. If I wasn’t skating I’d be doing a lot more. I’ve just heard the returns on clothes are so horrible. We’ll do shoes, probably in about 4-5 months.

What are some deck brands that do well?
We sell some autographed boards, and they do the best, regardless of brand. It’s tough to even keep them in stock. We just had some Plan B and Almost ones go. But for brands, Blind, Plan B and Almost do the best. Zero does pretty good, too. A lot of it depends on the size of the board.

What are the most popular sizes?
I’d say a 7.5 or a 7.75.

What width do you ride?
I’ve been riding a 7.6. I usually ride a little smaller of a board, but I recently stepped it up.

What wheels do good?
I’d say Darkstar and Ricta, and SML—Small. It’s a new wheel company. We got them at a good price, their urethane is really good.

What about trucks?
Hmm, Tensors and Indys. I think a lot of it has to do with our prices, we don’t mark our stuff up too much.

Do you keystone everything, or keep it under?
You know what? At first that’s what I was thinking, but it hasn’t even been like that. I just searched around all the sites, and put it lower than everyone else. But it will probably have to get more involved, because we are printing up boxes, and we give stickers, tee shirts, so we’ll probably have to raise the prices a buck or two, but for the most part, we’re just trying to keep everybody happy.

What footwear brands are you gonna start with?
Lakai, DVS, and Nike SB—I mean, assuming I can get the accounts, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to. I’ll probably get into Sole Tech later, but I’m not too happy since they kicked me off [Etnies].

What are you doing for shoes these days?
Lakai sent me a box of shoes. Mike Carroll hooked it up. I like them, too.

In general, over the past 6 months, what have you noticed in the online marketplace? Has everything gone to shit?
I haven’t noticed a change. I’m so small, so we are still growing. Since I started, we’ve just been getting more customers. We’re pretty small so we haven’t taken any hits.

I guess it’s good to be a small guy right now, huh?
Yeah, I guess. I don’t want to get too huge, anyway. Obviously I’d like for the shop to be bigger later, but I don’t want it to get out of control right now, get too big.