Top Seller: Push X-Change Skate Shop, Santa Clarita

kailee bradstreet

September 22 2009
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Craig Glover opened the doors to Push X-Change Skate Shop about a month and a half ago, but the response so far has been better than he could have imagined. “My numbers for the first 30 days were a little over what I projected,” says Glover. “But it’s still tough.” The concept for the store is based on kids being able to trade in older skate gear they’ve outgrown in return for store credit, and Glover marks the gear down and resells it. So far, he says that the pre-worn clothing and shoes are some of the best selling items. While Push has held off on any official advertising, Glover says he has spent some time talking to people in the community to get a sense of what they are looking for in a local skate shop. Many local kids have been distributing fliers at nearby schools. Being the closest shop of its kind to the 45,000-square-foot Santa Clarita skate park doesn’t hurt his business either. “We are just trying to build it like a family of skaters who live in Santa Clarita and the surrounding communities, and the skate park is the breeding ground for that because it offers so much opportunity for these kids to progress,” he says. “I’m very proud of what I do and my appreciation for good skateboarding goes beyond words.” Here’s what’s been selling at the shop:

BEST SELLING CATEGORIES

1. Hardgoods
Push has about 60 decks displayed on the board wall at all times, but tries to limit the number of skus each brand has represented to five, says Glover, adding that he also has a good feel for what other skate shops in his area carry and really tries to varry his own inventory with brands his customers won’t find anywhere else locally, such as Think, City, Traffic, and Roger. “As long as they havve a good graphic and are doing good things for skateboarding, I will put them up on the wall,” Glover says. “But talking to kids on their level about what they’d like to see in the shop is the best advice I can give any retailer.”

Brand: Krooked
“Anything Deluxe basically sells out at this shop, but the most orders I’ve done to date have been Krooked,” says Glover.

SKU: Bobby Worrest

Krooked Bobby Worrest Board

2. Footwear
Glover is keeping the shop’s shoe wall small for now, stocking with about twelve different “We’re trying to be completely different than anyone else in this town,” he says of what he has in stock.

Brand: Vox
“Vox is my number one and the reason behind that is that nobody else in this town carries it so I’m benefiting from that,” Glover says.

SKU: EMAN or Trooper Relief
EMAN’s shoe just dropped a week or so ago and we are almost sold through the whole thing,” says Glover. “They [Vox] are doing with right with keeping their price points at $50 or lower.”

3. T-Shirts
While the shop’s Push branded products seem to do really well, especially T-shirts and decks, Glover says that simple designs on T-shirts from Deluxe are what have done the best for the shop since they’ve opened.

Brand: Krooked
“I don’t even know if we have any more of these shirts left in the store,” Glover says about the Krooked brand. “Those shirts do really well.”

SKU: Shmoo T-Shirts
“Anything Mark [Gonzales] draws and puts on a T-shirt, it just sells,” says Glover.