Tuesday Top Seller: Rival Skate Shop, NYC

kailee bradstreet

• March 03 2009
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Rival Skate Shop
225 Hudson Street
New York, NY
rivalnyc.com
Shop Owners: Vinny Ponte and Jason Morgan

Pro skater Vinny Ponte opened Rival Skate Shop five years ago on the west side of Manhattan. The 1,400-square-foot space has exposed brick walls, cracked cement floors and is the only core skate shop on that side of town according to co-owner Jason Morgan. Although being located in the “Wild West” - as the shop refers to it - has had its disadvantages, Morgan says sales at the store have been consistent and Rival has been able to build a strong customer base. Here are the the top three best-selling product categories at the shop.

BEST SELLING CATEGORIES

1. Decks
Rival Skate Shop sells decks at $45 with grip and no tax, according to Morgan. Decks have been moving fast at the shop lately, especially the brands under Kayo Distribution.

Brand: DGK
“Organika, Expedition One, and DGK - we move about 30 decks a week from them collectively,” says Morgan.

SKU: Stevie Williams or Marcus McBride
“With the DGK line, pretty much anything sells really, really well,” says Morgan. “I’ve been reordering every week. I think that’s the main reason why we’ve made it through this recession so far because other sales have dropped but for some reason deck sales are still doing really well.”

2. Apparel
The shop carries a variety of clothing brands including Nike SB, Stampede and Sovereign, according to Rival’s online product gallery.

Brand: Matix
“As a whole Matix has been doing the best,” Morgan says.

Sku: Mark Johnson Quantum Jacket
At Rival Skate shop, all the Mark Johnson product has been doing well, but this particular jacket is a stand-out, according to Morgan.

3. Shoes
With a fairly large portion of the shop’s floor space dedicated to footwear, Rival has done well with shoe sales over the years.

Brand: Dekline and DVS
We have a small selection of DVS and Dekline, but they are definitely selling well,” Morgan says. “Nike has been falling off lately. Because we are a core skate shop people came looking for other brands like Dekilne and DVS. We still sell Nike, but it’s not the biggest brand.”

Sku: Jason Lee Derby
The Jason Lee Derby is the skater’s first pro model with Dekline and seems to be selling well at Rival.