Robert Brink - Writer

Simply For Skaters

January 6, 2006 | Skip To The Comments (0)

Simply For Skaters
Vancouver skateshop has a unique approach.
By Rob Brink
TransWorld Skateboarding Business April 2004

When it comes to skateboarding, Vancouver, British Columbia is a city known for it's parks, scene, and producing its fair share of talented skateboarders. Michelle Pezel and Girl professional Rick McCrank wanted to do something different for themselves and for skateboarding in Vancouver. The result is a skateboard shop and art gallery known as Anti Social, located just outside the downtown area in East Vancouver.

Contrary to popular belief Anti Social is not only McCrank's store, Pezel actually came up with the idea to open the shop. “I made Rick join in,” she says “it wasn't too hard though because now he can get free griptape.”

McCrank came up with the name: “It's just a statement about how society sees skateboarding and how skateboarders see society, skateboarders are anarchists or antisocial,” he says.

“It's something that Michelle wanted to do for a while,” says McCrank. “I would sit in on meetings with her and her business partner and give as much input as I could, after a while I asked if I could be a silent partner. When her partner decided to go to school and didn't want to take on owning a business so I stepped in.”

So on March 15, 2002 Anti Social opened its doors in rainy Vancouver. Over the years, McCrank's role has diminished a bit due to his responsibilities as a pro. “Michelle mostly handles everything and I just give her input, I have a full plate with skating and parenting so Michelle has to bear the weight of the store.”

“We finally hired an employee,” says Pezel, who has been running the shop virtually solo since it opened. “I like being here but I like days off too! There's a lot to do around here and it never stops.”

Simplicity?

One of the first things that comes to mind when walking into Anti Social is simplicity. Empty space, minimal displays, racks, P.O.P., and furniture—with the under-abundance of merchandise filling the floor, most would think the store just opened and Pezel and McCrank are still saving pocket change to purchase inventory. A rectangular arrangement of shoeboxes that doubles as a display for sale shoes, and a piece of flat cardboard on the floor with some hooded sweatshirts and pants neatly folded on top of it. Lining the walls are more boxes of sale shoes, old elementary school desks that seem to serve no purpose at the moment, small shelves of folded T-shirts in between a couple of makeshift shirt racks that utilize coping suspended from the ceiling to hang the hangers from fishing line. The footwear wall is near the entrance.

“That's the cheap way to do things,” says Pezel, referring to makeshift displays and the small amount of them. “We didn't want to spend a lot on stuff to fill the shop up—we wanted the shop do it on its own. We're just trying to do something that wasn't done [in Vancouver] before.”

Artsy photo of a board wall

“Skateboarding is a plus when nobody is around,” says Pezel, who uses the empty space to set up flat bars and other assorted obstacles after hours. “We are going to try and do a couple renovations before spring even though it will pretty much stay the same,” she says. “We like it this way—it works!”

This minimal, spacious, do-it-yourself feel is not accidental, and quite possibly deceiving. Although it doesn't look it, Anti Social has nearly 100 decks on the wall and over 100 styles of shoes in the store. “We don't like clutter,” says McCrank. “I've always hated how skate shops are so jammed full of stuff and banners here and there, with P.O.P. all over the place. I like more space and less brainwashing.”

While, many, if not most shops find themselves wincing at certain brands they are forced to stock due to the demands of teenage skaters in order to turn a profit, Anti Social proudly stocks only the goods that McCrank and Pezel personally like. “I don't believe we are missing any merchandise,” says Pezel, “We are just waiting for all you guys out there to make the right stuff.”

Most other shops also, would kill for the amount of back storage room that Anti Social has. But the second half of the store is reserved for the art gallery that changes every four to six weeks. There is no backstock of product. The gallery area is used for video premieres as well. Anti Social also sells art books and magazines that relate to skateboard culture and CDs from local bands.

“It's the stuff that skateboarding has opened peoples eyes to,” continues Pezel. “CDs, ‘zines, books, galleries, skateboard—I see the connection don't you? Think of so much of the music that you found out about through so many skateboarding videos.”

McCrank adds, “All of those things are things that Michelle and I are into, we only sell skateboards and art, no snowboards or wakeboards over here. But we don't just skate, we have other interests and we wanted to support them as well.”

The shop recently hosted a show in the gallery featuring a local artist named Keith Jones. Future show info will be posted on www.antisocialgallery.com. “It's fun.” Says Pezel. “The younger kids get a little weirded out sometimes, but they usually enjoy it, and then they come in and show me their art books from school.”

Silver Spoons?

It would be easy to assume that because Anti Social is co-owned by Rick McCrank, and Vancouver is such a famous skateboarding city full of parks, that the shop was born with a silver spoon in it's mouth—sure to be glamorous and full of overzealous skate fanatics from all over the city dying to spend money in the shop that a top professional skateboarder owns. But such isn't the case. “We are lucky [that Rick is a pro]” says Pezel.

“Take our logo for instance,” says McCrank “if I didn't make friends with Michael Leon at Girl he wouldn't have made that for us…just being a pro, all of the magazines and web sites do write ups about what's going on with me and my store.”

Of course, Anti Social, like any other shop, would like to do better business. McCrank and Pezel are still trying to figure out ways to have a successful shop while learning the ropes of skateboard retail. The large number of local parks is a perk as well, but not necessarily increasing skater traffic into Vancouver. “Parks are fun,” says Pezel, “but people used to travel here more to skate though when we had [a skateable] downtown.”

McCrank and Pastras

Vancouver is very rainy, so off-season board sales tend to rely on indoor parks, board sales remain somewhat consistent, Pezel admits to footwear being one of the shop's saviors, thanks to a higher margin and a wider audience.

Pezel becomes “more disorganized” every day, but in the process, learns lessons in retail. “It's a little more work then I thought. Also, I'm always ordering too many shoes,” she says. “Over the years, it's become a lot easier to do, certain things we didn't understand before have become second nature now,”

McCrank advises “Don't listen to reps and buy what you want, not necessarily what is force fed to you.”

Anti Social strongly supports skateboarding and the skaters in the city. “Our role is to promote real skateboarding by supporting companies we think are doing the right thing and not just trying to get into Ma and Pa's wallets,” says McCrank.

The city supposedly has funding allocated for construction of a new skate plaza downtown and Pezel and some locals are trying to ensure it gets done right. “We've been trying to get this plaza park built not too far from the shop,” she says. “But no matter how hard you try people don't get it—ledges, plus concrete, equals fun.”

Anti Social also boasts and impressive team. “I don't want to say ‘sponsor,'” says McCrank, “but we have a group of friends that we call our team, we don't do demos or ask them to go to contests we just appreciate them and their skateboarding and try to help them as much as possible.”

“We love our team they are all the greatest,” says Pezel. “Mitch Charron, Jesse Booi, Trevor Dunnett, Wade Fyfe, Mike Christie, Quinn Starr, Keegan Sauder, Mike Mc Dermott and Rick McCrank and tag-alongs Dylan Doubt and Alison Matasi. The video is great—watch it!”

The Future

Pezel and McCrank truly are skateboarders, and they run their shop with a skateboarder's mentality. The rise and fall of skateboarding's mainstream appeal does not concern them. “It doesn't matter to us,” says McCrank. “Our business hasn't been affected because we never really got the customer who goes to the mall anyway, we sell skateboards to skaters who want to buy skateboards from skaters.”
The primary goal is to keep doing what they've been doing—run the shop the way they want without compromise. “We would like to try and do more of our own products,” says Pezel.

“I get no income from Anti Social,” says McCrank. “That's not why I opened it, I did it for skateboarding in Vancouver.”

McCrank and Jason Lee figuring out the "iPod DJ."

Pezel says, “It's supposed to be income—everybody thinks we must make all this money, but I haven't gotten paid yet.”

However, it's obvious that money isn't the driving force at Anti Social, which is admirable and nothing short of sincere. “I like being around the kids,” says Pezel “and seeing what they are up to. They've got a lot of character around here.”

McCrank enjoys the dual role of professional and shop owner. “Now I'm more involved with my local scene, before I was a bit of a hermit, now I see a lot more kids and talk to them. Vancouver and I needed this.”