An Evening With Your Friendly Neighborhood Skateboard Shop

An Evening with your Friendly Neighborhood Skateboard Shop

By: Thom Kilgoar

 On the night of Friday, December 3rd, and throughout the following Saturday we held our Pop-Up launch event for our new line of boards featuring the iconic Spider-Man. Held at The Innovation Portal, a local innovation space on St. Louis street in downtown Mobile, the large room was filled with a diverse crowd of visitors, eager to experience our new products. From very young children to those full-grown, the excitement and sense of fun could be seen on every face as they browsed the newest pieces of our growing collection. The overwhelming reaction of the visitors was that “Pictures do not do our boards justice.” This sentiment was echoed several times throughout the night, with onlookers expressing that the overall presentation made for a very impressive experience. In terms of what we set out to accomplish, this launch was a huge success. 

Among the guests in attendance were local business owners and artists. Mobile rapper Rodney Lee aka Mr. 88, local artist Brian Tan, chef Pete Blohme aka "Panini" Pete, and Kevin Black of Man-o-War tattoos in Fairhope were a few of the prominent figures who stopped by and showed their support of Bear and our crew. There was a palpable feeling of celebration in the air. The guests were there to celebrate the rise of an up-and-coming attraction on the Mobile scene, and Bear and the crew to celebrate the culmination of months of effort bringing the Spider-Man product line to fruition. As the evening gave way to night and the house lights dimmed, everyone found something to celebrate, surrounded by art and community.

      The next day was a very different experience, with the gala-style ambiance becoming a subdued gallery showing in the light of day. There was a steady stream of visitors, some had heard our ad read on the radio. Others had simply seen the billboard ad while crossing the bayway, but each of them felt a strong curiosity to stop by. Those who made the trip were greeted with the previous night’s display in full, in addition to having one-on-one time with Bear directly. Bear made full use of this more intimate environment as his platform to discuss our company’s history and his own creative process, and the public reaction was extremely positive.

As our brand continues to grow, and our products continue to expand, Bear wants to host many more such events in venues around the world. We are ready to show the world that the finest skateboards available anywhere are made right here in Alabama, and we welcome all to look forward to our next event to see for yourselves our unique brand of artistry and craftsmanship.