It’s quite possible that if it wasn’t for Jerry, Dandy and 510, I wouldn’t have a career in skateboarding. Despite being a naive 16 year old from St. Helena, a small town a whole hour North East from Berkeley, Jerry and Dandy welcomed me into the East Bay skate community by way of their skate shop. From the exposure their videos generated to the thoughtful advice they always offered, Jerry and Dandy opened a huge door for me into the larger skateboarding world. For every thriving skateboarding scene, there is a shop that cultivates it and helps the scene grow. In the East Bay, that shop is 510. Jerry and Dandy are dedicated to the local skateboarders who make up the East Bay skateboarding community and continue to provide inspiration and support for the impassioned skateboarders who make up the scene. Every skateboarding scene needs a shop like 510. - Walker Ryan, Professional Skateboarder
Dandy and Jerry Harris
Interview with Owners Jerry and Dandy Harris, by Suziie Wang
Why did you want to open a skate shop? We really needed a good skate shop in the East Bay – there were skaters living over here, but no really cohesive scene, and no good shop. Jerry grew up moving around quite a bit and he’d always break out the yellow pages when he was somewhere new and check out the local skate shop first thing. Skate shops always just felt like an important hub especially pre-skatepark boom. You went there for everything and that’s just what we wanted to offer this area we both love. Did either of you have any previous experience working in or running a skate shop? No, not at all, but we both worked in service jobs and worked retail before. What were the main challenges? Getting the money together was pretty challenging – we definitely had to beg and borrow to get it done.
What are the hardest things about owning a skate shop? Like owning and running any retail business, it’s a lot of work and there are no chunks of time off ever. We haven’t left the Bay Area for more than 8 days in a row since we opened. Also, there are just always fires to put out – something is going bad, or just different than expected - Mis-billed, mis-shipped, shoplifters, ill-timed vacation requests, unexpected flood in the store are all par for the course, so I think just being able to effectively deal with whatever’s thrown at you without losing your head is key. What are the best things about owning a skate shop? Getting to be part of and having an influence on the skate scene here is one of our favorite things about owning 510. As we get older and have responsibilities other than just being at the shop, such as taking care of two young children, we feel extra grateful to still get to be part of the skateboarding community. The shop and our community feel like home to us. Also, just being an integral part of people’s
lives, like seeing kids grow up in the shop and in the scene is really important to us. Another fun perk is being able to do things like participate up at Visalia Skate Camp – now Element Skate Camp – but, we’ve pretty much been going up there almost every summer for visits since we first opened the shop, and it’s one of our favorite places and favorite things to do. We always bring some of our staff or team or friends and feel super welcomed and always have the best time! How did you build the shops reputation in the early years? We didn’t set out to build a reputation -- we were just skating and hanging out with our friends. We had a great, tight crew we hung out with and skated with all the time, and the shop was just a hub where more and more skateboarders became part of it. There really was no grand plan, other than to have an awesome skate shop that served a great skate scene. Pretty much from the beginning we had a really good team, but it was just our friends,
and we got a good location, had good product, good timing, and loved it all. Do you have a shop team and why do you feel that is important? Yes, we’ve always had a team and the team has always been an integral part of the shop. The team represents the shop – it’s always been made up of people whose style we really like and who are part of our community, who are super down for the shop and who we just feel represent the local scene well. In your opinion, how has 510 helped foster the local skate community? I guess like I said earlier just being involved with the community, giving back when we can, and staying focused on skateboarding. I’d like to think that we’ve helped connect crews of friends that may have not been connected otherwise, which may have helped lead
to bigger things – the occasional diy projects, or maybe helped stepladder some people fulfilling their careers within the bigger skate industry. Even supporting skateboarders’ art with installations or paying for graphics we’ve used on shop product. What are some of the things you’ve done to market the shop? Early on/pre social media, marketing was so different than it is now, but one thing that comes to mind is we were lucky enough to take over this huge ongoing skate jam called “The Berkeley Demo”. It was this massive street blocked off event that coincided with the Peoples Park Anniversary In Berkeley (super hippie event – look it up), and we’d always go overboard with ramp size, and there was a downhill slope, we’d have bands playing – it was pretty epic. That happened every summer for the first few years we were open. It finally came to an end when one year several kids had major injuries and the Peoples Park Anniversary crew never invited us back. We’ve consistently been involved in smaller local skateboard-
ing events as well. We donate to all the local school fundraiser raffles, occasional video premieres just the usual things any good skate shop does. We did do a collaboration with Nike SB last year that did well – pretty fun to get to do something like that. We definitely have a presence on social media, on Instagram, and have been focusing more energy on our website over the past couple years. How have you kept the business going for 15 years? By staying focused and very involved – either one of us is around the shop most days of every week. We always try to focus on keeping the shop and the scene energized, and just to keep evolving, keeping it new, not letting it get stagnant. We don’t try to appeal to the masses, but stay focused on what local skaters want and what we think is cool. Since opening what has changed about the way you do business? We have a website now, so that’s different, but really not much has changed about the way we’ve done business since the beginning. I mean, we’ve learned a lot along the way of course, but I think it’s actually by continuing to do it the way we always have that has kept it good. Why are skate shops important for local skate scenes? The skate shop is where skateboarders meet up. The shop is the place where any skateboarder from anywhere can come and instantly connect with other skaters in that city or town. I think independent skate shops are invaluable in bringing skateboarders together. Any skater can pretty much go to any city in the world and if there’s a local shop, they can hook up with local skaters and instantly have friends there, which expands the scene. I feel like that is so unique to skateboarding, but maybe it’s like that in any subculture? For smaller towns, the shop helps give importance and concreteness to the local scene. The scene won’t disappear if the best skater quits or gets hurt and can’t skate – the shop is a physical sign that skateboarding is happening there – that a scene exists there and you can and should be part of it.
Why do you think there needs to be physical skate shops as opposed to just online stores? Physical shops are part of what enables the most important part of skateboarding to exist – the community and the scene. The shop is the hub – it’s the community center. The shop is the place that brings skateboarders together, especially in transient areas where new skateboarders are always coming in and everyone doesn’t already know each other. How do you compete with the online stores? We try to offer things they don’t have, both in the way of products and service, and just stay involved, stay connected with the skateboard community. What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened in the shop? I don’t know about the funniest, but being on Telegraph Avenue is pretty much a constant source of entertainment – there’s always something going on. The Gonz did an art installation at the shop a long time ago (maybe 10 years?) – he was hanging around for a few days. He’d help kids pick out boards and just hold down the counter. That was pretty amazing seeing him work the crowd. Do you have any advice for people who are thinking of opening a skate shop? Only do it if your community needs it. If there’s already a shop serving that community, you’re going to need to do it better than that shop or offer something they are not. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the actual demand for skateboard product in any given area is often much smaller than people perceive, so just do your homework. You don’t want to move in and cut an existing viable shop’s business in half making two shops that can’t pay their bills. www.510skateboarding.com