15 Years with Sidewalk skateshop
Thomas Madsen, skateboarder, father and sidewalk skateshop owner, since 15 years
How has it been to own a skatestore for 15 years ?It’s been a dream come through. I always wanted to work in the world of skateboarding. When I was younger I was dreaming about California and wanted to work for one of the big companies like Santa Cruz or Powell Peralta, but when I finally made it over in ‘95, the world economy had crashed and the companies were struggling. So I ended up skating everyday and had some of the best time of my life.What has been the best experience ?The best is always to put a complete board together and see a kid get super stoked over his first board.What has been the worst experiences ?I don’t think I had any bad experiences. I want to see the shop grow and be part of a community. And that is still the plan.Can you make some dollars on having a skate store ?Yes. Freedom is more important to me than money. But you gotta work to live and I’m very happy of what I’m doing.Do you want to open more stores ?No. I keep it simple.Do you still have time to skate ?Not enough.What about your team, they seem to be doing a good job for you ?The team (hugo,Ville, just, Roberts, balder, stege, Nicoline and Noa) are all ambassadors. The help me tell the story about Sidewalk for sure. I have a lot of people to thank for that Sidewalk exist today and all of the team is diffidently some of them.Do you plan any more sidewalk tours ?Yes. Hopefully we will do a Tour in Denmark this summer.Do you want to see more skatestore owned stores around the world ?Yes. I think you will see them in the future and they are important for the local skate community’s.
What advise would you give a new skater that want to open a skate store ?Find a community that needs it.Can you tell us a funny customer story ?We sold Sean Malto a new complete board and Nike shoes, because his luggage for CPH OPEN was missing. I thought that was a little bit funny.
