THE RULES OF SKATEBOARDING #15: MIKE GIGLIOTTI
Who else but Cosme could make an illustration like this happen?
2020 has been an interesting (to say the least) year for us all, but it’s been an especially noteworthy one for skate shops. What do you do during a stay-at-home order when your business relies on people coming in your door? Ian Browning talked to Mike Gigliotti of Lotties Skateshop in Los Angeles to get the low down on what’s helping (and what’s hurting) shops right now.
How have things been at the shop for you lately? You guys a have a stay-at-home order now, right?
Yeah, we do. I mean, it's fluctuated through this whole thing. We were closed March, April, May and part of June, reopened, and then seemed like a lot of people were excited. And then I’ve noticed because the stay at home order, even the last couple weeks, it just is like, less and less people coming in.
Still, we're fine though. All things considered, especially like what other family and friends have to do with their jobs. Like skate shops, I think the opposite happened, which was a surprise to everyone, where they've all been able to, make it through this. So I'm hoping it stays that way.
That's good. Have you had any brands or people in the industry that have done anything to make it easier to run a shop since this all went down?
Yeah, for sure, man. Where do I begin? I mean, there's so many companies that did things—maybe not directly for my shop but skate shops in general like Deluxe. Deluxe did the whole Sketchy Skate Shop Appreciation thing with Mark Gonzales. I mean, dude that that definitely brought money and business to skate shops that might have otherwise been suffering a little bit. Vans did the whole thing where they let like a ton of businesses and skate shops like customized shoes and all the money went to that shop. That was big.
Shop owners CAN get down. Our interviewee with a backside lipslide shove-it out.
What about the flip side? Are there brands that have made your life as a skate shop more as a shop owner more difficult lately?
Absolutely. And to be quite honest, I don't want I don't want to name any names, because I don't think that'll do them any good. And it won't do me any good. I think that the best thing to do is to just draw attention to it like, ‘Yo, this is happening’.
Well, do you want to break it down a little bit regarding what you were talking about in that post for everybody who has never worked in a shop and maybe didn't completely understand what you were talking about?
It's a matter of when they start putting it (product) on their website versus when you (the shop) get it. Companies will email you three to six months, maybe sometimes eight months in advance. ‘Yo, this is our clothing line that's fuckin’ coming out in April.’, so you get all gassed up, you order it. And then when that company receives it in their warehouse, they put it online immediately. People from all over the world go to that website and buy up that product, then afterward the skate shop gets it.
Sometimes it's a day or two. Sometimes it's weeks later. I'm currently dealing with a couple companies where literally, I still haven't received product that they put online, no joke, two weeks ago, and it's already sold out online.
I've seen customers come in with the product that we're going to get and they've said to me, ‘I would have bought it from you, had I known you were going to get it. And I'm like, ‘It's all good. Do your thing’. I'm not telling you what to buy or where to buy it.
I know that could come off to people who don't understand like, well, why do you get to fucking get first dibs? Fuck your shop. You're not special. Why can't that company make their money? It's like, they absolutely can. If they want to fucking make product that's only sold on their website, go for it. If they want to make product that's exclusively sold at one skate shop that they are friends with, go for it. But they do a one time release of this product. If you don't pre book it, you're not getting it. So basically, you have to tie up money with this company, and then you don't even get it in a timely fashion.
Imagine a world where Andrew Reynolds’ finest work shows up in a shop video. Oh wait, that’s just reality now. Don’t hate it at all. Half Cab krooked gride to fakie.
Are you paying for prebook gear before you get it in?
Am I paying for it? Like do they charge my card? No, typically, they don't charge you until it ships. I'm fucking tied up with probably four different companies right now that I want to call and be like, ‘Yo, can I cancel my pre book? You know, it's not a dig at you’.
The funny thing is the companies that do this the worst. Some of them are, I love these companies. It would bum me out to not be able to sell their product in my shop. But I'm just like, dude, it screws us over. And then the shit sits on the shelf. It's like, you don't want that for your company, either. Like Jerry Hsu said, the math is not that hard. You send it out. You tell the shops. Yo, December 23. Is the day this goes on sale. If you receive it before then, do us a favor. Don't sell it until that day. Cool.
We don't carry shoes, really. A lot of people thought I was talking about Nike and Adidas. I don't even carry that shit. Dude, we carry Emerica and Vans and that's it. But with shoes, they'll send them to you and be like, ‘Hey, don't put these on the rack until this day’. And if you want to maintain a good relationship with that company, which if you have a shop, I hope you do, you'll follow those rules. And these companies need to get better at thinking about the actual shop that they are supporting. If you want to put your whole goddamn fucking line—clothing, board, shoes, whatever, on a website, go for it. Do whatever you want, but you can't expect shops to want to order from you if you do that. And I believe personally that that would be short sighted.
Yeah, initially you're going to make more money, but long term, your visibility is going to be shocked. I know you don't make as much money wholesaling the shops, but clearly they want their product in skate shops, right? If I was to look at anybody, to any company who could I model my fucking business off? They're like, what, who should I aspire to? Look at Deluxe. Look at Baker Boys. They've been around over 20 years. There's reasons for that. And it's because they're good to the people. The support is fucking mutually beneficial on both sides.
Jerry has, and will, get down for Lotties. Fakie 5-0.
With the stuff that goes on to the brands’ websites, does it sell out there and then sell out at your shop? I think a lot of these brands, you'll see the shit go live on their websites, and it seems to sell out very quickly. Do you end up then being able to move it? Or are you, in your experience, kind of the one that's left with like the last pieces that don't sell?
I'm left with the last pieces that don't sell. Nine times out of 10. I've gotten better at maybe not ordering certain things. I can predict even if we sit on something for a while, it will eventually sell. There’s a learning process of like, we're in Southern California, maybe we don't need that many beanies or jackets or shit like that.
We have a cardboard box that's, like, a sale bin, right? We’ve had kids come in, rifling through there and being like: holy shit, there's a fucking (insert the name of the company) t-shirt here for 15 bucks. I'm just trying to make my money back on that, you know, and it could be a t-shirt that sold out in two seconds online.
I’ve talked to all these skate shops and they're just like ‘Dude, I'm fucking sitting on this product’. So I've yet to talk to a shop owner that's been like ‘Oh no, we get that shipment and it flies out the door’.
This made us smile. Mike Gigliotti with an extremely satisfying ride-on backside 50-50.
Other than not selling gear directly to consumers off their website before it shows up at shops, what else can brands do to throw a bone to shops these days?
I mean, that's the thing is I don't want to tell a brand what to do, ever. Some people did write about this on Instagram and I'm like, alright, they're wrong, but I see what they're saying, maybe small businesses are just trying to survive right now too. And I'm like, you're right. I can't expect businesses to like only fucking look after shops and do everything they can. I think what they could do is do what I'm asking. Just get us the product before you list it on your own website. That's all.
I'm not asking you to give money, collab, discount, nothing. Just make sure we get the product at the same time so that we can sell it too. And if not, believe me, I've talked to them. More and more shops are going to stop placing these pre-books. It fiscally makes no sense at all. And I'm fucking bad fiscally, but even I can notice that this is not cool.
I think any support in terms of offering help is always appreciated and is awesome, but I would never ask them to go out of their way to do anything special for us. What I wrote in that Instagram post, I don't think it’s that unique or special. I think it should just be standard business practice.
What about the consumer? What's one thing we can all do to help keep our local shops open?
Man, just buy from the shops. That's really it. It’s simple. There are so many shops—if you're going buy a board online, buy from a shop. If you buy direct from the shop, you're helping them out.