Kingpin is a new skate store in Sydney’s North West suburb of Penrith. Opened by Juice/Vox Australia’s Guy Miller and Dave Bodnar… You might know him from the 1800 Reverse commercials in the early 2000’s… The store is only months old but already has a great vibe about it. I had a quick catch up with Guy about how things are going at the store and what it was like opening it up.
Guy, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Let’s start with a bit of your history. Who are the Kingpin guys and what were you doing before you were skate shop owners?
Well, I run Juice clothing and distribute Vox Footwear out here… As well as helping Boost Mobile with the skate side of their marketing. I also shoot some skate photos but really as you’ll see from these answers I should just devote myself to writing and grammar in general. What Dave was up too before this I’m not sure, but this is what he used to do:
[Laughs] That’s hilarious… Since you’ve opened the doors, how has it all been going? Is it easier or harder than you thought it would be?
I’d say it’s been kind of what I expected since we opened. Dave runs the show and does most of everything so not sure how it has been for him. It was hard work to get the doors opened for sure.
If you’ve learnt anything that you’d tell people looking to start their own store, what would that be?
Make sure you don’t order too much to start with… But I didn’t learn that from opening my own store. I’ve just seen it from the wholesale side, people start a store and order way too much at the beginning.
You guys were straight onto the interwebz thing – most stores don’t bother with a site for the first few years, if ever. What prompted you to get on there so fast? Have you plans for an online store?
Yeah, the web is the future. Dave is pretty into hanging out on the net so I think it was natural to do a site. Dave’s done a sick job on the site. For sure we will have a online store in the future.
Moving onto stock – What’s the best selling hardware you have in store at the moment?
Deathwish and Amneisa. Then a mix of a million brands, then all the cheap crap seems to do pretty well also.
What about shoes… What’s selling well at the moment?
Vans, Vox and then a bit of everything else.
What’s coming up that you’re really excited about? Any new brands or products that have you hyped?
Not really but I’m hyped on the new team riders that we have coming out, there is a contest to guess them here.
You seem to be multi-multi talented… I get videos, photos, team info and product info all from the one… Guy.
It would have been good if Dave responded to this one, I would have got caned. [Laughs]
Who’s on the shop team so far? Have you got your eye on anyone new?
Yeah, we have Ben Bodnar, Danny Gluskie and two new super-riders.
Any major plans for the future you can tell us about?
Hopefully just keep living … Keep the dream alive.
Last words?
Have a look at: kingpinstore.com and playhimoffkeyboardcat.com
