EVERETT, APRIL 8: “When kids come in to buy a board, I tell them, ‘You just made friends all around the world’”, Pops Skate Shop owner Ben Corey said.
To Corey and shop-goers, skateboarding is more than a hobby. It is a lifestyle.
Corey has been skateboarding since 1995. Pops was opened five years ago to help fill a need in a community that had a lot of skateboarders and skateboarding history, he said.
Pops Skate Shop opened during the winter of 2020, months after the COVID-19 pandemic was set in place. And despite all odds, much like skateboarding culture itself, it has survived.
The shop, located on Rucker Ave, is nestled between two other businesses on the strip. They sell all the workings of a skateboard from custom boards, trucks and wheels to local merch.
Currently, Pops is the only skateboarding shop in Snohomish County.
Corey compares skateboarding to a “lifelong addiction”, picking up the sport at 11 and never stopping. He is currently a teacher in Granite Falls while having the business on the side.
Even though Corey grew up in Marysville, he and his friends would come to Everett for the skateboarding scene. He recalls getting chased away by cops at one point or another.
“In the 90’s and earlier there was this kind of public perception of skateboarders as just being equivalent to criminal activity. Or trespassers or vandals,” Corey said.
But now, skateboarding culture seems to have taken a “180” according to Corey.
All about community
Corey is passionate about connecting the community to skateboarding. Whether it’s selling a board to a new skater or sharing cool tricks on the shop’s social media, he’s working to keep the culture alive.
“Skateboarders take care of each other and when people are new, we generally are excited to help them learn and encourage people and get together,” Corey said
Corey is working on ways to create accessible skating areas downtown by working with the City of Everett. One project he helped advise was removing barriers in the Wetmore Theatre Plaza, 2710 Wetmore Ave.
“The plaza is an area that lends itself to skateboarding, it’s got ledges, a manual pad, and open space. The city had put skate stoppers and ‘No Skateboarding’ signs and you would be kicked out of it. So, we worked with the city to open it up to skateboarding,” Corey said.
Lions Park in south Everett will soon get its own skating amenity, which was announced during the Mayor’s State of the City address last month.
Corey is currently working to get a program started at the Tulalip Skate Park. Pops has donated boards and is hoping to start a skate clinic to encourage more kids to participate in the sport.
“Skateboarding is very community-oriented and almost necessarily political because if you don’t have a skate park then you’re skating at the school or the parking lot…” Corey said.
It is currently unlawful for a person to skateboard on a public sidewalk or roadway in the central business district. Providing dedicated spaces for skateboarding provides a safe way for people to participate in the sport.
The sport has a long and tumultuous history, specifically in the early 90’s. Skateboarding was frowned upon due to its association with crime and malicious behavior.
Jefferson Elliott is the main guy behind the Pops counter and has been skating even longer than Corey. He has seen the general attitude towards skateboarding change but believes there is much to be done.
“The mayor is trying to do something they’re reaching out and stuff but there is a lot more work to be done before skaters are going to feel welcomed in Everett…” Elliott said.
He said that skateboarding had a huge resurgence during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now five years later, the market is dwindling.
“This wave is crashing hard, and the industry is getting hit so the shops are dying one by one,” Elliott said. But what makes Pops different is how it gives back to the community and the skateboard scene.
He said that one thing that is interesting about Pops is the amount of people who come in wanting to learn more about skateboarding.
“For whatever reason people are thinking about skateboarding in this county. They find out that there is a skateboard shop to go to and they are coming in here and buying skateboards based on our knowledge…In other shops, people know what they want already,” Elliott said.
Corey’s love for the local community, and Everett, is apparent through his custom-made merchandise in the store.
“It [the city of Everett] is getting cooler all the time. It has a reputation to a degree, which is fine I like it kind of gritty. But the city is doing a lot of really cool stuff…it’s cool to represent your own town,” Corey said.
