New Skate Shop Hits the Downtown Pavement

Maybe more reminiscent of a 1980s skate shop with its vibrant lime green, sky blue, and fluorescent orange artwork than anything traditionally Midwestern, This Skate and Snow is an artistic spectacle unto itself. The owners of the new downtown skate shop seem to have found a working formula in the pastiche that has become skating and snowboarding over the last several years. With little money and big plans the boys of TSAS have some major shredding to do.

So far, the shop itself has found a way to escape the white and black bannered walls that seem to plague retail skate shops throughout the Midwest. Given a portion of the store to work with, artists Jared Froeber, Cory Gillerstein, Paul Ide, Adam Bartron, John Powers and Micah lent their expertise to create the design of This Skate and Snow. From the front to the back of the store no wall is left unpainted.

Although there are still plans to add more designs to their arcade/skate video heaven in the back of the store, the artists have helped push forward This Skate and Snow’s vision to instill a change of direction in the Fargo skate scene.

Unjustly labeled as only ‘skate fans’ in a Forum article published earlier this year, owners Steve Bohr, Matt Gatzke, Nick Jones and Jared Lee combine an overall love for skating and snowboarding that stretches well outside the boundaries of merely fans of these sports.

Three out of the four owners have second jobs other than the shop and almost all of them find time to come in every day. No ones being paid for their efforts with almost all money made going towards something needed for the store.

Opened May 1st of this year, This Skate and Snow has taken on the task of building up the skate scene in Fargo. “There’s never actually been, like a ’core skate shop here, like an actual skateboarder owned skate shop,” said co-owner Matt Gatzke. “It’s always been this, you know, mall stuff.” The responsibilities of a local skate shop are bigger because there is a strong need to provide for your local scene and to do more than sell merchandise.

Since May, TSAS owners have been busy advertising the skate scene in Fargo. So far the store’s been busy being mentioned in well known skate magazines such as Thrasher and Low Card, sending pictures and video of local kids to skate reps, planning competitions and also discussing the possibility of having professional skateboard demos here in Fargo.

Even with several notches to their post already there seems to be no signs of slowing the pace. “One of our big goals is to get a magazine going, our own local magazine and getting the local scene hype back on skateboarding,” said co-owner Steve Bohr. Along with future plans for a magazine TSAS is already petitioning to add on to the skate park, they’re trying set up night snowboarding at the Bears Den in Fort Ransom, and they also want to combine local efforts to build an indoor skate park.

Most of these future plans, however, depend on how the store does over the winter months, which can be a scary time for any new establishment. Already on their way with strong convictions and bold efforts, This Skate and Snow have withered the first several months well, and with all skate puns intended, will hopefully grind out the murky winter months ahead.