Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Established: Cowtown Skateboards
Learn more about Cowtown Skateboards in Arizona.
Home of the legendary Phoenix Am, Cowtown Skateboards has put Arizona skate on the map since 1997. From loyal locals to visiting pros, Cowtown's impact has reached beyond Arizona and into the world. Learn more about Cowtown in this episode of "Established."
The below story originally appeared in Lucas Beaufort's book "Heart," a 428-page celebration of skate shops - the community hubs that keep this culture alive. What started from interviewing a few owners, "Heart" grew to 90 stories from around the world, capped off with an A-Z list of almost 1,000 shops globally. This book is available for purchase at your local skate shop.
From Trent Martin of Cowtown Skateboards:
I’m Trent Martin, Hardgoods Buyer / Event Coordinator at Cowtown in Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona. Laura Martin is the General Manager and Ed Cox, 49 years old is the brand Manager - Creative Director. We are open since 1997. Before Cowtown I was working at another shop that sold skateboards, snowboards and other stuff. I tried to get them to focus more on skateboards, but they were in the mall and had other opinions. So, we decided to start our own. Laura was working at another skate shop and raising money with a bunch of friends for Desert West. Ed was working as a graphic designer at an embroidery house.
Ed and Trent at the Phoenix shop
© Courtesy of Cowtown Skateboarads
The shops in our area really just sold stuff and never did anything for the scene. Trent, Laura and I wanted to have a shop that truly nurtured and sustained our Arizona scene. Use the shop as a vessel to preserve skateboard culture by contributing back to skateboarding, not just taking from it.
When we were getting close to opening, we realized we still needed a sign for the shop. We had no idea they were so expensive. We had spent all, I mean ALL, our savings on inventory. We were skating the ramp at my parent's house and talking about it. One of us just started joking about saving the money by leaving the former business name painted on the window of our space. "We can just scrape the word Boots off the window and paint skateboards." We laughed because it was a terrible name but figured everyone would remember it. Besides that, it was definitely what a lot of people thought of Arizona at the time. When we went back to scrape the window, we realized it said COWBOY Boot repair not COWTOWN. We decided to leave it because what could someone expect from a skate shop called Cowtown!
Zach Jordan
© Courtesy of Cowtown Skateboards
Our shop is and will always be home. It's where we all can connect with what we love. Learn something new, have a smile and laugh. For us, the key to sustain and grow as a skate shop is accepting everyone with open arms.
Never forget we were all that uncomfortable and overexcited kid who just learned how to push! It's where it all started. Every one of us had to go through to open the door to endless possibilities. The difference between one or another skate shop is what the shop contributes to its community and back into skateboarding. Anyone can sell stuff, building and sustaining your scene and culture makes the difference. Keeping things moving and progressing on and off the board, skateboarders can do anything good!
