Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Established: KCDC Skateshop
Learn more about KCDC Skateshop in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn cornerstone since 2001, KCDC sits at the crossroads of culture and industry in the NYC skate scene. Owner Amy Ellington's community-driven approach to unifying and supporting the New York skate scene has earned the shop a special place in the city's vibrant skate history. Learn more about KCDC 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 Amy Gunther, owner of KCDC Skateshop:
My name is Amy Gunther Ellington, 47 years old and I'm the owner of KCDC in Brooklyn and I'm running it since November 2001.
Back then, my partner wanted to open a skate shop, and I had previous experience (I co-owned a shop in Upstate New York) and lots of friends in skateboarding. He lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and wanted to open in that area, which at the time was pretty lonely. I asked some friends that had a photo studio out there if they knew of any empty spaces, and KCDC was born.
KCDC skateshop
© Courtesy of KCDC
I went to Supreme a lot before we opened KCDC. My friends worked there, and it was a daily stop. I worked at X-Large across the street, and it was a fun community between Supreme, Liquid Sky, X-Girl, and us. That feeling of community while supporting a larger community was cool and felt very natural to me. I loved the idea of building retail as a cultural hub. The true meaning of KCDC will remain a secret, but we love hearing people's ideas. Since its inception, KCDC has always done events. Big or small and everything in between. It's been the biggest motivation for me to have people come together. The reward still outweighs the efforts even when the steps seem impossible or daunting, we have always made it happen. I love what I do every single day.
I love hearing about new shops and brands opening! I feel we all have a similar foundation but seeing what people have done with their shops and brands recently is genuinely inspirational. I love that people are combining other things to supplement, like adding a flower shop, coffee shop, or whatever to a skate shop. Skateboarding has evolved so much; it’s cool to see the retail aspect growing with it.
KCDC skateshop
© Courtesy of KCDC
With the pandemic, we have learned to change the way we bring people together. We have had some socially distant skate contests and have also taken a stand to educate skaters about voting. We implemented all of our outlets, including our skate team, social media, and in-store learning sessions held outside the shop, to educate as much as we could to rely on voting for what you believe. When I was younger, I didn't know the impact of the youth vote; I didn't care to learn as much. When I got older and was trying to get stuff done for the skate community, i.e., skate parks built, large scale events, you are dealing with the community boards and local politicians to get things done. It's a direct correlation of skateboarding to the people elected in government.
The biggest challenge today is to keep hard goods in stock! We are uptick again in the industry's demand, and even though it didn't stem from the best reason, we are doing our best to support the new skaters coming out of these quarantine times.
© Courtesy of KCDC
A crazy story that happened here was the Blackout in 2003. Our original opening date in 2001 was delayed due to 9/11. Most New Yorkers were still pretty on edge after that, so when the blackout happened, we became a hub for friends and customers to stop by and leave messages for each other, have some food or drinks, hang out. For me, it was an excellent opportunity to see what we could do with the shop to support the community as a whole. It set the tone for what KCDC would be.
