HISTORY OF NJ SKATESHOP:
NJ Skateshop first opened its doors in Sayreville, NJ (Boyhood home of Bon Jovi) with all of 8 styles of shoes and 2 dozen skateboards on the wall. NJ Two in New Brunswick (Birthplace of Michael Douglas and home to Rutgers University, Jersey’s largest center of higher education.) Patrick’s Day in 2007 during an awful blizzard. Yet 300 faithful NJ & Nike fans helped celebr
ate the occasion in 5-degree weather. The store was designed and themed after the legendary World Industries Mike Vallely Barnyard deck that sits proudly on the shop wall. (Mike V is an area local and the Barnyard deck changed skateboarding forever by being the first board with a symmetrical nose and tail i.e. NJ Three opened a year and half later in August of 2008 in Hoboken, NJ (Home of Frank Sinatra and baseball.). Naturally, the store was painted baby blue in honor of Sinatra’s famous eyes. The short-lived NJ 4 opened in Princeton, NJ (Home of Ivy League Princeton University, the 4th university in all of America and temporary home of Albert Einstein.) in September of 2010 and closed in 2013. The store was painted bright orange to support the school’s Princeton Tigers teams. Our Hoboken store was relocated to Jersey City in 2018. Aside from the stores all being in great towns, their locations were chosen based upon their proximity to some of the most legendary skate spots in New Jersey. But the idea of NJ Skateshop came long before the turn of the century. Owners Steve Lenardo and Chris Nieratko have each been skating nearly 25 years and back when they were kids skateboarding was small; there were no such things as proper skateshops. No place sold ONLY skateboards. There were great shops growing up in Jersey but they all shared space with something else: Cardboard Closet was a baseball card shop with some boards, T & F was a hunting supply store with
skateboards, ABF was a flower shop with skateboards. Even back then we’d say, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a shop that is just skateboards?” (That right there is the reason we don’t carry snowboards, scooters, Heelys or anything non-skate.) In 2001 the township of Sayreville decided they were going to not only build another park (Sayreville was one of few towns to have a skatepark in the late 80s.) but they were going to build it in cement and make it permanent. Right then it was decided NJ Skateshop had to happen. If it wasn’t a couple of guys that grew up skating in Sayreville that opened a skateshop in Sayreville then it would be someone who didn’t skate or “used to” skate and they’d do it all wrong. The first shop opened in July, the park opened in early September, 2003 and two weeks later with only 2 styles of Emerica on the wall but with eyes on a blossoming new skate scene in New Jersey the entire Emerica team did NJ Skateshop’s first demo. Hundreds and hundreds of people turned out, kids had to climb trees to see, every part of the park was skated and from there? It was on. NJ has held hundreds of demos in the past 8 years and continues to try and show love and support for our local scene in every way possible. We thank any skater that has ever walked through our doors, rode for our team, or just skates in New Jersey. You are the reason we keep doing this.
