Support Your Local Shaper
Shawn Vecchione
As surfers, we can all agree that surf shops aren’t just any ordinary shop. A surf shop is a place where you meet people that share your love for something. It’s a place where you establish friendships and build knowledge. It’s a place we can all get caught staring at a tv screen, watching the latest surf film, wondering how Wilko just chucked up that 12 o’clock backhand.
A few years ago I stumbled across an Instagram page called “Building the Revolution,” which was creating awareness about the importance of supporting your local surf shop. It encouraged me to reach out to Steve Cousins, a shaper and shop owner himself, about how the growing online marketplace affects his business.
Owning a surf shop in a small town, he is in the same boat as many other small business owners around the world. Quite simply, There’s no denying that the online marketplace is hurting his business as well as many others. With everything from free postage on most online retailers to their ability to drop prices thanks to a high turnover, online retail is a massive challenge for the local surf shop.
It’s important we support our local surf shops to ensure the growth in our own communities. For many years, these are the very places that have brought us together.