Since the opening of their first store inside a Seattle mall back in 1978, Zumiez has become the largest chain of “skate shops” in the world.
Currently, Zumiez has over 658 locations in the US and Canada, and sells millions of dollars worth of apparel and skateboarding supplies annually.
Given their growth and success, most would assume that Zumiez receives a lot of support from the skateboarding community, however, that’s far from reality.
The truth is, most skateboarders hate Zumiez, and any store similar to Zumiez for that matter.
This can come as a bit of a surprise to and non-skateboarders and people who are new to skating. After all, what’s so bad about a mall store for young people?
Well, after learning more about the situation, it’s easy to understand not only why skaters hate Zumiez, but why you should too.
5 Reasons Why Skaters Hate Zumiez
There’s a lot of things that skateboarders hate, and some things definitely get more backlash than needed. With that said, when it comes to skateboarders’ discontent with Zumiez, it’s pretty understandable.
There are plenty of reasons why skateboarders hate Zumiez, but it mostly comes down to one simple fact: Zumiez isn’t a core skate shop. This means Zumiez doesn’t help the skateboarding community, they don’t carry skateboarding brands that real skateboarders want, and worst of all, they undercut prices and drive actual core skate shops out of business. With that said, there’s a lot that goes into the situation, so it’s important to understand the full picture.
These are 5 reasons why skateboarders hate Zumiez, and any shop similar to them such as Tilly’s, CCS, and Pacsun.
1. Most Zumiez Employees Don’t Skate
Despite being marketed as a “skate shop”, most Zumiez employees don’t skate.
There might be a couple of them who can stand on a skateboard, and there may even be one that can somewhat ollie, but the majority of them couldn’t tell you the difference between a kickflip and a heelflip.
At first, this might not seem like a big deal, because a person’s hobbies don’t matter for most jobs. However, when it comes to working at a skate shop, the person behind the counter needs to know what they’re talking about.
It’s almost like going to a bike shop where the employees working there have never even ridden a bike.
Skateboarding is incredibly nuanced, and things like the size of your board, diameter of your wheels, and size of your trucks can all have a major impact on how you skate.
This means that when some 12-year-old walks in to buy their first skateboard, they’re most likely getting advice from someone who has no idea what they’re even recommending.
At an actual core skate shop (not some mall store) you can almost guarantee that the people working there have been skating for most of their life, and can actually give valuable insight on what they’re selling.
Advice on what the best skateboarding accessories are should come from people who actually have the experience and knowledge to give proper recommendations.
2. Zumiez Doesn’t Help Local Skate Scenes
Skateboarding is unlike most other sports/activities, and because of that, skate shops are unlike most other retail stores.
Local skate shops are the foundation of a skateboarding community. Aside from selling skate products, they also do a variety of things that helps nurture the local skate scene.
Most local skate shops host video premieres, help get new skate parks built, get pro skate teams to do signings, sponsor local skaters, have contests, and provide a place for skaters to hang out. Their main purpose isn’t to make money, but rather to help push the local skate scene forward
Zumiez on the other hand exists solely to make money, and do very little for the skateboarding community.
It’s not like Zumiez does nothing, because in the past they have sponsored contests, but they’ve been few and far between. Unlike local core skate shops, Zumiez has no ongoing effort to help out local skate scenes.
For someone who doesn’t skate, it might seem odd for someone to expect a business to be that involved with their customers, but that involvement is what keeps the local skateboarding community alive.
It’s a symbiotic trade-off where local skaters willingly shop at a store knowing they could buy some of the products cheaper online. In return, the skate shop helps give back to the community and acts as a pillar for the local skaters.
This isn’t something that’s scalable, which is why every city has its own local skate shop. Since Zumiez is a massive corporation, it’s virtually impossible for them to be as involved in a local scene as a smaller skate shop is.
3. Zumiez Doesn’t Carry Good Skate Brands
The average Zumiez is significantly larger than the average local skate shop. This allows them to carry a large quantity of skateboarding supplies and apparel, most of which are brands that actual skateboarders don’t wear / use.
This isn’t to say that all the brands Zumiez has are disliked, just a large portion of them.
Zumiez only carries larger brands that allow them to buy products in bulk, and don’t cater to the smaller skate companies that most skateboarders like.
Over the years, skateboarding has become increasingly niched down. Rather than 3-4 brands running the show, there are 10-20 brands that all have a core following.
Since Zumiez only carries larger brands, several of which aren’t even skate brands, they prevent the smaller brands from getting support.
4. Zumiez Sells Out Skate Culture
Skateboarding is pretty much as underground as it gets. Over the years though it’s become increasingly mainstream, and companies like Zumiez have been profiting heavily off of commoditizing it.
Now it’s hard to say for sure where the line is in terms of “selling out”, but wherever it is, Zumiez definitely crossed it.
Zumiez is essentially a generic mall apparel store disguised as a skate shop. They don’t actually cater to real skateboarders, and instead, they sell the image of what they think skateboarding is to people who don’t actually skate.
Real skateboarders can see it instantly, but non-skateboarders don’t know any better, and for the most part don’t care.
The people who shop at Zumiez are people who think skateboarding is cool, but don’t skate themselves. They just want to give off the vibe that they skate, and Zumiez is more than happy to sell it to them.
5. Zumiez Ruins Local Skate Shops
Perhaps the biggest reason why skateboarders hate Zumiez is because they cause core skate shops to go out of business.
Most skateboarding scenes are pretty small, and skate shops tend to make just enough revenue to keep the doors open and host a few events each year. Even with the support of local skaters, most small skate shops often rely on new skaters or random foot traffic to stay open. When a Zumiez comes to town, they steal a lot of the local shop’s business by undercutting their prices and marketing to parents who don’t know any better.
A lot of parents/kids who are just starting out don’t yet realize the importance of supporting their local skate shop. When it comes time for them to buy their first board, or do some holiday shopping, they end up doing it at the mall for convenience.
Unfortunately, those are a large portion of a local shop’s customer base, and there’s very little that a core skate shop can do to compete. Even with the support of local skaters, this can often cause small skate shops to go out of business.
Once the core skate shop is gone, that means there are no more contests, no more demos, no more signings, no more video premieres, no one getting skate parks built, and no central place for local skaters to hang out.
Why Do Skateboarders Hate Zumiez?
If you aren’t a skateboarder, or if you’re new to skateboarding, it can be a bit confusing trying to figure out why skaters hate Zumiez.
From the outside looking in, Zumiez seems like a cool store inside of malls that young people like to shop at. They have couches and video games set up, they play skate videos on TVs, and they sell a variety of streetwear and skate supplies.
The reasons why skaters hate Zumiez are the same reasons why they hate Tilly’s, Pacsun, Nike, Adidas, and every other corporation trying to get into skateboarding.
Unfortunately, Zumiez is just another large corporation trying to capitalize on skateboarding, without contributing anything to the community.
There are definitely certain things in skateboarding that get unnecessary backlash, but when it comes to Zumiez, most would agree it’s justified.