Incredibly bleak news. Had Ofsted in work last week, and you can see the strain it had on everyone, but especially on leadership. Similarly we were last rated as outstanding and then haven’t been revisited in 15 years.
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The report, which was published this week, found the school to be good in every category apart from leadership and management, where it was judged to be inadequate, the lowest rating. It meant the entire school dropped to the lowest rating.
Struggling to get my head around this part.
Well this was another letdown wasn’t it. Keep checking the news to see if it’s happened yet.
I’ve been following all his lawsuits and the ones against him. It’s days now, the noose isn tightening, he is so fucked from every angle.
Maximum schadenfreude
AI generated
If only. I bet he had these done to boost his victim of the left wing liberals image.
Wrong thread? skate news in here too?
So Parade is done. Not totally surprised as they deviated a long way from their original gameplan. They did piss me off a bit with some of their decisions but Craig was prepared to back what he was doing and was straight up about his ambitions for Parade.
Hope none of the people involved have lost out personally and I hope the void they leave isn’t filled by Route One or Skate Hut or some other heinous monstrosity.
Damn I thought they were killing it @jimo
I had a call with Craig a while back because I wasn’t very happy about removing the link to shops. I had a general sense that we were being used as free off-site warehousing 
I was a tiny piece of the puzzle, and I know how skate shops get treated by big brands and distributors so I didn’t expect much from parade but Craig called me and spoke for an hour plus about the whole business. Maximum respect for that.
He was basically in ‘expand or die’ mode. Said skate wouldn’t support the business model and they had to move beyond. Fair enough, felt a bit used as an independent who adds credibility only to be swiftly dumped. It’s the way of the world though.
Anyway, I guess when you expand you come up against a whole new wave of ruthless retail bullies and get your head flushed down the bog on the daily. Respect them for trying but it seems it didn’t work out.
I’ll be very wary of any such venture in future. The outlook for independent skate shops might be grim, but you’re better off slowly failing on your own terms than with false hope from someone else.
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How long did it stay independent on there? Not going to lie I used it as a stock checker a few times and then bought directly from the SOS.
I get that it must be hard to expand, but they killed the SEO game at one point.
They just take a % off you I’m guessing.
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For sure.
I don’t know exactly what happened but they slowly moved away from the core ideal of being a showcase for independent skate shops and rewrote their mission statement as they went along.
I think their affiliate model was a bit too cut-throat to work in the UK - they had to cannibalise the web traffic of the very people they were supposed to be supporting. They took 20% which was ok on clothing and shoes but pretty brutal on hardware or sale items.
As a result they decided to move into a more mainstream market because there’s kind of less requirement to act with a conscience then. Obviously when you want to pay professional salaries and so on you also have to scale up a lot too. Tough job for them to make it work.
The premise of growing a brand with core skate shop support, be that a retail business like parade or a skate brand that wants to target skateboarders, is fraught with difficulties. Most skate shops are basically lifestyle businesses. The skate shops that are real gems are mostly running on fumes and really appreciate every single sale. To take anything out of that ecosystem is quite damaging and leaves it weakened.
Anyway, long story short thanks for trying Parade I believe you had good intentions…but what really matters is supporting your local skate shop if they do a good job! Keep them going they really are sick and if they disappear you’ll miss them when they’re gone 
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It was useful for finding random bits or older stock. Shame its not worked out as it seems to be the most innovative thing to happen for a while.
Super hard to make money in skateboarding unless you’re a big manufacturer, distro or big name eh?
Hope Craig and team are ok and the SOS’s are going to pull through.
Real tough times.
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Super hard for everyone I’d say. Distros and big manufacturers almost have it worse. Yeah hope they all come out of it ok at least they gave it their best shot.
Yer I mean I would do anything to have a proper local shop again.
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Is Sean Goffs eBay store not enough for you?
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I just looked it up. Fucking hell.
I’m amazed anyone still runs an ebay shop due to the fees. His margins must be miniscule.