I was, but they definitely offered for sale a shirt that used ‘gay’ as an insult. Might have been ‘Frankie Says: You’re Gay’; I remember posting it on the old forum.
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Because it wasn’t a “skate shop” in the true sense of the word. R1 sold TKC stuff like aerobies, it sold fashion stuff like FSAS and it sold things like Heelies.
Plus, and I wasn’t there for this period, I believe there was a chap who worked in a senior role in the 90’s who, by all accounts, was a proper dick.
that’s just semantics, you can’t hide behind a toy store facade to argue your point.
I bet the OP didn’t expect this when he parped up, ha.
No recollection of that mate, if there had been it certainly wouldn’t have made it into my store. There was a tee once that said summat about “A pint, two E’s and a…” and I refused to sell it as I felt it glamorised drug culture.
Anyway, it’s nearly twenty years ago. Hope the OP gets himself a decent set up from Ron or Blacksheep or whatever and has a laugh with it before he moves to NZ.
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I’m glad to be of service 
Where and when are you moving here? Great timing in a pandemic but we should be down a level of lockdown at least by the time you arrive.
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Ron is here. Ask him directly what sizes he has or possibilities to tailor to your budget.
Pretty certain he wouldn’t be one to give you poor guidance.
Nelson and probably in August/September 2020. My wife is already over here so i’m still here selling the house and having lots of time on my hands - hence the time to skateboard (in the garden that is). Where abouts are you?
Interesting- why there? I live in Auckland but have a few friends here originally from there.
@roncalow Ok. Hi Ron, so it would be an 8.25" board which is ideally under £70. Mainly interested in flat ground tricks for now but I would probably progress to to more basic park stuff like ledges and rails etc. I currently don’t have any interest in big ramp park stuff as the older I get the more I focus on how much I can get hurt 
Don’t worry if you can’t think of anything for me as I know my budget is lower than what I would pay for a board I would keep forever. Thanks
My wife is a Kiwi and grew up up in Nelson and her family is there. How’s the skate scene in Auckland? I bet it’s pretty big
Cool, take it you’ve been over a few times before? Lots of skaters here and probably the only negative is there’s just no indoor parks and it rains a fair bit!
Leeds Route one was the only proper shop for a while and Wally was the manager. He gave me a job and honestly I was probably late every day and I definitely did fuck all.
Doesn’t mean it’s good but there’s competition in all retail.
Also, if I ran a skate shop I’d definitely sell questionable shit if it meant I could stay open and feed myself.
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I hurt myself skating flat ground the other day. Rolled my ankle and it’s now massive! Little bit of bruising but it’s all good. All part of the fun of learning etc
When did you work there? Leeds Route One was the first skateshop I visited when I moved to a Leeds for uni. They told me how to get up to Hyde park and where the playhouse was. Maybe it was you haha
Not sure if welcome was around at that time (2007) but there were a few other skate shops in Leeds that all seemed to be affected by the big city centre redevelopment. Route One didn’t reopen afterwards and the one that was in the corn exchange had to move locations and then didn’t last long (can’t remember which shop it was).
Not related to the previous discussion, just a thought about how the high street has changed.
Route One in Oxford ran at a loss because SS20 was still open, thats a fact.
Yeah lived in Wellington for 2 years back in 2013
Exactly, why would you even contemplate setting up in Oxford knowing that SS20 have it sewn up unless you aim to take their business away.
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Yup, and Legends as well, they turned into the Extreme Store. Before the Extreme Store opened in Oxford (was there for maybe 2 years) the owner or whoever was hiring came to SS20 and tried to poach us to work in his shop. Was tempted just to steal from it.
But I won’t lie, I’ve bought sale shoes from Route One in the past year. 1 year old comes first, and don’t have the blag hook ups like before, at leats not for shoes. Do my best to buy from SOS’s but I’m not paying £80 for something that R1 have for £40. Feel like I did my stint for the scene big time so am allowed cheap shoes. Plus I will not buy from Oxford’s new SOS for personal/SS20/people talking shit reasons.
Bored/Welcome/Note whoever else can have it instead.
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