| We call Australia home |
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| Written by Skatebiz | |
| Thursday, 24 August 2006 | |
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For the last couple of years Skatebiz has been actively supporting Australian companies over U.S owned companies. Although this stance has left some of our distributors shaking their heads we feel it is the best for us, you and Australia. We will never stop stocking overseas product but have made an effort to strongly promote Aussie products that we feel are better quality and sometimes cheaper than the rivals.
Around the same time one of Australia’s finest skating products Brett Margaritis left Sydney and returned to Perth to start another Australian success story MODUS BEARINGS. We took one of the store’s biggest chance’s and phased out the selling of the ever popular Bones Reds bearings. It’s been over 2 years since this decision and it’s one we don’t regret. We always tell our customer "Why would you buy Red’s when you can get Modus 3’s for the same price and it’s an Aussie company?" needless to say we have never had the need to put Red’s back in the store. Brett has been good to us with MODUS and has branched out to start 4 SKATEBOARDS. Using some of the finest U.S wood available these are top quality decks. One of my favorite Aussie companies is JUICE CLOTHING. I can still remember the fist sales trip the 2 owners Richard and Guy made to sell this new range of Australian clothing. It was an instant success and the boys are still going today. There have been numerous Aussie skate clothing labels come and go in that time but JUICE is still there for the skaters. Clothing has got to be the hardest industry to survive in but these guys have stayed the course and will be around for a while yet. Anyone who’s been to the Brisbane store will know how well we support the home grown element, but it took a while to get the customers on SEVEN skateboards. Now we can’t keep them off them. Ben Mackay has been making totally Australian made decks and the success is in the growth he has had. With what seems like an endless supply of graphics coming out and the release of 2 new pro model decks Ben has to be one of the hardest working guys in the industry. With the launch of TAPE Griptape he adds to an already growing range of products. You can look in any part of the store and find good Aussie product including wheels with a company like ELECTRIC URETHANE who have been making wheels longer than most guys have been skating. Little do people know that Coretech wheels were some of the most advanced wheels in skateboarding and led to many U.S companies making cored wheels. ELECTRIC has just re-released there popular Electro wheels under a new name Coretech Mono’s. With the old comes the new with local Ben O’Neill starting PICTURE WHEEL COMPANY. The new wheels have hit the store and are getting rave reviews. Skatebiz’s ethos to promote quality Australian product as an alternative to the U.S companies remains strong to this day. In January this year Skatebiz ran the first "Buy Aussie Month" where we dedicated our whole skate wall to Aussie skateboards and promoted Aussie companies throughout the store. A huge success we hope to continue for years to come. Coming into our store may leave many wanting for more U.S product but we feel the price and quality of the Aussie product makes it an easy choice for the customer. We want to see local skaters looked after and no one does it better than Aussie companies. We have no animosity toward overseas companies but Skatebiz is trying to propagate a scene similar to that of Europe which has exported to the U.S such companies as Cliché, Blueprint, Crème Skateboards and Aeon Footwear.
We believe strongly in the Aussie companies we carry and there are lots we failed to mention above that we also sell. You may not think the same but we urge you to take the time to look at Aussie products and remember that they really are the glue that keeps the Aussie scene together. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 August 2006 ) |
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