At Tactics Board and Snow Shop, comfort and style are limitless. The building is an industrial complex with an interior of exposed ceiling vents and wood panels laid across the floor. At the front of the store, there is a display with the latest skate shoes of the season. One can also view from a distance the enormous display of skateboard decks with skulls, demons and disembodied cartoon characters floating on shelves in the back. Sales associates are available to help beginners buy gear for their skateboards and assist with clothing ideas. Customers come to the store knowing they will find reliable clothing brands such as Nike SB, Brixton and Lakai before heading out for a day of shredding.
Tactics has three locations in Oregon: Eugene, Portland and Bend. Tactics began in 1999 as a company that embraces the environment and social bonds as well as people’s passions and styles. The company has a blog that tests out shoe quality, posts updates about artist collaborations and provides tutorials on skating tricks. If you aren’t geographically located in the Pacific Northwest , you can order the store’s products on its website.
Chris Ryan, a sales associate and Lane Community College sophomore engineering student, said
Tactics was his dream job for the past seven years. He applied last summer and finally was able to work somewhere that “promotes community.” He has been skateboarding with friends since his freshman year of high school and longboarding since middle school. Ryan attributes his experience in gymnastics for helping him to pick up the sport and maintain balance. He likes how the store encourages people to customize the look and feel of their skateboard parts.
“You can make designs on your grip and make different colors,” Ryan said. “You can even loosen your tracks to make your riding style more fluid.”
Ryan believes a person dresses and modifies their board depending on the skateboard style they practice. His favorite brand is Polar because he likes the “cool videos” they produce. In transition skating or ramp bowls, he said legends like Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen go for boards that have “large wheels and trucks.”
For street skating, however, he said people need small boards to flip their boards in urban areas. He then said freestyle skaters use a flat board and small wheels to perform jump and kick tricks. The clothing corresponds to the type of skating style as well, but people generally wear loose clothes.
“A lot of street skaters end up wearing baggier outfits,” Ryan said. “The myth behind it is that it helps people move, and it’s been proven true. It is pretty tough to move in tight jeans.”
Skateboarding is not something everyone experiences in their youth. LCC freshman business students Yuya Oshikata and Hinakota Miyazaki took up skateboarding in the last four months as a way to hang out with friends.
They came to Tactics to buy new black Nike Skateboarding shoes. Oshikata said his favorite clothing brand is Chocolate while Miyazaki said hers is the Japanese alternative brand Jóutie.
They said it was their dream to skateboard before moving to Eugene. There is not a lot of access to skateparks in Japan compared to the United States, Miyazaki said. Back in their hometown, their first encounters with skateboarding consisted of them hiding from authorities who looked down on the activity.
“Japan is strict about skateboarding,” Miyazaki said. “We had to skateboard in parking lots and under bridges.”
Alexander Akoury, a sales associate and University of Oregon junior advertising student, began working at Tactics nine months ago. Akoury likes the communal aspect that skateboarding brings to Eugene. Tactics is welcome to all types of communities and is not restricted to just skateboarders, he said. Akoury noticed the ages of local skaters range from “eight years old to 40 or 50-year-olds.” Although his favorite brands are Anti-Hero and Baker, he said no one is restricted in what they can wear.
Akoury said skaters are actively recruited by brands to represent their image. According to Akoury, Washington Jefferson Skatepark + Urban Plaza, the largest covered and lit outdoor skatepark in America, is said to be a hot-spot for talent agents to sign sponsors. Even Tony Hawk once stopped there in 2003. Akoury mentioned one of his friends in town recently got asked to join a team while studying at UO.
“My friend just recently got plugged with a pro-level skate team,” Akoury said. “They do skate trips to Los Angeles and all over.”
Tactics provides parts such as decks, trucks and wheels for a skater to have a great experience. Skateboarding is all about expressing one’s individuality through clothes and showing off one’s tricks. It can be treated as a hobby with friends, a sport in the Olympics or a paid career to promote a lifestyle for a brand.
Tactic’s Eugene Board and Snow Shop is located on 375 W 4th Ave in Eugene. It is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
