![]() ![]() Katon Blackburn with youth during a skateboarding lesson near the 51st Green Line stop. I remember us starting out customizing our boards. From the moment you start skateboarding, unless you buy a complete board, you’re kind of expected to build your own board. He was able to use that knowledge in the shop fixing up skateboard. Kahari: Katon has a lot of experience working in skate shops. Boxville builders how to#This experience is why we make free skateboards and free shoes available at our lessons.ĬC: I’m curious, did you have to go through any sort of training to know how to repair skateboards? This was before online shopping where you can now get whatever you want within days. We had to go through a lot to get our first skateboards and skateboard shoes. Maybe we had reference to the culture but we just didn’t have the physical means. There were also video games with Tony Hawk, a well-recognized skateboarder. I remember around that time watching videos of kids in Oakland skateboarding. Kahari: We’re native Chicagoans and for us Lupe Fiasco (a Chicagoan rapper and songwriter) lit the fuse for skateboarding within the city when he released his song “ Kick, Push” (a song about skateboarding) in April 2006. We just give advice and instruction as the kids do their thing.ĬC: How did you find skateboarding or how did skateboarding find you? There’s a small group of kids who come fairly often. Katon: We’ve had a range of five to twelve kids come to our skateboarding lessons. I don’t remember a single kid that wasn’t excited by what we were doing. I would have to help him and you could just see his excitement. He would get on it, fall and get right back on. There was a two-year-old who was so geeked to get on the skateboard. Kahari: I was so surprised by all the little kids. People were telling us they were so happy to have a shop like ours on the South Side. A lot of the skate community came out to support. Katon: It was really cool to see some older folks be interested in our shop. Kahari Blackburn standing in the Natty Bwoy Bikes & Board space when it was housed in the shipping container in Boxville. Being able to open the doors of the shipping containers and sell a bunch of skateboard products, solicit donations, and fix some bikes was a really fun highlight of the summer and fall for us. ![]() Bike shops killed it this summer! Why don’t y’all have a bike shop?” We combined forces and manifested something we wanted to do for a while. They were saying, “You should start your own thing. Our mom and a big homie of ours pushed us to start our own shop. Katon was coming from California, Kari was quitting a job he had been working for a few years, and I was running around hustling trying to figure things out. Kahari: It’s funny, we were just talking about writing a children’s book about this. Can you tell me the story of how everything came together for you to open your own shop? We’re thinking of it as a prequel to building something larger.ĬC: Very cool. Kahari: This space is only open to us, not to the public. It’s like a whole hallway of different obstacles. We asked if we could put some skating equipment inside and we got the green light. It was closed a few years ago and the current owner has been using the gymnasium to keep a youth basketball program going. Katon: So there’s a school near the shop on 49th and Indiana, Overton Elementary. That’s been a fun continuation of the shop.ĬC: I’d love to hear more about this space. Katan has been pretty passionate about building out an indoor skate park. We’ve also been brainstorming about merch, holiday donations, and planning for spring and summer. Kahari: Well, our free skateboarding lessons are still happening. They aren’t operating out of the shipping container this winter since the container isn’t insulated, but they have amassed a treasure of memories and lessons from their time is business so far.Ĭourtney Cobbs: So, what are some of the things you’re currently working on? I recently caught up with the owners, brothers Katon, Kahari, and Kari Blackburn, to hear about insights learned from first months in business. ![]() But this summer a new skateboard and bike shop called Natty Bwoy Bikes & Boards opened in Bronzeville’s Boxville market, a collection of shipping container shops on 51st Street near the Green Line. There aren’t many places to get your bike fixed or buy a skateboard on Chicago’s South Side. ![]()
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