SK8UK headed up to Oxford to one of the most well known and highly regarded skater owned shop in the UK. We at SK8UK use SS20 reguarly and only ever have good experiences, which is why we choose to interview them first in what will be regular interviews with skater owned shops throughout the UK.
Can you introduce yourself?
Mon Barber: My name is Mon Barber, I am one of the 2 owners of SS20, 41 years old and still skating and Snowboarding a fair bit and still setting up Snowboards and Skateboards 21 years later.
Tom Kilpatrick: I’m Tom from Oxford moved away lived in Edinborough for a like 8 years but then came back started working for SS20 about 3 years ago. Have been skating since I was 10 when I found a board in the bush on my street, hooked up with friends at school, we skated a lot and one of them was Tom Penny who is a really famous Oxford skater most people would of heard of him I imagine.
Zac: Hi my names Zac I work at SS20, I’ve been here 2 and a bit years. I skate as much as I can, I’ve been skating 22 years now and have been living in Oxford for 4-5 years now.
What is the history of SS20, how did it get started and how many locations have you been at so far?
Mon Barber: We opened the shop on December 1st 1988 at 65 Cowley Road, we were at 65 Cowley Road for 10 months and basically we had to move out of there because the person who we signed the lease with who we thought owned the property didn’t, she was just renting it out. She signed her lease the day we signed our lease with her and in her lease she wasn’t able to sub-let so we didn’t pay her, she refused to take any rent of us and she ended up having to take us to court and evict us out from 65 Cowley Road, literally 3 weeks before we were due to be evicted we found another premises which was 131 Cowley Road which most people know us from, so we moved in there and 10 months after that so that was September 1989 and we were there for 3 years and in those 3 years we also had a shop in Leamington back in 1991 at the Boys Club where we had a Skatepark.
The Leamington shop got shut down when the boys club decided they no longer wanted the vert ramp we had got them and the park. This was after we had Buster Halterman, Chris Phillips, Chris Miller and Tony Hawk doing demos one summer, after the summer finished they said right we want to get rid of the vert ramp because the kids were jumping about on it in the evening, we said if you get rid of the vert ramp we will close the shop down and they said ok. They got rid of the vert and we closed the shop down, then 6 million was cut from the education budget for Warwickshire County Coucil and they closed all the youth clubs including the Boys Club about 4 months later so that was a bit sad.
After that we just had the shop going on 131 Cowley Road right in the mix of the last recession and we got up shit creek without a paddle and we had to move out of those premises. We found someone to take on the premises and we moved to a tiny shop at 234 Cowley Road which is right opposite Marsel Way and we were there for 2 years and in those 2 years we built the Mansel Way ramps so that was 1991 to 93. We had a 54 foot wide spined mini ramp with a vert extension on it which me and Dougy James built, we made the whole thing for less than 400 quid. We basically borrowed and stole loads of wood and the only thing we paid for was the top surface. We hardly took any money during the 2 years that tiny shop was running, Sean Goff who is business partner, ex British skating champion and just general living legend was mainly running the shop back then.
The ramp eventually got closed due to noise complaints so we ended up suing the council and managed to win some money which paid to replace Dougy James tools which got nicked from the ramps. After those two years we moved back to the 131 Cowley Road location and that must have been in 1993 or 94 and we were there at 131 Cowley Road until 2007 so we were there for 14 years and then on May 4th 2007 we moved up here to 276 Cowley Road and here we still are!
How did the name SS20 and the SS20 logos come about then?
Mon Barber: The logo came about because of the name, I had a short list of a load of different names, at the time I was trying to get a shop on a little side street in Oxford near Debenhams called Dryers Entry(?) and SS20 Dryers Entry sounded nice and the idea of SS20 at the time was that it was that it didn’t associate you with a particular thing like snow, skateboarding or roller skating, At the time the shops that were really doing well were Enzone and Bay 7 so they were names that had nothing to do with skateboarding like Sunny Skateboards or Rapid Skates.
The SS bit was Skate & Snow board shop and at the time my dad was very left wing in to all his politics and the name SS20 actually comes from a Russian Nuclear Warhead so a bit of reverse physology going on which I amused myself with because basically if I choose a name that was a bit controversal it would put parents of, so the idea with SS20 is that if a parent heard that name such as little Jonny saying Mum, Dad I want to go buy a skateboard from SS20 and if they were educated enough they would know that SS20 is a Russian Nuclear Warhead and therefore its a left wing communist threat so they told little Jonny not to go there and thats what he is going to do and for the not so educated they hear SS and thing of nasty Nazi right wing facist threat and tell little Jonny not to go there because it sounds dodgy, so thats where the name came from. The first logo was the rocket with the devil on it and that rocket is the SS20 Nuclear Warhead and ironically enough the SS20 Nuclear Warhead was decommisoned and put out of service the year that SS20 opened.
They guy who designed the logos Doug Cameron was one of the old vert skaters from the Farnborough ramp which was one of 5 ramps in the country back in the early 80s and Doug Cameron was a really good graphic designer so I asked him to come up with the logo, we didn’t have a professional designer, it was one of the first things I actually had to pay for when I started the shop, I didn’t have any money and Doug will hate me for saying this but his best known work was that he was the bloke who actually designed and illustrated the Sugar Puffs monster so the guy who designed the Sugar Puffs monster is the same guy who did our logos and they have stood the test of time because we still use the heart logo and the SS20 devil logo and they’re the oldest – we do have others but they are the main ones.
So who does the SS20 workforce consist of?
Mon Barber: At present there are 5 full time employees so theres Zac downstairs who does alot of the web and mail order stuff, he is the front of the house sort of hardcore skateboarder of the family and doesn’t tend to take to much shit from anybody, then there is Tom Kilpatrick my ex brother in law who is one of our original team riders who used to ride with Tom Penny & Justin Parker back in the day. Zacs been with us for 4 years and Tom I think about 3 years and also downstairs theres Lee Chin and he is one of the original SS20 crew he used to work for us 20 years ago and he has just started working back with us over these past 2-3 years, he is best known as DJ Lee a international reknown DJ artist and producer, he has worked with the likes of Goldie and alot of Nail Heads productions and things like that. So they’re the 3 main staff on the shop floor and then upstairs tucked away doing all the web design and all the brochure production, all the ordering, all the adverts and all the rest of the stuff is Bud and Greg and for two people to produce and do what they do is pretty phenominal as other places employ 4 people to do a brochure that Bud does so there working incredibly hard, Buds with with me for over 10 years and Gregg has been with us I think for about 6-7 years now. Bud and Greg are king pin players I absolutely couldn’t do without so I have actually been giving them 2% of the company each and every year so in another 3 years they will both have 10% of the company, we look after our employees!
Who does your team consist of?
Mon Barber: Theres Dave Watson, theres Harry Potter obviously thats not his real name, Tom Watts and a few others.
Zac: Alex Moul, Tom Penny, James Kilpatrick, little James, Jason I suppose we’re gonna have to really, gotta count him at some point kind of about it really we’re sort of keeping it small getting people who are coming up! Obviously we flow a lot of little kids & stuff like that, there not really on the team but we still hook them up everything so its kinda a bigger family deal than a strict team.
So how did the SS20 jam go last year?
Mon Barber: I actually missed it last year as I was in Spain and had a few personal problems & issues to deal with so I wasn’t around for that one. But the jams have always been really really good, you know a good laid back atmosphere its part of the whole history of SS20 and where I set up the shop from. I originally put on my first skate jam when I was 15. I used to have a ramp near Banbury about 7 miles out and had one of the only vert ramps in the country, so I think by the time I turned 16 as part of the English Skateboarding Association Tour of skate comps one of them was at my ramp – the last one I did when I was 16 we had 500 people camping out in the fields we had a licensed bar and 3 bands playing including The Stupids which were a punk British band from the 80’s so we have always been involved putting on good events through the time really. I also helped actually I did organise the first British Skateboarding Championship at Radlands Skatepark in 95 which was the first big comp that had all the heavy weight US pro’s turn up for so you know we have always done our best to do events locally and nationally.
Tom Kilpatrick: Yeah it was really good fun, it’s always nice to get everyone out in the summer, good social aspect to it as well as a BBQ and a few beers and stuff. So ramp james are always a favourite on the calendar.
You used much of the new tech gear in Skateboarding?
Tom Kilpatrick: Not massively with the boards seen fads come and go, lots of people try different stuff but normally everyone reverts back to Canadian maple 7 ply no fibre glass no beams in it that sort of stuff, so I think thats kind of here to stay, it’s been tried and tested by a lot of companies in the past theres a few little ones like the Moon Pop and Flips P2, I mean it will work but most people just prefer wood really. Shoe technology is good anything that can cushion your feet a bit better while keeping the same response and a nice slim line feeling in the shoe. I don’t like big chunky footwear I like close to the board sort of feeling really. So I don’t think technology effects skateboarding too much, not so much as other board sport disciplines like Snowboarding, Surfing, Wakeboarding and stuff it seems to have found its feet and stuff with it for quite a considerable amount of time.
Mon Barber: Until you actually look and and look at an old price list or brochures things like that you kinda forget the progression that’s gone on I mean essentially within skate hardware. I don’t think there has been any major technical changes you know, there is no other marterial used in wheels apart from Urethane. Yes sort of construction and cores in skateboards, you got new different tougher impact boards and all that kinda stuff but to be honest that stuff has been around since the dawn of skateboarding. People have come up with lots of different hybrids on maple standard constriction boards and to be honest I would still say 95 % of boards we sell are the Canadian rock maple. Shapes have changed obviously, but technology within the boards hasn’t changed a great deal. Stuff like magnesium trucks have been around since the 70’s a lot of it kinda gets re-invented. once the huge hype dies down the kids forget about stuff and then somebody re-packages it and re does it in a different way. So i don’t think there has been to much, fashions changed, shapes of board change and stuff got a lighter weight!
Skate shoes wise that’s were there have been the biggest advancements, in the materials and the construction. Impact result in more absorbent materials in the shoes themselves, or the cupola technology so there’s been a fair fair bit, way, way more than any other aspect of it. Thankfully clothing has come along a fair bit its not as bad as at various other points. But saying that when you have been in it for 20 plus years you see the cycles come back round like last year particularly there was so much bright stuff, a lot of the younger guy’s are like “yeah that’s wicked that’s great’ and I’m looking at it thinking o shit! that’s what I used to wear in the 80’s I can’t do it a second time, so you know fashions kind of come round a little bit it’s not exactly the same but kind of plays on previous that people play homish to, certain patterns, logos or graphics things like that.
It’s bait like music stuff get regurgitated, everything is based on a handful of different songs and there is just lots of variations of certain genres of music so kind of the same as the fashion, is anything more partial than another? Wearing super tight skinny jeans any better to skate in than a pair of stupidly massive baggie things. That where worn in the mid 90’s by the likes of Tom who used to wear clothing in triple XL when he was like 12 years old. Where you can say both work just as well, if you got something so tight that saves you from braking bones so easily. Or if your wearing something like as loose as Tom you got bait of air couching overtime you stack it. You got about 20,000 cubic litters of air to cushion you before you stack in on the concrete does it make much difference? Naaaa it doesn’t, but you know the progression of Skateboarding itself the boundaries have been pushed over the years.
It’s phenomenal when I first started skating back in the mid 80’s it was just when the Mctwist was being done. And that was all inspiring and stuff and just everything seemed physically impossible. I mean the movements made by skateboarders is incredible and it hasn’t really stopped. Street skating’s come up then you have come technical skating and all the switch stuff going on. Then you got the all round skaters, those who specialise in pure street or bank riding or transition riding and so on. But all of it on all levels is phenomenal now, you know whats done on the street at a smaller level is then taken to the mini ram by the likes of Haslam and then you get crazy stuff happening on huge vert ramps by the likes of Danny Way and Burnquist still killing it on stuff like that. And all the new up and common little vert riders particularly the UK riders like Sam Beckett. who are absolutely incredible, so its good the British scene has always been right up there its always been highly regarded internationally. We do seem to produce for the size of our country a hell of a lot of well know skaters who are up there with Brazil. Probably on the international style of producing really good world class skateboarders. its just the British mentality to go out there and ride in any conditions possible basically
Whats the best thing about working at SS20?
Mon Barber: Just the whole social scene, you know people come in the shop you haven’t seen for 5, 10, 15, 20 years even. So it’s great being one of the social means that you always s vocal point so people will always come back you know. It is really sociable we’re living the dream really, most people wanna do this kinda stuff and it’s a very privledged position but by that it also means you forsake alot of other things so as many plus points there are disadvantages which people see it is quite a lot of hard work and my staff do an incredible job so as much as they have fun and enjoy themselves it does get stressful at times and there is a hell of a lot of work that we do, but yeah it’s alot of fun. Making tea is my favourite part of the day.
How much of your business is online now?
Mon Barber: The last three to four years the website has really taken off massively so probably 60 to 70 percent of our business is now online, we ship stuff all over the UK and apparently we’re one of City Links top 10 customers and they’re one of the biggest couriers.
Tom Kilpatrick: I’m pretty much responsible for all goods out, because the website accounts for so much of our business we have a lot of custom everyday. Got to process, pick, pack, and dispatch everyones online orders and mail orders so most of my time is spent looking after people receiving stuff from our website rather than instore. But it is a bit of both really.
Anything planned with the shop, upcoming events etc?
Mon Barber: Yeah we are hoping to do something in April, May time like an indoor skate jam / game of skate plus a mini ramp competition at the Regal Club which is just up the road from us, so we are just trying to firm that up that’s mainly just to see out the winter. Time to do a bit of fun raising for The Wheels project things are actually starting to look really good for the Wheels Project the skate park is starting he says very hesitantly to actually become a little bit more of a reality, defiantly not this summer but the following we may have an amazing facility just down the road from SS20 on Cowley Marsh which we are making totally out of concrete and the plans for it do look incredible. we are half way there we almost have all the commissions in place just waiting to find out from the environmental agency if they are happy with the designs and do a public consultation etc which isn’t that much of a big deal for us.
Are these the same designs realised a while back?
Mon Barber: No they have been revised and will be revised again, The Wheels Project have had a meeting to thrash it out with the designers so the final design should be ready anytime now. So that’s the really exciting thing as far as SS20 goes, we’re just going to carry on doing what we do. We have got no plan for expansion or any plans to open another shop so as as I’m concerned a lot of people are very greedy in this world and always want more growth more expansion more money. And money isn’t everything in life! my philosophy is to keep things small keeps things concentrated, do a good job do it proudly and don’t get greedy. In this industry unless you can contract as fast as you can expand your going to go bust, going 21 years and haven’t gone bust so far so going to keep doing what were doing. Re fitting out the shop in April and putting in a few new features to make it easier to find stuff because we had to much stock.
Do you want to thank anyone?
Mon Barber: Thanks to my business partner Dave Furneau, My ex business partner Sean Goff, distributors Shiner, Revival, Power, I-Five, Dwindle, all our true & loyal customers & staff past, present and future.
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