Checking In: Jason Ebenrick

Infinity in St. Louis

Next on my CCQLC tour was a stop at St. Louis’ own Infinity Skate Shop. This took a while to complete because Jason had quite a few customers stopping by. An array of people buying shoes, or replacing rusted and water damaged Steve Caballero boards that probably hadn’t been ridden since the late 80’s, or to visit the shop’s de facto mascot, Z The Cat. We also had one of their first employees stop in to talk shop and pick up a new set of trucks. It’s clear Jason has a rich history in St. Louis and a deep knowledge of the product he’s selling. I interviewed him about why the shop sticks to only skateboarding, choosing not to sell online, and the St Louis scene. Congrats on twenty years guys!

Is there a story behind the shop’s name? Why Infinity?

Not really...me and my buddy Justin started this place back in ‘99. He dropped out around 2001. I really don’t remember how we came up with the name, but oddly enough...I mean I don’t mind it now but I didn’t really like the name at first. Which is weird to say, but in twenty years it grew on me. I had different ideas but that’s the name we ended going with.

Any good ones that you remember that didn’t make the cut?

No, not that I can remember really. I don’t know why but some of our first graphics were the infinity symbol on it and I just thought that was really cheesy.

At least you get free advertising from girls getting that symbol tattooed on themselves.

Ha, yeah one of our first shop boards had that, but it was in a way that actually looked pretty good. Another logo artist named Worful did one but it was like a snake eating it’s own tail. I thought that graphic was actually really good. But we’ve been mostly staying away from that the last twenty years.

It’s a bit too on the nose.

We got a cease and desist for one of our logos two years ago from Paramount Pictures. We used that logo years ago as a joke but it just kinda stuck. Recently when we were redoing our logo we would get sent all of these designs to where we had to make a post saying “We’re not using the St. Louis Arch, we’re not using...”

No St. Louis Cardinal logos?

Nope.

How long have you guys been open?

We opened on June 1, 1999. So just a couple weeks ago we turned twenty.

How tough has it been running a skate shop all these years? Twenty years is a long run.

It’s been weird. When we first opened it was tough, and then we had some good years that helped us carry on and actually give us hope. Around 2010 is when we really seemed to get punched into the dirt. We’ve pretty much been struggling ever since. The last five years has probably been the worst quarter of our twenty years we’ve been open for sure, even compared to the first five years. It’s been tough.

Are there any local shops competing with you guys?

Not really that are too close to us.

Nothing that causes any real competition?

No, there always seems to be a place that will open every year or so that comes and goes. But I think people have figured out that if you’re in a twenty or thirty minute proximity of another decent shop, you’re not helping, you’re hurting.

Unless you’re in LA where nobody gives a shit.

Right. I always tell people that interview me, this is way different than your typical skate area. It’s very spread out. I’m sure Chicago and Kansas City, even though Chicago is bigger than us, is probably the same thing. We just have a lot of places that sell skate products, but aren’t skate shops. We have five Zumiez, two Vans retail stores, and a bunch of odds and ends of Pac Sun’s and Journeys within a twenty minute radius of us. So as far as buying skateboards other places in St. Louis? Yeah there’s tons, unfortunately.

With the Midwest being a bit more spread out, how far of a reach do you guys have? How far do people travel to buy a board from your shop? I’ve heard of people from Michigan, for example, saying they’ll drive 45 minutes to an hour to shop at their nearest local skate shop.

We get people that complain about having to drive 15 minutes and then we have other core customers that drive 30-40 minutes. So we always tell people who complain who live close by that we have people who live twice as far as them and don’t complain. I’d say our average reach used to be about 40 minutes and now it’s about 25-30 minutes.

Is that due to other shops opening in those farther areas?

I think mail ordering has a lot to do with it.

What would you say has set you guys apart from other local shops in the area? What has given you the staying power to last this long?

This is the only skate shop in St. Louis that has ever JUST focused on skateboarding. We’ve had lots of other good shops in the area, but most of them either didn’t make it too long, and the ones that did sold something else like snowboards, roller skates....stuff like that. When we opened in ‘99 that was the idea of this place was to have a shop that not only just sold skateboards but also sold a decent amount of shoes. Most of the other shops that did sell shoes were almost like variety stores. So there was other things offered. 

It’s almost like going to a department store and trying to find the right employee to answer whatever question you have. “Hold on, this isn’t my department”.

We carried longboards for a very short time period. That was a trial and error for us, not to get off the beat.

No, go for it.

I didn’t know how that was going to work out, and the clientele was so different. We knew nothing about the product. It was at a peak when we stopped carrying it. When I pulled the plug, an employee of ours, Gabe, who still works for us sometimes was like, “What are you doing?” But I figured, if we’re carrying this, we might as well carry scooters, roller skates, everything else because it’s not skateboarding, to me. So we stopped carrying it, which was a bad business decision but, I didn’t feel like it was what we’re trying to do here.

It wasn’t true to the shop.

Right, so we stopped.

Is there typically a much slower period of the year since you guys actually experience a winter season? I could imagine that has made it tougher over the last 20 years.

January is usually a guarantee that it’ll be dead because everyone seems to have new stuff from the Christmas. February is a really weird month in St. Louis because it’s either really, really, really harsh, or last year it went up to around 55/60 degrees in February and never went back below 50 again. So sometimes we really luck out. January and November are maybe the two worst months.

You had mentioned earlier that being in the Midwest, it’s a bit of a weird culture, but does the same go for skate brands? It would seem that usually the focus in America is coastal, split between California and New York for example. Does the Midwest get overlooked as a result?

I think with social media right now everything is right in front of your face. As far as what goes on in this area, we noticed a big spike in the early 2000s, but I think that was the same for everywhere in the Bam years. As far as the scene here, most of our customer base is 18-35 year olds. Most of our customers are people that we know are just going to keep skating.

Not many kids coming through for their first board?

Not as much as they used to. We’ve been noticing a few more recently but not a big spike like in the past 5-10 years. But the people in the 18-35 range, they’re pretty awesome dudes. They know if they don’t support this place we’ll be gone. Or at least they care. The scene has always been pretty good here.

Pretty tight knit group?

For the most part. St. Louis isn’t very big. Even if you’re in a different clique, everybody knows everybody. It’s a pretty solid scene.

Who are the big names in the scene right now? I’ve heard of the St. Losers video and Comb...that’s the Kehoe brothers right?

Yeah, Alex and Gabe. Gabe worked here. Still does, sometimes. He made our shop video, St. Losers, and then made another on his own called Comb. But that’s really just a group of friends...he gets crap sometimes because it gets seen as a clique, or “oh those dudes don’t want to film these dudes” but it’s not about that. It’s about him filming his videos with his friends. It just ended up being something a little bigger than it seemed like it was going to be and those outside groups think they’re being kinda snobbish. He’s not filming everyone in St. Louis. It’s weird that he kinda got grouped into that.

It seems like those videos are well received.

He’s a super nice dude. He worked here consistently for almost ten years. I’d say he’s done more for the St. Louis skate scene as far as exposure outside of St. Louis. That was probably one of the biggest things that came out of here where people could see it.

I personally don’t know too much about the scene. Are there many pros that have come out of here? Is Randy Ploesser from here or is he a transplant?

Yeah he’s from here, still lives here. Jabari Pendleton. I skated with him when I was younger. He just moved back from San Francisco. Those two dudes and there’s a couple dudes that moved out of here so many years ago like Jason Wussler. Most of those guys are kinda older now. But yeah, Gabe doing those videos, we had a DIY spot, King’s Highway, that got torn down a few years back. That was a pretty popular destination for people skatewise. In the last ten years those are probably the two things that drew people to the area the most.

Does it seem like a lot of companies that go on trips skip over St. Louis?

No, I think they pass through here mostly because of Randy, or I think they try to get hold of Gabe. They don’t stop to do demos though. They stop to film and take photos.

The city definitely has a very photogenic look.

A lot of people get psyched coming here, and my favorite thing is when they come here and they see how shitty some of the spots are. It gets us a little more respect. A lot of the spots are so grimy.

Totally, I remember sending Comb to my friend when it came out and telling him how sick the spots looked. He told me they didn’t look fun to skate at all, but that was why I thought they looked so cool. They all look so rough.

Some of those spots, I think Alex’s ender in particular, it’s at the aluminum plant on Broadway and he’s basically landing in dirt and glass.

Do you guys make a lot of trips to other nearby areas?

Those dudes do. I think they’re talking about going to see the new Venue video premiere.

Nightmare Van. That comes out next week. And those dudes are in touch with all the other crews from different areas?

Yeah, other groups will stay with them or vice versa. The Theories guys were supposed to be coming through here any time now. Josh Stewart has been taking a liking to Gabe.

I could see that.

It would be cool if Gabe went out to New York and did stuff out there for a while. But I don’t know if he will or not.

Are there any young kids coming up in St. Louis people should look out for?

Alex (Kehoe) is a younger dude, but he’s about 24/25 now. Max (Wheeler) who works here just turned 20, Emerica has been throwing him some stuff, WKND’s been throwing him some stuff. They came through here last year and they really love Max. There’s a dude that lived out in St. Charles that moved to California for a while named Tyler Peterson. That dude, he was good, and then he moved to California and he got really good.

Is it Tyler Jeremy Peterson? Short red headed guy? Rides for SOVRN?

Yes! He’s a ripper. He moved out there and went from being a really good skateboarder to being...it’s weird seeing a guy like that come out of here.

And he’s a tech ledge skater...I wouldn’t really think of St. Louis as being the place you’d go to skate a really perfect ledge.

That dude moved out there and got way way better. Randy lived out west for a while. Jabari moved out to SF for probably a decade.

Is there a local skate bar? Where should a skater stopping through here go?

We try to send people to the City Museum. That’s probably one of the coolest places you can go to in St. Louis. They close at midnight now but they used to be open a lot later. That’s just a cool spot. We have the Grove, which is a pretty typical hipster area...but any time pros come through we try to push them to go to the City Museum.

That’s actually where I was hoping to go after this. I didn’t know they were open until midnight.

Cherokee St. and all those areas, there’s a lot of cool places to go. A lot of cheap places to stay too. When dudes from California come through here and see how cheap everything is they freak out.

“Hmm I might extend my stay a little longer”

Exactly. That’s why we live here, it’s easy going.

Are there any local brands that are based in St. Louis? Send Help seems to do a lot but that’s not St. Louis based, correct?

Right, Randy rides for em, and so does Alex, but that’s Todd (Bratrud)’s company. I’m sure it’s bigger in the Midwest area, they probably do pretty well in Arizona too. They do a collab beer here with a place called Four Hands. People who don’t skate, and don’t know Send Help, definitely think it’s local to St. Louis because of the beer company. There’s some local dudes that are involved in a company called Pretty that’s always been good. Those guys are great. Worful does the artwork for all the boards. Those dudes have been around for years so when they make boards that do pretty well. They use good wood, they don’t sell it cheaper out of their trunk, and they’re just solid dudes. That same artist Worful, he’s done a couple shop decks for us too. He’s friends with Randy and Gabe and all those guys.

Is there a food that is native to St. Louis? Any weird delicacies?

Yeah it’s weird because I’ve been here my whole life and when people come from out of town and eat Imo’s Pizza because they use Provel cheese. I didn’t even know how uncommon that was everywhere else.

What’s Provel cheese?

It’s kinda a tangy kinda cheese. I think it’s really good but a lot of people who don’t live in St. Louis when they try, they’re grossed out. Any of my friends who aren’t from St. Louis, that’s the first thing they do is talk trash on Imo’s pizza. We all love it, well not all of us, but most of us. That’s a weird one. Growing up as a kid I just thought it was everywhere. But you go down in any other state and even mention Provel cheese they wonder what the fuck you’re talking about. 

I’d never even heard of it.

It’s kinda like earlier when we were talkin about the word hoosier. We use it different. Somebody from another state, they use it and think of the basketball movie. But that’s just a negative word we use around here for white trash people.

You get any other hoosiers or weird lurkers that come into the shop?

We’ve been here twenty years and just the other day a dude walked right in and asked “You guys sell weed here?” and I thought he was joking, I thought he was trolling me! He said “I heard this was the spot” and I had to tell him that No, this is not the spot. I see all kinds of shit here. Typical skate stuff, we call em Reminiscers. “I used to skate, ten years ago” and they start talkin’ about Christian Hosoi. Dude that was thirty years ago! The gyro place next door brings in people. People who don’t want to wait for their food will just come in here, the “I used to skate dudes” are pretty heavy here. What’s weird is that we've been getting the I Used To Skate Dudes looking for a 7.5” deck and big puffy shoes, because that’s what they’re used to. But if you haven’t skated in twenty years, you’re not used to anything.

That’s just what they used to ride.

Yeah but those dudes are set in stone. They will not listen to you. They are dead set on 7.5-7.75 decks and they want Tensor trucks. It’s really weird, they won’t have it any other way.

Those eS silos on the wall aren’t good enough?

Nah, not good enough, there’s no plastic on ‘em. They want Chet 3s. Those are definitely the weirdest dudes we get in here because they’re so dead set in their ways even though they haven’t skated in the last 15-20 years. But other than that it’s just the typical drifter asking random questions like in the movie Clerks. I get people asking for luggage wheels.

There’s Z (the shop’s resident rescue cat). Nap time is over. We also get people who stop by just to see her. That’s kinda new for us. People see her on our social media.

Is she your mascot?

It seems like it. She wasn’t meant to be. But then there’s people who are absolutely bummed that she’s here.

Do you guys do online sales?

We don’t. I’m actually glad you asked! People really give us shit about that too, but I don’t want to take away business from any of the shops in any of the other areas. The whole purpose of us being here is to have a shop that you can actually go to. I don’t want to have someone from Kansas City, who used to live in St. Louis, order a deck from us. I’d rather them go to a place like Escapist. It’s really weird because you tell people that if they’re shopping online, it’s killing us, but then you’re selling stuff online.

Yeah and by the way, buy the new shoes we just got in on our online store.

I do sell some shop stuff to some of the guys who used to live around here. They’ll hit me up personally for shop stuff. I’ve tried not to sell online though. I’ve talked to a few other shops too and they say, unless it’s something really limited you don’t really sell a whole lot online.

You could maybe just have the shop’s shirts online?

But for all of the other stuff, Skate Warehouse will murder us on price. And a lot of the really good stuff that would sell....We can’t! Can’t sell FA and Hockey online. Can’t sell Quickstrike Nikes. So all of the stuff that would move online, we aren’t allowed to sell online. They make that stuff for us....

So that people come into the shop.

Yeah and we’ve never gotten lucky with the limited shoe game. When we picked it up, we picked it up too late and it kinda died. We had a run of bad luck with stuff that worked really well with some places. but that didn’t run too well with us.

Trend forecasting is a tough game.

And then you have to deal with brands going direct to customer as well. Still I think we’re one of the only shops that doesn’t sell online.

I think that’s pretty cool in a way. It comes with it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Like I said, I’m not calling other shops hypocrites when they say that, but I do think when people say buy local and then also here’s my online store.

Well speaking of those other shops, is there any other shops in particular that you guys are hyped on?

Yeah, I follow a lot of the ones that are closer to us. A lot of your typical Midwest ones like Escapist, Uprise, FA, the dude from Just comes in here a lot, he used to rep for a couple companies for us. Tom Hornug used to own Home skateshop, I think his nephew took it over for him. There are a couple shops we follow...Venue, obviously. Mainly just to see other shops that have been around for a long time. But it’s also scary following other shops because so many places are going out of business. But it’s kinda depressing, you’ll see other shops that are doing well, and it’s awesome but I wish we were doing that well.

It can also be the other way around, seeing shops that appear to really be struggling.

But I’ll also talk to some shops who look like they’re doing well and they’re struggling, but I think we’re all struggling.

That seems to be the breaks of running a skate shop. Do you guys have anything big coming down the pipe?

Our 20th Anniversary was June 1st and we’re having a big art show that only consists of local skate artists. We didn’t want to rush to get it done by June 1st so that’ll be on July 13th, 

Its actually gonna be pretty cool because it’s mostly going to feature dudes who have been coming into the shop for the last twenty years and their artwork and photography. Gabe will be doing video stuff, a dude named Trent Smith does hand drawings. Dana Smith, he’s a ripper. We used to know about him skating in the early 90s, he was one of the only sponsored skaters in the area and he disappeared for 20-25 years. He came back around recently and started ripping. He’s a painter, he’ll be in the show. So it’s pretty exciting, that’s the only really big thing going on in the near future.

Sounds sick Jason. Let’s end on that.