By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The skateboard scene in Hays will be dealt a big blow when White Chocolate, 810 Main, will close for business Saturday.
The business has been open since 1998.
Derek Hadley, known by locals as “Dude,” has been running the location since 2005, but said he always felt at some point the shop would close.
“Dude”
“We kinda knew it was just kind of inevitable that people move on and, with this type of lifestyle and culture, you really, to be doing it, to have a store and to be successful, you have to be immersed into the sub-culture of skateboarding, or at least, maybe not necessarily have to skate, but be into the lifestyle and know what it’s about, know the mentality, really almost be into it for the love.”
The Hays White Chocolate is one of two locations for the business. The other is located in Lawrence, and Hadley said the Hays location is likely closing due to the difficulty of the owners operating both locations.
While the store catered to the skating sub-culture by selling skating hardware, in recent years the location expanded into clothing sales as well, bringing in an interesting mix of shoppers.
“Our customers are really unique I think,” Hadley said. “We’ve had a wide variety of people that have came in over the years, and they’re, in my opinion, the best customers. I think we just have the most loyal of customers.
“We have everybody from little kids, just starting out skateboarding, or just like certain brands, like Vans or something, all the way up to … we’ve had grandmas shop here like 60, 70-years-old that like our girls selection.”
Austin Phyfer, a regular customer at the shop, said he felt people who shop there preferred the personal experience of shopping for skateboarding supplies in the store, rather than online, but speculated that a lack of community support hurt the business.
“With there not being a lot of space to skate, it’s hard for people to want to put forth the money in something they can’t use,” he said.
Hays has a skate park at 30th and Sherman Avenue, but efforts by the Western Kansas Skatepark Committee to update the facility have stalled this year.
The shop was staffed by up to five people at a time, including Hadley, who will now be pursing other options. Hadley said he likely will move out of the area following the closure and was unsure what the staff will do after the closing.
Although the shop is a center for the skate culture in Hays, Hadley feels that skateboarders and other fans of action sports will still have a strong following here — even after the closure.
“We had a pretty good skate scene. We had the skate park before the shop even opened,” Hadley said. “Usually a shop like this will open up to meet demand, I don’t really think it’s the other way around.
“I think the skate scene will keep going.”
Through their last day of business the shop is running closeout deals on much of its merchandise, and what is left will mostly be transferred to the Lawrence location, according to Hadley.