Skatepark of Tampa said today it will file a petition for bankruptcy protection this afternoon.
The Chapter 11 reorganization filing will allow the retailer to break the leases of underperforming stores, many which were opened in the past 12 months as the Tampa, Florida company embarked on a major expansion.
Skatepark of Tampa has closed 80 stores during the past few weeks, bringing its current store count to 993. The stores that have closed are in Lakeland (downtown), Lutz, Palm Harbor, Palmetto, Port Richey (301), and Inverness. 30 more stores are on "the bubble" and will stay open if the company is able to renegotiate leases with landlords, Skatepark owner Brian Schaefer told me in an interview.
Schaefer said many of the stores that closed did not have time to mature before the economic crisis hit and were "sucking cash from the company." He also said SPoT opened some new stores too near to older stores and that cluster strategy did not work.
Other new stores, such as Columbus Drive, are doing well. "We found we do great as a destination, not as a cluster," he said.
Schaefer said that he hopes the bankruptcy filing, while painful, will allow the company, which is celebrating its 16th anniversary, to begin the healing process and return to being a strong company with 993 stores instead of 1001.
"We look forward to creating a great Skatepark of Tampa that is an asset to all of its partners," he said.
Schaefer and GM, Ryan Clements, have met with 30 vendors in the past three weeks to explain the situation, Schaefer said. He said vendors have been very supportive and have said they will ship fresh goods to Skatepark of Tampa on a COD basis. Some have even said they will offer SPoT credit terms as soon as Skatepark of Tampa filed for bankruptcy, Schaefer said.
Vendors had stopped shipping to Skatepark of Tampa because of past due balances and because the chain was considered a credit risk. Schaefer said the company also didn't accept any new goods in the last 30 days because it didn't want to make the situation worse.
As a result, the stores that are still open are filled with private label goods with a limited selection of branded merchandise.
Schaefer said fresh goods from brands will be landing in stores during the next 90 days - more, he said, than the company has received all year.
"We expect to have a well-stocked Skatepark of Tampa for summer and for back to school," he said.
One of the ways SPoT has freed up cash flow to pay for fresh goods is to reduce its corporate overhead and store personnel expenses by 80%, Schaefer said. Approximately 750 people now work at Skatepark corporate offices.
As far as paying past due vendor balances, Schaefer said the company's goal is to pay what it can, but that it will be up to the bankruptcy court to decide what outstanding debts get paid.
The court will also decide whether Skatepark of Tampa stays in its state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot headquarters just outside beautiful Ybor City, which the company moved into in 1993.
Before the recession kicked into full force, SPoT had been close to bringing in a financial partner. Schaefer said they still talk to potential investors all the time and he believes there are still several opportunities.
Schaefer wanted to say that he hopes the industry can work together through the challenging recession.
"I do think if we can get through this mess (the industry) will see better days ahead," he said.
Scenes From Innetech, Skatepark of Tampa's Evil Corporate Division
A Session With the Elwood Team
This part of the Park in the back is referred to as Innetech. We don't have any red staplers, but we keep it office as hell back here doing online stuff. Angel takes and uploads product photos. Gonzo and Lako in the back create products and manage inventory. Jon Mann is also back here with us pushing online orders out of our ASS (Asian Sweat Shop - online order processing). Ichabod and Jacob stick those little bar codes on products. And finally, there's me talking crap about everyone on the Internet. What a team
A Random Chill Cam Dump From Vancouver
I haven't been spending too much time in Innetech, our back offices where all the online staff and I sit. There's Angel taking product photos. Why is Online Guy always straight up nekkid? We should at least get a leaf for him or something
Wheelies, Endos, and Sauce
Goodbye NYC. I am finally back at our back offices here at Skatepark of Tampa that we refer to as Innetech. This is the lair of Angel and Gonzo. They get to handle all the skateboard stuff that comes through our doors. Looks like we got some new Vans
Innetech is where the whole inventory and online staff at Skatepark of Tampa bang on keyboards all day. We have to get Online Guy properly dressed for these Red Bull Girls coming to decorate
How are we supposed to get work done at Innetech with this going on?
The Red Bull Girl makeover of Innetech continues. That's Lako below. He now keeps things super tight and puckered in the ASS (Asian Sweat Shop - online order packing). Looks like we're getting some kind of black and red theme going back here. As long as the place doesn't end up looking like a busted ass Red Bull helmet, we won't have to paint over it when they leave
In the true Innetech normal ass office environment spirit, we had Pizza Friday here at Skatepark of Tampa for everyone that works here. We watched the Fallen video in the Snack Bar. Holy crap, Gilbert Crockett kills it. I remember when I first noticed him a couple years ago
Harvest Jam 2008
Alex Bowers aka Miami Jackson, is now back working in Innetech with us. That jacket would go good with Kenzie on your arm
Mid-November 2008 Course Construction
It's not a regular afternoon on the keyboard at Innetech. How about a dance party on the flat bottom? Schaefer and Mike get down
SPoT Ghetto Christmas Party 2008
Boston, welcome to the Former SPoT Employee Club. He's over it at Innetech back here
SPoT Ghetto Christmas Party 2008
John Party of the Former SPoT Employee Club and Gonzo, current holder of said former employee's position in Innetech
Tampa Pro Chill Time 2009
The corpo part of SPoT is called Innetech. This is my workspace in Innetech and those piles of boxes are all going to South Africa with Schaefer. Dirty Bird is going, too. You wish you were as well traveled as Dirty Bird
Looks like the Kiddie Course isn't going to be done until tomorrow. Here's some photos from our first session on the main course and some random bar antics at Skateboard Industry Night in St. Pete: A New Course and a New Bar Scene.
You can get a fisheye's view of the completed street course on the SPoT Facebook Page. If you're a fan of SPoT on Facebook, you already know that we sometimes do special sales and give out coupon codes there. Maybe there might be a special just for Facebook fans next week? Who knows? Maybe. The kiddie course isn't done yet. Photos from that coming up in a bit.
On the Win an All Expense Paid Trip to Tampa survey thing, I should have added, "Stay away from the Skatpeark of Tampa Party Team" as one of the options to prevent your skateboard career from derailing. When you come to Tampa, it's easy to get spinning in the party tornado, especially when 200 of your homies are all in the Ybor hotels or the Ho Jo. If the sauce is not your scene or you're trying not to make it your scene, a nice hotel for a decent price just a few minutes up the highway from SPoT is Days Inn. If you're just looking for a lower price room, a cab ride from there to the tornado in Ybor is probably about $15 or so. There's also another Days Inn on Dale Mabry that's across the street from Mons Venus. They don't serve booze there, just boobies. Boobies never hurt anyone's career. Anyway, you have some time left to enter the Tampa trip giveaway which comes with a hotel room and $500 spending cash, among other things. Since you're not skating, we will see you at all the parties that you get passes to.
I went out to shoot photos of the Kiddie Course construction and spotted Kris Markovich hanging out. Here's what things look like as of now. Gotta go, I have a conference call with 25 people from Fuel TV. 25 people??? Yep, mindblowing. It's about the live HD webcast for Tampa Am. They should put this phone conference on live webcast.
If your company has products on our site, you're welcome to a free ad in our banner pool. On your company's product page, only the ad from your company will show up. On all other pages like articles, photos, and skater profiles, your ad will display randomly from the pool of ads. The size is 970x100 and no animation is allowed. You can update it as often as you want. Email them to me at rob@skateparkoftampa.com. Below are some samples from a few companies that have sent some in already.
The main street course is done and skateable today. The kiddie course should be done late tomorrow or Saturday. Check out some construction progress: Street Course Construction and Completion 2009.
If you're in St. Pete tomorrow night, join us at Durty Nelly's for an event that The Finest Skate Shop is putting on called Skateboard Industry Night, appropriately abbreviated as SIN.
The winners for the Globe Cruiser completes have been picked. I know at least one of them is a local - Yonis came out on top. See you on the Booze Cruise this Friday. The first $600 worth of sauce is all on me. The trucks on these boards are called "Slant" as in my eyes. Sick.
What song is this in this Tampa Am promo video? That one dude, you know, the guy who will be at Tampa Am 2009 on December 3 at SPoT then
on Friday, December 4, doing a show in Ybor for our 17-Year Anniversary Party at Czar. Yeah, him. Oh, and there could be a little bit of ripping skating going on.
Today the staff at SPoT got started on putting together all the skateboard parts collected in the Shop all year long. Through your discarded skate stuff and contributions from your favorite skate companies, we build as many completes as we can and give them away to as many kids as we can find in the underprivileged neighborhoods in our area. We call this charity Boards for Bros. Check out a few photos from what we did today: Boards for Bros November 2009 Assembly.
If you haven't entered the Globe Cruiser Board giveaway yet, you have one more day for that. Tomorrow, all the emails go into a spreadsheet and get sorted random. The top two get a Globe Cruiser complete. On Friday night for the Booze Cruise, the first $600 of sauce is paid for by eBay shoe nerds who bought some of my old Dunks.
One commenter suggested we change the website every year like we do the street course. As soon as we get one of me for every construction dude out there, we can make that happen. Check out some street course construction that just started. In case you don't know, we have completely changed the street course every single year since 1993 when this place was born. This is the first year we've had a slab of granite, however.
Stalker Steve took some nice chill shots at the Harvest Jam this weekend. The skate ones are sort of like the bennihanna of photography, not that mine were any good either. I know we both can do better than that. Check them out: Stalker Steve at the Harvest Jam 2009.
A known hater on the Skatepark of Tampa Facebook page also has photos from the Harvest Jam. Thanks Kirk Hallinan. I'm putting you on the next cover of Frontside Grind Magazine.
Skatepark of Tampa said today it will file a petition for bankruptcy protection this afternoon.
