Why you need to go to a skateboard shop

If you're a programmer, attorney, teacher, chef, preacher, marketer, whatever--you can't ignore the crucial importance of design, especially today. And one of the best places to find it is... the nearest skateboard shop.

The photo above is from the bottom of my latest board, and I almost hated mounting the trucks (the thing that holds the wheels) because I loved the art. (This photo doesn't do it justice, because the image is now obscured by the wheels.)

Some of today's best and brightest designers are working on skateboard/snowboard art, as well as the gear that goes with it, and it's definitely worth a trip to your nearest skateboard shop (and I recommend either a skateboard or skateboard/snowboard shop rather than one that's strictly about snowboards).

If you're not a skater yourself, don't let that stop you. Think of it as a visit to an urban modern art gallery. Just don't go to one of those typical "mall" stores! The real skaters in your area will be able to tell you where the real skateboard shop is, and it's worth finding that lesser-known place the serious locals know about. (Although even the mall stores will still have rows of wonderfully-designed boards to look at.)

I buy my gear at the Satellite Boardshop in Boulder, and it's a great example of a store that's worth spending time in just soaking up the design of the boards, shoes, and even the store interior. (And if you're not in the neighborhood, check out the website).

A couple other places to check out online are:

Girl Skateboards

and

Elements, who also make some of the best "hoodie" sweatshirts I've ever seen.

And while you're looking in unusual places for design (especially contemporary, young, urban design) ideas, you should also consider a stop at Kid Robot, with stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles (you can't go to SF without making a stop at Kid Robot, which is just down the street from the world's best music store, Amoeba).

Oh yeah, once you're in toy mode, don't forget that "plush toys" have a whole new meaning among designers today. These are not the cute stuffed animals you had as a kid. These stuffed creatures are showing up in galleries and high-end stores, for a hefty price-tag, but they represent another aspect of a design trend that keeps surprising me.

I guess the point is--no matter what your age, your end-users are (for most of our target markets) going to keep getting younger. We all need to keep figuring out what our new users are all about, and how their brains work, and looking at their design sensibilities is one of the most powerful ways. Too many people tend to see only the films -- and listen only to the music--that reflect the style they liked when they were in their late teens and early twenties. Forcing myself to listen to newer, younger music, and watching newer, younger films (and by "younger", no I don't mean the 3,242 viewings of Nemo you've been watching with your three-year old) is one of the best things I can do to stay in better touch with my younger, hipper, differently-wired users.

And if you're not a video game player, you have a great excuse to start. Get your ass down to Best Buy or the local video game store and pick up an XBox or a Sony Playstation. Or, you can start with my latest toy--I mean serious PDA--the Tapwave Zodiac. It's the best Palm OS device you can get for the money, and while it's nearly as cool as the Sony PSP, you can justify it like I did by using it to do everything from word processing to Quicken to keeping your Getting Things Done lists. I love the idea of writing off game playing as a business expense. Market research.

We'll do whatever it takes to understand our users. No matter what the sacrifice.