Blx Skate Shop Brings Skateboarding To Toole Avenue

Except for the skateboards, wheels and trucks right at the front counter, you’d never really know that The BLX Skate Shop is entirely dedicated to the skateboard culture.

They carry the popular skateboarding shoe lines Huf, Supra and Lakai, and even Converse has a line accepted by skateboarders. The shoes have a flat, wide appearance.

“You’ve gotta feel the board under the shoe,” Jordan continued. “The shoe is designed to resist the friction from the grip tape and the wear and tear when doing tricks and the impact of doing tricks.”

The trio remembers when Downtown was the focal point for all skateboarding, especially the concrete salad at El Presidio Plaza, known as The Blocks in the skateboarding world. Until 1994, skateboarders had permission to skateboard there after 5 p.m.

“Tucson has one of the best skateboarding scenes in the country,” Jordan said. “Not a lot of people know that.”

Skateboarders got the skate park at Randolph Park in exchange for no longer skating at The Blocks, but Randolph does not compare to El Presidio.
“We want to get politically active and approach the City Council and get The Blocks back,” Jordan said. “In pretty much every city, we’re strong guardians of architecture, strange as it sounds. We’re just as interested in preserving and maintaining the architecture we want to skate on. We’re willing to work to make it aesthetically pleasing and skateable.”

Like rock and rollers now in retirement age, skateboarders now have multiple generations with early pros these days in the later 40s. The BLX team is in that middle generation.

“We have a better understanding of the world and people and more respect for all these things,” Zen Butler said.

“We have more respect for property,” Jordan said. “The way we interact with people who don’t skate. We’ve grown up. As adults, we are providers.”
The BLX grew out of a skateboard hard goods and apparel company called Larosa that Jordan and Kenzo Butler started in 2008. They design boards and apparel and outsource the manufacturing.

Kenzo also owns the Staring Without Caring tattoo shop.

The BLX didn’t end up at The Arches by accident.

Six years ago, Jordan got a studio space at Solar Culture, next door to The Arches. Both warehouses are rented by Steven Eye these days.

Jordan didn’t just plant The BLX into the corner space at The Arches. First, a year ago, he talked the prior tenant, Lulubell Toy Bodega, to move in because he was friends with co-owner Amy Del Castillo. Lulubell had a brief life at The Arches from October 2010 to July, when Del Castillo moved to Phoenix on the urging of Kenzo Butler.

There was no grand design to open The BLX in the same space.

“It was definitely spur of the moment,” Jordan said. “As soon as that happened (Del Castillo moving), Kenzo was already in ant mode. This whole thing has been snowballing since I was at Solar Culture. Steven Eye planted me, then there was a Kenzo sprout and then a Zen sprout.”

By: lisen

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