We recently connected with Aaron Schneider and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aaron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our mission is to give the next generation a safe and fun place to go while learning how to enjoy all sorts of action sports properly. As a troubled youth growing up in Green Bay, WI there weren’t many adults around or places to go that gave us safety and fun. The skatepark was that for us, but along with that came most of the stereotypical problems that come from there. As I got older, I kept seeing the same thing happening at other skateparks that didn’t have a skate shop close by. We saw the perfect opportunity to open ours right next to the skatepark in Menasha, WI. Three years plus later we have become the main hub for fun and safety for the youth in our neighborhood.

Most of the time the eccentric kids don’t have a place to go and fit in. We want to be that place. We have set the example of hard work pays off and will hopefully keep them going down a better path in life one day at a time. Whether it’s through skateboarding, scootering, rollerblading, longboarding, video games, just chatting, or whatever way we can connect with them. This will give them an outlet to express themselves safely, creatively, and have fun.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello everyone, my name is Aaron Schneider. I am the owner of Blue Dragon Skate Shop in Menasha, WI. I got interested in all sorts of sports when I was younger. I tried out skateboarding for a couple years. It was fun and I learned a good variety of trick but roller hockey was one of my favorites growing up. I’d go over to a friends house often and we’d play on the street in front of his house with lots of the other neighborhood kids. It was a blast. One day, after we were done playing hockey my friend brought out a skate rail and put on a set of aggressive rollerblades. He grinded the rail and it blew my mind. Shortly after I took out the middle wheels of my rollerblades and tried grinding the rail. Eventually I did, then I was hooked. I got my own pair of aggressive rollerblades that Christmas and practically lived at the skatepark the summer after that learning grinds, airs, spins, and gaps.

About twenty years later, I still have a passion for rollerblading/skateboarding, and recently have even picked up scootering. All of these sports have a lot in common with each other overall; learning determination, using creativity, enjoying exercising, and the ability to make friends with similar interests. Which is why having a local skate shop around to support people progressing in any of these sports is very important. We have watched kids go from being a beginner to advanced, people grow up into adults, and even a few start their own businesses. We also have this fun thing we do with anyone that comes in can play rock, paper, scissors to win a prize. They get one chance a day to win 2 out of 3 times for a prize of water, a snack, or some stickers. This gives them a few lessons of nothing is free, and you got to work for what you want.

The thing that makes us stand out from the other shops around us is our atmosphere. We have chill vibes and free activities for people to do. We have a video game area with a couch, a fingerboard park, and we even play card games with people that stop in and hang out. We have goals of expanding to a bigger location to have a music venue for bands and djs to come perform at.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our whole store has been one pivot after another. We first opened and thought we were gonna be a skateboard/longboard focused business, but not too long after that we had been getting more and more demand for scooter parts and products. We started focusing on that and so far that one has been working out for us the best. We have even sponsored a lot of the scooter events all over the Midwest for the past couple of years. This year was all about the longboards again, so we’ve been trying to pivot back to having more of those products in stock. It is crazy how the rollercoaster goes for all the different sports.

This year we had probably made the biggest pivot of our career by focusing even more on our image and our team riders. We went from having a full team of riders to parting ways with a few on our own terms to branch out and figure out what was best for all of us. We have a great core of people still involved but we are being more particular of who we are adding to the team going forward. It is most important to have right people surrounding you and supporting you than just anyone.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

So the first two years of our business was booming and everything was growing almost too fast and out of control. We decided to take winter off this year to travel and get our mental back. It was definitely worth it minus that all of my savings went a lot faster than expected was almost gone by the time I had to reopen. I could barely afford to get initial new inventory. The scariest part I was about a week away from having to shut it down and/or losing my house. Luckily I was able to pick up a part time job right before that happened. It was a miracle. Currently still doing the other job and having the store open full time. We are keeping our foundation to regrow into something even better than before. I will never shut down the business fully again and not have a job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bluedragonskate.com
• Instagram: https;//instagram.com/bluedragonskate
• Facebook: https;//facebook.com/bluedragonskate
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/bluedragonskate

Image Credits

Caleb Wilcox