‘The World’s Largest Skateboard Store’ Closes
Nearly six years after Foot Locker purchased CCS Mailorder for $103.2 million, it is closing the doors. Foot Locker hoped to pick up on the HUGE skateboarder show market and also stop CCS from competing with them.
As time would have it, the advancement of the internet meant a shot in the leg to traditional mail order companies like CCS. The cost of producing catalogs and shipping it out was first subsidized by advertisers, but as the competition online got stronger and advertisement also moved online- it proved to be another shot to the heart of CCS.
Shoes (skate shoes) typically have huge margins. The profit makes it very lucrative. However, as CCS made it’s transition into an online store it also had to compete with giants like, Zappos and Amazon, on price. That proved difficult for the skate giant.
The company did whatever it could to survive. CCS also tried mall stores (as pictured), but the success was not enough to keep it alive. Mall stores also had to compete against Pacific Sunwear for clothing and Zumiez for boards and shoes.
The store was founded in 1985 in San Luis Obispo, California and stands for California Cheap Skates.
CCS also sponsored more than a dozen top skaters at any given time, including X Games stars Nyjah Huston and Ryan Sheckler. Pro skater Mike Mo Capaldi was welcomed to the team earlier this month.
It’s been a rough couple of months for the skateboard industry: In May, Pacific Vector Holdings shuttered DNA Distribution and its Alien Workshop, Habitat and Reflex skateboard brands. And on Tuesday, skateboarder Jamie Thomas announced he’s moving his Zero skateboards and Fallen footwear brands to Dwindle Distribution, leaving his own creation, Black Box Distribution, and scaling back on his existing brands, which include Slave, Mystery and Threat.
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