Free Grip #4 with Ben from Pops Skateshop

In this edition of Free Grip, we chat with Ben Corey of Pops Skateshop in Everett, WA.

Photo by Alex Fazekas-Boone

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions and talk shop with us. Let's start off with something easy, tell us a bit about yourself and where you grew up?

I grew up in Marysville, Warshington. I left there at about 17 to go live at Rain City during its last few months. Ended up moving to Scotland at 18 for a while, then spent a couple months going from Barcelona up to Amsterdam. When I got back I moved to San Jose with Jihad and Jeff Elliott, Had and I ended up living with Aaron Vandenbulk and Pancho Moler. I broke my femur while I was there and so I moved back home. After that I bounced around between Seattle and Bellingham, went to college, got married to the best human ever, became a teacher, had a couple kids who are the coolest people on Earth, ended up back in the Ville, and eventually opened a skateshop. 

That’s one hell of a journey dude. Europe at 18 years old was probably so fuckin fun! To rewind a bit, how did you actually get into skating? 

Pretty standard. I believe it was 1995, the kids in the neighborhood had them, I went with them on my bike to Kellogg Marsh, some other kid was there and offered to sell me his old one for 20 bucks. It was a Blind with Grind Kings, and as a result I only rode Grind Kings for the first five years I skated. Brand loyalty baby. It pretty much immediately became the only thing I cared about in life. Which isn't to say I was any good, took me forever to learn anything, but I absolutely loved the fact nobody was telling me what to do or when to do it. I'd skate all day with my friends and then spend another couple hours under the street light trying to get the damn thing to flip over or whatever, it was the greatest. 

Agreed, it is definitely the greatest. So the shop is located in Everett, can you give us some details, maybe some history on the area for the people who aren’t familiar?

Growing up Everett was the big city next door. It had a bad reputation, it was like a failed Tacoma essentially. Skating there was a crapshoot at best. We'd skate the courthouse itself for hours and not get kicked out, then get popped riding on the sidewalk down to the bus stop to go home. At 15 or so I had an Everett cop put me in the back of his car, drive me over the flats into Marysville, then he told me to get out and to never come back to Everett. That was pretty funny. 

These days the city has gotten way cooler. The city has worked with us to open up Wetmore Plaza as an officially designated skate spot. It's different than a skate dot, which the city is also exploring, because it wasn't ever intended for skating. Not a lot of places are doing stuff like that. If you go there, be nice and clean up yer trash! Cops in general aren't tripping out like they used to, it's a lot friendlier in that regard. That doesn't mean there aren't issues, but it's night and day from a skating perspective. Over all, the city has been investing in the street markets and festivals, making art and music a priority, it's been really cool to see. Everett is becoming a proper city in a lot of ways.

Still though, Everett is killer just cause it's crusty shit made beautiful. We got all kinds of spots people outside of the area aren't really aware of. It's cool to see Everett popping up in more videos, but it's still very much untouched by the masses, which makes it that much more fun for the locals. 

Love it! Everett kinda feels like Tacoma to me honestly, so similar. And that’s really sick that the city made that plaza a legit skate spot, we just skated there the other day and it was really fun. I even got a clip, haha! So when and how did you decide to open up Pops?

I was out with some folks skating south of the courthouse when Ross Jinkens came out to see us. Ross had owned Apoge in Marysville, which was bought and turned into the Unknown, which eventually moved up to Bellingham. Shout out to Garza, best dude ever. We were talking about how crazy it was that there wasn't a skateshop in Snohomish County any more. It was October of 2020, middle of Covid, global shipping freeze, so it was very much just a "Well, maybe we look at what rent might be, kind of look into it a bit, but we aren't gonna do anything for a year or whatever" conversation. Then two months later we were open. Just found the right spot, everything just kind of fell into place. 

Photo by Alex Fazekas-Boone

Woah that’s super quick actually. Running a skate shop in 2024 ain’t easy, but in the NW even more so in this particular time of year. What are some of the challenges you guys have dealt with?

I can definitely see why there have been so many shops that open and close within a year or so, it isn't the experience people might expect. Narrow margins on most hard goods, at least if you want to keep them affordable. Where we are most of the kids coming in are dealing with economic issues, so we're trying to keep it reasonable. We're always competing with people shopping on the goddamn internet. On top of all that, only having about four or five months of decent weather a year? It can be a challenge for sure. 

Gotta give a huge shout out to Chris Nieratko and the Skateshop Day crew! Chris owns a shop in New Jersey, so they got the same kind of seasonal lull going on, and Skateshop Day goes a long way towards helping everyone out during the bleak season. Y'all better get out there on February 17th and celebrate! 

We've learned a lot in the three years we've been at it, mostly just as far as when and how to spend money. It doesn't solve every issue but it keeps us going for sure. We're still learning too. We try to keep things tight with the community, working with Boys and Girls Club and the Mukilteo YMCA on events and programs, staying involved in the street markets, working with the city on different things. We've been throwing contests and events of course, but we are looking forward to ramping that up this year. Just keeping things going in the community.

In the end thought it really just comes down to the skaters out there coming through and supporting. We're lucky to be amidst a rad scene where most people appreciate having a shop they can go to where the people working actually skate and can help them out in a meaningful way. As long as people keep coming through the door, we're not gonna be going anywhere. 

Perfectly elaborated dude. What’s been something you’ve enjoyed about running the shop that you weren’t expecting when you started?

Oh man, so much. Every time you get to set up a kid's first board ever is just amazing. Parents coming through with their kids, both of them skating, has been really cool to see. Just getting to know all of the rippers in our part of the world has been really fun.

There's a rad scene outside of the young male demographic developing in our neck of the woods, which is fantastic. Working with all our different reps and distributors has been really educational and fun, just to see how much of skateboarding is still homies helping each other out.  We've tried to stock primarily skater owned brands across the spectrum and feeling the camaraderie involved is amazing. 

Working with the city has also been really cool. The mayor and the previous deputy mayor have come in a bunch, we've got to meet a ton of good folks at the parks department. We've got more to work on with them, but it's just cool to have that relationship. Meeting the homies on the block, Maurice next door at Mr. Cuts is a rad dude, Amina has you covered on the braids, the folks at Petrikor are dope. It's a good scene down on Rucker! Not to mention working with the other skateshops on shit. Garza at Unknown is an old friend of course, helped us get started. Kyle at Black Market is a powerhouse, one of the busiest dudes out there and making a lot happen behind the scenes. I've known Tony at 35th for a while, but it's still rad to be able to actually work with them on stuff like the Jam last summer. There's so much good stuff.

Photo by Alex Fazekas-Boone

That jam at the courts was really sick. I normally don’t do well in big crowds like that but it was so good to see the whole state come together and rip. And what about managing folks who work at the shop, how has that been?

It's been good, none of this would be possible without the people you see behind the counter. We have a lot of love for everyone who has ever taken a shift. Big shout out to the long timers, Andrew, Vetta, Tashawn, Jefferson, and Justin.

Absolutely. Besides Pop's, what are your favorite shops in the NW?

All of them, bar none. Skateshops are the heart and soul of skateboarding, and I believed that for the 25 years before I opened a shop just as much as I do now. I still want to be sponsored by Johnny Wannas! Unknown in Bellingham is amazing, Black Market and 35th North in Seattle, 35th in Federal Way, obviously. Method in Tacoma! I remember watching Aaron doing kickflip front lips on the Rain City rail. He's a rad dude and it's awesome to see him holding it down. I'm stoked on Geez out in Oak Harbor, AVE in Yakima, Noping down in Olympia, Hidden Wave has been holding it down in Burlington for decades. There's so many more, a lot that I still haven't made it out to, but there are so many! There's no excuse not to be going to the shop! Big Online retailers aren't helping out anyone and the mall doesn't love you, go to your damn skateshop. While you're at it, check out Happy Days and Funny Nights right up from Pike Place, a rad art and decor shop owned by OG villin, and former Johnny Wannas employee, Dan Gregory.

Yes!! Love all of that. Who's your favorite NW skater right now?

Oh man, hard to name just one. Vetta is amazing, so much fun to watch do anything. Zach Udy out of Marysville is one of the best to ever do it. Him, Kelsey Boyd, Tommy Pham, Tony D, I love those dudes. Eddie Dabrowski, final answer.

You guys have several better parks nearby than anything we have in Tacoma, I’m a bit jealous haha. How important are those parks to cultivating the local scene?

Any city not investing a decent park is blowing it. They are and likely always will be amongst the best used investment a city can make. It provides kids with something to do that doesn't involve staring into a screen, a place to build community, and an incredible space for rad events. We are lucky up here on the park front, the new ones in Tulalip, Lake Stevens, Darrington, Edmonds, are all incredible. Everett, time to step it up! Although I still like the old set of parks, Marysville, Arlington, Burlington. I'm an anti-social skater though really, so I don't go to parks too often, my favorite spot at the moment is a box I built in an abandoned garage in the middle of the woods. 

Hahaha hell yeah! No pins for that one... Who’s killing it in your zone right now that we should know about?

Go watch "Welcome to Everett"! All those heads are just ripping. Not all of them are Everett heads though, big shout out to Justin Duong on that front, who started skating in Everett and lives there to this day. He is amazing, . We got Hungry Ben on the squad, he lives in Arlington but has been killing Everett spots. Young Daniel is another one, he's right on Colby and kills it on the transitions, kid is going places. John Drinkard is rad of course, so stoked to get to know him, nicest dude out and he absolutely kills it. He's in Lynnwood, which is basically just South Everett, haha. Jefferson Elliott is my favorite person to skate with, we've skated on a couple of continents and all sorts of states together, and he just keeps shredding. Just to name a few, I could go on and on. 

Favorite local videos or parts people should watch? Old or new?

Snohomish County wise, I'd say start with Garret Hunt's "The Skatey Bunch".

I think people should watch all of skate videos, because that's the way the good lord Dale intended it. You can see me spiral fracture my femur in there, so that's a bonus. Ross's part is dope, Jimmy Williams is in there, who would go on to be dubbed Jihad by Jefferson Elliott. 

Then you gotta watch Fucko Skateboards' "April Fools" which came out in 2015.

Again, watch the whole thing, start to finish, why not? The shit on your phone will still be there when your done. Stand out parts are Zach Redenius opening it with some insane huckery, and Kenny Anderson closing it out. I call him "Yes, that Kenny Anderson" because it isn't the Kenny Anderson from Chocolate, it's the even better Kenny Anderson from Arlington. I'm not joking either, the dude is amazing.  

Finally, check out "Welcome to Everett"!

There's three generations of Snohomish County shenanigans for you, study up kids! 

I gotta shout out my boy Austin for the amazing videos he's done over the years. Definitely go scope his Youtube channel. Two other Everett OGs you better already know about: Josh Jones and Gnardo. Any old Vic's Market video is worth your time, all the old Manik videos too. If only there were a high res cut out there of some of those gems! Obviously, you should have already watched Kingtom, that was amazing and Peha is the best.

Of course we're real stoked to have Taylor Clark riding with us, he has a full part in our video, another of that generation and someone who is still just so damn good it makes me sick. He's been ripping forever, definitely has tricks in a ton of videos, but I think this is first full part, which is pretty cool. There's so many more current PNW videos that are so dope too of course, I'm just an old fart prattling on about the good old days. Genesis, the Authentic Video that just came out, Soundtrack was amazing, all the Sk8rat stuff is awesome. I could go on and on and on my friend. The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

So many good ones, people could be watching videos from this thread for the next week! And I have to mention again, that you guys just dropped a video a few months back, tell us about making that? How long were you working on it? Who did filming, editing, etc? 

It was awesome! Austin Fischer and Jeff Elliott filmed most of it, with Jerry Peterson, Skoops, Primo, and all sorts of other heads putting in work as well. I worked with Jeff a bit on editing it, just the sequence kind of stuff, Jeff makes actual movies for a living so he's the one who brought it to life. He pulled together the soundtrack, made the animations, did all the sound and color correction, the titles, all that shit. So many long hours, anyone who has made one of these damn things already knows. We put about a year into it, all told, though some people were sitting on clips beyond that range. Our big trip was to SF last July, which was amazing. We hit all the tourist spots of course, but also got to skate some cutty shit, big thanks to my boo Chris Moore who has been holding it down down there for 20 years or so. Not to mention Adrian from Road Crew letting us rip his backyward bowl. Buy some Road Crews! 

It's the second video Jeff and I have worked on together, and it was a blast. Not to say there wasn't some significant stress involved, but there is always going to be stress when you are working with a project so many people are emotionally invested in. In the end, when we premiered it at Lucky Dime to an absolutely packed house, it was an unbeatable feeling. The dudes really came through on this one. The best part of making a video is just capturing the time period, those guys are gonna be old fucks someday, barely able to bend their knees, but they'll be able to plug that video into their iBrain and relive the glory days. It's a pretty cool thing to have on the shelf.

iBrain nostalgia coming for all of us. Any new videos in the works?

Fuck no. Haha, nah just kidding, we're working on some stuff. We're going to do some smaller projects, focus on one or two of our riders at a time for a while, have some fun with that. The world needs a full Brick part, that's for damn sure. There will be another full length eventually, we're already plotting on how it's gonna go. 

Brick is so damn good, people don’t even know. Final thoughts? Anything we missed? Anything you want to promote?

Thanks so much for the chance to talk about skateboarding in Everett and Snohomish County, I love this shit. Thank you guys in general for all the cool stuff you are doing, it's rad to have a media outlet focused on the local humans. As far as promotion, just the shop itself. If you haven't come to see us yet, come say hi! 

Yes, for sure, thank you Ben!

You can follow the shop on Instagram and visit them online.