Aaron Hawkins

Aaron Hawkins is the owner of Energy & Rhythm Athletics, which moved to West Main Street from its Elliewood Avenue location.The new shop features skateboards, clothing, shoes and snowboards, as well as an area for local skateboarders to hang out. (Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress)

Aaron Hawkins hates the phrase "mission statement" when talking about the business plan for his Charlottesville skateboard shop.

"I wrote one because I needed to get loans when I first started my store, but my goal was not to make money," the 31-year-old Madison County native said.

"I've never written a profit target," he said."What I want is to have a positive push and effect on the skateboarding industry, and the kids who are involved in it."

In his 16 years in the industry, Hawkins has defied the stereotypical image of skateboarders.

He has pursued a successful career as a product designer and sales representative for companies such as Ride Snowboards, Santa Cruz Snowboards and Munich, Germany-based USP International, the maker of Generic brand snowboards and Blax brand snowboard boots.

He also helped to establish skateboard parks in Culpeper County and Charlottesville, and helped design and develop Massanutten Resort's first snowboarding course.

Hawkins, who has been selling skateboards since he was 15, recently moved his three-year-old Charlottesville store to West Main Street from Elliewood Avenue to make room for his budding skateboard, snowboard and T-shirt graphics business.

He said his company's sales have been growing at a rate of 30 percent annually since it opened, and he expects sales for the first year at his new location to grow at a rate of 50 percent because of increased store traffic.Hawkins would not share exact sales because of competitive reasons.

"We decided to move because Elliewood is a dead-end street and there wasn't a lot of cross-traffic," he said.

Hawkins started skateboarding when he was 7 and eventually found a summer job with Bike Stop in Culpeper.

Bob Leftwich, owner of Bike Stop, said Hawkins had a lot of good ideas on how to promote the skateboard side of his business.
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Steve Showalter, ski area manager for Massanutten Resort, said Hawkins began helping develop its first snowboard park in 1989 and continues to help promote one of its snowboard competitions.
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After graduating from high school in 1990, Hawkins went to Piedmont Virginia Community College for a year and then transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University to study graphic design.

As a college student, he began working as a sales rep for various snowboarding companies such as Santa Cruz Snowboards and Wave Raves.

He eventually quit college after two years to work for Ride Snowboards as a product manager and after six months moved on to work for USP International as creative director.

He returned to Charlottesville in 1998 to start his Energy & Rhythm Athletics.

Hawkins said in his new location he plans to have a section where skateboarders can come to just socialize, watch skate videos or compete on a Sony PlayStation 2.

"I want to tell kids to get out there - go tear it up," he said."I don't want these kids to blah out and say 'I'm just going to bartend after I graduate.'"

In addition to selling snowboards and skateboards, Hawkins said he hopes to expand his shoe and boot sales and custom T-shirt printing.

He has designed a pair of shoes for Savier, a company that's backed financially by Nike, and is working with another company to design snowboarding boots.

The T-shirt business has taken off mostly by word-of-mouth, Hawkins said.He said he prints shirts for Hoos Greek, a Charlottesville retailer, and several bands including a local bluegrass group, The Hackensaw Boys, and Monster Magnet.

"[Making T-shirts] was initially something I wanted to do on my own, but people started coming to me for my designs," he said."Now it's full-on part of my game plan."

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Regardless of his success in the skateboarding industry, Hawkins is still not completely comfortable with making money.

"I have to force myself to be OK with it," said Hawkins, who skates to work."But this store is different because I have higher overhead and a grander vision."

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Designers: Aaron Hawkins, Arthur Wu, Ernest Spangler,