Getting a jump on the business world
19-year-old skateboarder balances college with long days in his own Burlington Mall shop
An economic recession doesn't scare Matthew Polianites - but not much does.
The laid-back owner of the Boardwalk Skate Shop at Burlington Mall has a hip store humming with skateboarding devotees, a cellphone full of business contacts, and another asset: youth.
Just 19 years old and still in college, Polianites, who goes by Matty, can work 13-hour days on caffeine and fast food while keeping an upbeat attitude about starting his business in a down market.
"The recession isn't stopping people from skateboarding," Polianites, a sophomore at Suffolk University Sawyer Business School, said.
Polianites spends the first half of each weekday at the mall running his shop before bolting to Boston for evening classes in Global Business and Entrepreneurship, where, he says, his professors barely know him.
"If this is a recession, I'm not worried," he said.
John Bernards, executive director of the International Association of Skateboard Companies in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., said he feels equally optimistic about the industry, despite flat skateboard sales in October that he blames on the dire economic news.
"Manufacturers are shipping again," Bernards said. "If skate shops know how to merchandise this stuff, they're doing well."
Polianites says he's doing just that.
"It's do or die in the mall," said Polianites, who pays $6,500 a month in rent. Instead of drawing a paycheck, he puts every penny back into the business. "If we weren't doing well, we'd be out of here in a second."
That's not just youth talking. Sure, with his easygoing style Polianites is a natural for this niche market of mostly teenage boys seeking trendy equipment and cool attire to practice their art on wheels. But his business savvy defies his 19 years.
The Boston-born Polianites, who grew up in Winchester, first stepped on a skateboard at age 9. Pastime turned to passion, and soon he was practicing kick flips at Hadley Park near his father's house in Lowell. For his junior year at Winchester High, the B-average student studied in Barcelona - "the skateboarding mecca of the world." There he rolled down marble ramps with world-famous pros and started making the contacts that would serve him well in his first business venture.
Back in the United States in 2006, the high school senior landed a job at FreeRide, a skateboard kiosk at Burlington Mall. Beyond setting up the occasional lemonade stand, Polianites had never showed signs of entrepreneurship, but had worked plenty of minimum-wage jobs in high school. The kiosk position marked a turning point for him.
"I saw how easy it was to sell skateboards in the mall," said Polianites. "I also thought the concept was good, but they were only selling boards, not clothes. There's almost no markup on boards; clothing is where you make the money."
As Polianites built up retail experience, he also got some inside information. The kiosk owner would eventually be ditching his stand to take a new job, leaving customers without a place to purchase boards. Polianites said he saw a chance in a small, sleek shop in the mall - a location central to a dozen skateboard parks from Arlington to Stoneham to Peabody.
The dream could have been derailed when Polianites started at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2007, but while he was a freshman there he learned that the kiosk was closing. He then made a very grown-up choice: "I decided I would rather take the risk of the shop and have it be successful than spend the next four years as a poor college student," he said. "I wanted to graduate with a store franchise, not a heap of credit-card debt."
While still in Amherst, the budding entrepreneur placed calls to skateboard distributors and insurance companies. But it was his mother, Lindsey Quirk, who first contacted Michelle M. Johnson, local leasing representative for the
"I think the fact that Matthew worked at the previous skateboard kiosk gave him the experience and confidence he needed to move forward with his store," Johnson said.
And move forward he did, right after moving back in with his mother, who, despite having some "yikes!" moments, gave her son full support for his retail dream.
"Some people do very well at school, and some people do well with life experiences," said Quirk, a 49-year-old nurse practitioner. "And this is a great life experience for Matthew."
With a mother's concern, Quirk also talked with her son about all aspects of business, including the commitment of 12-hour days at the mall, and even the possibility of failure, which, like Polianites, she believes won't happen.
Polianites drew up a business plan in April 2008 and, within a month, had secured $50,000 in investment money from family friends. Soon he was the youngest short-term lease holder at Burlington Mall.
On July 1, after Polianites, his mother, and some friends stayed up for the better part of four nights transforming the 865-square-foot space into the Boardwalk Skate Shop, the doors opened for business. Except for the blip of broken exit lights that delayed that big moment by four hours, Polianites has been pleased with his urban-style store specializing in local brands.
To make the shop known, Polianites hit nearby skateboard parks with free shirts and stickers. Soon he had customers and, in the style of small skate shops, they became regulars.
Hector Gil, 22, of Lynn is a semipro skateboarder who works at Nordstrom but always shoots to the Boardwalk on breaks to hang out with Polianites.
"I give him his respect," Gil said. "He put all that together, and he's good with people."
Though PacSun and Journeys, major skateboard retailers, lurk right around the corner in the mall, Polianites distinguishes himself by running a "core shop," selling brands sought out by true skateboarders.
Though he sees himself franchising, moving into e-commerce, and setting up an indoor skate park, he's keeping things manageable for now, employing his 15-year-old brother and trusted friends he has skateboarded with for a decade. When forced to walk the line between friend and manager, he stays light.
"Someone will show up a half-hour late for his shift and think nothing of it," said Polianites. "So I have him wash the windows. No one wants to wash the windows."
Otherwise, youth has only worked for him. So has his skateboard attitude.
"You try a trick, you fall, you get back up," Polianites said. "With skateboarding, everything you do is a risk. Same as in the business world."
Sandra A. Miller's e-mail address is sandraamiller@aol.com. 