Brick Harbor... What's Your Deal?

Brick Harbor has a lot to like about it. Their team is monumental- Dennis Busenitz, PJ Ladd, Jake Johnson, Jack Curtin, Ishod Wair, Gino Iannucci, Daewon Song and Stevie Williams. Not  a weak name to be found.

Not only that, but they're constantly releasing good footage. Check out this short Leo Romero part that they just released.


They've been doing stuff like this pretty much nonstop for the last year, and I think that's awesome. They even carry some pretty solid brands on their site- I have a hard time hating on an online store that maintains a bigger selection of Roger decks than Girl decks.

Here's where I turn around and explain what I don't like about them. A while ago, I wrote about why skateboarding retail doesn't work as well online. I stand by all of those points- go to your local shop first, if at all possible.

That's not what I want to talk about in this article though. I still just get this unexplainable weird vibe from them. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I have some theories...



The whole idea seems really cool right until you actually arrive to the site. When you get there, you are greeted (at the time of me writing this) with this home page:

Right on the bottom appears to be a sketchy looking banner ad. It doesn't offer "$10 off on your purchase" but rather, just "GET $10 NOW!" which looks a little too close to all of the emails in my spam box titled "GET $$$ NOW!"

Anyways, that offer of ten dollars also asks for your phone number (although it's optional) and your gender. Why do you need to know my gender? That's kind of weird. The other offer on the page involves using the promo code "BRO10" which also feels like a misguided attempt to pander to skateboarders. Then there's the slogan, right at the top of the page, "The World's Local Skate Shop". I've never known a skate shop to throw offers of free money at me, but I sort of wish they did. The part that gets me about that statement is immediately under that, the featured products become apparent by the order on the page- hats first, then socks, then shoes, then shirts, THEN decks. I'm not certain, but if I had to rank those items in order of most profitable to least profitable, it would look the same, except footwear would probably be closer to the top somewhere. The whole setup does seem to be a bit of an indicator as to where their priorities are, so that gets them off on the wrong foot. Oh well, I guess it's time to do some shopping. How about some shirts...

Gahh! I was not prepared to have my soul stolen by the cold stare of some desperate art school hipster, thanks, Brick Harbor. Ok, let's go to somewhere less uncomfortable on the site. Let's look at shoes...

What the... it's a $130 shoe made of an old rec room wall. And that's the only one! What's going on? Oh, I clicked on shoes and not sneakers. Let's see what sneakers they have... Adidas... HUF... Adidas... more Adidas... Nikes... Adidas... screw this, I'm going back to clothes. I wasn't in the market for sneakers anyway. How about shorts?

Oh, come on, why is EVERY photo  of the shorts centered directly on some dude's ass?!

Brick Harbor, I don't know what your deal is, but I don't know if I trust you. You make me feel pandered to and just slightly uncomfortable, all in an online store, where those two things shouldn't be an issue. With that said, thanks for taking care of Dennis Busenitz, Gino, and the others. Good day.