A wall of symmetrical, bright red skateboards creates the backdrop. Displayed on a handcrafted wood countertop is a painted pair of one-of-a-kind sneakers. Bright white walls hold high-quality art prints. The skateboarding magazines look more like stylebooks. A floor-to-ceiling mural of Easton and its many neighborhoods takes up half a wall, where customers take visually elevated Instagram photos. And this is just the downstairs.
Andy Po, owner of Homebase Skateshop, can be found hard at work on his iMac but will instantly welcome anyone who walks through the door with a genuine smile and a warm hello. No matter who walks through the door, they will feel like the most important person in the shop. Whether it be through a handshake or a chance to play with Po's dog, Holmes, everyone is greeted like a friend.
This simple act of welcoming seems like the perfect metaphor for the whole foundation of Po's business: The secret to a successful retail store lies in creating an experience and building a community.
Po has been doing both for well over a decade. The strong roots he has planted here in the Lehigh Valley, with his first shop in Southside Bethlehem and then expanding to Downtown Easton, originally began across the country.
Cheers for the Home Team
Po was born in Spokane, Washington and then moved to San Diego in first grade. He lived in California until his sophomore year of high school, when his dad's engineering job transferred the family to the Lehigh Valley, where Po finished high school at Liberty. His mother was a nurse, who later decided to stay home to raise her family when Po's younger brother was born.
Her presence played a big part in shaping who he is today. “She was always there to instill values and lessons,” he says. It was a strict household, one Po didn't always like when he was younger, but now he links his work ethic to his mother investing her life and time into her kids. “I really think I'm successful because of the values my parents passed on. Getting things done on time, completing all our tasks, not being allowed to watch TV or play until we finished our work or chores… It was a sense of doing the job right for yourself, not just because someone may be looking over your shoulders.” That's still how Po works—all or nothing. “If I think of an idea, I lay it all out, I find the most efficient way to do it. Then I chip away at it until the project is done. I don't like starting something I can't finish,” Po laughs. “Maybe to a fault.”
So why would a kid from California want to open a skateshop in eastern Pennsylvania? “I wanted nothing more than to graduate high school and get back to California,” he admits. Po grew up in a predominantly Filipino community and culture in San Diego. Naturally, a move to the Lehigh Valley as a teenager removed him from his comfort zone. High school life on the East Coast was like a teen film, he says. “The most popular kid [actually was] the quarterback of the football team, and the most popular girl was the head cheerleader. In the world I came from, that didn't exist,” explains Po. But skateboarding helped Po gain independence and a sense of self. He found camaraderie with other outliers, and in this skate subculture, he found home.
Despite being one of the most well-known business owners in the Lehigh Valley, Po didn't go to business school. He went to Northampton Community College for biological studies, and used his free time to film skate videos before eventually dropping out. He saw the potential for Homebase as a lucrative business and wanted to start working on it. It took only five months for the doors to open. “I would recommend to everyone who wants to open a business to take classes in accounting and entrepreneurship. I made a lot of mistakes,” he says with a humble laugh.
A chance connection with a student at Lehigh University helped Homebase go from an idea to a real store. Po skated with a Lehigh student (“He was probably the only skater at the entire school at the time,” he says) who had a roommate that sat in on many conversations and brainstorming sessions about opening a skateshop. The roommate was getting his MBA, and offered to help Po write a business plan and become a partial investor. With his help, Homebase got a business loan for the rest of the money and opened a few months later. “We were naïve to how successful we [would] be.”
In the ‘90s, the Bethlehem Skateplaza didn't exist yet. Bethlehem locals started skating with people in Allentown. It expanded to Easton, the Poconos, New York and New Jersey.
Chain stores sold the products, but had no knowledge, passion or concern for the skate community. They didn't advocate for skate parks or hold contests like the shops Po knew in San Diego, so he started filming skate videos of his friends, and those projects really took off. That community had a need for a proper skateshop. The video skate projects gave kids an opportunity to meet each other. “That's what a good skateshop does: it pulls together a community,” says Po.
As for the name? When Po was making skate videos, they called themselves “Home Team 610.” The store was literally the home base of the Home Team, and the home base of skateboarding culture in the Lehigh Valley.
From Curator to Incubator
From a young skater to successful business owner (who still skates), Po continues to carry out his parents' ethics of working with dignity and respect and strives to set an example for the younger generation. If the Skateplaza in Southside Bethlehem, which Po put a ton of energy and time into, has a problem with littering or graffiti, he rallies for help to clean it up.
“When you want something for so long and finally get it, you're going to take care of it. We try to instill a sense of ownership for the park," he says. It was built for them.
When anything can be bought, often cheaper, online, how did an independent skateshop in Pennsylvania stick around for 14 years and manage to open a larger, second location? At Homebase, Po isn't just selling sneakers. “We can't compete with an online conglomerate. But what we do have is the tie to the community and personal interaction,” he says.
Homebase's intention has always been to create experiences to keep the culture of skateboarding alive. Instead of throwing money into a print ad or TV ad, Po and his supporters will set up a skate demo in the street and make it an event. It's through D.I.Y. marketing that they built a name for themselves. “You need to build a reason for people to come and actually walk into your store,” he says. Homebase is about building an experience and a family.
Po took the storefront in Easton in part because of what he could do on the second floor. Po offers the space to micro-businesses to set up a several-month pop-up shop. To businesses just starting out, Po gives vendors semi-permanent table space to establish a retail area of their own.
This past winter, in prime holiday shopping time, the second floor of Homebase Easton was home to the Easton Flea, a curated collection of local vendors selling items like vintage clothes, succulent plants and art. In the spring it was Street Meet, a celebration of street culture and style, and weekend classes in screen printing or sneaker painting were offered.
One of the most sought-after vendors was Izzy, who sells rare, hand-painted sneakers. She brought a ton of people through the door at Homebase, proving the D.I.Y. marketing ethos works for Homebase. Get people involved, make them feel a part of something and they'll talk about you.
Though viral marketing is a positive effect, Po genuinely wants to help others the same way that he was helped 14 years ago. “I look at these pop-ups as incubators. Not everyone with a table wants to open a retail store, but somebody might. Maybe a year from now they'll want to open up a shop downtown, which only helps strengthen the downtowns. I needed someone to take a chance on my ideas when I first started, so this allows me to give back,” he says.
Coping with the Grind
Running two busy stores, hosting events, curating a pop-up shop, collaborating with local organizations and constantly putting out new media online takes a lot of time. “In the early years, I had a mindset that I had to do everything myself to maintain control. But the store has really grown in the past few years because I've focused more on delegating tasks, and empowering other people to take on roles,” Po says.
Developing a personal routine has been important in maintaining balance. A few days a week he gets up early and goes to the gym, then does some work before going to one of Homebase's stores. Nights are spent eating dinner at home, watching Netflix with Holmes and his girlfriend, Kali. “I make time every day to intentionally not work, or I'd just get lost in it” he says.
There has always been talent in the Lehigh Valley, but now it's really coming out of the subcultures and into the mainstream. “I feel proud that Homebase has really helped forge the way for young business owners,” he says. “We want to encourage that, we want to see it grow.”
The idea that someone needs to move out of the area to be successful in art or business is not true anymore. Young business owners want to stake their claim here.
“Just because some people don't understand skate culture doesn't mean there's not something important about it. It's still recognized,” he says. “To any young business owner: Just know that you can succeed more right now in the Lehigh Valley than [at] any other time.”
14 W. 4th St., Southside Bethlehem | 432 Northampton St., Easton | homebase610.com
