Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of Tri-Cities. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Tri-Cities, Tennessee.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 36: From Niche to Global: Joey Booth's Mojo Skate Shop Journey
What makes Joey Booth with Mojo Skate Shop a good neighbor?
Ever wondered how skateboarding evolved from a niche activity to a global phenomenon? Joey Booth, the passionate owner of Mojo Skate Shop in Johnson City, shares his incredible journey from founding the shop in 1990 to becoming a keystone of the local skateboarding community. Join us as Joey recounts the cultural shifts in skateboarding from its early days in the 1970s, its mainstream resurgence, and the role Hollywood has played in shaping public perception. Joey also clarifies common misconceptions about skateboarders while celebrating the sport's widespread acceptance today. Despite hanging up his own board due to the sport's physical demands, Joey’s lifelong love for skateboarding is palpable.
In an equally heartfelt second segment, Joey reflects on the success of Mojo Skate Shop and shares his gratitude for the community's support. We also get a glimpse of his expertise in real estate, hinting at some exciting future discussions. Joey’s story is not just about a business; it’s about passion, community, and resilience. We wrap up the episode with our thanks to Joey and encourage listeners to nominate other local businesses to be featured, continuing the spirit of community engagement that makes this podcast special. Don't miss this engaging episode with a true skateboarding aficionado and business leader!
To learn more about Mojo Skate Shop go to:
Mojo Skate Shop
(423) 943-5800
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everybody. Are you a skate rat? Do you like riding skateboards? Do you have kids that are skate rats? Well, you might be in luck today, because I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor, Mr Joey Booth, who is the owner and operator of Mojo Skate Shop. Joey, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hey, how are you doing over there?
Speaker 2:I'm doing just fine. How about yourself?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great, Cannot complain Good good, good, good.
Speaker 2:Well, we are very excited to learn all about you and Mojo's Skate Shop. So if you don't mind, why don't you just tell us a little bit about your business?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I have my skateboard shop, of course called Mojo's Skateboard Shop, and I technically opened in 1990, but I got the idea for this shop probably in 85. But I opened in 1990 in Johnson City and I was over on West Walnut Street, where I am now, and then for about 10 years, from 95 to 2005,. I was in the mall and then I moved back over here in 2006, and I've been here ever since. So we carry just pretty much over 1,000 different skateboards from all over the United States, some international boards, but most skateboards come from the United States, because they pretty much come out of California.
Speaker 2:I was going to play a joke on you. This will date me, but I was going to introduce you as Tony Alva. But I figured that people may not know who that is, but I'm sure you do. Yes, I used to have Alva board actually oh yeah 70s and early 80s. Oh yeah, well, how, how?
Speaker 3:did go ahead. I'm sorry he's.
Speaker 2:He still makes skateboards desi wow, he's an old guy like me now, so um so, how did you get into this business? Joy?
Speaker 3:well, um, you know, I was born in the skateboarding pretty much started in the 50s and 60s and I noticed that I don't really know, it just seems like it's part of my life, a thing in the area I knew in like the 70s, everybody skateboarded like a bicycle or skateboard. So I got my first skateboard when I was eight, probably in 1974, 75, and then know it's just as far as how I opened it. I just I don't know. I was like 22 years old and just opened a skateboard shop. I don't have an answer.
Speaker 2:Well, that's an answer. So are there any misconceptions in the skateboarding industry about you know things? That people think one thing but it's actually different well, I noticed.
Speaker 3:And now, like I said, in the 60s and 70s everybody skateboarded anywhere from farrah fawcett to just everybody. Everyone skateboard in the 60s and 70s and then for some reason in the 80s, uh, skateboarding changed a little bit. The boards got really big and it became a little bit more of a sport for outsiders, I guess. And then Hollywood sort of took that and ran with it and made skateboarders sort of like oh look, there's the bad skateboarders, let's make them sort of bad in the movies. And then around the 90s it sort of went back a little bit more mainstream because I noticed McDonald's started using them in their advertising, burger King using their advertising back even back then I just noticed because I had a skateboard shop, I guess.
Speaker 3:But now if you watch any commercial on TV, no matter if it's like some sort of obscure drug or a vacation, it has somebody skateboarding in the commercial. Yeah, that is true, and it's sort of a lot of times it's just like you don't even notice it unless you look for it, but there's always some sort of skateboarding something. And also on television there's a lot of movies like back to the future came out in 82 and it one of the main things was a skateboard in that, and then, back to the future too, he had the flying skateboard. So skateboarding it's sort of been in. The hollywood pretty much pushes everything as far as skateboarding goes, I guess I mean the sport of course speaks for itself, but Hollywood helps a lot. And then commercial.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Outside of work. What do you do for fun, joey?
Speaker 3:Well, I've Well, work is my fun, but I do work a lot. But I do. I like to go to Boone Lake, out to Jay's Boat Dock. I hang out there some and we also have one of those little floating cabins out there. I'll go out there and enjoy my time there. And then also I'm actually a little-known fact I've got a degree in culinary arts from Johnson Wales up in Rhode Island. So I do enjoy cooking a lot. Wow, Pretty in the wells up in Rhode Island.
Speaker 3:So I do enjoy cooking a lot, so I pretty much every day. My wife loves that because she doesn't have to cook, and I cook pretty much every day, and then as far as I don't know. I like to do a lot of fun things but that's two things.
Speaker 2:Well, my wife gets to enjoy. I like to cook too, although I don't have a culinary degree, but I like to cook and so she gets to enjoy. I like to cook too, although I don't have a culinary degree, but I like to cook, and so she gets to benefit from that.
Speaker 3:So big question do you still ride? No, I don't ride anymore. I'm pretty old because I've had a shop for 35 years. I opened it when I was 22. So you can figure the math out there. No, I could ride if I wanted to, but it hurts a lot when you fall, when you get old, yes it does.
Speaker 2:Yes, it does. Last time I rode one, I broke my ankle and I said, okay, that's it, I'm done.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm done.
Speaker 3:A lot of people do that. I mean, you'd be amazed at how their board again they bring it back to me and of course I'll buy it as a used board and resell it to someone else.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, diehards, never, never, never not get back up on it. My son's a diehard skateboarder and he's broken bones and hurt himself, but he just jumps right back on it because he loves it so much and it doesn's. He's broken bones and hurt himself, he just jumps right back on it because he loves it so much and that hurts so no, no.
Speaker 2:The older you get, the more it hurts. So let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome that's potentially made you stronger on the other side? Does anything come to mind? Made you stronger on the other side?
Speaker 3:Does anything come to mind? Well, I'm not sure about that question. That's a good question, but it's not. I'm sort of a positive thinker and I can't really recall any hardships per se, because I look at everything as a growing experience, I think. But as far as hardships, I mean let's see, I mean, like in 2000,. Well, when I was in the mall from 2000, I don't know, from 95 to 2005, then around 2006 and 2007, the economy took a tank, mostly 9-11, whenever business had a hardship during 9-11, because people weren't buying anything.
Speaker 3:They were just sitting at home. My business did go down then, and that's one of the reasons I had to move out of the mall, because my rent was really really high and the customers were really really low. So you know how that works.
Speaker 3:Also, at the same time I had a restaurant coffee shop called Cow and Coffee over in Islington, johnson City where Cafe Lola is now, and pretty much that business pretty slowed down a lot. The city near the center where Cafe Lola is now and pretty much that business pretty slowed down a lot. So I lost, I didn't. I didn't lose. I sold my cow and coffee to the Cafe Lola people. So I lost my restaurant there but I sold it to another place and that business is still here. So that's nice.
Speaker 3:And then my mojo business. I moved out of the mall and moved back into my original location, where I am now, and now I'm bigger and better than ever, because the area where I'm at West Walnut Street is getting a lot of revitalization. I mean, it's taken 15 years for that to happen and it's looking really good now. But I'm really a block away from ETSU, so everything that's what I'm saying everything happens for a good reason. So those are two hardships, but they they're all. They turn into positives, so I'm happy with both of them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, and that's a great attitude to have too. Just positivity, because I think that's the result you get when you're positive, I think you have positive results. I talk to a lot of kids like that.
Speaker 3:They're always depressed or sad about something. I'm just like look, you have no control over that, so why worry about it? And I promise you, in two years from now, you're not even going to be thinking about what you're talking about right now, because it'll be, you know that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, joey, please tell us if there's one thing you would like our listeners to remember about, uh, mojo skate shop. What would that be?
Speaker 3:well, um, I've been here since like 1990 with the shop and I try to make a positive influence on the kids to have a good sport to do. And the good thing about skateboarding is it can't be a solitary sport. So if you're a person who doesn't like to do group sports, which a lot of people are like, that I mean it's a good sport. You can get a skateboard and you can do it yourself. You can learn by yourself. You can get a skateboard and you can. You can do it yourself, you can learn by yourself. You don't have to have anyone around you no parents, no kids, no peers. You can just do everything by yourself and you can do as much of it as you want. You just ride around. It is like a mode of transportation. Or you can learn really advanced tricks like Tony Hawk might do or something. So that's one thing about skateboarding, I think, and another thing is I'll tell you this I've noticed in the last four years, I guess since coronavirus, for some reason there's, you know it used to be a pretty much male dominated sport.
Speaker 3:Ninety nine percent was male. Now I've noticed probably 30 or 35 percent of my customer base is turning to girls and I guess they get it off the Internet that girls can skateboard too. So I just noticed I have a lot of skateboarding girls now and it's sort of cool to have that because you know, for one thing, it doubles my customer base, of course. But it's also of cool to have that because you know, for one thing, it doubles my customer base, of course. But it's also good just to have, you know another perspective and I've noticed the skateboarding companies have sort of um gone towards them. So I get a lot of uh, a lot of skateboarders sort of male oriented looking. They have, like you know, monsters on them or dragons or whatever. But I've had a lot of new ones that have daisies and flowers. Not that girls like daisies and flowers, but apparently they do because that's what they go towards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I've noticed that too in skate parks around here, that there are a lot of girls out riding skateboarders.
Speaker 3:Four years ago there was a girl skateboarder.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, joey, I know your time is precious and you're running a business, so I don't want to interfere with that. But how can our listeners learn more about Mojo Skate Shop?
Speaker 3:Well, the best way is to come into the shop and talk to me, because I'll show you everything I've got in here. I've got over, like I said, 1,000 boards and I've got all kinds of pre-built boards a thousand boards and I've got all kinds of pre-built boards. Or, if you don't feel like coming to my shop just to ease yourself into it, I do have a pretty active Facebook and Instagram page. My Instagram is more active. I pretty much post two or three times a day with any new items I get in, and you're also more than welcome to message me questions or if there's a certain board you want to know, if I have, you can message me that, send you a picture of it, and if I don't have it, I'll try to get it for you if it's available to me.
Speaker 3:And, like I said, we're located in Johnson City near ETSU campus. The roads are sort of messed up right now and they should be finished up probably 90%, probably by November, december, according to the city. But you can still get here and I'm in between Firehouse Restaurant and I guess where Italian Pizza Pub is. We're right in between there and we're right beside Backdoor Records. So if you know where that is, we're right there and just feel free to stop in anytime and I'll be glad to show you around or answer your questions on the internet very good do you have a website.
Speaker 3:I don't really do a website. I've noticed kids don't really do anything with websites anymore. I do have one, but it's more of a static website where you can just figure out where I'm at. So it's MojoSkateShopcom. But the kids, they pretty much gravitate towards. You know Instagram, Not so much. The parents go on Facebook, the kids go on Instagram.
Speaker 2:The kids are also on TikTok, but I don't have a TikTok because that's just not what I've got. Well, I get it. I get it Well. Very good, joey, you don't know how much I appreciate you being on the show and we wish you and the Mojo Skate Shop all the best moving forward, and I hope we get to get you back on the show one day?
Speaker 3:Yeah, anytime, if you want to talk I I'm also a realtor, so you can ask me about real estate sometimes all right, sounds great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, thank you. Thanks so much, joey.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp try-citiescom. That's GNP try-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.