Skateboarders at Home in Pottstown

Growing up as a skateboarder can be hard.

Skaters get jeers and catcalls, whether in school or pushing down the street.

There are run-ins with police officers, drug dealers, street toughs and security guards. 

Never mind the social stigma attached to anyone who finds pleasure in so alien an activity.

And to top it off, your board, beloved friend and bitter enemy, will break.

Often. 

That is where Nate Gauger comes in.

The Gilbertsville native and Boyertown grad owns Bentley's Boards at 219 East High Street. 

Gauger hit upon the idea to open the shop while he was involved with a women's clothing store in the area.

"I closed it down after a few years," Gauger said of the retail shop.  "It just wasn't making any money." 

The entrepreneur joined forces with a friend's clothing business to get rid of his inventory. 

From their High Street location, Gauger came to a realization:  The kids who could be found skating downtown had no place of their own to call home.

"Any time they would see the cops make a U-turn or slow down to chase them away, they would come into our shop to hide from them," he said. "They used to always come in and complain about how the cops are always giving them a hard time, and there's no good, hardcore skate shop in the local area."

After consulting with the local skaters, the shop was born. 

Admittedly not much into the skate scene, besides pushing around his driveway until age 10 or so, Gauger used input from the kids who love the sport to build his shop. 

With a thin profit margin and a specialized clientele, Gauger was not going to make that mistake.

"We go over a lot of things," Gauger said, "What I should do, what I should't do.  One of the things they told me was don't worry about getting into snowboards for your first couple years, until you have real good cash flow. They referenced a shop down in Collegeville that opened, did real well with skates, then got heavily into snowboards the first winter. It was a mild winter, and they had all that inventory." 

This custom-made focus group helped shape Bentley's in other ways as well.

"I know a lot of my customers can't afford to spend ($55-$60) on a new pro model board," Gauger said.  "That's why I sell so many shop decks." 

Skate shops often offer shop decks -- high quality boards printed with the shop's logo on them -- as opposed to the pricier models pros ride for skate companies. 

Gauger said also works with Street Corner Distribution, who supplies brands like Think Skateboards and Venture Trucks, because their low prices help him keep the cost down for the kids. 

A basement skatepark provides a safe place to skate in the wintertime or when it rains.

Bentley's also sponsors a shop team. Local skaters on the team receive products from Gauger and represent the shop at numerous skateparks and contests.

"I have the top level guys, the guys who are really good and compete all the time at the national contests, then I have the rest of the guys that I kind of consider more a shop support crew," Gauger said. "They're all on the team, they all get the benefits of being on the team. They are out repping the shop at the local skateparks and letting people know there is a shop in the area."

One Bentley's rider garnered national attention for his skating. Matt Militano is currently on the flow team for Think, a well-known brand in the skate scene. 

Originally on shop flow, meaning the company would send him a few extra products with Gauger's shipments, an impressive performance at some of the biggest contests in the Northeast earned Militano his own packages.

"He went up to Taunton, Massachusetts and to Rye Airfield in New Hampshire to try and qualify for the Gatorade Free Flow Finals last year," said Gauger. "He placed third at Rye and he won at Taunton." 

Bentley's sales representative at Street Corner is from Massachusetts and has friends in the Pottstown area. 

"Some of them were at the contest and saw how well Matt did," Gauger said. "(The sales rep) not only used some of the videos I had Matt send them, but the references from the other guys and that's when they moved him up to all out flow." 

Since then, Militano made a trip to San Francisco, a skateboard mecca, to skate with the pros on the Think team.  

"I'm thinking they're eventually going to make him an (amateur)," Gauger said, adding he's hopeful. Ams rank just below pros on the skateboard food chain and only the best tend to reach that level of sponsorship.
Bentley's acts as a safe place for skaters to meet up and meet with like-minded individuals.

"I've always tried to make this place feel like home for the kids," Gauger said.  "I've always encouraged them, 'Hey, if you need a place to just hang out, just come down to the shop.' "

Bentley's  is also an active community partner. The shop performed skate demos for the Pottstown Library's summer program and coordinated with to put on an event during Pottstown's September 11th remembrance.

"The borough let us block off Penn Street at King and Penn and we had a little skate jam on that half of the street," Gauger said.

"The kids all day Saturday got to have a skate jam and they thought that was awesome. They were actually allowed to skate on the streets of Pottstown without getting yelled at," he said and laughed.

"I'd like everybody to come out and support the local skate shop," Gauger said.  "The more support I get, the more I can turn around and give back to the community."