Black Sheep

Thanks Black Sheep for being in the neighborhood, thanks Black Sheep for selling good quality skating and snowboarding gear.
But no thanks for misrepresenting your snow sports selections. And no thanks for treating me like an imbecile for wanting a «department store» brand of bindings. You won’t win any customers by carrying «independent» brands like K2 and Burton.

Like Matthew M., my thrashing days are all but over. I have a board, but I rarely use it. I can barely ollie anymore, although I can still do the more difficult tricks in my repertoire. I’ll never understand that one. Anyway, when I do want to look at something skate-​related, this is where I go. I associate Embassy with a lot of the new trends in skating, which I don’t particularly care for. Black Sheep is ran by a kickass, mellow, old-​school cat and he is there a LOT. Like a shop owner SHOULD be.
Aside from shoes, I haven’t looked at the clothing so I can’t speak to that, but there are as many or more skate dvds available as any other shop I’ve been to, plenty of decks, etc.
I had a subscription to Thrasher for the better part of a decade and I held on to those magazines for a looooong time. I finally got tired of moving them around and decided to part ways with them. I didn’t want the history in their pages to go to waste so I knew the second I decided to offload them that I had to visit Black Sheep to see if they had any interest in them. Embassy didn’t even cross my mind.
This was the most extensive dealing I’ve had with Jim and you can tell after a few minutes that he’s just a really genuine guy. He’s actually purchased or is building some cabins up at Mad River Mountain or whatever it’s called that he’ll be renting out to snowboarders. It would have really ate at me for these to not be passed forward somehow, and I am happy to report that my library will be available for guest’s perusal at said cabins in the future. You better believe I kept my 1988 Pushead illustrated cover issue.

I’ve done business with Black Sheep for years and the experience has always been pleasurable. I think it’s true that they carried a larger inventory at their previous location, but i still find things i like enough to purchase there now and then. Also, Jim – who is an owner of the store – is laid back and easy to relate with.
A skate video is usually playing on the store TV, adding some noise to an environment that is often quiet. It seems like Black Sheep would do well to try some more street or park level promotions. Get some folks together with a few vendors to session at Dodge skate park or some other place. I understand, though, that with cash flow becoming a trickle these days, promotions can end up being expensive with little return.
I tend to feel allegiance to stores where i’ve been treated well, and this case holds true for Black Sheep and I. While I haven’t been thrashing a lot recently, Black Sheep is the first place I’d go for a new board, and I do periodically check the racks there for the skate company-​made fashions which sometimes appeal to me. I wish them the best and hope they can find ways to stimulate their business.

After having such a great experience at Clintonville’s Embassy Skateshop, I find it saddening to say that Black Sheep just doesn’t cut it for me anymore. The selection of boards and related accessories like trucks and bearings is only a fraction of the size, and on top of that the clothing here is nothing more than a handful of what appear to be clearance racks of decade-​old fashions. Not to say that skaters are interested in being on the cutting edge of skatewear styles, but some of the stuff here is just plain ugly. Compared to Black Sheep’s original location at the corner of Lane and High, this new Ohio Stater basement spot is severely lacking in the open space and layout that the older store benefited from. Regardless, this is the only skate shop that OSU students and the like can actually skate to, so I’m sure their days aren’t yet numbered. If you need a new set of bearings or some bolts for your complete, you’d have no problems buying them from Black Sheep, but just about any other purchase here might be a let down.