Huy Nguyen Week 2

This past week we have been working on defining our own personal roles within the group. I am playing the role of Team Leader. My goal is to manage the whole team to make sure that we are all working on separate but parallel projects to help us reach our goal of having a viable and profitable product for market. For me this week was focused more on doing research of our target market and possible retail partners. I made a rough list of skateshops in the New York metropolitan area that we can look into carrying our product in the future, there are definitely more skate shops but this list is definitely a good start to understand the market. Below is the list of New York City area skateboard resources that I compiled.

NEW YORK SKATEBOARD MARKET RESEARCH/RESOURCES

SKATE SHOPS:

MANHATTAN: 

Labor; 

46 Canal St, New York, NY

(646) 351-6792 ‎ · laborskateshop.com

Supreme; 

274 Lafayette St, New York, NY

(212) 966-7799 ‎ · supremenewyork.com

DQM (Dave’s Quality Meats); 

7 E 3rd St, New York, NY

(212) 505-7551 ‎ · dqmnewyork.com

Blades; 

659 Broadway, New York, NY

(212) 477-7350   blades.com

SHUT Skates; 

158 Orchard St, New York, NY

(212) 420-7488  shutnyc.com

Reciprocal; 

402 E 11th St, New York, NY

(212) 388-9191

Tre Truck (seasonal)

Uncle Funkys; 

128 Charles St, New York, NY

(646) 895-9943 ‎unclefunkysboards.com

BROOKLYN:

Homage; 

64 Bergen St, New York, NY

(718) 596-1511 ‎homagebrooklyn.com

KCDC; 

85 N 3rd St #118, Brooklyn, NY

(718) 387-9006  kcdcskateshop.com

Skate Brooklyn;

78 St Marks Pl, New York, NY

(718) 857-5283  skatebrooklynny.com

SKATEPARKS

1. L.E.S. Coleman Playground Skatepark
2. Tribeca Skatepark
3. Chelsea Piers
4. Astoria
5. Owl’s Head
6. Flushing Meadows
7. McCarren

SKATESPOTS/HANGOUTS

1. Brooklyn Queens Expressway Skatespot (Brooklyn)
2. 12th and A Skatespot
3. Tompkins Square Park
4. 3rd and Degraw (Brooklyn)

Our target market is not only limited to skateboarders, our bag can be useful for, artists, architects, messengers, photographers, cyclists or anybody that has to carry long oblong objects. I believe that a quality bag could serve a wide variety of purposes outside of housing a skateboard. For the past week, I have been wear testing the prototype that Anthony made. It is definitely not perfect, but it is a very multifunctional bag. It can be used as a long skateboard cover and duffel or it can be folded down further to make a more manageable sized day pack. I've been using it daily to carry my laptop and books to and from school. Besides some issues that I have with the strap system, I have been very pleased with the overall performance and durability of the bag. Hopefully we will have a 2nd round prototype very soon. 

My goal for this coming week is to successfully complete a round of validation with our team with ample documentation. It will most likely take place as a short survey or questionnaire to see if there is actual demand for our product.