Black Country skate shop gearing up for Olympics-inspired skateboarding boom

Its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics kick-started a global phenomenon, making Team GB’s bronze-medal winning teenager Sky Brown a household name, and resulting in an increase in cross-generational participation.

Now, an expanded skateboarding schedule planned for Paris in August is expected to take adrenaline-inducing activity to dizzying new heights.

SkateHut in Amber Way, Halesown, is preparing for a surge in sales in decks, trucks, wheels and protective gear and it has further invested in technology to ensure it can cope with the summer order spike.

Central to this is its deployment of Descartes Peoplevox, a leading ecommerce warehouse management system, and Shipster, the custom shipping integration platform which connects online retailers, ecommerce warehouses and distributors with leading couriers.

Together the software duo have automated SkateHut’s pick to ship process, increasing efficiency and productivity, increasing profits and enabling operational flexibility for growth.

The collaboration has now expanded to Linnworks, the ecommerce software, which connects to sales channels like eBay and Amazon, boosting SkateHuts reach further.

Dell Blundell, operations director at SkateHut, said: “Skateboarding's popularity surged during the pandemic and the Tokyo Olympics. Its return to the global stage in Paris is set to trigger a major boost in demand for skate equipment.

“Working with Descartes Peoplevox has enabled us to increase the amount of orders we process, while Shipster has made the dispatch process tremendously slick.

“Seasonal surges can be tricky for businesses like ours, especially when accurate and on-time delivery are so crucial for building and maintaining a customer base. Investing in the right software stack has been vital. The technologies have proved to be the perfect solution for our growing business.”

Skateboarding has come a long way from an underground subculture in the 1970s to a £2. 5billion global market. In the UK, the scene has witnessed remarkable growth, with hundreds of new skateparks popping up over the last decade, and a market estimated to be worth over £35 million.

SkateHut has been riding that wave since its launch as an online retailer in 2007. It now has three bricks and mortar stores and a 65,000 sq ft warehouse in Halesowen shipping up to a million products a year.

SkateHut also sells scooters, bikes, outdoor and watersports equipment.

The year-on-year growth has been managed with a digital transformation strategy, moving away from manual and paper-based stock control, picking and dispatch operations.