Marcus Lalario spent 2011 on Capitol Hill launching his new Lil’ Woody’s burger joint and starting the process to whip HG Lodge into shape on the City of Seattle permitting end of things. His 2012 begins with a retail project.
“We had the availability to do some stuff,” Lalario told CHS about the work underway to create Alive and Well on E Pike. “This will give us a place to feature a full clothing line of our own, carry skate decks and a place to hold things like fundraisers.”
Lalario is partnering on the store with Steve Gonzales whose Goods shop is already well established in the area’s skateboarding and fashion community with its Pike physical store and web site. Gonzales designs skate parks for the City of Bellevue for his day job.
Goods buyer George Otto is also in the mix assuring that Alive and Well will likely have a good Goods feel by the time it opens in the next couple weeks. The stores will be six blocks away from each other — that’s a 4.2 second ride via skateboard downhill.
Through moments of trendiness over the years, skateboard culture is, indeed, alive and well on Capitol Hill. Last summer, the city finally stopped futzing with the first-of-its-kind skatedot feature designed into the new Summit Slope Park.
Lalario said the Alive and Well clothing line will be featured at the new store along with a selection of decks and skateboard gear. As is the fashion these days, the shop will feature a storeroom of reclaimed wood — “We found an old barn down in Oregon,” Lalario said — to showcase its fashions and skateboards. It will join Goods and 35th North in the skateboard culture end of things on E Pike.
The Alive and Well store will replace the Pun(c)tuation art gallery which shut down in fall. Lalario expects a late January or early February opening. You can watch the Alive and Well Facebook page for updates.
And yet there is still not a ski/snowboard shop on cap hill…
But Play it Again Sports, at the base of Denny just off the Hill, has lots of new and used Ski and Snowboard stuff. To say nothing of REI, just a few blocks away. With that kind of competition so nearby, I don’t think I’d bother either.
There’s also SnoCon which is right behind REI…all three at the bottom of the hill. If you’ve got the energy to ski/board then you should have the energy to venture down the hill to buy your gear.
Just the very thought of opening ANOTHER skate shop so close to the competition (35th, not Goods), let alone certain rumors of it being vindictive in nature on Steve G.’s part, is pretty appalling. This article makes it sound like it’s going to be another Goods tho and not a “core” skate shop, which is a little better. Still, nothing against Marcus personally but, knowing that he’s involved as well (not a skater, as far as I know) makes me feel even more uncomfortable about this. Capitol Hill doesn’t need another skate shop. There are plenty of other areas that do. So, why open another one in that neighborhood? Money? Yes, of course that’s what business is all about but, that’s not what skateboarding is all about. It seems to me that either the rumors are true and/or they just want to add skateboarding’s coolness to their clothing store, which also sells it’s own brand (sounds familiar). It will be interesting to see what distributors will even work with them, given 35th’s long time investment in the local skate scene..
Oh and, for the record, I’m not employed by or even close to anyone at 35th, just a local skater who remembers the “good old days”. One where nobody would even think of doing something like this.
35th North for Life!! Id like to see a skate team from these “Fashion” fairies
So is this a spin off of the OG Alive and Well in the UK???
http://aliveandwell.bigcartel.com/