An Interview with Jordan Thrower: Owner and Founder of Tantrum Skate

 

Meet Jordan Thrower

Jordan Thrower is a 28 year old skateboarder from San Diego, CA. He first started skateboarding in 1998 when he was six years old. Since then, he has spent the past two decades skateboarding around the streets of cities like Paris, Barcelona, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and New York City. For Jordan, skateboarding is a way of life. From working in skate shops to becoming a sponsored skateboarder, his desire to create his own line of skateboards only ever grew greater. In 2015, Jordan decided to make that desire a reality and released his first line of skateboards that he designed, produced, and dubbed with the company name, Tantrum. A year later, in 2016, Jordan released the first designs of his clothing brand which included branded sweatshirts, t-shirts, and socks. Tantrum is now sold from the West Coast, where it got its start, to the East Coast both online and in brick and mortar stores as well as internationally in Japan.

 
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Where Can I find Tantrum?

 

PACIFIC DRIVE

756 Thomas Ave

San Diego, CA 92109

PacificDrive

ROSE STREET

204 N El Camino Real Suite D

Encinitas, CA 92024

RoseStreetSkateShop

THE HOUSE OF VISTA

637 S Santa Fe Ave C

Vista, CA 92083

 

ATLAS

209 2nd Ave.

San Mateo, CA 94401

AtlasSkateboarding

LABOR

46 Canal St. New York, NY 10002

282 Scholes St. Brooklyn, NY 11206

LaborSkateShop

NJ SKATE SHOP

383 Monmouth St

Jersey City, NJ 07302

NJSkateShop


 
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Where Has Tantrum Been Featured?


Tantrum has also been featured in print in Thrasher Magazine

 
 
 

Video courtesy of Min Maeweather

 

The Interview

This past week I met up with Jordan Thrower in San Diego to chat with him about his skate company, Tantrum, and how he went from being a local skateboarder in Southern California to an internationally recognized skateboarding brand selling his branded skateboards and clothing line online and with in store retailers. Jordan is like family to me, I’ve known him for the past three and a half years and have had the privilege of being witness to over half of Tantrums existence. So, it was only expected that Jordan would be NYFS first featured artist and business. It wasn’t until after we had started recording that the years between when Jordan decided he wanted to design and sell skateboards and when I first met him that I learned how much more effort/money/time/thought/care/attention that he invested into his dream than I had ever thought.

This is a summation of my interview with Jordan. The interview in its entirety can be found on Apple Podcast or Spotify under Episode 9: An Interview with Jordan Thrower Owner and Founder of Tantrum Skate

link to Spotify here

 
 
 

 

N: Where were you in the business when we first met three and a half years ago?

JORDAN: When I first met you, I was probably just starting but really trying to figure out everything - not that I have everything figured out now but I’m way further now than I was back then.

N: For anyone unfamiliar with Tantrum, what is Tantrum?

JORDAN: Yeah it’s a skateboarding company but its for everybody like it's not just for skaters. I don’t like it to be just a skateboard company - we make clothes and stuff like that. I mean we make skateboards so, yeah it’s Tantrum Skateboards but it’s for everybody.

N: When did you come up with Tantrum? and why? How did this come about?

JORDAN: It was, like 2015, when I started it. I planned it out probably six months before I actually put it out. Yeah, thats just cause, like, I was just, like, well I’m gonna put money into it and its gonna be something that I wanna do for a while so I was just, like, I have to really plan it. So, it was like six months. I made stuff with the name and then just, like, it kinda went from there. I just got it (Tantrum) just cause when I was in kindergarten I used to cry a lot and my mom and my parents would always say that “he’s throwing a temper tantrum again”. I would always hear that when I was little and then I just like made stuff around that name and it was stuff that would fit with and that was it.

N: Did you see it as a being the brand that it is now?

JORDAN: When I started I just thought “Oh I’m gonna make some boards” like I never thought about the future of it. Yeah, I didn’t think about where it could be or anything. I was just like “Oh yeah I’m just gonna do it” - I thought it would be easy.

N: Where did the idea of making boards come from?

JORDAN: It around the time when people were starting companies and stuff and I was, like, skating for companies and stuff and then I was just, like, looking at it, at the stuff I’m riding and it sucked - I hate looking at it and so I started making stuff that I wanted to look at that I thought was cool.

When did you start skating?

JORDAN: I started skating the winter of 1998 so pretty much 1999. So what is that, 21 years.

N: For me being an artist it’s one thing to put pen to paper and another thing to actually have be put into fruition and see it become a product. How did you take your idea of wanting to create skateboards and into actual physical skateboards? Where did you source? How did you source it? Where did the money come from?

JORDAN: So, back again, I took, like, six months to put something out and I kept it really hidden - I kept it private until I had stuff in my hands which is like, I don’t know, I’ve always kinda been like that. I only talk about stuff until it’s, like, in my hands, I don’t really tell anybody. But, like, so that’s what I did with this, I was just, like, “I’m gonna work on it” If I can just figure it out until I get stuff and then it’s like okay cool. I have stuff and here it is. As far as putting money into it and everything, I had two friends who put money into it from the start and, like, I put money in and they put money to get the first run of boards. (N: How much did that cost?) The first round of skateboards was like 50 and I think that cost like a thousand or twelve hundred dollars. (N: What were you selling the skateboards for - what was the cost?) I would sell them for fifty dollars, yeah, I think back then I might have been selling them for like forty dollars but yeah. And then I’d sell them to stores for like thirty dollars maybe a little less. (N: What’s the profit on that?) You don’t really make too much money on boards. You make more money on clothing and stuff like that, the markup is crazy.

N: But your goal was just to create a brand at that point..?

JORDAN: Yeah, I wasn’t trying to, like, trying to get super rich or anything. I just really made it cause I was like, “Oh I can do this, it doesn’t cost too much money”. (N: And you had friends that were willing to put in money) Yeah like I told them the idea. I was like, “Yo, I have..” Cause by the time I brought it up with them, it was like I had them already like laid out which is that over there (**pointing to a wall display of boards he has designed) I had it all laid out like okay cool like I have it. And then I showed it to them and they were like “Yeah, okay cool”. And they put it like three hundred, four hundred bucks.

N: That was 2015, when did you transition into clothing? Because you currently have a clothing line.

JORDAN: Yeah, it’s not too much clothing. It’s like, yeah, more so boards but yeah we do clothing. We did clothing early on, like, the first year that we were doing it was probably like 2016. (N: So, a year after you started skateboards?) Yeah cause it’s like a natural thing. Like you make a skateboard you’re gonna make a t-shirt because people want them. I don’t know. It’s just really close. We did t-shirts and hats and stuff just cause people want that kind of stuff. It just goes really close with skateboarding.

N: In the time that I’ve known you, you’ve gone through at least three seasons of styles of boards..

JORDAN: Yeah it’s been a lot. Probably since I’ve known you it, like, three or four different boards a year, something like that.

N: How long does production take? From the moment of an idea to production, the moment you bring it to a skateshop or show it online - what does the process look like and how much time does that take?

JORDAN: If I lay something out and do like a graphic, it probably takes like two weeks. I just stopped doing the artwork like this year, maybe. But everything up until this year I was doing all the artwork - laying it out, sending it out, getting it back, putting it in the shops. But it takes like, I don’t know, it just depends. For me, it takes me like two weeks to be set on it (design) and then like six weeks to get it back. (N: So, you could have an idea and have that product in your hands in seven weeks, eight weeks?) Yeah, back then that’s what it was. Now it’s kinda crazy because of, like, Covid and everything but yeah, now I don't know when you’d get it back - like four months? But yeah, six weeks you’d get it back and then that’s it.

N: How have you gotten into shops? and how do you continue to be in those shops?

JORDAN: With the shops thing, I literally just reached out to like shops. (N: you emailed? you called? you walked in?) Yeah some shops I just walk in and be like “Oh yeah, what’s up” and then just talk to them. Sometimes I email them and that doesn’t really work but, yeah, I’ve tried that. Yeah, I don’t know, some of them I just became homies and stuff like that and set it up. (N: At what point did you feel confident enough to walk into shops to start selling in them?) Well, I mean I walk into them, like, I’m not really walking in to, like, sell it. I’ll just go in to talk with them just ‘cause I like going into skate shops - I used to work in a skate shop so I just go in there and look at what they have on the wall and just talk to them. But, yeah, I don’t know, it just happened organically.

N: Do you ever feel like or have you ever felt like you were selling your product or your brand or your company? Have you ever felt like a salesman?

JORDAN: No, no, no. Yeah, I never really thought of it like that which is crazy. That’s really valid but no. Yeah, like, I’m not really like walking up to them like “Oh yeah, can you buy this like I make boards”

N: You were a skater before you were a skate brand, do you think if you hadn’t been a skater you would have a skate brand?

JORDAN: No, definitely not.

N: What do you think you’d be doing?

JORDAN: I have no idea. Yeah, it’s like my whole life pretty much.

N: How has it been being a small business in the time of a global pandemic?

JORDAN: I mean, like, for us it hasn’t been bad at all. We’re so small that we can’t, like, we can’t go out of business or anything like that. It’s not gonna happen. But it’s been really good because a lot of people don’t have like any boards right now and, like, we have boards. Everyones been hitting us up to get stuff. (N: because you’re selling online or.. ?) That and, like, brick and mortar stores are, like, a lot of them are hitting us up like “Oh yeah, like, we want boards because we don’t have any” (N: and I suppose you had that rapport with them beforehand) Yeah, yeah and we had some new ones popping up.

N: How do you get people talking about your brand? How do not stay just in a single city but how do you become a multi city company?

JORDAN: Yeah, I mean I don’t know, it’s just, like, I’ll go out to skate in New York and I have friends out there and, yeah, I was giving them boards and stuff like that and got into a few stores. Well, one store in particular in New York and that was pretty much it. (N: How did you get into that one store in NY?) One of my friends went in there and was just like, “Yo, one of my friends has a brand” and then I went in there when I was out there and they were just, like, “Email me and we’ll get back” and then I emailed them when I got back to San Diego. (N: That’s Labor, right?) Yeah. (N: How did that feel, your first brick and mortar on the other coast?) Yeah, it’s like crazy, it’s, like, I was like “Damn, that’s pretty cool” (N: How recent was that?) It was like a year ago. It would be a year and a couple months.

N: Do you feel like becoming a multi city company has increased your business? or that you got more know?

JORDAN: It’s like a mixture of both. That opened up a lot of doors for us. (N: in what way?) Like we’re doing international stuff. Yeah, like, we’re doing stuff with Japan and stuff like that right now. Yeah, just cause of that. Yeah, it’s pretty crazy.

N: Do you ever have moments of like “Oh my gosh, this is where I’m at"“?

JORDAN: Of just, like, realizing? No, not really. I don’t really sit and think about it. I’m just trying to think about what I gotta do next like I’m moving around doing a bunch of stuff so i’m not, like, sitting around thinking about it. But, yeah, it’s crazy - its super crazy when I do think about it, yeah.

N: How crazy is it to have your own product in held in your own hands? Isn’t that so surreal"?

JORDAN: Yeah, I never stopped to think about it but, yeah, it’s crazy - it’s pretty crazy for sure. I just never stop and think about it, I guess. I don’t know, I’m just moving. I’m just, like, thinking about the next thing I have to do so that thing is, like, already, like I love it, but it’s already, like, passed and I’m working on the next thing.

N: Do you ever miss the early stages of creation and putting stuff out into the world? or do you prefer the other side of it where you’re like “Here is this idea, someone create it and we’ll put it out”

JORDAN: I mean, I like both. I don’t know. It’s just that I can’t draw and that’s most of it. (N: Did that ever hinder you?) No it didn’t. Like, I just figured out how to draw. Like, I drew the first two years, three years, of stuff that I put out.

Recording time: 1 hour and 36 minutes

Edit time: 4 hours and 40 minutes

Intro and Outro Music composed by: Carl Swenson

Sound Mixing: Carl Swenson

 http://carlswensonmusic.com

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