By nerding out and pursuing his seemingly random childhood skate intrigues, David Paris now owns three businesses that keep him surrounded by skateboarding at all times. Operating out of Portland, Oregon, Paris, 30, has carved out a space for himself in the world of skateboarding that is as unique and weird as the city he creates it in.
A skateboard company, a print shop for decks, posters, and apparel, and now Paris has partnered up to realize “every little kid’s dream of owning a skate shop.” This trifecta of skate businesses may sound like a dream come true, but rest assured, it all came as a byproduct of focused work.
Originating from the Bay Area, Paris moved to Vancouver, Canada for school, which is where his business ventures began, before returning stateside. Paris knows what it takes to find and make your own way in this world. It takes dedication to a personal passion. It takes hard work. But the first thing it takes is getting involved.
For anyone out there contemplating starting a business and jumping into the skate industry, Paris is a perfect example of taking your passions to the next level. Read on for a start-up story (x3) to help kickstart your own creative endeavor(s).
Between a board company, print shop, and skateboard store, you have become a busy man over the years. Let’s start with a brief breakdown of the brands. Which business came first? How did that lead you into the next one, and the next?
I started collecting skateboards when I was 15, and I noticed that the older ones looked better than the newer ones. A few years later, I learned that boards used to be directly silk-screened while new ones were manufactured with a heat transfer graphic application. I was infatuated with the concept of screening boards, so I started printing them in my garage and jokingly put “Nonexistent Skateboards” on a few of them.
One thing led to another and we made Nonexistent an actual company, and from that point, I started to become intrigued by poster printing. I wanted to print full time, so I started my print shop Pragmatic Prints in Vancouver, BC, having since relocated to Portland. We are one of the few remaining shops in America that professionally screen print skateboards.
To complete the trifecta, I started Milk Skateboard Store in Corvallis, OR with my business partner in June of 2019, fulfilling every little kid’s dream of owning a skate shop.
What type of products do you create, and what types of tools and materials do you use?
Our specialty is screen printing directly onto skateboards, but we also print everything from posters, shirts, and stickers, to obscure stuff like tap handles. Screen printing entails lots of heavy machinery, and we have industrial drying racks, paper cutters, semi-automatic clamshell presses for posters, and manual presses for shirts and boards. Over time we have placed an increasing amount of emphasis on fine art prints and gig posters.
Where is your workspace, and what does it typically look like? Do you ever work directly with others?
My wife and I bought a house two years ago with a 1000 sq. ft. shop in the back, so everything is on our property which is particularly useful in these times of quarantine. There are two part-time employees aside from myself, although it’s just me right now, and we often work directly with artists on collaborative projects.
What are some of the most significant projects you have worked on over the years? Can you list a few major brands, bands, or artists have worked with?
A large portion of the work that Pragmatic does involves collaborative projects with artists like Mark “Fos” Foster, Todd Bratrud, Sean Cliver, and Jason Adams, all of which you can check out on our website. We have printed stuff for skateboard brands like Nike SB and Heroin Skateboards, and for a ton of bands like Deep Purple, Ween, Alice Cooper, SZA, Danzig, and a host of others.
How about right now? Has COVID-19 disrupted or affected your business? What are you currently working on?
Our client work has essentially dried up entirely as a majority of it is for bands and events, so I’ve had to pivot further towards skateboards and art prints. The pandemic has made it harder to source raw materials like blank shirts and boards, and shipping times are much slower, which always makes things harder. We sell a lot of prints and boards on our website, so almost all of our eggs are in that one basket.
I just finished a new set of art prints with Sean Cliver, I’m currently working on a new Summer line for Nonexistent, and various other collaborative projects like t-shirts with photographer Kyle Camarillo.
We’re launching the website for Milk in a few days, so I’m trying to get some more shop merch printed before then. Fos gave us an amazing logo to work with and we’re going to do a board graphic with him soon.
Looking at all three of your brands, what is the most rewarding thing about your work? What is the biggest challenge about what you do?
If you had told me that I would be doing this when I first started skateboarding 22 years ago, I would have been over the moon. It’s really rewarding to be able to work with some of skateboarding’s biggest artists and the people that you get to meet as a result. More than anything, it just feels good to make things and have a hand in creating art.
The biggest challenge is the physical toll that it takes on you as it is a lot of manual labor, particularly when printing shirts and the chemicals that are involved aren’t terribly fun to be around. The pros still greatly outweigh the cons; I think when I look back on my life decades from now, I’ll be happier looking at an Alice Cooper show poster than a Bob’s Plumbing Co. shirt.
From your own experience, do you have any practical tips to help someone start their own independent business in skateboarding?
I honestly wouldn’t have been able to do this without all of the people that have been involved over the years. I used to buy art from Sean Cliver via email, and my friend had an art show for his book release in LA. Sean ended up walking up and standing behind me in line and recognized my name from the guest list, and I ended up hanging out with him a bit. When I started Pragmatic, I flew him and his now-wife up for a launch party/show in Vancouver, and my friend Mark Kowalchuk hooked me up with most of the artists that I still work with today to be involved in the show. Everybody was willing to be part of it on the basis of having Cliver there, so thanks, Sean and Mark!
I would advise anybody trying to start their own business to utilize any possible networking connections that they have at their disposal, and to try to focus on something that makes you stand out from the rest of the pack. Skateboards and art prints are our specialty, and with the economy the way that it is, those are really the only two things that are keeping us afloat right now.
I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point without my former business partners. I think it’s important to get as much input from others as you can. It’s really easy to be too narrowly focused on what you like rather than what other people want.
Any encouraging words for others looking to start their own company in a similar creative industry?
If you’re interested in something, get involved with it. I never thought in a million years that I would be doing this professionally – it just kind of fell into my lap after doing it as a hobby. During this pandemic, I truly appreciate having my businesses as creative outlets that allow me to express my ideas.
Having capital to start with is important, but I do think that you can build something from the ground up if you’re truly passionate enough. I can’t say that running your own business is always the easiest thing, but I do enjoy what I do, and that’s something that I’m truly thankful for.
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