Danville couple opens new skateboard shop, despite tough economy

While many might think it not a wise idea to open a new business in the middle of a recession, Shane and Heather Bagbey believe that it’s exactly what God wanted them to do. So, armed with faith and a little help from their friends, they have opened the New Earth Skateboard & Clothing Co. on Riverside Drive.

Even the name the Bagbeys have chosen speaks to the spiritual path they took in opening their store — the name came from three scriptures in the Bible that refer to a “new earth,” Shane said.

Shane and Heather have three children: Braxton Motley, 13; Ryland, 10; and Cameron, 8.

While all the boys enjoy skateboarding, Shane and Heather didn’t have much experience with skateboarding themselves other than Shane’s having worked for a skateboarding store while in college.

But it was the idea to which they felt led.

“We had been wanting to do our own business,” said Shane, who works full-time at Triangle Cycles. “We’d been praying about it, and I felt God wanted us to do something, but I didn’t know what.”

Then he read a book entitled “Visioneering” by Andy Stanley, about God’s vision for a person’s life and how to find out what it is.

“I did a lot of praying and came up with a couple of ideas, but didn’t feel anything about them,” he said. “One was the idea of a beauty salon because Heather enjoys hair. But I prayed, and sitting there one morning, I said, ‘I think God wants us to open a skateboard shop.’ Braxton said, ‘Yeah!’”

After that, the praying and research began in earnest, Shane said.

“We didn’t jump into it by any means,” he said. “Then after a month or two of praying and counseling, we felt like it was what God wanted us to do.”

Several people pointed out to him that he would be opening a new business during some shaky economic times, but he said, “That’s the difference between doing it on your own and doing it with God. God’s hands are in it.”

With the decision behind them sometime in the summer, they began looking for a place for their business.

At first, they looked for a spot in a new strip mall on Riverside Drive, but wound up in a space on the corner of Riverside Drive and Mount Cross Road where the Rent-A-Center business used to be.

“We wanted to start small, at about 1,500 square feet,” Heather said. “Everything here has been remodeled, and we see now it’s a blessing being here.”

She had been a stay-at-home mom until the business opened, and said her body is still trying to catch up from all the work involved in beginning a business.

Like any working mother, she is now juggling work, basketball practice

and church with a system of backup babysitters if the school nurse calls.

“In the worst-case scenario, I will lock the doors and go get them,” she said.

The couple said they had a lot of help from members of their church — New Life Community Church — in getting the business up and running.

They are determined to keep their business family friendly.

“We are trying to keep it clean,” Shane said.

Although they will sell skateboarding DVDs, there won’t be any with bad language or gestures in them.

“That’s why we don’t have many,” Shane said with a laugh.

They are specializing in DVDs produced by Stephen Baldwin, a professed born-again Christian.

Shane has even written Baldwin and other “big-time” skateboarders to invite them to come to visit in Danville.

In the meantime, they have stocked their store with all sorts of items that, hopefully, skateboarders can’t live without.

“We have skateboards and all the accessories—wheels, trucks and bearings,” Heather said. “You can either buy a complete skateboard or build your own.”

Other items for sale include clothing by FMF (Flying Machine Factory), Roxy and Rip Curl, as well as Oakleys and several lines of skateboard shoes.

For right now, even with a recession going on around them, the Bagbeys are willing to trust the future to a power higher than themselves.

“The future depends on what God has planned for us,” Shane said.

To contact New Earth Skateboard & Clothing Co., call 434-791-4444. The store hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.