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The Nine Club #309 · Show notes.

Rodney Smith

Jan 15, 2024

About this episode

Rodney Smith discusses skating in the 80’s, meeting Tom Groholski, starting Shut Skateboards with Bruno Musso, going to the Cow Skates contest in Ohio with Mike Vallely, creating new shapes for skateboards out of necessity & hand making boards when Shut first started, starting Zoo York with Eli Gesner & Adam Schatz, selling Zoo York in 2001, the opportunity to work with Dave Chappelle but instead having to work with Ashton Kutcher, finally saying goodbye to Zoo York and much more!

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The guest

Chapters

1. 00:00:00Rodney Smith
2. 00:01:52Where Rodney grew up
3. 00:10:43Finding skateboarding
4. 00:16:35Our Supporter: AG1
5. 00:18:13Meeting another skater in his town - David Sadler
6. 00:27:36Meeting more skaters
7. 00:35:57Skating in the 80's
8. 00:36:35Meeting Tom Groholski
9. 00:52:01Starting Shut Skateboards with Bruno Musso
10. 00:56:19Going to his first trade show in California
11. 01:00:19Going to the Oceanside street contest
12. 01:05:25Living in California
13. 01:12:11Missing the East Coast and moving back
14. 01:14:41Doing Shut Skateboards out of necessity
15. 01:15:59Going to the Cow Skates contest in Ohio with Mike Vallely
16. 01:20:25Rodney vs. Rob Dyrdek "skate-off"
17. 01:24:05Creating new shapes for skateboards
18. 01:33:21Hand making boards when Shut first started
19. 01:35:15Billy Waldman stepping to Bruno & Rodney at the Brooklyn Banks
20. 01:44:16Shut partnering up with Cow Skates
21. 01:50:02Getting a call & an offer from Brad Dorfman
22. 01:58:01Jimmy George from Cow Skates tries to sue Shut Skateboards
23. 02:01:58The downfall of Shut Skateboards
24. 02:04:08Quickly bringing Shut Skateboards back in 1992
25. 02:08:17Putting Shut back to bed
26. 02:09:33Doing something new with Eli Gesner
27. 02:13:22Naming his new brand Zoo York
28. 02:25:08The origins of the Zoo York name
29. 02:29:16Selling Zoo York in 2001
30. 02:38:22Linking up with Ecko
31. 02:49:20Internal sabotage at Zoo York
32. 02:52:52The mass exodus from Zoo York
33. 03:00:14The opportunity to work with Dave Chappelle, instead working with Ashton Kutcher
34. 03:03:05Finally saying goodbye to Zoo York
35. 03:10:14The Zoo York mixtape video
36. 03:14:03Advice for the bedroom brands

Links

• Watch this episode
• Shut Skateboards on Instagram
• Shut Skateboards website
• The Nine Club on Spotify

People mentioned

Names and linked moments checked against the episode’s auto-generated English captions. This is a first-pass selection.

• Andy Jenkins

  Mention at 1:55:07

  Andy Jenkins — The Nine Club #298Episode 298

• Dave Chappelle

  Mention at 3:00:18

• Lance Mountain

  Mention at 1:03:22

• Matt Hensley

  Mention at 1:43:02
• Mike McGill

  Mention at 1:25:29

  Mike McGill — The Nine Club #254Episode 254

• Neil Blender

  Mention at 1:19:23
• Ron Allen

  Mention at 1:43:02

  Ron Allen — The Nine Club #314Episode 314

• Stacy Peralta

  Mention at 25:12
• Steve Rocco

  Mention at 1:17:34

  Steve Rocco — The Nine Club #404Episode 404
• Tony Hawk

  Mention at 1:25:24

  Tony Hawk — The Nine Club #400Episode 400

Videos / Articles

Rodney Smith — Voice of Freedom interviewvhsmag.comVans Syndicate — The Collaboratory: Rodney Smith, Part 1hypebeast.com

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