By DAN HARTZELL
Coast Union High School students in the Advanced Digital Media class participate annually in a Skateboard Brand Industry Project. This project requires the students to design a skateboard in partnership with Skate Warehouse. Skate Warehouse is one of the three largest worldwide online retailers of skateboards and equipment and is located in San Luis Obispo. Students have to design a skateboard brand and pitch their business idea to a group of professionals who critique their brand and vote on which brand is most likely to be successful.
At the beginning of the project students are taken to meet with the Skate Warehouse staff and tour the facility to do market research. Students get to ask questions, view best-selling merchandise and low performing merchandise, and see behind the scenes of the retail skateboarding business. Each student designs a graphic for their board and then prints and applies it. The student must design a brand that includes a brand identity guide, a pitch deck, a business card, a three concept deck series, a marketing plan, and additional merchandise examples to support their brand. The students get to keep their board at the end of the project.
This year Wednesday Morton placed first, followed by Gabby Espinoza, who came in second, and Luis Diego, who took third place. Wednesday Morton wrote about her experience saying, “This visit helped me by opening my eyes on what skateboarding is about and what marketing in the industry is really like. When you see the board fully finished for the first time you get this sense of accomplishment knowing that you created this intricate piece of art by hand.”
It is Coast Union High School’s goal to bring real life experience to the classroom, provide students with industry feedback from relevant business professionals, and give students a glimpse of what is involved in being a creative entrepreneur. In her reflection following the project, Wednesday remarked, “In the end I learned how to start and form a brand, how to make a brand that grabs the attention of the buyers, and how to get work done in a set amount of time. This is an opportunity that every student should be able to experience because of how much you learn.”
Dan Hartzell is the Advanced Digital Media Teacher at Coast Union High School
