This Tenderloin skate shop is an artists’ haven

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It’s a good time to be a skateboarder in San Francisco, and Justin Marks is soaking it up. 

Earlier this year, the city developed United Nations Plaza, which has long been a favored spot by skaters, into a proper skatepark, pouring $2 million and a huge vote of confidence into getting people to hang out and enjoy the plaza. It worked. 

Since 2019, Low Key Skate Shop  — part gear sales, part screen printing shop, part art gallery — has operated a few blocks uphill from the UN Plaza skate park. In the last year, Justin Marks, 36, has bought out his former co-owner and leaned into the store’s role as a multipurpose space, combining the Tenderloin’s rich independent art scene with skater culture and tight-knit community. 

The number of skateboarders in the city skyrocketed during the pandemic, said Marks. “When everything closed up, skaters were able to really get around and skate, feel things out, and explore the city a little bit more openly. And so, that catered to bringing in more people.” 

Low Key Skate Shop, a hole in the wall a few blocks from Union Square at 679 Geary St., has walls coated in artwork and skateboard decks. Sneakers are shelved alongside issues of Thrasher magazine and flat-bill caps. Patches, pins, and skate bearings are stashed in a glass case at the front register. 

One wall is decorated with a canvas by Oakland artist Chonto, depicting overlapping figures, buildings and the winding avenues of the Tenderloin. The artist’s smaller pieces adorn the opposite wall, too; the shop will show Chonto’s art until Aug. 31, including during the upcoming Tenderloin Art Walk. 

Marks himself is an artist and skatepark designer; his portfolio includes Zion Plaza in Golden Gate Park and Playland at 43rd Avenue, a temporary skate spot which has since closed to give way to the Shirley Chisholm Village, affordable housing for public school teachers.

Since taking over the Geary Street shop, he’s leaning into its gallery potential and expanding its screenprinting — something his former business partner was hesitant to do, Marks said — all while experiencing the highs and lows of solo business ownership. 

“It comes in, like, small bursts of euphoria,” he said, “And other, like, segments of depression.”

The euphoria: Getting to see the store grow again after feeling creatively stagnant during the pandemic. Marks has developed the upstairs screen printing studio, where he will work for hours at a time while one of his four employees mans the register downstairs.

Many of his designs are emblazoned with the word “Tenderloin” or created in collaboration with local artists. His khakis are dotted with paint stains from printing a set of custom shirts for the Phoenix Hotel, another Tenderloin establishment. 

The depression: Dropping sales. 

Boards are cheaper on Amazon and eBay than from small businesses. And many of the people who want a skateboard already have one: They bought one around 2020, as people were looking for new ways to get outside during the pandemic. Having to deal with dirty streets, as many businesses in the area do, doesn’t help. 

But the customers make up for it, both the loyal regulars and the tourists. Marks got his start at Everyday Skate Shop — then in the Tenderloin — when he was a teenager, selling his first screenprinted shirts and boards. He would meet up with his crew at Golden Gate Park, improvising their own terrain before there were dedicated parks all over the city. 

Many of the people Marks grew up skating with are still around, support his shop, and show their art on his walls. 

His favorite customers, though, tend to be the kids who come in for their first skateboards. “This is the start of their skate career. It means a lot,” he said. “Skateboarding, I’ve seen it save my friends’ lives growing up in San Francisco.”