Maya McFadden Photo
Devil's Gear skaters John Brehon, J. Joseph, and Sasha Cohen Cox.
Skaters from New Haven and beyond no longer have to travel outside of town to get new skateboards or equipment for a tune-up.
Next to shelves full of bike locks, helmets, and bike lubricants are now racks of locally sourced skateboards and their equipment at Devil’s Gear Bike Shop at 845 Chapel St.
The Devil Gear skate shop opened recently within the bike shop with a mission to “turn people into riders and riders into skaters.”
Devil’s Gear owner John Brehon described himself as an “old-school skater” from the 1970s. He was friends with Lou Cox, who formerly ran New Haven’s only Black-owned skate shop was the inspiration for the new venture.
Maya McFadden Photo
The shop came together with the help of local natives J. Joseph, 25, and rising Hillhouse senior Sasha Cohen Cox, 16. The two currently work in the shop supplying New Haven’s skater community with a home base.
“Our main goal is to help support the growing scene,” Joseph said.
Cohen Cox is the daughter of Lou Cox, former owner of Channel 1 Skate Shop. Despite growing up in the shop with her father, Cohen Cox didn’t seriously take up skating until a year ago.
Brehon and Joseph first connected through Joseph’s co-owned skate brand, Acid Wood Skateboards.
Brehon recalled “bugging J for boards to sell” and requested a batch from him about a year ago.
Brehon requested all the boards Joesph was stocked with, thinking it’d be around 100. Instead all Joseph had at the time was 13 boards, which quickly sold at Devil’s Gear, Brehon said.
Channel 1 was the first Black-owned shop Brehon walked into when he arrived to New Haven more than a decade ago.
“It just so happened to be a skate shop,” he said. “And it was progressive with music, clothing, graffiti.”
With a reemerging skate scene throughout the city, new and old areas like the Scantlebury skate park are hubs for new and longtime skaters to join together to learn how to skate through the obstacles of life. (Click here and here to read more about the Scantlebury skate park, which Joseph helped to create.)
Once Brehon saw the high demand from skaters for equipment, he decided to join forces with Joseph and Cohen Cox.
“We’ve always had Black and brown skaters, but most communities don’t know that,” Brehon said.
Next Brehon hopes to bring the surfing community into his shop for surf equipment. Brehon has been surfing since he moved to New Haven.
While working in the skate shop, Cohen Cox said, she has been able to learn about bikes as well. Emerging from the Covid pandemic peak, Cohen Cox started skating while in search of something to do.
Before the Devil’s Gear shop opened, Cohen Cox would most often shop at Eastern Post Board Shop in Hamden or Cutting Edge in Berlin.
Joseph would shop in Hamden or Fairfield, and occasionally travel to New York shops.
Those trips are no longer necessary with the Devil’s Gear’s skate shop. However, if Devil’s Gear doesn’t have a item, it does provide customers with a list of other shop options that “have been holding it down for years,” Joseph said.
The team is working to carry the torch of Channel 1, which was rooted in community, Joseph added.
A daily inspirational video played in shop.
The shop is building connections with local vendors to stock its shelves with growing brands like Beeasy Boards and Rotten skateboards.
Local skater and artist Harvey Locus helped with finalizing the skate shop’s vision with a mural of a Japanese Oni spraypainted on the shop’s wall.
A glass display case shows off uniquely designed trucks and wheels.
“This is not your traditional space,” Brehon cautioned. “If diversity were a place, this would be it.”
On a normal day the store’s speakers switch from playing house music to jazz to hip hop.
Maya McFadden Photo
J Joseph
Joseph began skating at 12 years old after transferring to a skater-heavy middle school. “Skating was really popular and the main way to make friends,” he said.
At first his mom refused to get him a board because she was “afraid I would crack my head open.”
After placing first at his eighth-grade science fair, Joseph begged his mom to get him a skateboard as the prize she promised him.
“It was the only one thing in the world I wanted at the time,” he said.
So his mother got him his first board from Walmart.
“From the minute I stood on it, that was a wrap. I haven’t been able to stop since,” he said. “I really found a community with it.”
By age 14, Joseph had established a “skate crew” that traveled around Connecticut. It included skaters from ages 14 to 24 years old.
Jospeh and Cohen Cox spoke about learning life skills while skating, like resilience, endurance, dedication, and confidence. Cohen Cox said being in skate parks made her “sure of myself” and gave her the confidence to take up space in the male-dominated sport of skateboarding.
Sasha Cohen Cox.
Skaters are welcomed to the shop to get wonky trucks fixed, axles rethreaded, board bolts adjusted, or their first board put together, or just to hang out with the team to watch skate videos and ask questions.
“A good shop is more than just a place to buy stuff,” Joseph said.
Joseph and Cohen Cox agreed the shop is one of many future ventures as they continue advocating for the skate community.
“Skateboarding has given so much to me in my life, and I want to be able to give back and do this 24 – 7,” Joseph said.