Conversation: Shad Johnson

Conversation: Shad Johnson, Owner Goods BMX from Souney Media on Vimeo.

I watch a lot of documentaries and I love interviews. Studs Terkel’s book of interviews, “Working,” is among one of my favorites. Sometimes hearing people talk about their work is more interesting the work itself. There’s always something interesting in there. Terkel’s book “Working” is a collection of interviews with people from all walks of life, from a grocery bagger to a piano tuner. They’re all interesting in their own right.

Bike shops, especially BMX specific shops, are by no means a gold mine. Opening one is never a get-rich-quick scheme, and if that’s your motivation you’re in for a suprise. It’s a labor of love that can quickly turn into a financial headache and a babysitting service. But it can work, and it can work well.

At the core of every good BMX scene through the years has been a shop holding things together. Would Austin, TX have become the BMX Mecca that it did without Trend Bike Source, and later Empire BMX? Goods BMX, started four years ago, is that shop for the Portland BMX scene.

I wanted to find out what goes through the head of someone starting a BMX shop… what’s the motivation. I’ve known Shad for a long time, well before I moved up to Portland. He’s shot photos and made videos of the BMX scene up here for years, and his video Blueprint in the late 90s pretty much put the Northwest BMX scene on the map. We talked about the shop, as well as his collection of old magazines and bikes from the 80s and 90s.

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