Who are Thanelife (and who is Kevin)?
Thanelife is a Singaporean Skate shop run by Kevin Mok.
They play an integral role in their skate community, organizing events, bringing people together, and selling high-quality skate goods.
If all communities had a skate shop as supportive and engaging as Thanelife, longboarding would be a lot further along than it currently is.
Thanelife Interview
How is it going Kevin? How are things and what are you up to?
Hey Abuga, I am doing fine actually. Caught COVID while holidaying in Koh Samui so that sucked a little. So right now, am trying to work it out of my system and planning on catching up with my team on what’s in store for the next couple of months.
Could you give us a bit of background about yourself? (for eg. Who are you, what do you do professionally, what are you best known for? Favorite food, or drink? Pet Peeve hehe).
I am a software engineer by training and started my career as a programmer. The passion for that didn’t last (maybe I could have been a tech billionaire by now if it did haha) and after a while, I kinda figured that I just didn’t enjoy working for people. So I decided to venture on my own. Started a few businesses, sold them and in 2016, started what would eventually lead to ThaneLife Longboard Shop. I am ok with most food. I am not a foodie so food to me is just edible or not edible. But fruits, I am Mango man. I can’t live without them. Beer is my favorite drink to relax on a Friday night. Pet peeve, I try not to get too bothered with too much stuff. After years of trying to please everyone, I think it’s just an impossible task so I just let things slide these days.
What type of skating do you like to do?
LDP is my go to. At 52, it’s the only form of skating that suits me since dexterity gets tougher with age.
What’s your setup? What do you ride?
I try to only skate what we sell. So my first serious setup was an antidote hurricane board with a fork, DT poppys and the exile insania with Speed Vents purples of course (cos they look cool). When gbomb dropped the TTX, I was riding them and that was pretty insane. Had a super compact setup with a glass drop racing cut, DT bhanger and bandito for those tight urban skates. Recently a local LDP enthusiast started to develop some proto components and I came by a sweet deal for a 1166 board, slapped them together with some Boa hatchlings and that is my current setup.
Where can people get in contact with you?
EZ, hit me up at our ThaneLife Shop located in Singapore or through our website.
Understanding the scene. What does it look like in Singapore?
The longboarding scene here is still considered niche. Amongst the disciplines, I would say both LDP and dance now have quite an active scene. Our geography doesn’t help the downhillers but the current DH community are super passionate about what they do and will try to find every opportunity to skate the neighboring countries. Surfskating blew up during COVID lockdown but that has since slowed down.
How do you support the community? How do you engage with the community?
From a shop point of view, making sure we stock the proper equipment. Making sure we are technically proficient in providing advice to new and seasoned skaters. Trying to make sure we keep things affordable as much as possible. Being honest with our customers on what they need or don’t need. Organizing meaningful events. I try to skate with the community as much as possible. Keeping an open channel to communicate with them is important too. I am on most of their whatsapp/telegram groups and I do try and make an effort to socialize with them through these channels. Bantering back and forth keeps our relationship light and real. Supporting potential athletes is important to me too and we try to collaborate with related local businesses to support them be it components, parts, nutrition or wearables.
How does Singaporean culture affect longboarding? Does it have an impact on the community? Or is there no connection?
Skateboarding in general has always been associated with being rebellious in our culture. But over time, that attitude has changed. Additionaly, Singapore is an aging society. Some years back the government recognised this and there was a big movement in making sure that Singaporeans from all walks of life stays active and healthy. In part, I think it helps give a few people some fresh perspective of sport. We see quite a few seniors joining our community every now and then and they get a lot of respect from the younger skaters. There are some rivalry amongst the different disciplines and occasionally, it does get toxic. But by and large, it doesn’t get out of hand and resolves itself fairly quickly.
How did you get started with Thanelife?
We started in 2019 after we organised the Action Sports Festival in 2018 and invited the dance/freestylers and LDP to join our festival. It was there that we realize there is a potential for a wider range of longboard brands to be available in Singapore.
What was your motivation to start the shop?
We were already knee deep in the action sports business having started the freestyle scooter and protection gear category. Was looking to add another category to ensure we have a good balance and since no other shops here carry LDP equipment, we decided to focus on LDP equipment and slowly added more brands along the way..
What things are like at the moment? Sales after covid?
Its slow and steady now. There is definitely a slow down since the COVID travel restrictions have been lifted but the core group of skaters are still skating and we do see new skaters coming in as well.
Do you mostly get in-person sales or online?
A good mix of both. During the winter months in the northern hemisphere, things tend to drop off a little for the online orders.
What boards fly off the shelves? LDP, Dance, downhill?
For us, it’s LDP and dance. The Pantheon boards are very well received in our shop.
Do you see the general longboard scene growing?
Yes we do, but at a slower pace.
What scene is growing the most in SG?
Outside of skating, unfortunately, the mass market sport (soccer, badminton, swimming etc) will always take priority in SG. There is a small resurgence in skateboarding due to a couple of indoor skateparks opening up in Singapore recently. Now that skateboarding is an olympic sport, there is some emphasis by the SG govt placed on that. Longboard-wise, I would say LDP for sure. We haven’t reached our full potential for our market size to be honest.
What does a typical customer look like?
For the dancers, mostly in the 20s to early 30s. For LDP, quite a wide range but averagely mid 30s and above, working professional jobs. For the downhillers again a wide range because the OGs tend to drop back into the sports occasionally.
New riders? Or return riders? What does it look like?
We service both at our shop. Our returning customers are the one that keeps us strong and going. It is a testament of the service we provide to them.
Do you only sell to SG or to surrounding countries as well?
Currently, a good 80% of our sales come from SG. We are scouting some potentials in regional countries but that will take some time to align.
What do you look for in an athlete/skater when you want to sponsor them?
I am a bit of a contrarian when it comes to this. I look for athletes with good attitude and social skills first then performance. Afterall, the latter can be worked on over time. There is nothing worse than getting a toxic individual onto the team who tarnishes the country, organization and brand they represent.
How do you like skaters to approach you?
More often would be nice. I have been told I don’t have a friendly demeanor when I skate. Mostly because I am out of breath or trying to catch the pack all the time. The few that do stop me to ask about my gear, I have had a super positive experience with. Some have turned out to be great customers and friends. At the shop, I am all good and friendly. Hahaha. Anyone can approach me and I do love conversing with our customers about any topic under the sun.
What does the ideal sponsored rider do for you? (Do they frequently share posts, tag you guys, run events or? etc.)
We have 2 types of sponsored riders. The ones that come under our athlete program, we just ask that they; Train! Train! Train! Compete! Meet the objectives we set together. For the ambassador riders, get more people into the sports and yes, share their post and tag us. Stay loyal and don’t do things that would tarnish the shop and brand they represent. Above all, have fun. We sometimes forget why we get into longboarding because fundamentally it is fun for a lot of us.
Where do you see distance pushing going in the next few years?
It is a good question but Singapore is afterall a small country and the skatable pathways for distance skateboarding is just so many kilometers. After a while, people tend to get bored with the pathways. I hear the govt is building more connectors so i think we are still hopeful of growth the next couple of years. The other growth area might be land SUPs and Paddles. We will have to watch that one closely.
Is there a big distance community in Singapore?
It’s the most active with skate sessions happening almost every week so far. In that regard, the distance community is one of the most vibrant and cohesive for skaters with serious LDP setups. If you count the casual distance guys, we do have a large community.
What do you think is lacking in the industry at the moment?
Education is lacking. Most new longboarders are always attracted to the mass market brands that put out boards that try to be the jack of all trade.They just don’t ride correctly and do the stuff you want to do well. Lots of people lose interest in longboarding because of that. That attractive affordable dropthru with 70mm wheels just won’t cut it as a LDP setup let alone perform any tricks on them.
If you had an unlimited budget, what would you bring to life/make happen?
Boy that is a tough question. I will probably try to identify more Jeff Vyain, Lena Meringdal and send them a bunch of monies to grow their brands so they can continue to focus on design, purpose and aesthetics. Oh wait, maybe build a super skate highway from Singapore and connect it to every major city in the world with hotels, facilities and restaurants spread out every 50km so we can skate from Singapore to anywhere in the world. Hmm … it’s unlimited so technically I can do both.
What is there a demand for?
What do you guys see in terms of the new stuff in the market?
Better and lighter gear all the time. But I just want to say, beyond gear, there is just working on your fitness and endurance. That in itself will give you better returns than just gear alone. But don’t tell anyone, I am happy they buy gear from us.
What changes have you seen (in the industry/media etc.) that have helped to push skating?
Skateboarding getting into the olympic games was a catalyst. Those videos put out by loaded boards have a lasting impact in my mind and helped shaped the idea that it is possible to skate anywhere around the world as demonstrated by our very own Adrian Oh.
Thank you to Thanelife for the interview
Thank you Kevin for the interview, your perspective has been refreshing to hear about.
You can contact Kevin and Thanelife through the Thanelife social media pages.