Rodney Smith is an American professional

skateboarder Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. S ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, and skate company founder from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Skateboarding

Rodney Smith is considered by many to be the Godfather of East Coast skateboarding.

Shut Skates

Smith founded Shut Skates in 1986 with Bruno Musso. Shut Skates was New York City’s first skate company and the world’s first entirely street skate based company. The board company shifted the focus of skateboarding away from the surf vibe of California to the urban, street-savvy attitude alive in the streets of the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. The brand went dark in the nineties when Smith co-founded Zoo York with Eli Morgan Gessner and Adam Schatz. SHUT relaunched in 2006 and in 2007, the company reopened their flagship

skate shop 320px, Ridin' High Skate Shop in Burlington, Vermont A skate shop or skateshop is a store that sells skateboards and skateboarding apparel. When financially possible, skate shops sponsor local riders and promote skateboarding locally through sk ...

on the Lower East Side. The storefront space served the community for 10 years, closing in 2017 with the business moving online.

Zoo York

In 1993 by Smith, Eli Morgan Gesner, and Adam Schatz founded Zoo York. In 2019, the trio that founded Zoo York was brought back into the company.

All One Universe

In the 2010s, Smith founded skate and lifestyle brand ALL ONE, also known as, All One Universe.

References

American skateboarders African-American skateboarders Living people African-American businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people {{US-skateboarding-bio-stub