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BRADENTON -- The locally owned and operated skateboarding company Mondays Supply Co. will hold its 1-year anniversary party this Saturday night at Motorworks Brewing, from 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. The party will be open to the public and there will be no cover charge. Brand new graphic t-shirts will be on sale along with other merchandise. Nic Hamersly, the DJ, will be there, pumping cool dark weird experimental electronic music; and craft beer and booze will flow everywhere—from the 45-foot tall 2,000 bushel grain silo to the bar and beer garden, and potentially into the parking lot as well. Though, there isn’t any real reason to assume things will get out of hand, but I hope they do—because I intend to attend, and I’m always down for action in the parking lot.
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Regardless, it will be a good party. And it will be good to see Motorworks full of skateboarders—throwing corn hole on the beer garden and drinking on the deck, playing putt putt, and smoking; because skateboarders are not what they used to be. They are iconoclastic as ever, but these people are well dressed. Swag is very important to them, and it comes naturally. Which brings us to Mondays Supply Co.—
The Bradenton based clothing company was founded last year by skateboarders Sam Limbaugh and Jeremy Leyva. They specialize in streetwear, and skateboarding.
I caught up with Leyva this weekend at his apartment near Riverwalk Skatepark downtown. We talked about skating, and Mondays:
Mike Tokars: How long have you been skateboarding?
Jeremy Leyva: I’ve been skateboarding since 1999, so, 16 years. I was 9-years old when I started.
MT: We’re you ever sponsored?
JL : I’ve rode for some shops, whoever wanted to support the locals; Compound [in Sarasota] has been great to me over the years.
MT: What is Mondays Supply Co.?
JL : It’s a skateboarding company, that sells premium quality apparel and supplies & goods for the everyday skateboarder. Stuff people want and need, designed and produced by real skaters who live this—We know exactly what people need on a skate trip; and you’re gonna want it all to look fresh too, and that’s where we come in.
MT: Where can people buy your products?
JL : All of our products are available for purchase at the Mondays Supply Co. website, and we're also carried by a handful of skate retailers, like Compound and The Shop in Bradenton.
MT: What’s the process of turning an idea into clothing?
JL : Sam [Limbaugh, co-founder] does all the artwork and graphics. Anything art related is done by Sam—he runs the art and I run the business. I’ll have an idea and call Sam up, tell him my idea and ask him to tweak it; then he’ll send me back a piece of art and I’ll tell him what I like or don’t like about it. I’ll get design input from the team and send the idea back to Sam and he perfects it. When we’re all in agreeance, on a graphic or an item, I order it from Shirts and Giggles on 26th St., where I work.
MT: And how did the company start?
JL : Sam Limbaugh and I started the company last year. It really grew from our skate crew—We’ve been going out and skating every single Monday for the past few years; we used to go to G.T. Bray and eventually the session worked its way over to Riverwalk, when we got that park. A lot of the guys from the crew are Mondays team riders now. We still skate on Mondays.
MT: What’s your relationship with Chris Cantwell and The Shop Skateshop in downtown Bradenton?
JL: Our relationship with Chris Cantwell and The Shop is we’re good friends. He carries our brand. A few years back we helped him push the Riverwalk Skatepark project—we went to meetings with Chris and were involved in designing the park with him and the Team Pain guys; and now we have this awesome park—
Leyva sits forward and smiles, like with a bit of wisdom on the tip of his tongue. He says, “You know what’s really crazy? We [Mondays crew] used to get down at G.T. Bray and have just as much fun as we do now at Riverwalk. We had just as good a time skating that little park—you can take our crew anywhere and we’ll make the most out of it, any spot; you could take us to a curb, and we’re gonna skate and have a good time."
MT: Do you ever skate alone?
JL : If I need to go somewhere, maybe; or if I get the urge—sometimes I just ride down to the Riverwalk and skate up and down, and then maybe go to the park, but that’s about it. Usually it’s about the crew though—people feed off each other—skating with the crew is always better.
MT: Is there ever music down there?
JL : If we bring it. They frown upon loud music though, I think. Some guy used to ride his bike there with this loud speaker on the back, and they got rid of him. But it’s nice to have music out there.
MT: So who’s on the team?
JL : T.J. Sparks—
MT: Who’s T.J. Sparks?
JL : He’s from Oneco, and he rips everything to sh*t—skates fast; then there’s Mike Harriman—techie ledge skater, manny freak; BBQ, who of course you know; Erik Burton, our team manager and filmer, film editor, and all around handy guy; Ricardo Maldonado and Josh Mitchell, who are the youngest dudes on the team, they’re both 19—the young guns—they’re the one’s out there ripping the park all the time. And then there’s other people we skate with, like Cory Wash, and tons of other guys who are like family, like Tim Gasiorski, who is also a team rider and homie for life, and Billy Birk. The whole crew is family, and the work you put into Mondays is what you get out of it. We’re in the process of filming a full-length video right now; we were out there today, in St. Pete.
MT: You skated street today?
JL : Yeah, we skated downtown St. Pete.
MT: Which spots?
JL : We went to the 3-block on the water; and the huge bank on 19—it’s this huge bank down a 6-lane highway—kind of sketchy, but super fun. We’ve been doing a lot of street skating, and a lot of filming—
MT: As of late?
JL : As of the past year, since we started Mondays—It was like “Yeah, it’s time to put a video down.”
[At this point Leyva’s roommate, Emo, suggested Leyva show me the footage they’ve gotten so far. We both thought this was a good idea. We went inside and watched it—
the footage was ill.]
MT: Any last words?
Jeremy Leyva: Come to the Mondays Supply Co. 1-year Anniversary Party this Saturday, May 10th, at Motorworks Brewing on 9th Street in Bradenton. We’ve got new shirts coming out, and they’re awesome.
Riverwalk Montage 2 from eryk burton on Vimeo.
Mondays Crew, 2014
Eryk Burton, heelflip
Ricardo Maldonado getting krooked
Steve Ross, Boneless
Eryk Burton, fakie heel
All photos by Eryk Burton, Mondays Supply Co. 2014
Related: Motorworks Brewing is the Hope for a Better Tommorrow, By Mike Tokars