Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Reginald Barnes Jr. |
Born | c. 1961 Cary, North Carolina, U.S. |
Education | Cape Fear Community College |
Employer | Eastern Skateboard Supply |
Height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) |
Website | www |
Sport | |
Sport | Skateboarding |
Event | Freestyle |
Team | Wizard Skate Team Powerflex Pepsi Pro Skateboard Team Walker Skateboards Dogtown Skateboards |
Turned pro | 1979 |
Retired | 1991 |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best(s) | 2nd – NSA Finals 1984 1st – Sundek Pro-Am Challenge 1984 |
Reginald "Reggie" Barnes Jr. (born c. 1961) is a retired American professional freestyle skateboarder and the founder/CEO of Eastern Skateboard Supply, the largest skateboard wholesale company in North America. Known as a "virtuoso" teen amateur, Barnes skated professionally from 1980 to 1991, with the Pepsi-Cola Pro Skateboard Team, Walker Skateboards, and Dogtown Skateboards. By 1986, Barnes was one of the top five American freestyle skaters in the United States and was a featured demonstrator at Expo 86, the world's fair held in Vancouver, Canada. He placed third in freestyle at the World Cup in 1987.
Barnes retired from competitive skateboarding when his interest switched to street skateboarding and running his two businesses. In 1986, he opened the retail skateboard shop, Endless Grind, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He used his skating connections to bring professional skaters to the East Coast where their demonstrations attracted the interest of the next generation of skaters. One event, the 1986 Endless Grind / Bones Brigade Skateboard Showdown, featured Barnes competing against Steve Caballero; their showdown was captured in East Coast Motions, a 2018 documentary.
Barnes' primary business, Eastern Skateboard Supply, is a wholesale company in Wilmington, North Carolina, with annual sales of $24.64 million in 2021. The company produces and distributes Tony Hawk's Birdhouse Skateboards and other brands such as Plan B Skateboards. Barnes hires former skaters and built a corporate skatepark at the company's warehouse, which features the East Coast's biggest skate bowl.
While he was a professional skater, three Reggie Barnes skateboards were issued, two with Walker and one with Dogtown. Although greatly overshadowed by his contemporary Rodney Mullen, generally considered the greatest freestyle skater of all time, Barnes was influential in the spread of skateboarding, especially along the East Coast of the United States.
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