Reggie Barnes (skateboarder)

Reginald Barnes Jr., aka Reggie Barnes (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.^[1] 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.^[2][3] By 1986, Barnes was one of the top five American freestyle skateboarders in the United States and was featured demonstrator at Expo 86, the world's fair held in Vancouver, Canada.^[4] He placed third in freestyle at the World Cup in 1987.

Barnes retired from competitive skateboarding when his interest switched to street style skating and running his two businesses. He opened the retail skateboard shop, Endless Grind Raleigh, North Carolina in 1986. He used his professional connections to bring professional skaters to the East Coast where their demonstrations attracted the interest of the next generation of professional 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' other business, Eastern Skateborad 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 that features the biggest bowls on the East Coast.

While he was a professional skater, three Reggie Barnes skateboards were issued, two with Walker and one with Dogtown.^[3][5] Although greatly overshadowed by his contemporary Rodney Mullen, generally considered the greatest freestyle skateboarder of all time, Barnes was influential in the spread of the sport of skateboarding, especially in the East Coast of the United States.