Skate, snow, and punk rock were all parallel lines that converged with Joel Gomez’s famed Sessions brand and shop starting in the ’80s. Now, Gomez is once again paying homage to those passions with a new endeavor, 45RPM Vintage.
The start-up produces retro T-shirts, hoodies, and crewnecks referencing popular skateparks, athletes, and brands synonymous with skate and snowboarding from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. And, the designs are turning heads.
“Right before COVID hit, I wanted to make some of the skateparks I grew up skateboarding at, like Soquel here in Santa Cruz and Winchester Skatepark over the hill in Campbell, into a couple T-shirts for me and some of my friends to wear,” Gomez said of the impetus behind 45RPM, which gets its name from his love of 7-inch records.
He’s since been printing limited edition T-shirts bearing images and graphics from the time, mixed with vintage colorways such as neon pink and royal blue or tan and red.
The more he’s printed, the more word’s gotten around about what Gomez has been doing and the more fun he’s been having deciding which skatepark to feature next. That includes tracking down the owners to get their blessing to create the T-shirt designs and sending them royalty checks.
What started as something for fun is now getting buzz from those who remember the parks or that decade of skating or snowboarding, in addition to shoppers who simply like the designs. Gomez has since set up a web shop, and has gone from working a couple hours a day to nearly full-time on 45RPM.
He offers two drops a year, and has seen steady reorders from retailers. 45RPM apparel is now in about 10 stores, including Goodtimes in Grass Valley, Hanger 94 in La Mesa, Easy Rider in Canada, FTC Skateboarding in San Francisco, Santa Cruz Boardroom, and Pacific Wave Surf Shop in Santa Cruz.
“It’s a labor of love. It’s a passion and it’s growing,” Gomez said.
Brand Potential
It’s currently a lean staff running the operation.
There is no sales force. It’s just Gomez and his former Sessions customer service manager Patty Townley handling everything from design and distribution to packing web orders.
Print runs are limited, although not intentionally. The aim is to eventually increase the runs in step with demand.
The first print order Gomez did was around 50 pieces using direct-to-garment printing. The design: Winchester Skatepark in Campbell, Calif. and its well-known pink bowl. The next was the Sims Pure Juice T-shirt, which he received permission to do from Hilary Sims, wife of Sims Snowboards founder Tom Sims.
“When I did that, people were like ‘What else do you have?’” Gomez recalled. “Every time a shirt came out, I wore it. The colors of that era were yellow, light blue, red, tan. Very ‘70s colors, and it got people going.”
The encouragement and feedback he’s received from those in the industry has been insightful and Gomez said he’s now seeing plenty of potential for the brand.
“One of the challenges that I had in the beginning with a couple shops I tried to sell to was they told me, ‘We don’t sell to a lot of 50-year-olds and 40-year-olds.’ So I thought, ‘Maybe I’m targeting this wrong,’” Gomez recalled.
Turns out the shops pushing back and saying the 45RPM shirts weren’t for the current consumer, didn’t have it quite right. Gomez heard a different view from some shop owners catering to mostly 20-somethings who said the shirts were moving due to their retro vibes—even if the customers didn’t know the skateparks.
“It’s been fun. It’s been humbling in the sense that I’m working a lot and doing a lot of hands on, but at the same time it’s very enjoyable,” Gomez said.
Row 1 (left to right): Joel Gomez; an old Sessions punk rock mail order ad that ran in Thrasher. Row 2: 45RPM Vintage logo. All images courtesy of Joel Gomez.
Celebrating the Past
45RPM is not Gomez’s first foray into apparel and retail. His first endeavor was the multi-tentacled Sessions business he started in 1983, and his experiences there could prove useful as he gets 45RPM off the ground.
Sessions made a name for itself as the first registered snowboard shop in the U.S., with Gomez only 22 years old when it launched. Starting the shop and spending all day around music, snowboarding, and skateboarding was too enticing a concept to pass up.
A mail order business, called Sessions Mail, later launched in 1986 and sold punk rock T-shirts and records, along with skateboards.
Sessions’ snow outerwear rolled out in 1990, followed by a record label three years later that would go on to record bands such as the Descendents, No Use For a Name, Foo Fighters, and Audioslave.
Outerwear grew rapidly and became a multi-million-dollar business that ultimately chipped away at much of Gomez’s time.
“I wasn’t as focused with the store and the mail order,” Gomez remembered of that period. “I shouldn’t have been the CEO. I was more of the creative mind, and I started being in a lot of business meetings and it took away from that because the outerwear just blew up.”
By 2012, Gomez made the decision to sell Sessions to Oregon-based Pretty Great Company. He’s still associated with the brand as a founder and ambassador, helping post throwback photos on Thursdays for Sessions’ Instagram.
45RPM is a chance to get back to the creative side, but also a way to pay respect while introducing that period of time to a new generation.
“I love coming out with new designs and I get excited when people hit me up about them,” Gomez said. “The history is so rich. It’s not about trying to live in the past; we’re just trying to celebrate it.”
Kari Hamanaka can be reached at kari@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
