The Empire Shop Open For Business
It is a dream come true for owner Rob Mendieta, or at least a stepping stone. Since he was a young boy growing up in Indialantic Florida, surfing, skating, and eventually wakeboarding, were always a huge part of his life. He spent a lot of time in surf shops getting to know the owners, staff and shapers alike. One day, he too wanted to have his own shop.
Sure, online retail isn’t exactly a board shop, but to him it was the first step in the right direction. Still very active on the event side of wakeboarding, it just wasn’t time to fall back on his final dream. There isn’t time to build and run a brick and mortar shop when hosting events all over the country and traveling over 50,000 miles a year.
“The shop was a way we could give back to our long time partners,” said Mendieta. “ They have been so good to us and our riders for so long, we just wanted another outlet for them to create some well deserved revenue.”
The Empire Shop only caries brands that are sponsoring his events. For brands to be featured they must have been supporting for at least a year. The shop is more of a reward and a thank you, then just another online store.
There is much more behind this shop as well. Since it is based on giving back to the wakeboarding community in every way it can, The Empire Shop offers fundraising such as the #StayStrongBrad campaign. The shop created a die-cut sticker that Brad Smeele loved and used to help raise money for his medical bills.
The shop is also open to help college wake programs raise money for their teams. A team can create a coupon code saving consumers money, while earning their team a percentage of sales.
If none of that is appealing to you, at least you can find all the Empire Wake apparel on there are well. A full new line launches Spring 2015!
Other brands currently sold on the site are: Humanoid Wakeboards, Rockwell Watches, Smith Sunglasses, IndoBoards, Jet Pilot, Elevated Clothing and Kicker Headphones.
For more info check out http://theempireshop.com/
“We wanted to have a shop with more of a purpose than just retail sales. This shop gives back to wakeboarding in so many ways as well as helps all the supporting brands of Empire Wake have a place to show off their gear.”
-Rob Mendieta
Owner
