Armada Skate Shop to Rebrand, Move Into Camp North End
Owner Patrick Carroll aims to inspire new generation of skaters at Parts & Service
Locally owned Armada Skate Shop is rebranding to Parts & Service before moving into its new location at Camp North End this fall, bringing a wealth of experience and love for skateboarding to the sprawling campus, ownership announced on Wednesday.
Helmed by Charlotte native Patrick Carroll, the shop opened its first location at the corner of The Plaza and Commonwealth Avenue in 2010, where it operated for nearly a decade before moving to Eastway Crossing in 2019.
Having shut down that location in February, Carroll plans to reopen as Parts & Service in the Keswick section of Camp North End with a new storefront situated in the Quonset Hut next to Hardy Boys Records.
Located at 701 Keswick Ave., Suite 107, Parts & Service will offer a wide range of hardware and soft goods including skateboards, longboards, roller skates, shoes, clothing and accessories, according to Wednesday’s release.
The shop, which will include a professional repair station equipped with a service station-inspired tool kit, will host board-painting workshops led by local artists as well as workshops for kids.
Featuring automotive-themed artwork and murals, Parts & Service will evoke a nostalgia for racing, reflecting the parallels between a kid getting his first skateboard and a person getting their first car, Carroll told Queen City Nerve.
“Skate shops essentially look exactly the same” as auto mechanic shops, he said.
He explained that the rebranding has been in the works for years, but a full switch wasn’t the right fit for the Eastway space. The shop’s logo, which has been the avatar on Armada’s Instagram account for a decade, is based on an old Ford logo.
“Now that we’re at a reworked Ford Automotive plant, it only seemed appropriate,” he said.
Carroll, who has been skating since he was 9 years old and has spent 28 years in the industry, hopes to inspire a new generation of skaters and foster a strong sense of community with Parts & Service. He said Camp North End was the perfect place to embark on that mission.
“Camp North End is filled with this amazing creative energy and fosters connection,” Carroll stated in the release. “It’s the perfect place to launch something ambitious where everyone, even kids and families, can experience the magic of skateboarding and the way it brings people together.”
In a feature article about street skating in Charlotte published by Creative Loafing in 2018, Carroll discussed how kids who skateboard can be stigmatized in the community despite the talent many of them harbor.
“OK, some kids don’t seem to have the best attitudes,” Carroll said in that article. “One of them just cut you off in traffic on a skateboard, gave you the finger and all that stuff. They’re raggedy and this and that. Skateboarders are cantankerous, loud and obnoxious.
“But if you put that aside, strip it down and look at someone who knows what they are doing, it’s very remarkable. But it’s hard to translate that for everybody else who may just see this kid making noise going down the sidewalk or who scuffed up his property because he jumped up on a rail and slid down it.”
The new Parts & Service space hopes to serve as a hub for shifting that narrative. The new location will be open seven days a week. Follow the business’s Instagram for more updates.
