By Will McGuirk
Here at Slowcity.ca, when we hear of a young entrepreneur doing it for themselves we want to know all the deets. Because creativity, innovation, and making your own future; thats where its at, as the kids say.
Kris Handson of Oshawa, ON. is the force behind a new local enterprise, Progression Skateboard Co. Interestingly the 21 year-old credits his high school teacher at R.S. McLaughlin for the encouragement. Yay teachers!! Great to have mentors but you still need to drop of the lip all by yourself.
Kris did.
We sent him some questions. See below.
Slowcity.ca: Tell me about your company and what you make and about your name.
Kris Handson: “I founded this company in 2018 and the name of it is Progression Skateboard Co. My company represents all skaters who have achieved a goal in their skateboarding adventures hence the name “Progression”. Progression is a huge part of Skateboarding so this company is definitely a way to focus more on the people who are out there everyday progressing and achieving goals. Currently I make hats, shirts, stickers, and art pieces such as canvasses and vinyl record art. I’m working on getting grip tape done and also skateboards in the near future!”
SC: When and why did you start this enterprise ?
KH: “I started this company because I took a class in high school called Urban Art about 5 or 6 times throughout all my years of high school and I loved it. At the end of the class each year, you got to make your own skateboard company and make skateboards and shirts. A lot of the inspiration definitely came from that class, shoutout to Ms. Wyatt!”
SC: What do you think of the skateboard scene in Durham Region, what are the successes and where do you think there can be improvements made?
KH: “The skateboarding scene in the Durham region is pretty mellow. It would be cool to see more contests and events go down more often because the energy at big events like that are always so unreal. I would really like to see Durham Region open up an indoor skatepark for the winter because we definitely could use one. I would be totally down to help support and sponsor an indoor park if one decided to pop up and they needed some extra hands.
Thanks so much for interviewing me and if you guys would like to follow my instagram feel free, @progressionskateboardco and if you want to see for yourself what kind of products I have in stock, www.progressionskateboardco.ca “