KrudCo skates into new location

Rochester's longtime bastion of skate culture is rolling into Park Avenue later this month.

KrudCo skate shop, located on Howell Street in Rochester for nearly 20 years, moved to a former salon space near the intersection of Park Avenue and Oxford Street after owner Aaron Costa felt he needed a retail space refresher.

"Moving to a new location would be a good idea in the current climate due to the type of customers who will be there," Costa said.

His original location, which is still a skateboard cultural hub in Rochester, is not exactly in a booming shopping area — it's near the Strong Museum of Play and the now-defunct section of the Inner Loop. The new location will open in mid-July.

Park Avenue will bring in mainstream shoppers that the old store hasn't yet reached, he said.

"Inside the store we're going to do our core business, which is skateboards...and then we're broadening our line range," he said. "We're going to step out into some more streetwear…to match up with our clientele that's going to be outside," he said.

The old store sold skateboards and accessories, footwear, and apparel — some from newly minted local designers. The new store will feature all of that, plus high-end apparel brands and new merchandise, such as flip-flops and ladies' flats.

KrudCo was in a financial bind earlier this year, and Costa feared the store would have to close or move from its Howell Street location.

He asked Rochester's skate culture for support on social media and through a GoFundMe account, and has since raised around $7,500 for bills at the old location — "it showed that there was definitely some faith that people still like the shop and know that it's here," he said.

The new location at 371 Park Ave. is about the same size as the original store for the same rent amount, Costa said.

He's hoping to keep the old location as a meeting and office space for KrudCo, but has yet to hammer out the details with the building owners, he said.

Costa brought on a partner for his new business endeavor — Paul Ruffo is a longtime Rochester area resident and an avid skateboarder who got his first skateboard at KrudCo when he was 10.

"What I'm going to try and do is maintain the skateboarding scene in Rochester, by partnering up with Aaron and making the new KrudCo location an awesome thing," Ruffo said. He'll handle the apparel side of business and bring in new vendors.

Ruffo said that while the Park Avenue location probably won't match the Howell Street location's draw as Rochester's skateboard hotspot, it is already catching the interest of shoppers before opening day.

"The skateboard scene may not be quite the same (here,) so we're going to maintain the skateboarding atmosphere in the store, as well as the new goods that we're going to bring in," he said.

The skateboarding culture's popularity tapered off in recent years, but KrudCo's new location will allow the business to be flexible and branch out, Ruffo said.

"(Skateboarding) evolves so quickly and you need to keep things fresh for people to be interested," he said. "I think it's going to be a great refresher for KrudCo."

STADDEO@DemocratandChronicle.com