This website, or blog, or e-zine, whatever you want to call it, is an offshoot of a project my brother and I have been working on for a few years. Compound Frakcher was planned to be a print magazine, accompanying our skate shop; “The Compound.” Though, the shop hasn’t quite gotten it’s wings yet. So in lieu of an actual print magazine, I’ve decided to post here what would, or could have been, in the zine. It will, I hope, consist of updates on how the shop is coming along, as well as many DIY related articles, and how-to’s. But before I delve to deeply into writing other articles or tutorials, I should probably explain how the skateboard, snowboard, apparel, and vintage clothing shop, that we’ve deemed “The Compound” actually came to be. Here it goes.
Where did The Compound come from? What sparked the idea behind it? What is The Compound? To answer these questions I could make up an insanely ridiculous back-story that would be riveting and wonderfully poetic, but of course it would be a total fallacy, and I prefer the truth.
The truth is, the original idea of The Compound, was actually a joke among friends, a joke about a zombie invasion, and what we would do if that occurred. The Compound was originally the “Sadewicz Family Compound” named after my family, our family. We had plotted this zombie invasion, and decided upon my family’s house as a fort, a sort of ‘zombie fallout shelter’. The house, you see, is a venerable metal and woodshop, that over the years has collected countless tools, machinery, metals, wood, and to my best guess, a few hundred square feet of sawdust, metal shavings, and miscellaneous paint, and things of that nature. The tools, of course, would be our first method of defense. scythes, chainsaws, knives, spades, hammers, and all sorts of make-shift weaponry are housed inside this workshop of ours, and a hell of a lot of it could be used to ward off a zombie attack. Thus, the place to go when the zombie’s attack, would of course be the “Sadewicz Family Compound.”
Being avid fans of zombie flicks, we joked about the idea for months. The stories, and theories we’d come up with were just riotous fabricated plans, which soon included our other obsessions. We talked about the mini-ramp in the backyard, and how that must be defended at all costs, how we could build a defense system that included snake-runs, and fun-boxes, and random skateboard get-away routes. It had started to develop into something more than just a joke. We actually had the mini-ramp, and built more skate ramps and boxes from the wood we already had in the shop. Anymore, there was no zombie defense system, or household tools turned weapons, it had shifted into a hangout for our friends, and a place to skate where we would never get kicked out.
Then of course, as the time went on, it started to snow (as it usually does in the months approaching winter), so our focus shifted to snowboarding, and our other passions like making stencils for T-shirts, Aerosol Art, and of course shreddin’ the flaky white on our Slick-Sticks (which was what we called our snowboards at the time, now an exclusive line of Slick-Sticks snowboards from The Compound is in the works).
These things also blew-up at the Sadewicz Family Compound, and we learned how to screen print T-shirts, and skateboard decks, and gained more skill in our aerosol arts. The idea of perhaps creating a store, that included all of these things we make, and other things we enjoy, was my idea. Following the keyed up response about it from friends, I started obsessing over the idea of a skate shop. Thus The Compound was born. I shortened the name because I didn’t think “The Sadewicz Family Compound” would fit well in a URL, or on a street side sign. and things blossomed from there. We registered the business name, established a business plan, created clothing and board lines, and even added a vintage clothing section to the shop.
We still joke about its inception; as a zombie invasion fortress, and we’re overcome daily as to how far it came. I’m just ecstatic that I can be doing something I love to do, and to bring people into the world of skateboarding, snowboarding, and the lifestyle it brings.
My goal has become to help the kids get started doing something that might one day become a life-long career, and to keep the spirit of skating alive by providing low-cost boards and apparel. Of course the art I contribute to the boards, shirts, and videos; is just an added bonus for me. I have an outlet for my creativity, and I can do what I love, make enough money to not starve to death, and have fun at my job.
It’s incredible, really, that it stemmed from something as oddball as zombie flicks, and came to be a board sports and apparel shop. I encourage everyone, and anyone who has a love like mine for skating and art, to pursue that as a career. Doing what you love, and doing that for a career is something everyone should be able to have an opportunity for.
