Cool Married Guys Vol. 5: Nik Spaulding

I met our latest CMG back in my college days in Greensboro, NC. He was always one of those guys that you could not see or talk to for years at a time, run into, and feel like you had just hung out with him everyday last week. I always knew him to be both interesting and genuine, and very talented artistically. I always knew Nik  had the talent and the smarts to do something great, I just don’t think either of us necessarily knew what that was. After not speaking to him for about 10 years, I see now that he’s figured it out just fine. I present to you all  Nikolas Spaulding: entreprenuer, husband, father, rock-n-rolla.

State your name: Nikolas Spaulding aka NikNasty

Where are you from and where do you live now: Born and rasised in Greensboro N.C. Lived in Atlanta and Florida now back in the good ol’ Durham N.C. Bull City Baby!

What’s your story: Like I said before born and raised in Greensboro N.C. went to the Atlanta Art Institute around ’96 and met a grip of talented, inspirational people. Art School was too expensive for what I basically already knew. Quit school but still kicked it in the “A” for a while. Came back home, started back skating hardcore. Always skated since about 12, but when girls came into the picture wasn’t skating as hardcore, but still skating none the less. I was also painting a lot and did a couple of art shows in Greensboro. My soon to be wife was finishing up N.C. State Vet school so I proposed to her and we moved to Orlando Florida for about 5 years. While in Florida I worked at Parks and Rec. I did skate camps with kids and designed a skatepark in the park I was working in. My wife then accepted a position at Duke so we moved back to N.C. Got back here and heard rumors of the city doing a skatepark but they kept putting it on the back burner. I got all the heads I knew to start blasting the city council with E mails, asking them to build a skatepark. The skatepark was passed and I got to help out with the design. There were no skateshops in town so I scraped up as much money as I could an opened up Ujamaa. It’s been a beautiful struggle ever since.

Tell me about your skateshop: The name of the shop is Ujamaa Boardhouse, but everybody just calls it Ujamaa. We specailize in core skate products, and try to stay away from major corporate skate companies. Any shoe companies we carry are strictly skate shoe companies that don’t stray off into other sports such as snowboarding or surfing or crazy street wear kicks. Strictly hardcore skate. The shop is also an art gallery for local artist to express there self. We do 1st Friday artshows every month with a new artist. We also have been known to use the shop as a music venue hosting diverse shows from Reggae, Hip Hop, Punk and everything in between. We have a mini-ramp in the back to shred to keep it fun while sitting in a shop all day.

Ha, awesome. So what does the name mean, and why’d you go that route rather than a normal, more run-of-the-mill type of name: The name is Swahili for “unity in cooperative economics,”  which pretty much means support each other rather it be through skating, music or art to build the economy and culture. You know, buy from a local skater owned shop thats going to support your scene, as opposed to buying stuff over the web or at some Pac Sun corporate shit. Those cats ain’t doing nothing for your scene but milking it dry.

How is your shop different from other one’s: My shop is well cultured to say the least. We support companies that we like, not always the flavor of the month companies. We support local companies and really try to enhance the skate scene. We save older boards for skaters that are less fortunate and can’t afford boards all the time. Really try to build relationships with the community.

That’s great. How is the shop being received in a Southern, Urban area like Durham? Do you get support from the neighborhood: Durham has never had a core shop. Most heads had to travel to Raleigh to get anything skate related, so with that said we’ve gotten a good response from the local skaters. It’s like a little meet up spot for kids to come and kick it or watch the latest video. The neighborhood loves it! The older citizens think it helps inner city youth. It gives them something new to do, and gets them outside. We’ve even got kids getting our symbol tatooed on there bodies. It’s like a Durham pride thing, it’s pretty cool.

I also hear you opened up a skatepark in Durham too? How did that go down: I didn’t open the park, but I did work with the city on the design. We organized meetings with the city council and the contractors who built the park. The city really wanted our input to see what skaters really wanted.

And from what I understand, you had some heavy support from the Mayor too: Yeah, Mayor Bell is awesome! Totally supportive of the skatepark and did whatever he could do to make it a success. He has attended all of our events that have been skate related. He let us close a street downtown Durham during the annual Earth Day festival, and let us build ramps and different obstacles out of old discarded contstruction site materials. We took the wood that normally would have been thrown away and made some really interesting ramps and what not. It was really cool. Kids from all over the triangle attended and we had a big skate jam with Djs on the ones and twos.

So how long have you been married: I’ve been married going on 8 years.

How has marriage changed you or your state of mind: It’s totally changed my state of mind. I’m more focused on family and career(skateshop). Especially when kids came into the picture. Got to set a good example for them. Makes you a better man for sure.

What do you think is particularly “cool” about marriage: It’s great to have that special someone that knows you inside and out. Knows me more than I know myself it seems like sometimes. For example: The other night I was meeting the Fam out to eat after work and I was running late. The kids and wifey wanted to go ahead and order, so she just looked at the menu and knew exactly what I would order and not even call to confirm. It’s little things
like that, that make marriage cool.

Is your wife involved in the shop, or was she involved with opening it? If so how has that played a roll in your success: Man my wife is involved deeply in the shop. She does all the books and cracks the whip on my ass when I start getting slack with shop business. I need that. My wife and her mom and dad we’re extremely supportive with opening the shop. Truly blessed.

So how many little  Niks do you have running skating around: I have 2 kids. Khalil is 2 and Imani is 5

And how has being a father changed your perspective on things: Being a father is the best feeling in the world. Kids are so inspirational. It’s so funny to see yourself or your wife in them and the different things they do. They really make you get your act together and stray away from the crazy things I used to do, because you know now that you have 2 little ones depending on you. It’s a great sense of pride.

Cool man. So what’s the future for Ujamaa: Were going to keep on grinding man. Doing different events with the community rather it be skate, art , or music related. Ujamaa skate camps start this summer. Ujamaa is going to be hosting a series of events at the skatepark. Contests, Demos from pro teams, Ujamaa Saturdays in the park, where we cookout and spin records at the park. All kinds of fun things jumping off in the Bull City.

And you have a skate team too, right? What are you trying to do with them: We’re working on a video and plan to do a mini-tour of the Northeast when the weather breaks. D.C., Philly, NYC, should be fun. Trying to push them and help them out with other major sponsors, and send them to different contest so we can get their names out there.

I know you have an art background, so other than running the shop what are you doing creatively: Still painting, but not as much as I would like. Been working on callabos with different companies such as Wheatbread clothing, Roughneck hardware, and Bull City clothing. Did an artshow about a year and half ago at Endless Grind in Raleigh that was sponsored by Vans. It was pretty cool. Also participated in a couple of artwalks here in Durham. I am currently working on a couple of pieces for and upcoming show in May that will kick off our monthly first friday art shows here at the shop.

Lastly, if people wanted to follow you or get more info on the shop, where should the go: You can go to www.ujamaaboardhouse.com or check us out on facebook. We update that more often. You can check me(Nikolas Spaulding) on Facebook as well.