Today we’d like to introduce you to John Miller
Hi John, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The Skate Gym came to fruition from many interests, experiences, and circumstances converging into one hail mary moment. At 49 John Miller, married to Kelly Miller with 3 daughters Chloe 25, Sidney 9, and Kirby 5, is now irreversibly deep into his DIY indoor skate project called The Skate Gym. On March 27 2023, John quit his job as a Sales Manager at a propane hose manufacturing plant in San Marcos, TX. and formed Eureka Street Creative, LLC. dba The Skate Gym.
In his previous years, John has always gravitated towards DIY projects. In high school he created an underground newspaper for which he got long term suspension. After graduating college at Houston Baptist University with a degree in Religion he went to Seminary at Union Theological Seminary in NYC where he earned a Master of Divinity. There he learned about community organization. As a result, in grad school in 2003, he created a pirate radio station that he ended up moving down to South Austin and called it brandnameradio. He broadcasted out of his house on the newly emerging internet radio and an FM channel with a J-pole transmitter built on top of his halfpipe in the backyard. These broadcasts were basically just skateboarding parties broadcasted live, but a small community formed from it and led to him speaking about in an article in the Austin Chronicle in 2007 https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2007-07-06/499230/. After a while the radio signal got taken over by a larger corporate station and John had to focus more on his traditional job to make ends meet. During that 16 years he experimented with making music in a band and made some art, but still felt a hole to fill, He felt he needed to return to his DIY and community forming-roots do something meaningful. Finally in 2019, after some struggles with alcohol and personal issues, he had enough, sobered up, and ended up quitting his job at the hose plant to pursue something else more fulfilling.
After 16 years of working in manufacturing, with a small chunk of money to put down on a warehouse lease and the yellow light from his wife Kelly, he made the first step. With his longtime passion for skateboarding, media production, personal fitness, and community building, the idea of creating an indoor skatepark community came top of mind. He was thinking about an indoor warehouse with skateboarding lessons geared towards beginners who were intimidated by public skateparks, and who were also focused on the training, fitness, and athleticism aspect of skateboarding. John went searching for locales in the Leander, Cedar Park, and Liberty Hill area but ran into many roadblocks due to cost of leasing and the grey areas surrounding the permits for use case and zoning for a skate establishment. He finally landed at 11880 Hero Way West in Leander.
Since the soft opening on June 10, 2024 the skatepark has been building a thriving DIY skate community. With zero budget and big dreams, The Skate Gym has become a hub of skateboarding activity in the Northwest Austin area. People have donated ramps, wood, equipment, and lots of other items to use and sell. Up until just recently, The Skate Gym has been operating in an underground, unofficial “pirate” fashion while they wait on permits. Local parents have put their kids in classes, and adults who have always wanted to learn to skate in a safe place have taken the adult classes. John has provided a safe place for skaters to learn, and meet up. He provides free water and snacks and a friendly drug and alcohol-free environment. In cooperation with 512 Skate Project, he has also been able to provide boards for students to ride for free. In his classes John focuses on strength and mobility for skateboarders as he is also an NASM Certified Personal Trainer working as a coach at the functional fitness style gym, next door called Elevate Fitness.
In this month of January, The Skate Gym is hoping to completely open on an official basis. We are currently dealing with some final fire inspection permit issues in our unit and are working with the property owner and the city to stay. It has been a long road with many struggles, but The Skate Gym we is continuing to push forward and is shooting for the goal of having completed the journey from DIY pirate skatepark, to a full-fledged shop, indoor skatepark, and skateboarding fitness gym.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to where we are now has been anything but smooth. Starting out, we dealt with landlords not wanting skateboarding in their units. The ones that were open to it were swiftly rejected by the city for parking issues. When I landed on the current unit, the application to the city came back with a huge laundry list of zoning grey areas, architectural design requests and proposals, demo and remodel permits, parking and fire code permits and requirements to be met and much more. There have been numerous rejections and delays. Then after 15 months of permit applications and waiting we ran out of money after getting hacked and got some Bitcoin stolen that we were going to use to build out. I had put down first, last month rent plus deposit with the landlord and was at a brick wall. I explained to the landlord that I am not independently wealthy and would need to scrap the idea if we did not open up that month. That was 7 months ago. In June 2024 the landlord had another unit open up and let us move in there incognito style to get started. In 9 days after the green light, we got wood and equipment donated by several people in the local skate community and opened up on June 10th. We had our first kid’s and adult lessons and began having open skate. We have not been able to advertise, hire staff, paint build anything permanent, receive sponsorships/grants, have contests or events, or be publicly open. All students and customers have come from word of mouth and Instagram stories. There is no sign on our unit. We are in unit 401 and you have to go in via the breakroom-turned-skateshop of a previous manufacturing facility. The only way you know it is there is by looking for the broken board with a troll on it hanging up outside the door.
As of writing this we are essentially broke and 100% bootstrapping everything on a day to day basis with lessons, open skate and products sales. We are still waiting on our final inspection in our official unit 704. It is a much smaller unit at 2000 sq ft vs the approx. 7000 ft we are in now. It will be a challenge to fit everything in such a smaller unit, but at least we will be completely official in the eyes of the city after 22 months of waiting. Some pessimists say we won’t have enough room to be a good skatepark with only 2000 sq ft, but I have seen many other place in other cities like NYC, Chicago, Vancouver, etc… build great indoor spots with less room. As long as we have enough room to put in some small ramps and a small street course, we will be fine to facilitate lessons and a safe weather-proof place to skate.
Throughout the course of this journey, it has been easy to become a pessimist and blame the bureaucracy for putting a red tape filled glass ceiling on an already marginalized skateboarding lifestyle. However, my years of DIY community building, seminary education, and optimistic personality have kept me pushing forward and keeps the bigger picture in mind; a picture of a safe, fun skateboarding community where anyone can come learn and feel welcomed. Everytime a kid enthusiastically runs to me with some footage they have recorded doing their tricks and wants an “attaboy/girl”, I remember why I am here doing this. I was once that latchkey kid in the 80’s and 90’s and lived in ditches and makeshift skateparks looking out for thugs, and drugged people because I didn’t want to be at my chaotic household. I am now creating that safe place I wish I always had. It is a miracle that we have even made it this far with all the limitations, however it is a testimony of the skateboarding community as well as the need for an indoor skateboarding facility.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Everything I do is messy and DIY looking. I can’t help it. I am the polar opposite of a perfectionist. I have created music, art, animations, videos, built my own FM and internet radio station, created YouTube channels, and podcasts about cryptocurrency use-cases and others where I interview locals about skateboarding. I have reached over 1000 subscribers on YouTube on an old crypto podcast channel and many others
In the early 2000’s I was in a DIY band called Laserz where we dressed up in hazmat painting suits and played music in the style of Devo meets Butthole Surfers. We played in lots of dumpy venues around Austin. We were never very good or successful, but it helped me learn how to be on a stage and being ok being bad in front of people.
On another note, I started out going to a gym to be in better shape. Over time, I became curious to go in deeper and started studying the movements in detail. After opening The Skate Gym, I needed money to remain open, so I decided to get NASM certified with My CPT and CES certifications, and now I am professionally training and coaching people into fitness at Elevate Fitness gym and also incorporating this into my skateboarding lessons.
The common thread with everything I have done has demonstrated a journey from laughable amateur experimentation to some actual decent work being displayed. I have become very adept at being ok being a beginner in something, until I am not. This journey, more than the final product, to me, is the essence of art. This perspective has enabled me to view The Skate Gym as more than just a business or community project, but as an artistic manifestation of persistence in the looming face of failure.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I decided to go completely sober in September 2019. This was just in time before the COVID-19 crisis hit. It was a complete game-changer for me. I became closer to my wife, my kids, and the rest of my family. It also helped me to realize that just paying bills and financial security are not what is my priority in life. We put our house in South Austin up for sale just days before COVID lockdown and we sold our house in 3 days. We moved out to Leander to be closer to my wife Kelly’s parent’s and so our 5 year old at the time daughter Sidney could go to a good school. It was an adjustment for me to move to the burbs and live in what I deemed as a cookie-cutter community in the outskirts of Austin. I did not think there would be anyone in the burbs that would be open-minded enough to support what I do artistically. However, I realized it does not matter what zip code you live in. What matters is your ability to be completely yourself. When you are true to yourself, your true creativity will shine and people will want to support that. It is a true leap of faith. The isolation COVID created along with my newfound sobriety made me dig deep within myself to become fully comfortable in my own skin.
Pricing:
- Kids Group skate lessons: $40/class
- Adult Group skate lessons: $30/class
- Private 1 on 1 lessons: $50/hour
- Open Skate: $10 entry
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theskategym.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theskategym/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092577272132
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngarrettmiller/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TheSkateGym
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@theskategym?si=I_gRqiedHHS_eHgh
Image Credits
The solo image of me is done by Harper Rae Photography ig: https://www.instagram.com/harperraephotography/
The rest are my photos
