Roller Derby skaters Bonnie Thunders and OMG WTF were constantly frustrated by the inability to find the perfect skate for their feet. At that time, there were no local options to buy gear. After stumbling upon a tiny 150 square foot retail space for rent down the street from their house and Gotham Girls Roller Derby practice space, they figured this would be the perfect test site for a skate shop in NYC, and with that, Five Stride was born in April 2010.
Bonnie and OMG were the perfect pair to open the shop. Bonnie’s experience was in competitive ice figure skating so she was knowledgeable about boot fit. OMG is a trained bicycle mechanic who previously owned their own bike shop.
They quickly grew out of the original Astoria, Queens shop and made the move to Brooklyn at the end of 2010. The shop joined the ranks of the Graham Avenue Business District and fellow small businesses, King Kog, The Richardson, and Beaner Bar (RIP), to name a few. As one of the first five brick and mortar derby shops in the country, Five Stride set out to be different. They didn’t want to be a roller derby shop-- they wanted to serve all types of roller skaters. With NYC’s rich roller skating history, they focused on building inventory to serve derby, recreational, and rink skaters at the new shop.
Five Stride moved a little further east in 2015 to a storefront as part of the Williamsburg Houses on Bushwick Ave in East Williamsburg. In late 2016, Bonnie and OMG hired and trained staff to manage and operate the Brooklyn shop so they could move to Portland, OR to open a second Five Stride location. The PDX location opened in a tiny nondescript brick building just off of Sandy Boulevard in the Kerns neighborhood in late 2016. In 2019, the Brooklyn shop moved next door to a bigger space at 176 Bushwick Ave to continue to add to product inventory and give a more comfortable experience for customers. In October 2021, the Portland shop moved a new space on MLK Blvd in Northeast Portland. In April 2024, Bonnie and OMG brought in new partners into the Brooklyn store and separated the businesses- 7 years of running a shop from across the country and through the pandemic was no small feat. The Brooklyn store continues to run independent from Five Stride Portland.
Five Stride is more than a shop, it’s a community, it’s a place to learn, and most importantly- it’s an opinion you can trust.
