Local skateboard enthusiast Jolian Chan opened his store, Exit two years ago, and has recently launched his own clothing brand with a very unique artistic collaboration
If you’ve ever wandered through Sintra Square of an evening, particularly on weekends, it’s likely you’ve encountered some of the enthusiastic members of Macau’s small but dedicated skateboard community.
“There are probably around 300 casual skaters, and maybe 60 or 70 hard-core skaters,” estimates Jolian Chan, owner of Macau’s original and only skateboard shop, EXIT. “But for those top level skaters who are really addicted with really mad skills, maybe only 20 or 30,” he adds.
In a city the size of Macau, finding somewhere to practice and have fun on a skateboard is of course one of the major challenges.
“Sintra Square is the landmark location for skaters in Macau. But there’s also the area behind Sands Macao near the Cultural Centre, near the Taipa Stadium roundabout, and at Hac Sa beach along the boardwalk,” says Jolian, a Macau native who began skateboarding at the age of 12 when he was living in Hong Kong.
“We don’t have any official skate park so we have to hunt for interesting places and create it ourselves. Surfaces need to be skate-able and with good ledges – we do tricks, we grind, we slide – as long as we don’t hurt anyone.”
“The skating community has made their own flat bar, like a rail, and their own grinding box, we call it a fun box, and put it in Sintra Square and made their own little skate park,” he says.
When he was around 14, Jolian moved back Macau and really started taking skateboarding seriously. But it took another 15 years, for him to take his passion for skateboarding and turn it into a business in 2019, opening his small store on Patio do Rochedo, just down from the Portuguese Consulate building.
“I opened EXIT because no one else was doing anything like it, and I thought, if I don’t do it, someone’s going to do it in the future. So I just decided to enter the market and see what happened,” explains Jolian.
“The feedback was quite good in the beginning, and a lot of people wanted to try. But their background and their culture is very different. There’s no real skateboarding culture in Macau.”
The shop design is inspired by a famous skating shop in Tokyo, which has a small skate park inside. And despite occupying a very limited space, EXIT actually has a small skate-able ramp inside the shop.
“We ran some free workshops inside the shop in the beginning, and let people to come in and try different boards and practice.”
Even now, Jolian offers lessons to people who are just beginning to explore the sport for the first time.
“We’ve had a lot of students. People buy the boards but don’t know how to skate, and ask for advice, so we have lessons in all the spots around town. It’s helpful to have someone to teach you the safe techniques,” notes Jolian. “That’s my aim, I want people to try something new, no matter how old they are or what their background is or where they’re from.”
For beginners, Jolian sells pre-built boards, but for more serious customers, he offers DIY kits including six main components: “the skate deck, a pair of skate trucks, four wheels, bearings for inside the wheels, grip tape and bolts to mount the trucks.”
“We only focus on the top brands,” says Jolian as he shows us around the shop. “Our favourite band is Polar from Sweden. We have an American brand called Fucking Awesome, they are the top tier brands. And we have a brand called Almost, founded by Rodney Mullen, the godfather of street skateboarding and inventor of the Ollie and kick flips, all the crazy tricks.”
Other brands come from the US, UK, Japan, France and Australia, and all the best quality Jolian insists. And despite only selling the top brands, a full skateboard kit is actually not that expensive, with decks ranging from 500 to 700 patacas, and a full kit starting at around MOP1400, up to the most expensive at around MOP2,400.
Of course once you have the board, then you need the safety gear – pads, a helmet and a solid pair of skater shoes – all available at the store. And then you need to look the part wearing some genuine skater fashion.
“If you really go deep into skateboarding, it’s not just about the sport, its also the culture and art. Skate brands are very unique and special, and people from the industry have a very strong sense of art and fashion trends,” Jolian explains. “We stock a brand called HUF from the US but owned by a Japanese company that does lots of collaboration with artists. And another very small brand from San Francisco called SNACK, who have a lot of funny graphics and visuals.”
Last year, Jolian even decided to start his own skater clothing brand, EXIT fromw EXIT. And he launched the brand with a high profile artistic collaboration of his own, partnering up with renowned local artist Konstantin Bessmertny.
“I’ve brought a lot of brands from outside, so I thought why not try something of my own. But to start something of my own, I didn’t just want to put a big ass logo on it, I wanted something special, and then one day I suddenly thought of talking to Konstantin. Konstantin is my good friend. We’ve known each other for almost a decade and I really appreciate his artwork. Straight away he said yes and he very kindly showed me these two paintings that he had created while he was in lockdown in Thailand.”
Konstantin’s artwork from his Grobiania series appear on EXIT from EXIT T-shirts, and were even printed on a limited edition set of skateboards.
“We used the images on the boards, 72 pieces that can be put together over three separate boards to make one complete piece of art, so only 24 sets, a very limited edition.”
But if you’re hoping to buy one of these rare pieces, sadly, they all sold out very quickly.
“Everyone bought them as a set, as a piece of art. The price was set the same as a regular skateboard because I wanted to see people riding them on the street, but in the end, every single person bought them as a collection, so you’re not likely to see anyone riding them,” Jolian laughs.
Nonetheless, given the success of the collaboration, Jolian already has plans to work together with other local artists this year to create more skateboard art pieces.
“I love art, and art combined with skateboarding is very important. That’s what makes the whole ecosystem work. Art provides a niche and a very special characteristic of the skateboarding world. That’s why you have all the apparel and the gear,” Jolian observes.
“You can very nicely combine fine art and skateboards. I have some customers, they are collectors, but they don’t buy the paintings, they buy skateboards with the artwork on it. Two very extreme elements combined together, fine art and skateboards, but you can still see it works together nicely.”
Photo: Eduardo Martins
“I love to collaborate with graphic, interior and product designers,” notes artist Konstantin Bessmertny. “The collaboration with Jolian, who has been a friend of mine for a long time, was one of those experiments. I selected the work from my Grobiania series as it has an unexpected design narrative. Conventional concepts state that “design is in simplicity, art is in complexity”, but I always do the other way around, “complex design”, not just beautiful shapes and colours, but an unexpected message. Sort of like design for people with an “IQ well above normal”. Sometimes it works, sometimes doesn’t. In the end, in this instance, it worked.”
EXIT
Patio do Rochedo, Macau
Open hours: 1:00pm – 9:00pm；
Telephone: +853 2845 1281
www.exit.mo
@exit.macau
