AKA Goods, a new retail skate shop, has opened at 4913 Penn Ave., in the Friendship-Garfield arts district. Part urban boutique, part art and performance venue, the 750 square-foot shop specializes in skateboards and skate couture. With shoes comprising its core inventory, AKA carries popular brands such as
Emerica,
Etnies and
Vans. The shop also features an extensive selection of
Artful Dodger apparel and
New Era Caps and is the city’s exclusive dealer of
Kid Robot vinyl toys.
Owner James Maszle, a West Mifflin resident, also runs
Imperial Skateboards in McMurray and Imperial, PA. Maszle purchased the three-story, 2,250 square-foot Penn Ave. property in 2006 and worked with
inter*ARCHITECTURE to design the shop and rehabilitate the building’s second and third floors as live/work space. With funding from the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative (PAAI), Maszle plans to upgrade the shop’s façade.
Maszle’s goal is to provide "a commercial outlet for artists" and create "a destination shopping and cultural experience with an international eye.”
Special Features, a new exhibition of handmade t-shirts by Pittsburgh-based artists, is now on view at AKA Goods. In the spring, the shop will host workshops in conjunction with the PAAI.
Maszle has exhibited artwork in New York City and Chicago, worked for artist Philip Pearlstein and designed displays for Bergdorf Goodman and Dean and DeLuca. A graduate of
Bennington College and the School of Visual Arts, Maszle was selected as a muralist for the Sprout Fund’s Public Art Project in 2005.
Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: James Maszle
Image courtesy of AKA Goods