Change Skateboard Shop

In an unassuming strip mall on the east end of Tupelo is a shop that serves as an oasis for one of Northeast Mississippi’s flourishing communities: skateboarders. The place is Change Skateboard Shop, founded by Tupelo native, Matt Robinson.

Robinson began his journey during skateboarding’s mid-80s wave of popularity, and was captivated by the cultural threads like the styles, lingo, and customs that connected every skater. Skate groups exposed him to art, music, and people he would not have encountered otherwise, instilling in him an appreciation for the differences in perspective that individuals had alongside their shared community aesthetics. In the 1990s, Matt built the first indoor skatepark in Northeast Mississippi with DIY plywood ramps and hand-poured concrete structures. This DIY ethic persists in how the skateboarders of Tupelo continue to shape their environment into a safe place for skaters, and established skaters impart these self-sufficient values to newcomers.

Beyond skateboarding, Change has become a community touchstone, providing a home for local artists and musicians to exhibit and perform. This engagement with the local community has strengthened the bonds with Tupelo’s skaters and the ways they imbue value in their surroundings, finding and creating places outside of the skatepark to connect and explore their shared interests. Even the name Change invokes the subversion of cultural norms for which skateboarding was originally known. Skateboarding has changed much since its origins in 1950s California, expanding from parks to the streets, and eventually making its way to the Olympics, but the heart of skateboarding continues to beat strong in everyday skaters in communities just like Tupelo.