Meet Norah Jackson | Roarockit Skateboard Company

We had the good fortune of connecting with Norah Jackson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Norah, how does your business help the community?
Through our DIY skateboard kits, we give people, especially youth, the opportunity to feel good about themselves, boost their self esteem, become skilled with their hands and contribute to their communities. Many at-risk or marginalized kids learn that they are creative, useful and valuable people as a result of building their own skateboards. For some, the accomplishment means they have learned to make a useful object for themselves, or have made a product to be sold. For others, it may make them aware that they can be creative in graphics and design where they never imagined they could be. Some take the skills they learn building their own deck to become their own boss and start up a custom board-building business. Teachers use our skateboard kits as an educational tool to engage their students by offering credit courses of varying topics. STEM and STEAM, science and physics, construction technology, woodworking, design and marketing, are just some of the creative ways educators have integrated our skateboard building kits to advance student success.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My professional life for many years was as a design director/co-owner at a graphic design/branding company. What that taught me was that I needed to wear many hats and be flexible about my job description! I am most proud of the fact that my husband and I pooled our talents to form a company. Ted provided the innovation that is the basis of our products, the method of making a skateboard. He looks after all the technical aspects of the business, like sourcing materials, maintaining and building machines to make our products. Ted is also our creative thinker, who comes up with new products and designs. I look after more office related jobs, like inventory and the administrative side. I think the most important and best side of our business is that we brought our talents together and created a business that helps others, helps us and keeps our small group of wonderful employees busy. Neither one of us could have done it alone, we needed each other’s skills and knowledge to make it happen. 20 years later and we’re still doing it! Best lesson we have both learned is that every little thing that either of us do in our lives, makes an impact on our business today. Whether it was a horrible job, or awful boss or co-worker, or a wonderful job or life experience, it is all 100% useful in our business today.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m going to give a very biased list here as Toronto has far too many highlights to shortlist! it is a multicultural city, full of culture, food, sports, and tons more. If my best friend was in Toronto, I would firstly bring them to see our warehouse/shop. We are located in a one-story industrial building, that was used by a blacksmith before us. Our employees helped clean, paint and rebuild to suit our business. We have a gallery of art-skateboards hung on every available bit of wall space with a story to tell for each one. After that, we would visit the Oasis Skateboard Factory to have a look at what a skateboard high school looks like. Located in the deepest of downtown, at a community centre, the one-room school has 25 students all intent on finishing their ambitious projects that will earn them their high school credits. This high school has won awards for achieving the highest literacy rates in the city and various other awards. They also do outreach and other mentorship events within the community and beyond.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When my husband (Ted Hunter) and I started up the Roarockit Skateboard Company, one would assume that we were experts about skateboards. The truth was, we didn’t know anything about them at first! What Ted had figured out was how to make a 3-dimensionally shaped skateboard out of maple veneer, a one-sided mold, glue and a vacuum bag. Our first foray was teaching this at a visual arts centre, as a way to engage young people in a wood shop. When “real” skateboarders had a look at how successful the process was, they encouraged us to make new shapes. We didn’t even know what a longboard was at the time! As we are not experts, we listen closely to our customers and adjust our board shapes, designs and materials to accommodate their building projects. We have collaborated with the skateboard community to bring their designs to market via our website. We have a line of “Collab” board kits that are all designed by board builders from the skateboard-building community around the world. Our customers are who I would like to thank for providing us with feed back and ideas to keep things fresh and exciting! There is one teacher I would like to single out, and that is Craig Morrison (founder of the Oasis Skateboard Factory, (https://oasisskateboardfactory.ca/) a TDSB Alternative School in Toronto CA) Craig met us more than 15 years ago and recognized the potential to engage students using our method of building a skateboard. Craig created a program that offers a way for even the most disadvantaged students to meet their compulsory credit goals and graduate high school. The positive effects of his energy and program has transformed hundred of lives that would otherwise have ended up in a not-very-good place. Despite his retirement last year, the school continues now to produce self-assured, confident young people who go on to enter colleges and universities and the trades.

Website: www.roarockit.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roarockit/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Roarockit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoarockitSkateboard

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/Roarockit

Other: https://www.thinairpress.com/