We opened our doors in October of 2007 in Winthrop, MA as primarily a retail surf & skate shop. A time before online shopping had lifted off, which can be hard to fathom now! In November, Quinton was born after a full day of hanging with our shop kids watching skate videos. Our early years were filled with figuring out the retail game, with not much of a budget and trying to gather and maintain accounts to sell the top brands in the industry at the time. We juggled being open 7 days a week, with 2 babies, during a pretty harsh recession while I finished a tattoo apprenticeship. It was quite an experience to say the least, but at the same time we were at the early stages of building a strong family / community within the walls of Wave N Pave. We hosted skate jams, contests, beach clean-ups, art shows for local artists, supported the opening of our local skate park, and even adult only gatherings to connect and build our shop fam. 15 years later we are lucky enough to still hold most of those friendships and even attend weddings and kiss the babies of our shop kids that are now adults!
In 2010 we relocated to our current location in East Boston, MA and added tattooing to the shop. The last 12 years in Boston has been filled with really spreading our fingers to travel the world to surf and tattoo, and constantly rethink and reimagine our creative space within our walls. Many long lasting friendships have been developed through tattooing, through our amazing customer base and fellow tattooers that frequently travel through for guest spots while visiting the area. Our retail space has slimmed down immensely but we still stay true to our roots and continue to offer surf and skate hard goods on a smaller, more personally selective scale. Along with offering surf, surf and tattoo we are now printing merchandise in the shop. Designs are created by Carissa and printed and shipped directly to you from the hands of Ellen, Mark, Cedric and Quinton. It’s very much a family affair!
Back in the early months of 2020, we were mandated to close due to Covid. We made it through to keep our doors open today, from the support of customers whom have turned into family. We are grateful to everyone that purchased sketchbooks during that time and kept themselves busy coloring and creating and sending us photos! We are also forever grateful to Vans and everyone whom purchased a pair of shoes through the Foot The Bill, to help us keep going and keep those bills at bay during closure. For those that are not familiar, we were offered to design a pair of fully customizable shoes for Vans and they graciously gifted us 100% of the proceeds after the cost of the shoe to help us stay open. It was such a scary time for us all, and a beautiful outreach from our local community and new friends from all over to come together and have fun designing their own shoes with Carissa’s art. Thank you all for your support, and we welcome our new friends that come across our online store & website to part of our WNP Family. We are excited to keep it going and offer our products to you as a true Mom & Pop shop, from our hands to yours!