Downtown Idaho Falls is home to many unique local businesses, one being a family-owned skate shop.
Cannon Skate Shop is owned by Tyler Cannon, who grew up as a competitive skateboarder and competed in the Shanghai X-Games.
“Been a skateboarder my entire life,” Tyler said. “I’ve always traveled the world with a skateboard in my hand.”
As a lifelong skateboarder, Tyler was always supported by other skate shops and sponsors.
“People have always been really kind and generous even though I’m getting older and worse at skating,” Tyler quipped.
Sponsors typically send boards and equipment, and Tyler said people usually prefer to put their boards together at their local skate shop.
“Idaho Falls just needed a classic traditional skate shop, and my wife is actually the one who found the location,” Tyler said. “She said, ‘I found a location for our skate shop,’ and I’m like ‘that’s funny, I didn’t even know we were going to open one.’ And next thing we know, we have a skate shop!”
Tyler said he loves having the skate shop as a part of his family life, especially since he grew up as a “shop rat” for Val Surf, a well-known skate shop based in California. Val Surf was also one of Tyler’s sponsors.
“It’s so much a part of my DNA and my family’s DNA,” he said. “It was such a big part of my teenage years, just working as a shop rat. It’s cool because now I’m able to give my kids that experience to work behind the counter and learn to do customer service and be a part of the community.”
Tyler’s teenagers work in the shop when they’re not in school, and said they’re also really great skaters. His oldest daughter was featured on the Ellen Show, and deals with Vans, Gap and Under Armour.
“The cool thing is that we do it together as a family,” he said. “Skating is what our whole family does, so now we get to do it on the retail side and we dig it.”
Tyler grew up in southern California and fell in love with Idaho when was passing through once on a family trip.
“We were driving back from Canada and stopped to see our friends in Rigby and man, we just fell in love with this place instantaneously,” he said. “This is paradise. We’ve gotten everything we ever wanted from here. This place is amazing. It’s literally the best corner on earth.”
Cannon Skate Shop has more than just skating equipment. If it’s skate, art, or music, then it has a home at the shop. They carry vinyl records from Van Halen and Stevie Nicks to Daft Punk. They also carry Stance Socks.
“We have a secret music store in our basement, and you can learn what the secret password is by following us on our Instagram @cannonskateshop,” Tyler said. “We usually put out the secret password once a week and it’s by invitation only.”
The shop has global brand ambassadors, which brings unique characters to Idaho Falls who might otherwise not have ever traveled to the area.
“We have a lot of professional athletes,” Tyler said. “For example, there’s a Brazilian skater Leo Ruiz who rides mega ramps. We have another guy named Jeromy Green, he rides for us and they’re all good friends of mine who I skate with when I’m down in California. We also have a really cool artist named Mark Oblow, who came up for our grand opening and did some murals on our wall. He’s a really well-known renowned photographer. He’s taken photos of everyone from David Beckham to Snoop Dogg. We have another artist named Russ Pope who’s a really well-known artist within the skateboarding community and a designer.”
Tyler said they’d love to meet everyone and show them around the shop.
“We’re just a little local, family-run skate shop and trying to do our best,” he said. “We love Idaho Falls and want to keep it cool!”
