Beachside sportswear specialists Palm Bay Skates launch a capsule collab with local artist Rob Flowers
Situated in the seaside town of Margate a short stroll from the sandy cove from which it takes its name, Palm Bay Skates is a skate shop with a difference: the beautifully made sports-inspired clothing that sells there is made on site. Through the arched windows of its art nouveau facade you can see the husband-and-wife design team of Sarah and Matthew Tomkins cutting, sewing and embroidering pieces on an array of industrial machines behind the shop counter before they make their way to the rail. With experience working for McQueen, Dior, Victoria Beckham and Liberty between them, they bring an attention to detail and an expertise in fabrication to their work, sourcing top-quality materials made in the UK.
Matthew and Sarah have just unveiled a collection they’ve created with Rob Flowers, a local illustrator whose colourful, character-filled work is fuelled by his love of sports mascots, carnival-float fancy dress and the sort of gonks you win as prizes on fairground stalls. To decorate a special line of hand-made Palm Bay Skates items, he has designed a fantasy baseball team called the The Cliftonville Kings. Named after the Margate neighbourhood that’s home to both Rob and Palm Bay Skates, the line-up he has assembled is inspired by sights familiar to residents of Cliftonville: in Rob’s own words, ‘there’s a sun, seaweed, grumpy seagull, shell and a dog poop character in the team’, as well an anthropomorphic take on the distinctive orange polyhedral lantern from the Cliftonville Lido, a local landmark. These characters appear on a limited made-to-order collection comprising a baseball jersey, sweatshirt, T-shirt, scarf, pennant and the Cliftonville poop patch. We asked Matthew and Sarah, who are taking orders for the collection until 14 June, about the collab.
How did you first meet Rob Flowers? Did you get in touch with him after seeing his work, or just bump into him in the neighbourhood?
It’s hard to remember! Margate is a bit funny in that you can see someone around enough and forget whether you have actually met or not. I think we made the first move and got in touch with him. We really love his work and had been trying to think of a project to work on together for a while. We liked the idea of an imaginary local baseball team – especially a Margate-themed one, as it’s something we all have in common and an interesting insight into someone else’s experience of the place where we live.
Can you tell us about how the made-to-order service works for this collection?
There’s a window of three weeks until 14th June where the collection will be available to pre-order online or from our shop. The baseball jersey features all of the team characters (apart from the dog poop guy, who didn’t quite make the cut). You order your size and we make up the jerseys and other items after the pre-order window closes.
Why is there a three-week limit on orders?
Having the ability to make all of our products in-house is great in so many ways, but sometimes having so much freedom can be hindering in knowing when to set some boundaries! Having a window of availability puts a start and an end to a project.
Having the shop means we always have to make sure we’re carrying a bit of stock. Which is limiting in a way because by the time you make up stock in all the sizes and styles you are investing a lot of time and money. And for a tiny brand like us, making up stock without the guarantee of it selling is a risk.
We wanted the collaboration with Rob to feel fun and pressure-free. Doing it this way means that we’ll only be making what we’ve sold; none will be wasted. It’s a new way of working for us – we’re really excited to test the waters with this project.
Now that lockdown is easing, is the Palm Bay Skates store open to customers again?
Yes! Our workshop is now open every Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Come and say hi!
Palm Bay Skates is at 209 Northdown Road, Margate CT9 2PF. Items from the Rob Flowers collaboration are available to order here.
