Kyle Coffman and His Journey to Becoming a Business Owner as a Single Parent

Running a Skateboard Business and Parenting Three Boys by Himself

By Jameson Coffman

“I started to make by hand because buying from wholesale distributors was a 6 to 9 month wait and we would sell out in forty-eight hours.” Said Kyle Coffman, single father and the owner of Salty Skateboards, as he describes why he started to make his boards by himself. The transition from ordering premade boards to making every board by hand wasn’t an easy task for Kyle. “The benefit of making them myself is that I can make more boards available.” Making 300 skateboards was the first set of orders that flowed in and making them was very satisfying as a skateboarder himself but there was also the worry of people not liking them.

“I shattered my L1 vertebrae snowboarding and creating Salty was a way to stay close to the sports I loved and to my kids who loved doing them.” Due to his spine injury Kyle was salty because he couldn’t skateboard or snowboard and that is how Salty Skateboards came into existence on March 1st, 2013. Inspired by “My kids…” to start a business that keeps all of them close, “…they are the reason I do most the things I do.” Using vendor shows, social media platforms, and traveling to skate competitions is the way Kyle grows his business. At these skateboarding events socializing with other skaters is a very important thing to do, “In this industry partying and hanging out with others is a way of networking, I am able to meet people and talk business with them.” Being a former athlete, a father, and a business owner has been a crazy life decision for Kyle, crazy in the best kind of ways.

Raising three children, let alone three boys couldn’t have been easy and yet Kyle was still able to get his business running and making money. “It’s like living in a frat house 24 hours a day. It’s a house full of stinky boys.” When creating Salty Kyle decided to go with skateboards because it’s the most expensive and important product that you need to skateboard. Kyle added wheels to make more money to help with the skateboards, wheels are cheap to make but have a huge profit. With all this money, Kyle put a lot of it back into the company for more product and team skate trips. He has a skateboard and wheel team of 25 skateboarders from across the U.S. “It is fun running everything on my own, like when the team was able to go to Cali, but also stressful.” Even though Kyle can have fun running this business with his boys and skate team, he does everything from hand-making each skateboard to marketing and selling products to customers on his own. “We grow everyday and it’s getting to the point where I can’t do it by myself anymore.” With no employees he works 16-hour workdays and since going international he has had to do some all-nighters. His three sons are accomplished skateboarders, all of them being sponsored at the age of 7. Even though Kyle works all day, every day, he has built his business around the sport that his kids love to stay close and be with them.

Being a single father and business owner can take its toll, “My whole body isn’t doing to great, I have had a lot of health problems because of stress.” It does have its moments though; His oldest son graduated from high school and is going to college and all his sons are sponsored athletes. Having built a successful business is a lot of work but it is all worth it in the end. “There are some days that I feel like I don’t want to do it anymore but there are also the days that I am absolutely in love with it.” With a growing business and three great sons Kyle can say he is a proud and happy father. “I want to be able to make enough money to provide for my family and travel with them internationally, I have always dreamt of going to Greece.” He plans on continuing to grow and build so that he can provide for his family even after he is gone.