For Kate Minutoli, the idea of bringing a skate shop to Fenwick Island wasn’t a matter of “Why?” but rather, “Why not?”
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
Rebel One owner Kate Minutoli, right, and mother Andrea mind the store at their new skate and clothing shop in Fenwick Island.
Now, at the age of 21, she said managing her own store, Rebel One, is nothing short of a dream come true. The logo beneath the store’s sign along Coastal Highway reads “Skate. Fashion. Art. Music,” and Minutoli is doing her best to bring each of them to the area with her new business.
“The store is basically like a skating boutique with an urban twist,” she said.
“There’s nowhere right in this area that you can get skateboards,” she noted. “Why should kids up here have to go all the way down into Ocean City to find them?”
Originally from Howard County, Md., Minutoli is the youngest of four siblings, and the only daughter in the family. The Delaware shore served as a Minutoli family vacation spot for years, and was inevitably where Minutoli wanted to end up.
“My parents have always had some sort of beach house here,” she said, “and I loved the area.”
With three older brothers, Minutoli was brought up in the realms of skateboarding.
“Since I was a baby,” she said, “we’ve had half-pipes and jumps at our house — everything. My father would put everything together in the back yard.”
Her brothers would spend much of their time on their boards, perfecting tricks and jumps.
“They’d break [their skateboards] and get new ones. The boys down the street had their own. I just grew up around it. I was used to it.”
With a well-known surfing culture along the beach, skateboards have served as a logical means of transportation on the terrain. Kate, however, was not directly bit by the boarding bug.
“I tried skateboarding, myself,” she said. “I always wanted to do things my brothers did. It never really worked out, though. I’d get up and just fall down.”
That didn’t discourage her from starting up her store, though. In fact, it has allowed her to expand her offerings for a wider target clientele, carrying an assortment of products.
Skateboard decks are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the merchandise Rebel One offers. Minutoli has had her foot in the door of fashion and apparel, and decided to combine ideas, though she never knew that she would be running her own skate shop.
She attended Wesley College before transferring to West Virginia University, where she studied fashion design and textile/apparel merchandising. She helps her brother, Paul, 23, design much of the newly developed Rebel One clothing line, a project that began around the same time as the store.
Paul, a West Virginia University alum with an art degree, designed the store’s logo and panted one of the shop’s walls. He has even started Ahan Board Company, a new surf/skate/snow clothing line, with local Bob Ternahan. Paul’s artwork is also sold at Rebel One.
“I’m willing to work with other artists, too,” she said, “if someone has some work that isn’t offensive and fits with the theme we’re trying to bring.”
When preparing the store for its recent opening, Minutoli wanted to make sure she was getting opinions from across the board. She approached her brothers and sisters-in-law for their tastes and preferences.
“We try to include everyone in everything we do,” she said. “I don’t want to just carry the styles that I like. I want Rebel One to be very customer-oriented.”
Products from many independent labels that aren’t traditionally carried in the more standard selections offered at higher-end retail stores can be found at Rebel One. “A lot of these brands are not well-known,” she said, “and the designers are dying to get them out here.”
At the same time, she’s spicing up the shelves with a bit of her own originality.
“I don’t want to be the typical surf/skate shop, and I don’t want to be the ‘beachy’ store, either,” she said. “I’m trying to bring something unique to the area.”
All types of clothing, from T-shirts, shorts and jackets to shoes, flip-flops and hats, and other accessories, including sunglasses, jewelry, stickers and purses, are in the shop — everything appealing to teens up to customers 40 years old and older.
Minutoli said she couldn’t be happier doing what she does now.
“I love everything about fashion,” she said, adding that she also has a knack for matching outfits and styles with customers. “[Running the store] is like having one big closet.”
While she may be finding success early in her life, Kate Minutoli admitted that she wouldn’t have been here without the support from those closest to her.
“I couldn’t do it without support from my parents, [Bob and Andrea Minutoli], and the rest of the family,” she said. Both of her parents help out often at the store. “This has really brought our whole family together.”
Kate isn’t about to cut herself short, as this opportunity is one of the best ways for her to prove herself, she said. “I’ve got some pretty big footsteps to follow in,” Kate said. “My father always worked for companies that owned other businesses, and I knew I wanted to run my own place someday.”
With the skate, fashion and art aspects of the new shop in place, the music is all that remains. Like many of the labels on their clothing, Minutoli said she plans to start bringing in lesser-known groups for the musical merchandise at her store.
“It’s still in the works,” she said, “but it’s coming together.”
Most of the music, while geared with a skating outlook, will be appropriate for all ages, she assured customers and their parents.
“We won’t carry anything that is going to have parental advisory warning labels. Nothing, including our clothes, is going to be offensive. We want families to know that it’s OK for their kids to come here.”
Eventually, Minutoli hopes to be sponsoring local surfers and skaters as well.
Located at 101-3 Coastal Highway in Fenwick Island, Rebel One is now open for the season. For more information, call (302) 547-7251.