“Greater than boards, greater than a retailer, we’re a motion pushing for accessible skateboarding for everybody.” That’s the slogan Ángel, Luis, and Mario use to explain Suburbios, a skateboarding store created for the communities on the outskirts of Mexico Metropolis.
They began on-line and grew rapidly sufficient to open their first bodily retailer. However development introduced a brand new problem: discovering the fitting stability between the velocity of digital gross sales and the expertise of an in-store group.
Uncover how Hostinger helped Suburbios Skate roll with fashion, safety, and assist.
How it began
Suburbios Skate started in 2020 when three skaters from Mexico Metropolis felt the necessity to translate their love of skateboarding right into a group worth. Whereas established skate outlets served rich neighborhoods within the metropolis, the communities on the outskirts had restricted entry to high quality skateboarding gear. Suburbios would fill that hole, providing boards, vans, wheels, and attire to children within the suburbs of the Valley of Mexico.
Their purpose wasn’t to compete with large names already dominating the Mexican market. They needed to construct one thing rooted in the neighborhood.
“Initially, we began providing our merchandise to pals and acquaintances. From there, we expanded to bazaars, and after the pandemic, we determined to take it to on-line markets,” says Mario.
Mario introduced 15 years of ecommerce expertise from main manufacturers like Adidas and Swatch, which formed their strategy. Slightly than relying solely on third-party marketplaces, he led the crew to construct their very own on-line retailer – an area they might totally management.
They started studying quick, from buyer demand to the instruments they wanted to maintain up. Like many early-stage companies, they began with what was accessible on the time, however as Suburbios grew and wanted extra flexibility, they moved to a second internet hosting choice and later realized they would want one thing much more dependable to scale.
Though the mission grew rapidly within the first months, the uncertainty of a restricted price range – all too frequent for early-stage ventures – together with the departure of one of many authentic companions, created a difficult second for Suburbios.
“We went via a tough part: the price range was tight, and we needed to ask ourselves whether or not we must always hold going or pause. Because the associate who dealt with design and visuals left the mission, we needed to reorganize every thing. Digital gross sales helped cowl a part of the hole and gave us some room to breathe. With that basis, we redefined our roles and moved ahead,” Mario shares.
Rising demand, larger challenges
By September 2021, Suburbios Skate was working each a bodily store and their on-line retailer. As well as, they complemented direct gross sales with profiles on common platforms resembling Mercado Libre, Rappi, and, extra lately, TikTok Store.
However their internet hosting supplier couldn’t sustain. Their preliminary web site setup rapidly reached its limits. They’d migrated to a second supplier hoping for higher efficiency and reliability, however issues endured: sluggish load occasions, restricted assist hours, and a scarcity of capability to deal with their order quantity.
“The dearth of assist restricted us to the workplace hours of our earlier host, on prime of the useful resource capability points. There got here a degree, in November final 12 months, proper earlier than the beginning of Buen Fin (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the vacation season), when the web site went down for roughly 18 to 24 consecutive hours, with intermittent issues within the days main as much as it,” Mario explains.
This outage naturally led to important frustration inside Suburbios.
After greater than two years of exhausting work, shedding entry to probably the most vital gross sales durations of the 12 months was disheartening. Their model was in danger they usually skilled losses of between 18,000 and 27,000 MXN (1,000 to 1,500 USD). This pressured them to make radical choices.
“Luckily, due to my expertise, I used to be capable of react rapidly. I recognized that we wanted a extra strong host, so I explored new choices and began the migration course of to get again on-line as quickly as potential,” Mario says.
Hostinger as their internet hosting alternative
After the November outage, Suburbios wanted to behave quick. Mario researched choices and Hostinger stood out by providing precisely the type of stability, management, and assist they’d been lacking.
The migration took lower than 48 hours. Hostinger’s technical crew helped switch their total WooCommerce database – clients, orders, and merchandise – with none information loss. The distinction was instant. Throughout the first week, their web site’s loading velocity returned to regular, they usually processed orders with out interruptions.”
“With our earlier host, uptime dropped to just about 90% throughout crucial durations,” Mario says. “With Hostinger, we’re seeing near 99.9% uptime. That stability has been essential – we’ve grown gross sales by 121% in 2025.”
For Mario, two phrases sum up the expertise with Hostinger: safety and assist.
“The internet hosting efficiency and response have been excellent. I haven’t needed to escalate any technical points since transferring to Hostinger. It’s been fairly good,” he says of his Cloud Startup plan.
Do you know?
All Hostinger website hosting plans include a 30-day money-back assure and 99.9% uptime, providing you with peace of thoughts earlier than committing to a long-term plan.
Their WordPress + WooCommerce web site presents over a thousand merchandise and consists of an interactive skateboard builder powered by the WooCommerce Composite Merchandise Professional plugin.
Prospects get to pick out every part – deck, vans, wheels, grip tape – and see the worth calculated in actual time. The system tracks stock for every particular person half and updates inventory routinely when orders come via.
The primary purpose of the configurator was to simplify customized orders and stop stock points, serving to cut back errors and make on-line gross sales simpler to scale. For skaters, it makes constructing a skateboard easier and extra intuitive, even for first-time consumers.
Lastly, they spotlight the great assist for managing the point-of-sale plugin, which synchronizes the bodily retailer’s stock with the web site. This integration is crucial: with out their on-line retailer, Suburbios estimates they’d lose about 50% of their gross sales.
Satisfaction and group
Regardless of the net success the pandemic delivered to their enterprise, Luis factors to the opening of their first bodily retailer as a defining second for Suburbios.
“It might sound unusual, proper? We began within the context of the pandemic, and at present we all know that it helped on-line gross sales loads, the entire ecommerce enterprise. It was a turning level. However clients stored asking if we had a bodily location, a retailer, or a spot the place they might see extra issues,” says Luis.
The choice to open a bodily retailer got here from sensible necessity as a lot as buyer demand.
“We took a danger for 2 causes. The primary and major motive is that we had been working from residence. Then got here a degree the place we needed to dedicate extra time to packaging and transport. We noticed this as a secondary activity, nevertheless it grew to become predominant and we realized we might now not do it from residence.”
He continues, “So we determined to kill two birds with one stone: we opened a bodily retailer and operated our on-line gross sales from there. What stunned us was that bodily gross sales within the retailer exceeded our on-line gross sales,” concludes Luis.
Being a driving power for expertise is one other supply of pleasure for Suburbios Skate. They’ve collaborated with inventive artists to supply sequence on their boards, in addition to contests for members to precise their concepts on a board after which select probably the most inventive to create customized designs collectively.
As a skateboarding store, skaters are an important a part of their crew. They at the moment have 4 lively skaters representing the model’s values and spirit.
Final however not least, the shop launched a “skateboarding faculty” with a free lesson included with each skateboard bought, a strategy to encourage their clients to maintain training the game.
Suburbios additionally prides itself on enterprise development and long-term success.
Over almost three years of operation, Suburbios Skate has generated shut to three million MXN in whole collected income (roughly 165,000 USD).
In 2025 alone, their on-line retailer has generated 285,280 MXN (roughly 16,000 USD), representing a +121% year-over-year enhance in on-line gross sales in comparison with 2024.
In the present day, gross sales are distributed throughout each channels, with the bodily retailer accounting for roughly 60% of whole income and the net retailer contributing the remaining 40%. This combine displays the interactive nature of the product whereas reinforcing the significance of sustaining a balanced, omnichannel operation.
What’s subsequent for Suburbios?
Model enlargement is the purpose for Suburbios Skate. Though its merchandise are already distributed via some nationwide channels, continued development stays its imaginative and prescient for the long run.
Lately, Ángel, Luis, and Mario opened their second retailer in Mexico Metropolis – they now have one in Azcapotzalco and the opposite in Parque Lira.
“We wish each shops to be secure and sustainable on their very own. The trick, after all, is to maintain including merchandise so that folks hold coming in and shopping for,” says Luis.
Within the medium time period, Suburbios Skate goals to have each its bodily and digital gross sales channels on the identical stage and with strong outcomes. Additionally they hope to change into a nationwide reference within the B2B marketplace for their merchandise.
For now, the crew is targeted on what received them right here: making skateboarding accessible to communities which have been missed. From the suburbs of Mexico Metropolis to a rising community of shops and companions, Suburbios has confirmed that serving an underserved market isn’t simply the fitting factor to do – it’s good enterprise.
Diego combines a background in communications with experience in digital promoting. He’s continuously leveling up his advertising and marketing recreation, specializing in Content material technique and search engine marketing. His major hobbies embrace studying languages, binge-watching sequence, studying, and taking on-line programs, in addition to enjoying sports activities. That is his profile on LinkedIn.
