Rodney Smith is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and skate company founder from New York City.
Smith founded Shut Skates in 1986 with Bruno Musso.[1] Shut Skates was New York City's first skate company and the world's first entirely street skate-based company.[2] Shortly after its founding, Shut Skates moved its operations from Southern California to New York City, due to the urban, street-savvy attitude of the streets of the East Coast, compared to the former's emphasis on surf culture. The brand went dark in the 1990s when Smith co-founded Zoo York with Eli Morgan Gessner and Adam Schatz. SHUT relaunched in 2006, and in 2007, the company reopened their flagship skate shop on the Lower East Side.[3] The storefront space served the community for 10 years, closing in 2017 with the business moving online.
In 1993, Smith, Eli Morgan Gesner, and Adam Schatz founded Zoo York.[4] [5] In 2019, the trio that founded Zoo York was brought back into the company.[6]
In the 2010s, Smith founded skate and lifestyle brand ALL ONE, also known as All One Universe.[7]