This veteran duo is energizing local skate culture.
By Randy Mason | Photos by Paul Andrews
Knejie “KJ” Allen, the co-owner of SK8 SHOT Studios, still recalls the first time he experienced “rhythm and dance” roller skating in his hometown of Houston, Texas.
“I thought, why does everybody not know about this? Everybody needs to do this. Every city should have this,” he says.
KJ’s reaction might sound a little over the top. But not to Adontis Atkins, his SK8 SHOT co-creator. For Adontis, skating resembles the movie “Soul” — where everything surrounding the piano player and his keyboard turns blue and fades away.
“That’s exactly what it’s like when we’re skating. Especially because we’re totally skating at speed. Things are blurry when you’re not focused on them. You just sink into the music.”
Though both men were stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City, they actually met while attending an Adult Night session at the Winnwood Skate Center.
Adult Nights are where the Black community has historically honed its skating skills, merging dance and sport in one high- energy bundle. It’s a style recently showcased to millions during Usher’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl.
Adontis and KJ also took to the great outdoors, skating together in parks and open spaces armed with Bluetooth speakers and a DIY flair that sparked even more attention.
In late 2023, the duo decided it was time to turn their passion into more than a logo and the line of merchandise they sold at skating rinks and pop-ups.
They opened SK8 SHOT Studios in a space on Burlington Avenue in North Kansas City. As KJ points out, it’s not a rink, nor is it strictly a skate shop.
The studio strives to be a “safe, supportive” place to get comfortable with skating basics and potentially master some of the more advanced moves.
“A lot of people are intimidated or embarrassed about their ability or lack of ability at a skating rink,” he says. “There’s a lot of pain involved when it comes to roller skating or trying to learn how to roller skate. And I mean that literally and metaphorically.”
Adontis says that with tools like mats and mirrors, SK8 SHOT’s teachers are able to double down on the kind of details that can’t be learned from a web tutorial. Things like which part of your foot to land on and how to adjust your posture, your neck or the position of your shoulders.
“It’s exciting,” he adds, “when students go from ‘oh, I can’t do this,’ or ‘I’m frustrated about this’ to executing it better than they’d imagined they could.”
Of course, building a lifestyle brand means plenty of lessons for the owners, too.
Their time in the Air Force taught KJ and Adontis many things — from public speaking to how to fix balky electronics. But each day in full brick-and-mortar mode brings new and unexpected challenges.
“There’s hard days,” KJ concedes. “But there’s never days where I’m like, damn, do I still want to do this? At least it’s doing what we love.”
Doing what they love — and doing it with others equally willing to take their skates on the road to “link up across area codes.”
“We want to teach as many people as possible how to skate,” KJ says. “That’s the studio’s mission. We want to build and grow the skate culture in Kansas City and turn it into a place where the rest of the country wants to come here to experience it.”
Catch KJ and Adontis on Max’s hit streaming series, Roller Jam.