He can’t remember the first time he actually put his feet on a skateboard, but his love for the experience eventually led to a career, which inspired him to open Premier, 304 E. Grand River Ave., in Lansing.

Premier opened in 2001 as a single store in Grand Rapids.

But when customers began to make trips across the state just to visit the shop, Higginson knew it was time to open a second location to meet the demand.

“We had a lot of customers that were coming to our store in Grand Rapids that lived in the (Lansing) area and even farther east from Detroit,” he said.

“We were looking to expand and we picked Lansing because it’s something we could manage, going back and forth between here and Grand Rapids.”

Open since late October 2007, the Lansing location carries unique and hard-to-find merchandise that has made it a must-see for anyone looking to find something different.

Premier already has created a niche for itself in the sneaker community, said Jody Poole, an employee since the store’s opening.

“One thing that sets us apart is that we carry Nike SB, which is Nike’s skateboarding brand,” she said.

“You have to be a skateboard-specific shop to carry it. The SB account is hard to come by, especially in this area.”

The scant supply of Nike SB shoes is because of the fact that each shoe is a limited edition.

The company releases about 500 pairs of any one style, Poole said, making the shoes coveted among people who collect footwear.

This makes Premier a great place for the footwear fanatics that Poole said prowl the Internet in search of the latest sneaker designs by companies like Nike SB.

Entire Web sites have been dedicated to giving customers advance notice of when and where a particular style will be released, she said.

“People in the sneaker world look at (those sites) and will keep an eye on the store,” Poole said.

She added that people will sometimes wait outside to get their hands on the newest Nike releases.

In addition to the dozens of Nike SBs that line the walls of the small shop are other popular brands such as Supra, DC, Emerica and Vans. The shop’s collection of sneakers is one of its main attractions, Poole said.

“For sneaker collectors and sneaker lovers, (Premier) is a good place to be,” she said.

Aside from the store’s stylish sneaker inventory, Premier carries street wear for both men and women. Brands such as Insight offer clothing for everyone while Nikita is designed specifically for female skaters.

The shop also offers its own line of skateboards. Higginson said the boards are of the same quality as most other pro-model boards .

The boards are pressed by Woodchuck, a Canadian company, and sell for about $45.

Premier features brands and designs that are unique to the store, such as its line of clothing and skateboards featuring the designs of local artists.

“It was something I’ve always wanted to do, featuring local artists in the store or on shirts and boards,” Higginson said.

When looking for new designs for merchandise, Higginson reaches out to the community for items that match the style and attitude of his store.

“Kids come through that go to art school or whatever and show interest in doing a graphic for us. If it fits our image and it fits the store, we put it into production,” he said.

Premier’s current featured artist, Julian Delos Reyes, was a customer who came in with his sketch book and pitched a design, Higginson said.

His line features shirts adorned with smiling bananas, each individually screened by Reyes.

Producing a line of clothing to carry the Premier name is just another step in the expansion process, Higginson said.

“A lot of our contemporary stores have their own line of clothing and we’d like to follow suit,” he said.

“If we do something like that, we’d like to make sure it exceeds expectations.”