Let's play pretend,,,, If you opened your own Ski shop in the PNW..........

[Art Shirk]

Value prop: make it easier for skiers to hand flex & demo cool brands you won't see in most demo fleets. e.g. WNDR, Shaggy, Whitedot, whatev.

Dont forget 333 and Rax

[Buster Highmen]

Got a post card that World Cup in Bellevue is hanging it up end of the month. How good is your tune-fu?

Wow.

[gregL]

Wow.

Yeah, and I bet they won't be the last small ski-related business to go under this season.

[AK47bp]

Open the "cool" shop where the money is ... on the Eastside of Seattle. The bar is low and there's no Evo in sight. Appeal to the rooftop tent crowd. Sell them stuff that just isn't ski related, too.

Have at least one good boot fitter and an easy way to make an appointment with him/her (who am I kidding... it's always a him). Maybe offer outdoor bootfitting during COVID under a tent. Sell beer and growlers to go, stock some Yeti coolers, maybe some new LPs for the Pass Life turntables and some fly fish essentials.

Put an outdoor free-to-use tuning station in the parking lot (20 corners brewing in Woodinville has one, if you need inspiration), but sell the wax/ptex/edging toys. Show old Stump movies on projector screen. Make the MSFT crowd feel core again.

Stock the usual ski suspects and some indie brands but don't go overboard. Just be a friendly place to hang out and grab a beer and see the new stuff.

Do it and I will totally buy a beer and bar of wax from your store before you go out of business. I promise!

Add a full time barista, some EV charging stations, and sell tire chains for the Pria.


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[nickwm21]

Convert a Penske truck into a mobile tuning shop. Hit the farmers markets and ski swaps preseason. Park in the name-brand employers lots throughout the season. You would need to make your schedule regular and known so people know to bring their skis in as they show up to work, drop them off, and pick them up on their way out. If they’ll let you, park at the resorts and run a boutique demo program.

Between independent direct to consumer ski brands, the local already established shops, and the online mega retailers - opening a brick and mortar store to sell hard goods is not a good idea.


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[SeatownSlackey]

Got a post card that World Cup in Bellevue is hanging it up end of the month. How good is your tune-fu?

Sheeeet. I wondered why they still hadn’t finished tuning my skis that I brought in in September thinking they’d have their normal early season tube specials


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[f=ma]

Convert a Penske truck into a mobile tuning shop. Hit the farmers markets and ski swaps preseason. Park in the name-brand employers lots throughout the season. You would need to make your schedule regular and known so people know to bring their skis in as they show up to work, drop them off, and pick them up on their way out. If they’ll let you, park at the resorts and run a boutique demo program.

Between independent direct to consumer ski brands, the local already established shops, and the online mega retailers - opening a brick and mortar store to sell hard goods is not a good idea.


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Dynamic pricing on ski mounting. When it's mid January and the wait at Evo's is 14 days, some tech bro will pay 200 bucks to get their shit mounted overnight.

[XavierD]

FWIW, Seattle could use and support another midsized ski shop. I just wouldn’t want anything to do with owning it. If I did I would stay away from indie brands. Do mostly rental and service with no more than four brands of skis, bindings and boots and wouldn’t give away any service. Two brands of skis would be better.

There are only two three things you can compete with. Price, Convenience , and Quality of Service. I’d make sure the quality and convenience was worth paying more for. Your margins will be worse than the competition on everything so don’t compete on price.

Personally I don’t think shops should give away mounts/service for equipment they sell. MAP pricing is pretty standard, and people can Mount their own skis if they don’t think it’s worth paying for.

I also don’t know if Seattle will be able to support another ski shop in 6 years. Do you want to be the first to go?

[CallMeAl]

As some of the conversation has already mentioned, getting the brands you want to open you up is the biggest hurdle you'll have, but it absolutely can be done if you have excellent credit as well as the cash/drive to keep your business afloat while you're working on them.

It took me a couple of years to get the big brands I wanted in the shop I managed when we moved (basically restarted) in a resort town about a decade ago. Some brands agreed to open us up right off the bat and we did have some carry overs from our old location that, in addition to rental, ski/boot service, and clothing sales kept us afloat until we got three other big brands on the wall.

The distribution challenge was definitely an eye-opener to a 25 year-old me who thought his industry "connections" would smash conventional barriers. I was way-wrong, and the sales reps didn't give a fuck what their company's PR guys thought about me. Their biggest concern is how many dollars are already being spent on their brand by the shop down the street, and whether or not opening you up is going to make that dollar number bigger or smaller in the long run, that that can take some serious time and convincing. I only know this because I'm one of those sales guys now.

Service based shops only work if you have the service part absolutely dialed, and that's not something you can fake (not saying you are), even with the nicest tuning/fitting equipment/ and all of the MasterFit certifications in the world. However, they are more of an easy come easy go financial option if you're just chuckin' turds at the wall.

Good luck, we need more small ski shops.

[GrantN]

Zai Ski shop in Whistler with Filson or handmade(custom?) muskox wool sweater type clothes(brand as the new Canada goose down jacket idea). Made in store by indiginous ppl & measured to fit. Come back after skiing/scandinav spa to pick up your $1500 sweater. Maybe skis in store front display but just sell clothes?
Or ATK, Pivot/CAST & Praxis, DPS etc skiers shop run by JONGS. TGR seal of approval


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[johnnyg82]

Bootfitting in the back of a van. #BootfitVanLife

[rfconroy]

Bootfitting in the back of a van. #BootfitVanLife

Yeah that and sell breakfast burritos/tacos at the mountain.

Already got a name for you - van man's boot fittin' and burritos (I am very creative)

[Bobcat Sig]

Yeah that and sell breakfast burritos/tacos at the mountain.

Already got a name for you - van man's boot fittin' and burritos (I am very creative)

We're gong to need some artisanal pour-over coffee or espresso with that.

[billyk]

Much depends on if you want to make a profit, or if you need a front to launder money.

[Brownski]

I was gonna suggest converting a truck for a boutique Show up- at- your- front-door boot-fitting service.

Convert a Penske truck into a mobile tuning shop. Hit the farmers markets and ski swaps preseason. Park in the name-brand employers lots throughout the season. You would need to make your schedule regular and known so people know to bring their skis in as they show up to work, drop them off, and pick them up on their way out. If they’ll let you, park at the resorts and run a boutique demo program.

Between independent direct to consumer ski brands, the local already established shops, and the online mega retailers - opening a brick and mortar store to sell hard goods is not a good idea.


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[XavierD]

Much depends on if you want to make a profit, or if you need a front to launder money.

Laundering money through a ski shop sounds like a dream career to me. PDX mags should look into this.

[Benneke10]

FWIW, Seattle could use and support another midsized ski shop.

This is 100% true. A decent shop in Capitol Hill or Central District close to downtown would do so well. Fremont/Ballard is well served with Ascent and Evo, ProSki is great but impossible to get to on weekday evenings, Mountain to Sound is cool but West Seattle is an island now, and Alpine Hut is crap. Seattle has so many skiers and so few decent shops, and as others have said turnaround times mid-winter are long.

[GoldMember]

Let's play pretend,,,, You just quit your job, and decided on a career path change... If you opened your own Ski shop in the PNW, what skis/snowboards would you sling? What gear would you stand behind? What crap would get ridiculed right out the door?

I had thought about this around 10 years ago but in Spokane. The feedback was basically, since I had just sold a company and had the industry contacts, money and credit to support it, I could get the lines I wanted and succeed in two things: Not ski anymore since I would really have to be working beyond fulltime and; make a small fortune by starting with a large one.

My scheme was to lease a building that used to house a legendary shop in Spokane on the far north side and rebrand it back to its original name and brand it as a boutique shop, not a mass retailer. The only other shops in the area are located 40 minutes away, one to the east and one to the south. The north side has no real ski shops so, geographically well located. Second, partner on the lease with a friend of mine who has a bike shop in the area. We would designate 2/3 of the shop area to skiing/boarding for six months, and vice versa with bikes for six months. We'd have ski movie nights, ski celebrity stop and chats, and a variety of other entertainment choices that would draw people in with the idea that it could be a 'hangout' for younger skiers to socialize in. He would do something similar but for biking in the summer; meet up for weekly rides, etc.

One thing that was critical was hiring the right ski tech to run the shop and a well-known, well-skilled boot fitter (critical to this kind of operation) for the obvious. Ultimately, I was talked out of it by some friends in the business who convinced me that my time was better spent skiing and that I wouldn't have that available to me if I had the shop. That was enough to change my mind. So, I wound up with what I noted in the first paragraph; not worth it if all you really want to do is ski.

[ntblanks]

I had thought about this around 10 years ago but in Spokane. The feedback was basically, since I had just sold a company and had the industry contacts, money and credit to support it, I could get the lines I wanted and succeed in two things: Not ski anymore since I would really have to be working beyond fulltime and; make a small fortune by starting with a large one.

My scheme was to lease a building that used to house a legendary shop in Spokane on the far north side and rebrand it back to its original name and brand it as a boutique shop, not a mass retailer. The only other shops in the area are located 40 minutes away, one to the east and one to the south. The north side has no real ski shops so, geographically well located. Second, partner on the lease with a friend of mine who has a bike shop in the area. We would designate 2/3 of the shop area to skiing/boarding for six months, and vice versa with bikes for six months. We'd have ski movie nights, ski celebrity stop and chats, and a variety of other entertainment choices that would draw people in with the idea that it could be a 'hangout' for younger skiers to socialize in. He would do something similar but for biking in the summer; meet up for weekly rides, etc.

One thing that was critical was hiring the right ski tech to run the shop and a well-known, well-skilled boot fitter (critical to this kind of operation) for the obvious. Ultimately, I was talked out of it by some friends in the business who convinced me that my time was better spent skiing and that I wouldn't have that available to me if I had the shop. That was enough to change my mind. So, I wound up with what I noted in the first paragraph; not worth it if all you really want to do is ski.

Cool story.

[Dhelihiker]

sell drugs out the back door

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keister?

[teledave]

You'd be ProSki, only actually open more than closed with a footprint larger than a Sprinter van. But then you wouldn't be able to afford the rent so you'd go under.

Opening a ski shop is a great way to go broke working hard and missing out on the thing that got you interested in opening a ski shop in the first place.

[rfconroy]

Much depends on if you want to make a profit, or if you need a front to launder money.

While I like the idea of a shop in Cap Hill or Central District, rent is too high (and its a ghost town now) for anyone to make money.

Six Words:
Van Man's Boot Fittin' & Burritos (and I guess fancy covfefe too)