Everyone knows it takes a village to raise a child, but what about raising a ski shop, up from its humble beginnings in a garage into a full grown eCommerce presence and retail store? Without the support and encouragement of our village – brands we’ve partnered with, our customer base, business partners, friends and family, and most importantly, our incredible team of past and present staff – our growth as a company would surely have been stunted.
To kick off the countdown to ski season and finally, officially, celebrate our new retail space, we invited some of our “village” down to the shop for our Grand Opening Celebration. It was fun to kick it in our new space after hours with those who have stood by our side over the years – pushing us and believing in us. We took them on behind the scenes tours of our warehouse and offices, ate good food, drank great beer, and mostly enjoyed the company and conversation.
In 2007, when Jordan and I both decided to commit to building an online ski shop full-time (then called Mile High Athletic), I thought it was a temporary thing. Something to do for a year that would look decent on my otherwise blank resume. Surely we couldn’t make a living longterm doing this. Surely we can’t go from a long distance relationship to working together in the same room everyday. Surely we can’t learn to code enough to create a legit website entirely on our own. Surely we need more experience, at something, anything, to do this. Back then, I never would have imagined that in 9 years we’d carry over 40 brands of current season products, have a big ol’ warehouse, legit offices, a Wintersteiger tuning machine, and a beautiful new retail space!
We never set out to have a retail space, but over time the demand for one increased to the point where it became necessary to commit energy and resources to creating one. Our growth has always happened steadily and incrementally, we’ve never jumped off a cliff into a completely unknown abyss, but still, making big investments (whether in space, brands, or heavy machinery) is always a little daunting. That’s when it’s of paramount importance to have our village of believers and pushers. People whose judgment we can call on to be encouraging, but also sound. People who push us a little bit beyond our comfort zones to make us consider other options.
To our village of believers and pushers – thank you!
Thanks too to Biscuits and Berries for the delicious food and to Cannonball Creek Brewery for the superb beer.
*It wasn’t just 2 of us in 2008 either – we were joined by our good friend, Ofer, who I’m incredibly grateful for. Not only for his friendship that continues to this day and for the work he put in with us in those early years, but mainly for tolerating me as an obnoxious recent college grad who knew everything about nothing and had no idea what I really wanted.
