Adam Gerken | Mervin | Snowboard Connection | Amazon | Windsurfing | Retail

Episode #20

Adam and I discuss the changing landscape that brick and mortar retailers have faced over the past decade and how things like online shopping have changed consumer behavior – in not just the snowboarding world but retail as a whole. We also do a little brainstorming around the concept of the shop of the future – what’s the model that’s sustainable and profitable but yet still allows space for the sense of community and history that today’s core shops provide.

We cover:

• Adam’s best day of snowboarding ever with North Cascade heli
• The “Salad days” – 32 boot camps and company sponsored trips
• Getting into snowboarding in Albuquerque, NM at The Beach Zone
• Elephant Butte Lake ‘s water levels and windsurfing 
• The regime change at SnoCon
• The closing of Snowboard Connection
• How shitty winters like this year in the PNW winter directly impacts snowboard retailers
• Building the bulletproof shop
• Amazon, flagship stores, and manufactures going direct
• New “Market Pricing” idea 
• Surf industry margins
• Why Amazon started with books
• Pete Saari’s work ethic
• Advice for somebody that wants to start a shop

Some of my favorite Quotes:

“Our exit from snowboard connection was really hard, we did our best to not screw anybody in the industry and not leave any bad blood. What I took from it was that our model was dead… We knocked it out of the park, but it was the wrong park – you’ve got really to look at your business and make sure that you’re working on the problem that people want you to work on.”

“Never sign a personal guarantee, buy the space and figure out what your angles is that different from what your competitors are doing.”

“I moved from Albuquerque to Seattle for minimum wage plus fifty cents give or take (to work at SnoCon).”

“From the mid 90’s to the end of the 90’s the industry started to mature enough that just having a snowboard dealership was not enough to make you a successful.”

“You could sell a lot of snowboards and we did… It was good times, pow trips – lots of beer and weed.”

“The expenses that you face trying to be a snowboard shop in a metropolitan area are staggering.”

“You guys do a great job at Brick and Mortar, all you need to do is translate that experience to the web and you’ll be successful..… we believed that and that’s what we tried to do, but that’s horse shit.”

“I was at Snowboard Connection off and on for 19 years – so if anyone wants to come at me about whether or not I was committed… they can bring it.”

“I love that store and I love snowboarding ”

“There’s so many places to buy things and there’s so many places to buy things more conveniently  and cheaper than we can provide them…It’s painfully clear to me now that that model is not sustainable.”

“15 years ago we created the choices for the customers… Now over the past ten years customers have become very savvy about the research.”

“I struggled with getting involved with something that I didn’t care about… we came up with surf – surf margins are horrible.”

“As great and as useful as snowboard inserts are – that’s one invention in all of the history of snowboarding that undermines brick and mortar. Because if you had to have your bindings mounted by someone – that’s going to cut down on the number of times people buy them online.”

“We don’t need to save core retail – we need to save the guys that are trying.”

“We’re in the midst of a paradigm shift in the way that things happen in the world.”

“If you can narrow it down to a SKU – for a lot of people lost of the time that’s the better way to buy it (online).”

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