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A New Home Base for Local Snowboarders | Buying Local S3E54 · Buying Local Podcast

• 0:00
  All right, well, let's get started then.
• 0:01
  Matt, what Tell us a little bit about Hometown Board Shop?
• 0:05
  So this shop was something that she's kind of thought about for
• 0:10
  several years now, something she's been wanting to do.
• 0:13
  You know, we, we lived in Minnesota for a couple years and
• 0:17
  she was actually in talks of buying the shop she was working
• 0:21
  at with some friends that also worked at the shop.
• 0:23
  Then we moved back here, she worked for Gregos a little bit,
• 0:27
  but she still always had this itch to kind of start her own
• 0:29
  shop and, and work for herself. And then she ended up backing
• 0:32
  Inside Edge here where she worked before we moved to
• 0:37
  Minnesota. And then really started thinking
• 0:40
  about, you know, getting snowboards back in the shop and
• 0:43
  wanting to kind of start up the whole snowboard community that
• 0:46
  we had growing up, growing up, you know, as instructors and,
• 0:51
  and everything. We had awesome just community of
• 0:53
  snowboarders and freeze skiers, a lot of great mentors, a lot of
• 0:57
  people to learn from and we had a shop to go to.
• 1:00
  Now there's not really a shop to go to the closest shop for
• 1:03
  snowboarding. Like it's a it's a snowboard
• 1:06
  specific shop. Like is at Killington dark side,
• 1:11
  right, dark side snowboards is is the is the only other like
• 1:14
  snowboard specific shop, like actual board shop.
• 1:17
  I mean, you can get snowboards at various places, but there's
• 1:19
  no like board shop feel. And she kind of wants to bring
• 1:21
  that back. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:24
  And so you, you kind of touched on it.
• 1:25
  So you guys are located inside the inside edge?
• 1:29
  Yeah. So they, they, they allowed us
• 1:32
  to open up within their shop so that that way she can still sell
• 1:38
  their product for them while also kind of getting a foot in
• 1:43
  the door to start our snowboard business.
• 1:46
  Yeah. And and the idea, I would assume
• 1:48
  at some point in time would be for you to outgrow the space and
• 1:50
  move into your own space. Or yeah, we've got a couple
• 1:54
  ideas of what we want to do with it and I can let her explain
• 1:57
  more about that, what she she has planned for that.
• 2:00
  But right now we're just running 2 registers in one shop.
• 2:03
  OK. So I need the snowboard gear,
• 2:07
  the snowboard wax, the the snowboard merch and the hometown
• 2:12
  merch is is a hometown board shop.
• 2:15
  And then the Alpine, the Nordic stuff like that is still inside
• 2:20
  Edge as it was before the the service side of things, tuning
• 2:24
  all that. That is also on the inside edge
• 2:28
  side still as well. OK, OK.
• 2:30
  Bikes. Obviously bikes are also inside
• 2:32
  Edge as well. Yeah, well, that's when you were
• 2:34
  talking about that. I didn't realize.
• 2:38
  I, I mean, I think of Inside Edge and just for me from a as a
• 2:42
  bike shop primarily. I know they sell a lot of
• 2:45
  different things there, but I just because I, I brought my
• 2:48
  bike there, I've had them tune it, you know, that kind of
• 2:50
  stuff. And do they sell skis and
• 2:54
  snowboards inside Edge desk? No.
• 2:57
  So Inside Edge has always done skis and Alpine and Nordic and
• 3:03
  there was a period of time when it was the place to go for
• 3:05
  snowboards. It was a legit snowboard shop
• 3:07
  when she was here years ago. And but the the snowboarders
• 3:13
  that worked in the shop kind of all like moved on.
• 3:17
  And so there really wasn't a snowboard base to work the
• 3:20
  snowboard side of things in the shop.
• 3:22
  Interesting, interesting. And also kind of cool too.
• 3:26
  You know, when I was when I first heard about you guys
• 3:29
  through, I believe it's through Amanda at the Chamber,
• 3:32
  Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce.
• 3:34
  Those guys are amazing. Oh, you know, so I was like
• 3:38
  checking out your website and then realizing that you guys are
• 3:41
  actually inside the inside edge and it's.
• 3:44
  Weird to say yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:47
  And well, and then, but real, I thought what was really cool was
• 3:51
  it seems like the inside edge is kind of giving you a similar
• 3:54
  start to how they got started because they started, if I if
• 3:58
  what I read correctly, if I understood it correctly, is they
• 4:00
  originally started inside of another business at West
• 4:03
  Mountain. And and so they kind of got
• 4:07
  their start because of someone helping them, you know, giving
• 4:09
  them a leg up, so to speak. And now they're kind of paying
• 4:12
  it forward to you guys. I thought that was a really
• 4:14
  cool, really cool thing. So, So what are you guys?
• 4:22
  So I think you guys, you know, I checked out your website a
• 4:24
  little bit and what are the kinds of things that Hometown
• 4:28
  Board shop is doing currently? So you're selling gear, Are you
• 4:33
  selling snowboards as well? Or the snowboard sails through
• 4:36
  inside out? Snowboards are ours, so any
• 4:38
  snowboards that are going, they're going through our shops.
• 4:40
  So there are some words. We got Nitro and public in, so
• 4:43
  we got an old school brand, new school brand together, which is
• 4:45
  pretty cool. That was kind of like a focus of
• 4:47
  ours. Nitro's been around forever.
• 4:50
  They're a huge part of the snowboard community, family
• 4:53
  owned type of organization and public is new out of Minnesota.
• 4:58
  They're pretty young brand, but you know, Minnesota is really
• 5:03
  known for park riding, St. riding, stuff like that.
• 5:06
  So you're going to get some bomb proof boards out of Minnesota
• 5:09
  because they have to be if you're riding in the street and
• 5:11
  park all the time. So, so us being, you know,
• 5:16
  living in Minnesota for a couple of years and then coming back,
• 5:19
  we thought it was also really cool to kind of bring that with
• 5:21
  us. Yeah, well, help me understand,
• 5:23
  because to be fair, man, I I'm completely ignorant of the the
• 5:27
  park riding and St. riding when it comes to snowboarding.
• 5:30
  I didn't know. I didn't even know that was a
• 5:31
  thing. Like to me it's, you know, you
• 5:33
  go to a mountains, go like go to West Mountain or you're going to
• 5:36
  Gore or going to White Face or whatever and you're on a
• 5:38
  mountain, you're zooming downhill.
• 5:40
  What is like street riding and park riding when it comes to
• 5:43
  snowboarding? So park riding is riding in the
• 5:45
  park at the mountain so mountains which.
• 5:47
  Look at that, right? But street is actually, it's a
• 5:51
  big thing in Minnesota and you see some, we used to coach some
• 5:55
  people in Vermont that are do like street videos and stuff.
• 5:58
  And that's like finding urban locations with snow and bring
• 6:02
  the rails and stuff out, kind of like skateboarding, finding a
• 6:05
  spot to go film and get some cool pictures.
• 6:08
  Red Bull does a competition with with that they go and they
• 6:14
  actually do it. They did it in Duluth one year
• 6:16
  where we were living, but they do it a lot in Minnesota, but
• 6:19
  they also do it or else they really do it.
• 6:21
  But I know they do it a few other places and it's called, I
• 6:28
  can't remember the name of the event now, but they they I got
• 6:31
  to look it up. It's the Red Bull.
• 6:39
  I don't know why I'm. Blanking.
• 6:42
  It's OK, I do it all the time man.
• 6:49
  Heavy metal, that's what it is. Red Bull Heavy metal event and
• 6:53
  like Zeb Powell does it and stuff like that.
• 6:54
  Zeb Powell is a big name. He's he's awesome, great.
• 6:57
  He's an awesome guy too. He's actually out of southern
• 6:58
  Vermont. But Zeb Powell does the heavy
• 7:01
  metal events, and they literally set up film and find a spot out
• 7:07
  in a city or a park and have a competition.
• 7:13
  And so that would be, yeah. So check it out.
• 7:16
  Red Bull Heavy Metal is pretty cool.
• 7:18
  Yeah, I'm going to have to Google that up and see, see how
• 7:20
  they do that. Man, it's just because you said
• 7:22
  that I I didn't make the connection.
• 7:24
  Obviously snowboard park at a mountain.
• 7:27
  When you said park, I thought you meant like, you know, like
• 7:30
  city parks, like people are going to City Park.
• 7:31
  I'm like, why are they like? Going well, I mean, going down
• 7:33
  the that would be like the urban stuff, right?
• 7:35
  The street, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:38
  That's funny. I, you know, I know we, we
• 7:41
  talked a little bit before, before we really got started
• 7:44
  about some of the technology changes.
• 7:46
  You were talking about some of the new step insurance bindings
• 7:49
  and things like that. And I was sharing like, you
• 7:51
  know, I've, I've been out of the, the snowboard game here for
• 7:54
  like 20 years. I since I was last on a
• 7:56
  mountain. And you were talking about old
• 7:59
  brands and new brands. And is there, has the technology
• 8:04
  changed a lot like what's new in the in the OR newer in the
• 8:07
  snowboarding technology sector? So the step ONS are definitely a
• 8:10
  newer technology. It was a way to try to improve
• 8:14
  the idea of the old step ONS, trying to make it more stable
• 8:17
  and more just more reliable. So far, from everything I've
• 8:22
  heard about them, they've been, they've been doing really well.
• 8:24
  They've been becoming really popular, really quick, easy in
• 8:27
  and outs when you need to get in and out.
• 8:30
  So that's one of the big ones. Recently you got different types
• 8:32
  of cambers that people are playing around with.
• 8:34
  So they got the traditional camber where you're bored, does
• 8:37
  this underneath your feet. Some people like to go flat
• 8:39
  decks. Now you see hybrid cambers where
• 8:43
  sometimes it's traditional than an early rise, or sometimes you
• 8:46
  see reverse camber between your feet and then traditional camber
• 8:50
  on your feet. And all these things play
• 8:51
  different roles and different scenarios on the mountain.
• 8:54
  So like personally, I ride a flat deck when I'm in the park
• 8:57
  'cause I like flat deck on rails and boxes.
• 9:00
  But when I'm riding the mountain, I ride a traditional
• 9:02
  camber with that snap, that power, that stability.
• 9:06
  So it depends on your style of riding.
• 9:08
  And that's one thing that we that we're, we take pride in is
• 9:10
  not just trying to sell you on a board, but to what do you like
• 9:13
  to do? And we're going to pair you up
• 9:15
  with your style more than what we just think is a good board to
• 9:18
  ride on. So but yeah, so you got the
• 9:21
  different technologies there, different side cuts.
• 9:23
  You got snowboard companies playing around with like
• 9:25
  different power rods in different locations on the board
• 9:28
  to get different snap and power in different locations.
• 9:31
  Like I had A and then they also I had a board that I loved
• 9:34
  recently that was not just a directional board, but it was a
• 9:38
  directional flex. So it was stiffer in the tail,
• 9:41
  softer in the nose. And then they're playing around
• 9:44
  with the side cuts, longer side cuts going farther up the nose
• 9:48
  make the board feel like it rides fast longer.
• 9:53
  And then there was a big popular one that they were playing
• 9:55
  around with called Magna traction Lib Tech new.
• 9:57
  We're doing that where it kind of kind of made a WAVY edge,
• 10:01
  kind of like a straight blade was great for, you know, cutting
• 10:04
  into the ice a little bit more of the firm snow.
• 10:06
  So there's a lot of different things that a lot of companies
• 10:08
  are playing around with. And a lot of the ones that stuck
• 10:11
  are like the early rise campers. These step ONS are really a hit
• 10:15
  lately and just yeah, just it comes down to your style, what
• 10:21
  you want to play, how you want to ride.
• 10:23
  Yeah. And you and well, it's funny
• 10:25
  you, you mentioned that you guys like to really have a
• 10:27
  consultative approach to helping people understand what board to,
• 10:32
  to, to buy and what they should buy and why.
• 10:34
  And and that's why Felicia is currently delayed joining us
• 10:37
  because she's working with someone who's got some
• 10:39
  questions, right? Like, yeah.
• 10:40
  Asking about the step ONS right now out there.
• 10:42
  So she'll she'll be in here soon.
• 10:44
  But yeah, she's she's, she's working with somebody, educating
• 10:49
  them, teaching them and and given that individual service
• 10:51
  that she wants to do so with her brand.
• 10:54
  Yeah, Yeah, that's I was reading, I think I was reading
• 10:56
  on the website where you guys really you're all about being
• 11:00
  able to have that conversation kind of the a throwback to your
• 11:04
  earlier days with the the board shop kind of feel and being able
• 11:09
  to go in and whether you're buying something or not, at
• 11:12
  least really be able to talk to people about what's new and
• 11:15
  what's going on. Can you kind of expand on that a
• 11:17
  little bit? Well, yeah.
• 11:19
  So one of the things we do eventually want to do are like
• 11:21
  tuning clinics, so teach people how to take care of their
• 11:23
  equipment a little bit better. So as we get further down the
• 11:25
  line, that's something we want to focus on.
• 11:27
  We also want to starting this winter, what we're going to do
• 11:30
  is we have Indy passes. So we go to different places all
• 11:35
  the time in the winter. And one of the things that we're
• 11:38
  going to do is I think we're planning on Thursday nights
• 11:40
  before the so for the weekend we'll meet Thursday nights.
• 11:43
  Anybody that wants to come in Thursday night and talk, we can
• 11:47
  talk shop, but we can also talk about where we're going this
• 11:49
  weekend and see, you know, hey, we're going to magic this
• 11:53
  weekend. Who wants to go?
• 11:54
  We're going to Gore this weekend, who wants to go and you
• 11:57
  know, kind of get a riding community back together just by
• 12:00
  starting with that. And that's going to be the
• 12:02
  beginning. And then we have more plans
• 12:03
  beyond that. We want to hold, help hold local
• 12:07
  rail jams, for example, have local competitions.
• 12:10
  Again, we were coaches with USASA for a really long time.
• 12:15
  And USASA is a national organization for grassroots
• 12:19
  snowboard and free ski competitions.
• 12:22
  And so we have the Adirondack series here, you got the
• 12:24
  Southern Vermont Series, Northern Vermont Series, and
• 12:28
  it's been great. You know, a lot of kids can
• 12:29
  progress, they learn, they grow, they learn.
• 12:32
  How about competition works? But the one piece that's been
• 12:34
  missing lately is that local competition.
• 12:36
  We don't need to be a part of any organization.
• 12:39
  Anybody can jump in the competition and local shops will
• 12:43
  give prizes out, you know, so we kind of want to bring that back.
• 12:48
  Years ago when Felicia works at the shop here, this shop put on
• 12:54
  what we call the what they called the Hometown Hero Rail
• 12:58
  Jam at West Mountain, and they did it for several years.
• 13:03
  So we want to kind of bring that back, bring home, bring back
• 13:07
  something like that Hometown Hero Rail Jam.
• 13:09
  You. Know so these are some ideas
• 13:12
  that we're we're, you know, throwing around a little bit and
• 13:16
  but it's all going to start with building that community,
• 13:18
  allowing just having people come hang out, talk about where we're
• 13:21
  going for the weekend and go from there and see how it
• 13:23
  evolves. It's interesting that you bring
• 13:26
  up community and, and trying to, you know, rebuild one.
• 13:31
  It seems to be a conversation that we've had a lot recently on
• 13:35
  the show with different sectors, like different, different
• 13:37
  industries, different walks of life, where people are all kind
• 13:40
  of looking to create communities or, or in this case, like
• 13:45
  rebuild a community that you formerly had.
• 13:48
  And it's just, it's an interesting thing.
• 13:50
  Like you would think that in today's day and age that we're
• 13:53
  so connected with everyone all the time that it's not something
• 13:56
  it's already there, right? Do you have any thoughts on
• 14:00
  that? Like a, a why?
• 14:01
  Like you know, from from your standpoint, like with the
• 14:04
  snowboard community, obviously there's tons of people around
• 14:07
  that snowboard and, and why is it that there is not currently a
• 14:11
  real tightly knit community for people like that?
• 14:15
  Well, well, for us, so like our generation, our group of
• 14:17
  snowboarders and free skiers, you know, a lot of it's aging to
• 14:21
  the point where you like you were saying earlier having kids,
• 14:24
  right? You kind of.
• 14:25
  So a lot of the people that were a part of that tight knit
• 14:27
  community kind of, you know, they went off, had kids and they
• 14:32
  have these other responsibilities to worry about
• 14:33
  now. But I feel like we're at a point
• 14:35
  now where we can kind of bring that back together again.
• 14:37
  And also we noticed that there is a little bit of a trend of
• 14:44
  with free skiing kind of really taking a big leap and and
• 14:49
  jumping and growing, a lot of the people that are ski families
• 14:53
  are putting their kids on skis and going into the free ski
• 14:56
  side. And so the snowboard side,
• 14:57
  because free skiers are now a big part of the park.
• 15:01
  But I feel like we're going to see that trend flip again with
• 15:06
  all the people that were snowboarding with us are now
• 15:09
  going to get their kids into snowboarding.
• 15:13
  So you can kind of I, I, we kind of expect there to be in on our
• 15:17
  mindset, a kind of ebb and flow with that type of alternating
• 15:22
  kind of dynamic. And the interesting thing is the
• 15:24
  Adirondacks are really interesting because we when we
• 15:26
  were out in Minnesota, the snowboard community was huge.
• 15:28
  Southern Vermont for a long time for USASA was the largest, most
• 15:33
  competitive snowboard series in USASA in the country.
• 15:39
  Now it's out in Colorado, but so that just shows how big
• 15:43
  snowboarding really is. But it kind of dwindled in the
• 15:47
  Adirondacks for some reason compared to other places.
• 15:49
  And so we think a lot of that has to do with there's not a
• 15:54
  spot for that community like you've got, if you don't have a
• 15:58
  board shop for people to gather together and and talk about
• 16:01
  their ventures and what they're going to do and kind of you.
• 16:03
  Know. Mentor SO.
• 16:05
  Interesting. I help me understand when you
• 16:08
  were talking about free skiing and, and maybe just because I've
• 16:10
  been out of the being able to do anything fun for so long, you're
• 16:15
  talking about free skiing and snowboarders and like them, like
• 16:19
  help me out. What is free skiing?
• 16:21
  When you say that, what do you mean?
• 16:22
  So free skiing is, you know, twin tip skis, center mounted,
• 16:27
  they're free skiing is basically a lot of park focus.
• 16:32
  OK. Rails on skis.
• 16:34
  Yep. Got it.
• 16:38
  The reason why, So there's I think the main reason why we
• 16:40
  kind of use free skiing versus freestyle cause a lot of times
• 16:42
  people think of freestyle skiing is freestyle moguls.
• 16:44
  So just to kind of differentiate for you like the freestyle
• 16:48
  moguls versus the park. Got it.
• 16:50
  OK. So you know, typically we you
• 16:52
  know, so in in competitions you see the term free ski a lot.
• 16:58
  Got it. OK.
• 16:59
  OK. And they're and they're not
• 17:00
  using the same park that the snowboarders are using.
• 17:02
  They are. Oh, they are.
• 17:03
  OK. They are.
• 17:04
  Yeah, Yeah. They're in the same park, Ryan.
• 17:07
  The same the same features. Yeah.
• 17:11
  OK, cool. All right.
• 17:12
  I was like, you were saying that and I'm like, nod in my head.
• 17:14
  I'm like, wait a minute. I don't think I know what that
• 17:16
  actually means. But now that you describe it, I,
• 17:18
  I I'm picking up what you're throwing down.
• 17:20
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:21
  So that's another thing too. That's a that's a terminology
• 17:23
  and and we've actually tossed around that, that concept.
• 17:28
  Some people don't, I don't know what the term, they never, never
• 17:31
  necessarily heard the term free ski unless they were in the
• 17:34
  industry or in the competitions. Yeah.
• 17:39
  Interesting. Yeah.
• 17:44
  Is that Felicia coming in or? No, that was her mom, her mom.
• 17:49
  So a lot of people come in and they ask for Felicia or mom.
• 17:53
  Got it. OK, they don't.
• 17:54
  Ask for Terry, ask for mom. So, so you guys are just kind of
• 18:02
  getting off the ground you've been how long you've been open?
• 18:05
  November 1st, we officially claimed to be open, Yeah, but
• 18:08
  we've had our online stuff up for a while, just like some
• 18:10
  merch. Yeah, but we decided Halloween
• 18:13
  weekend was a good weekend to kind of get the stuff up in the
• 18:17
  shop and everything. All the all the snowboards and
• 18:20
  all the binding stuff started rolling in at that point.
• 18:22
  So we're like, OK, let's, let's roll this now.
• 18:24
  Yeah, yeah. And well, I mean, perfect
• 18:26
  timing, right? Because you're going to be
• 18:27
  rolling into the busy season as we talked about earlier, it's
• 18:30
  there's snow on the ground. So everybody's going to be
• 18:32
  thinking about seeing snowboarding and and Christmas
• 18:34
  right around the corner too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:37
  You know, this today's, today's a perfect day to be having this
• 18:40
  conversation. I think just because snow is
• 18:43
  flying and staying on the ground, we're going to have a
• 18:45
  few inches here and people are going to start going crazy for
• 18:47
  the winter and get in the itch. Yeah, so hits the ground.
• 18:51
  It's like, all right, what am I doing with it?
• 18:53
  Yeah. Hopefully having fun with.
• 18:55
  It Yeah. I, you know, I'm curious too,
• 19:00
  you'd kind of mentioned or maybe I was drawing a conclusion from
• 19:04
  what you're saying, but it, do you think that there's, there's
• 19:07
  more skiers in our geographic area than our step?
• 19:10
  Quarters. Yeah, there is and there always
• 19:13
  has been. I mean 60 has been around
• 19:15
  forever, you know, so you got generations worth of people that
• 19:18
  are skiers. It's it's, it's definitely a
• 19:22
  bigger group, but as a snowboard shop, we also take in the free
• 19:28
  ski community. You know, they fit right in with
• 19:30
  us where we ride side by side, but also the snowboarders.
• 19:34
  We're also, we're not just in the park, you know, we're out on
• 19:37
  the mountain, on the mountain in the trees and the bumps on the
• 19:40
  and steeps. Personally, I love being in the
• 19:41
  trees and bumps on my board, you know, so just like skiing and
• 19:46
  snowboard sides, you can have people that are prefer one style
• 19:51
  versus the other. It's not all snowboarders are in
• 19:53
  the park, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:55
  I always preferred being in the trees myself.
• 19:57
  Yeah. Oh hey, she made it.
• 20:01
  Well, talk about by local 2 customers just came in for they
• 20:06
  work at Fountain Square. And so I yeah, I mean, so
• 20:14
  anyway, we got talking about community building and how they
• 20:18
  want to do gears and beers, but the ski version of it here in
• 20:23
  Cradle Park. So they're, you know, we got
• 20:26
  talking about that and you know, so buy local is, you know, we're
• 20:31
  absolutely, yeah. We love it.
• 20:33
  We're all about the local. I mean, everything's local,
• 20:35
  right? Like our trip, we think anyway.
• 20:38
  But Friday boy, and you got the shop dog running around.
• 20:44
  Yeah. Well, as I say, we have he's.
• 20:46
  The 11 in training? Yeah, the one in training.
• 20:48
  The one in training. Yeah, he went in training,
• 20:52
  figured out how to get himself back into the shop, so I got to
• 20:55
  keep him away from the power tools.
• 20:56
  Nice. Yeah, probably a good plan.
• 20:59
  Plan. He'll sneak into the shop and
• 21:00
  he'll get into the back and then he'll go to the wrong door to
• 21:03
  come back in and just sit there and wait.
• 21:04
  Yeah, he's very good boy, but that's.
• 21:06
  Good. At least he's patient missing.
• 21:10
  So we are covering a whole bunch of stuff, Felicia and you know,
• 21:14
  but they kind of dip back to some of it.
• 21:17
  You know, Matt kind of gave us a rundown a little bit behind of
• 21:20
  who you guys are and what you guys are doing.
• 21:22
  But figure I'd put it back on you again too, to kind of give
• 21:25
  us an idea about, you know, not just like what you guys do, but
• 21:29
  what's behind it all. You know, I, I know you kind of
• 21:32
  got a good story as far as moving away and, and being
• 21:35
  pretty entrenched in the snowboarding community out out
• 21:38
  West or westerly, I guess more western.
• 21:41
  Midwest. Midwest.
• 21:42
  I had some of the most fun ever snowboarding in Wisconsin.
• 21:45
  And that sounds really weird, but there are rope parks out
• 21:47
  there. Yeah, the Midwest is rad The.
• 21:49
  Midwest, like I would love to take a group of people out to
• 21:51
  the Midwest to go ride. Yeah, wow.
• 21:53
  Like, yeah, all these ski shops go to like Switzerland and
• 21:56
  whatnot and like, where do we go?
• 21:58
  Minneapolis. Minneapolis.
• 22:00
  Absolutely. So yeah, like my, I mean, I, I
• 22:07
  have been a racer, I have been a skier, I've been a telly skier,
• 22:10
  I've been a snowboarder, I've been an instructor.
• 22:12
  Like any way that you can slide on snow, I've pretty much done
• 22:15
  it. And to me it's, it's all just
• 22:20
  sliding on snow. We're all doing it even in
• 22:22
  Nordic, like the cross country skiers, like it's all sliding on
• 22:25
  snow. So like just having all of it
• 22:29
  under one roof, supporting all of it exactly the same way.
• 22:33
  Like it's, I don't know, they're like, there's no reason why any
• 22:38
  like one group or one category should be, I don't wanna say
• 22:41
  treated any different. But the like, you know, that the
• 22:44
  whole skier versus snowboarder like that, like, no, that's all
• 22:48
  nonsense. We're all, we're all having
• 22:50
  beers together at the bar afterward.
• 22:51
  Let's be real. So yeah, it's, you know, it, it
• 22:58
  broke my heart a little bit when I came back and started working
• 23:02
  here again and I was like, yo, where's all the snowboards?
• 23:04
  Like, where'd they go? And it just happened to be
• 23:06
  because the folks who were selling the snowboards, like, we
• 23:11
  all just grew up and moved away and like, you know, no fault of
• 23:14
  anybody's. But so they just didn't have it
• 23:17
  to sell. And then that became part of a
• 23:20
  bigger question of like, oh, well, sports page has
• 23:24
  snowboards. That's great.
• 23:26
  Oh, but fall lines closing and there's only one shop in
• 23:30
  Saratoga. Like, oh, there's room for a
• 23:34
  snowboard shop. Like let's do this that came
• 23:38
  about is like, you know, that's the necessity of is the mother
• 23:42
  of all invention, right? It's you know, so we saw a
• 23:46
  niche, you know, because we were part of it.
• 23:49
  And it's like there needs to be a cool snowboard shop, like a
• 23:52
  cool, you know, park shop. And then that's I actually just
• 23:58
  said it to the customer I was working with.
• 23:59
  I was, you know, late to this. The call was it's it was gonna
• 24:06
  say I lost it. Park shop.
• 24:09
  Oh, that yeah. I mean, it's like everyone's got
• 24:12
  their their niche, their race shop, park shop.
• 24:16
  Oh, now I can't think of the wording.
• 24:17
  Anyway, it'll come back to me. It was really, it was.
• 24:20
  It was, it was a good he's. Not.
• 24:22
  Go. He's in a skateboardist.
• 24:25
  But anyway, yeah, it's all just, it's all sliding on snow.
• 24:29
  We're all doing it together. That's the the big, you know,
• 24:32
  the big take away for it I guess.
• 24:34
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, I can't remember what I
• 24:37
  said that was. Really good that's all right.
• 24:41
  If, if it comes back to you, just jump in.
• 24:44
  So you guys are, you've got merch, obviously snowboarding
• 24:48
  merch, got some of your own and some other stuff as well that
• 24:52
  and then you're selling snowboards.
• 24:54
  But and I, you know, one of the big things I think for us to
• 24:56
  talk about is for you to maybe expand a little bit on what Matt
• 24:59
  said about kind of the approach that you're taking with people
• 25:02
  that are coming in. I know the reason why you were
• 25:04
  late getting on is because you were taking time to answer
• 25:06
  questions and talk to someone about step ONS and, and how
• 25:10
  they're working, you know, all that fun stuff.
• 25:12
  So can you maybe just kind of dig into that a little bit as
• 25:16
  far as your approach and? Yeah, I actually, I it's so
• 25:20
  funny. People get people all the time.
• 25:22
  They're like, Oh yeah, you work in sales or like, Oh yeah,
• 25:24
  you're a really good salesperson.
• 25:25
  I'm like, no, I'm actually a really horrible salesperson in
• 25:29
  the sense that like I'm out to save the customer money.
• 25:33
  Like I want to make sure that you are not getting, I'm not, I
• 25:36
  don't believe in overselling. So like I'm not going to just
• 25:40
  like sell you into the most like expensive thing just so that I
• 25:43
  can make more money. Like I don't believe in that.
• 25:45
  That's that's, I think that's bad business.
• 25:48
  Well, it's good business for your wallet, but you know, it's
• 25:53
  like my, my accountant is probably like rolling right now
• 25:57
  and he so yeah, I'm not, I want people to be in the right
• 26:01
  equipment for where they're currently at in their journey.
• 26:06
  So if you're a beginner, yes, you should be on a beginner
• 26:08
  board. But you know, if you're
• 26:11
  relatively athletic and you're going to go 1015 * a year,
• 26:14
  you're going to be very quickly into an intermediate board.
• 26:16
  So like, maybe, yeah, spend a little bit more, but like, am I
• 26:19
  going to sell, sell you the $700.00 carving powder board?
• 26:22
  I talk right as you see. Oh, the woman that that's funny.
• 26:26
  See, we know everybody. But then so, yeah, I don't
• 26:30
  believe in upselling. I want to save people money.
• 26:33
  So of course, like I, the very first thing I do is I go right
• 26:36
  for the sales shelf, like when I go shopping.
• 26:38
  So that's absolutely what I'm going to do with my customers.
• 26:40
  Like let me see if we can get anything from the sales shelf
• 26:43
  first. But then I, I like the term
• 26:48
  educator. I'm not a salesperson, I'm an
• 26:50
  educator. I'm here, I am going to answer
• 26:52
  your questions. I'm going to tell you about
• 26:54
  what's out there, and then you're going to make the
• 26:57
  decisions for yourself as to what your options are.
• 27:02
  And if that means buying your skis from me and your bindings
• 27:06
  from Sports Page and your jacket from Fountain Square, awesome.
• 27:10
  Just don't buy it from Amazon, right?
• 27:12
  Great, maybe 1000%. Yeah.
• 27:15
  But also, that's where I was saying earlier too, like, we're
• 27:18
  gonna listen. We're gonna ask you what your
• 27:21
  style is. I'm not gonna put you on a, you
• 27:24
  know, a big mountain aggressive, very directional board if you
• 27:27
  want to go and hit jumps and rails all day, right.
• 27:30
  So and, and I'm not going to put you on a beginner board.
• 27:35
  If you've been riding for 10 years, I'm not going to put you
• 27:38
  on a super stiff, aggressive board and that cost more just to
• 27:41
  make more money. Just when you know I'm if you're
• 27:44
  it's your second year snowboarding.
• 27:46
  What's appropriate? For you.
• 27:48
  So, so that's where the communication, the discussion
• 27:50
  happens, educating and we're also learning from you about
• 27:53
  what style we're looking for. And then we, and then the other
• 27:56
  cool thing too, is just like knowing that we we ride the area
• 28:02
  like W is our home, like we ride at Gore Killington, like that's
• 28:08
  we know what the snow is here. We know what what boards and
• 28:12
  what, like what equipment is actually appropriate for here.
• 28:16
  So like I don't. I don't carry any skis that are
• 28:19
  like over 110, like 'cause that's, that's just silly.
• 28:25
  Those are just, those are just flotation devices and those are
• 28:29
  go rent that in Colorado. But so everything here is
• 28:33
  appropriate. So you can't go wrong with like
• 28:35
  what's in the store. And yeah, if you want the
• 28:38
  Colorado ski, I'll try and special order for you.
• 28:40
  But like I'm not gonna carry anything in the store that's not
• 28:43
  appropriate. But then trying to figure out
• 28:45
  where this customer fits on the like the line of equipment,
• 28:50
  That's that's where we come in. Like trying to like pair the
• 28:54
  person with the board and you know, and I know this is dumb,
• 28:57
  but like, I don't know, what's your favorite color?
• 29:00
  Like that's important. Like I know people are like,
• 29:02
  color doesn't matter. No color totally matters.
• 29:05
  Go faster. Oh my God, I can't tell you how
• 29:07
  many people have gone with like either a softer boot or a harder
• 29:10
  boot than what I actually recommended because they're
• 29:12
  like, but that one matches my skis And I'm like, well if it
• 29:14
  makes you feel better then see, that's the right answer.
• 29:17
  No, one of my former athletes that I used to coach, nice
• 29:22
  stuff. He came in, we were looking at,
• 29:24
  they were looking at bindings for him and the bindings.
• 29:28
  He he, he picked a pair of bindings.
• 29:29
  He's like those ones go with my board.
• 29:31
  Well, I was just going to say, it's like we were, we were in
• 29:33
  between 2 binding, 2 or 3 bindings and we literally the
• 29:37
  deciding factor was that one matched his board better than
• 29:40
  the other. If you match 20% better, that's
• 29:44
  just science. You'll you'll be a little
• 29:46
  uncomfortable if it looks just a little bit better, right?
• 29:49
  But also on top of the the supplying and understanding the
• 29:52
  snow in the area and being local, we've also been out West
• 29:56
  with athletes and we've been in the Midwest.
• 29:59
  And so if you are going somewhere, we we can talk about
• 30:01
  that too, right, You know. Yeah.
• 30:05
  And say you say you end up, well, depending on how long
• 30:08
  you're going and what the snow is, what time of year.
• 30:10
  I'm like a lot of times I'm like, you end up saving, saving
• 30:13
  on your baggage and just renting skis out there.
• 30:18
  And, and then we've, you know, we've been involved, she's been
• 30:21
  involved with Alpine. I've coached snowboard, cross
• 30:25
  and slopestyle and she's coached ski cross, snowboard cross and
• 30:28
  slopestyle. So we we can have those
• 30:31
  discussions that we're talking about with anybody that's
• 30:33
  interested in coming in. We also love riding the big
• 30:36
  mountain and we like playing in the park, you know, so.
• 30:39
  Well, that's the Yeah, like the the Park Community was the, you
• 30:44
  know, the, that's kind of where it all started too.
• 30:47
  It's like, you know, W Mountain is very race heavy and they do,
• 30:53
  they have a phenomenal race program here with reliable
• 30:57
  racing. You know, that's we've, I don't
• 31:00
  want to say become like a race shop, that's not true.
• 31:03
  But you know, we have that whole arm of the company dedicated to
• 31:06
  racing. Same with Sports Page.
• 31:08
  They have a whole race arm, but there's no like park shop.
• 31:14
  Everyone's like, oh, those, you know, troublemaker kids in the
• 31:16
  park. Like, no bro, they're like
• 31:20
  actually elite athletes. Do you know how hard it is to
• 31:23
  like land on a rail and then flip off of a rail?
• 31:27
  Like that's really hard. And I mean, let's let's be
• 31:32
  honest, even just coming out of a pipe and getting a couple feet
• 31:35
  off the ground and coming back down and do it is not an easy
• 31:38
  thing to do. Bro, pipes are so scary.
• 31:41
  Like props to anybody that rides.
• 31:42
  Yeah, like like that is when you.
• 31:44
  Come out of a When you come out of a super pipe, you could be a
• 31:47
  foot out of the pipe and you're already 20 feet off the ground.
• 31:49
  Yeah. I miss I want to bring back the
• 31:51
  trick ditch like the the the little 4 foot pipes.
• 31:54
  Those were great. Let's bring those back.
• 31:59
  Still doing little trick Dick thing trick.
• 32:01
  Ditch things with the Vermont Open.
• 32:05
  I'm pretty sure. They they brought back the trick
• 32:07
  ditch for that, yeah. The Vermont Open is one of the
• 32:09
  coolest events ever, by the way. Yeah, that is, yeah.
• 32:12
  It's like it's just old school, down and dirty, like the East
• 32:18
  Coast. Snowboarding at its finest.
• 32:20
  Yeah, at its four. So, so you know, we Matt and I
• 32:27
  talked a little bit about, you know, you guys are getting your
• 32:29
  start. I again, I, you know, I think
• 32:31
  it's amazing that Inside Edge is giving you guys the opportunity
• 32:35
  to kind of start your business inside their business, which
• 32:39
  again, just to say it again, like I thought it was really
• 32:41
  cool because that was how Inside Edge got started.
• 32:44
  I was looking at their website like that the original deal
• 32:47
  there started over at West Mountain inside their shop.
• 32:50
  And so they're kind of passing that forward.
• 32:54
  What, what are like kind of your plans for like the next year,
• 32:56
  like what are you hoping to accomplish as business?
• 33:01
  I mean, obviously naturally growth, the just getting out
• 33:05
  there, some of the big even from like without like the yeah, of
• 33:11
  course, yes, I want to make more money.
• 33:12
  I want to sell more stuff. But we want to start doing not
• 33:19
  big trips, but local trips. We want to like get people
• 33:22
  together kind of like, you know, I was just saying like, you
• 33:25
  know, Fountain Square has their gears and beers rides, Common
• 33:27
  Roots has their Wednesday rides. Actually, I think that's the
• 33:31
  same ride, but I want to get more like stuff going with the
• 33:37
  Nordic side of things. We want to do, you know, days
• 33:42
  where we travel and go to different mountains.
• 33:46
  So like Matt and I have the Indy Pass, that's two days at West
• 33:49
  Mountain, two days at what's the other Bakke JP like?
• 33:55
  So we'll do like little like mini trips.
• 33:57
  And Indy Pass includes Chile now, so we can go Chile in the
• 34:00
  summer. Well, maybe that'll be our big
• 34:02
  trip, but but yeah, like doing, doing like little little micro
• 34:08
  adventures instead of like the one big trip to Switzerland.
• 34:14
  So that's I, I like that idea. I want to get more, I want to
• 34:21
  get more demos going. Like they don't know, like
• 34:24
  people don't do demos anymore. Like that was that was a cool
• 34:26
  thing. So I want to get demo days back
• 34:30
  together. I've got like four or five other
• 34:33
  little like, you know, someday maybe ideas floating up in my
• 34:38
  head. So it's just a matter of, you
• 34:41
  know, maintaining natural, natural upward growth and not
• 34:45
  getting too big for my britches too fast.
• 34:48
  Because I've already had like, there's two different people
• 34:52
  who've reached out to me already and they're like, hey, we want
• 34:56
  you to do an expansion shop like here.
• 34:59
  And I'm like, can I just get one shop first?
• 35:01
  Yeah, right. Let me just get I'm.
• 35:04
  Worried about expanding. So that's that's been pretty
• 35:08
  cool. And then, you know, not to be
• 35:12
  like doom and gloomy, but like, you know, I want to stay here.
• 35:14
  This building has so much history.
• 35:16
  I love it with especially with Kohl's Woods being right here.
• 35:19
  It's like, I know it's not board shop, but like it's still again
• 35:22
  sliding on snow. It's sliding on snow, but like
• 35:27
  technically the building's for sale.
• 35:29
  Like somebody might come in here and I might have to scoot out.
• 35:32
  But no matter what, Hometown Board shop will be staying
• 35:37
  within Hometown USAI mean technically we're in Queensbury
• 35:42
  right now, but you know, I can, I can throw, I can throw a rock.
• 35:45
  Yeah, that, that. That at the town line, it's the.
• 35:47
  Line is pretty close, yeah. So I think.
• 35:51
  We should have a Nordic cross on.
• 35:52
  That. We.
• 35:54
  We. I was talking with Bryant about
• 35:56
  that up at the Ski Bowl. So you that's funny that you
• 36:00
  mentioned that. If you haven't looked at Nordic
• 36:04
  Cross, by the way, that is actually a real event and it's
• 36:06
  crazy and so cool. You take the idea of ski cross
• 36:10
  and snowboard cross, but you do it on Nordic skis, so yeah.
• 36:17
  Yeah. So help me understand that a
• 36:18
  little bit more. So like, so you're racing?
• 36:20
  Yeah, like. Multiple people at a time.
• 36:23
  You're on a course. And it's bracketed, so like only
• 36:27
  the first, only the first two across the line advance to the
• 36:29
  next round. But then they have like
• 36:32
  obstacles in the way. They do it for cross country.
• 36:35
  So like in US or for us with downhill there's like jumps and
• 36:39
  rollers and and derm turns. The whole idea of cross, the
• 36:43
  reason why I call it crossing border cross, is it came from
• 36:44
  motocross. Yeah.
• 36:45
  So motocross was doing it and then snowboarders, snowboarders
• 36:50
  thought it was cool. We decided to do that on the
• 36:52
  mountain and then now skiers jumped in on it and now we have
• 36:54
  ski cross, snowboard cross and then so that's where the other
• 36:56
  game came the. Natural progression would be
• 36:58
  that Nordic skiers want to jump on the bandwagon, which is just
• 37:01
  awesome. And it's actually really cool
• 37:04
  'cause one of the features that they have is that their feet
• 37:07
  have to stay in the track, but the track alternates.
• 37:11
  So you're going like this with your feet through the feature.
• 37:14
  It's freaking cool. Are they sending those guys over
• 37:20
  table tops and stuff? I don't think I think they might
• 37:23
  actually have like a like a small jump that they have to
• 37:27
  show over. It's it's I'm telling you, look
• 37:30
  up Nordic Cross. It's I'm.
• 37:32
  Gonna. I think they had it as like a,
• 37:35
  they didn't have it as an Olympic event 'cause they were,
• 37:37
  they were introducing it at the like the lower like kids level.
• 37:41
  But I think it was at the last Junior Olympics, like as an
• 37:43
  exhibition event. So it was actually like an elite
• 37:47
  level group of people participating in it.
• 37:51
  Like I said, it's just very cool.
• 37:53
  Highly recommend. I'm going to check it out be
• 37:54
  I'll be. It's worth the walk.
• 37:55
  In a little while so I know we're getting short on time, but
• 38:03
  and you guys obviously have are running a business so well I'll
• 38:05
  let you get back to it, but you know if I.
• 38:08
  Told mom to to message us. Oh, that's true.
• 38:10
  Yeah. She's, I was saying my mom's out
• 38:11
  there, so I was going to say that's the other fun thing is
• 38:13
  we're not tech. It's like, you know, yes, I am
• 38:15
  the owner, like Matt helps me and my mom also works at the
• 38:19
  shop. So it does.
• 38:20
  We have that like that family feel back, which is, you know,
• 38:25
  something we, you know, has always been here in this
• 38:28
  building but has been kind of missing for the past couple
• 38:30
  years. So bring that.
• 38:32
  Yeah. That like family owned and
• 38:34
  operated ski shop feel back, No? I get it.
• 38:39
  Listen, I I grew up north in Plattsburgh and there was Maui
• 38:43
  was the shop going downtown. I think my.
• 38:46
  Sister. My sister shops there.
• 38:48
  Oh. No kidding.
• 38:48
  Yeah. Everybody that worked there, you
• 38:50
  know what I mean? You'd go in, whether it was
• 38:52
  skate or or snowboard or bike or whatever, you'd go in and it was
• 38:55
  just a cool vibe all the time there.
• 38:59
  So I, I totally, yeah, I love what you guys are doing.
• 39:01
  I think it's amazing. Yeah, so I was saying my mom's
• 39:03
  funny. She's like introducing herself.
• 39:05
  She's like, this is Felicia. She's like, she's the owner of
• 39:08
  hometown board shop. She's like, and I'm mom.
• 39:10
  Like mom, you had like, you have a name.
• 39:13
  It's Terry. But everybody asks like, no, no,
• 39:15
  like people actually like, you know, call and they're like,
• 39:17
  hey, can I talk to mom? Like, Oh my God, that's awesome.
• 39:24
  So so if you were going to tell people about home, one thing
• 39:28
  about hometown board shop, what would it be?
• 39:35
  That was a tough question. We are a community focused
• 39:42
  snowboard and free ride shop in the heart of the foothills.
• 39:53
  Yeah. Yeah, Foothills or Adirondack
• 39:55
  Foothills. There you go.
• 39:56
  There's there's your one sentence.
• 39:57
  There's the one thing. All right, Love it.
• 40:00
  How about? And then yeah, I was like, I'm
• 40:04
  like, I always want to try and wrap.
• 40:05
  It's like it's in there, but it's.
• 40:06
  So hard. It's a home.
• 40:08
  It's a home base for free skiing.
• 40:09
  Snowboard in the area. Yeah, we have a home base now.
• 40:12
  Yeah. We didn't really have a home
• 40:13
  base. No, we did, yeah.
• 40:14
  That was that was the thing. It's like everybody was kind of
• 40:16
  like splintered off and split into, you know, your guys who
• 40:20
  would travel all the way out to Killington to the dark side.
• 40:23
  And then you had your sports page guys and fall line.
• 40:26
  Like there's still a lot of people that go down to Alpine
• 40:28
  shop, which is fine, but then there's also Alpine Alpine.
• 40:32
  I always screw those up. There's Alpine sports shop and
• 40:35
  Alpine house. So it's like, but nobody had a.
• 40:41
  Yeah. A hub.
• 40:43
  Like even one of the snowboard reps that I work with, I don't
• 40:46
  remember who it was. I was talking to him.
• 40:47
  He's like, yeah, I live in Albany.
• 40:50
  And I was like, oh, Dang, OK, so what's your ski shop?
• 40:54
  And he's like, I go to Mass. I go to mass.
• 40:58
  That's a drastic. OK.
• 41:01
  I was like, you're 45 minutes away from me.
• 41:02
  I was like, I will be your new ski shop.
• 41:04
  He's like, yeah, I can't wait to come up.
• 41:05
  I was like, all right. Awesome.
• 41:07
  SO so if if people want to learn more about you, where can they
• 41:12
  find you? How do they, how do they get to
• 41:13
  you guys? So we got our website
• 41:16
  hometownboardshop.com. Definitely check that out.
• 41:18
  We got some cool merch on there. We have find us on Facebook,
• 41:23
  follow us on Facebook, Instagram as well Hometown board shop.
• 41:28
  And one thing that we kind of like to do and have some fun
• 41:31
  with is Sheldon is very popular here.
• 41:32
  People come in bummed when Sheldon our dog is not here.
• 41:35
  So I started making a post every on the story every day that
• 41:39
  Sheldon's at work. Just let people know he's
• 41:40
  working. Yeah, you're just, like informed
• 41:44
  ahead of time and not just like really disappointed like.
• 41:47
  Like. All it's always for little kids
• 41:49
  that come in. Is the dog working today like
• 41:51
  you know? Did you check Facebook?
• 41:53
  You got to know if you can be if you should bring treats or not,
• 41:56
  you know right? Oh, he has treats under the
• 41:58
  counter, don't you worry. Well, guys, listen, I, I really
• 42:02
  appreciate you taking time out of your day and jumping on with
• 42:04
  us and helping our listeners and viewers learn more about who you
• 42:07
  are and what you're doing. And you know, like I said, I
• 42:09
  love it. I think it's great and I wish
• 42:12
  you all the success and any way we can help, let us know.
• 42:15
  Yeah, I appreciate everything. We're having a lot of fun doing
• 42:17
  this and look forward to to really ramping up the dream
• 42:21
  there. Yeah, I'm gonna say skiers and
• 42:23
  snowboarders come in and shop and then minority skiers pay
• 42:26
  attention. I think they might be changing
• 42:28
  the day. But yeah, gears and Beers is, is
• 42:31
  changing and that is they'll be here.
• 42:34
  I think they were saying maybe Monday or Tuesday.
• 42:37
  So we'll see. Stay tuned on that one.
• 42:39
  That'll be fun, fun little fun little partnership that we have
• 42:41
  to. Check back in here in a little
• 42:43
  bit. So awesome.
• 42:44
  Perfect. Awesome.
• 42:45
  Sounds great guys. Appreciate it.