After 16 incredible years in business Vermont
Snow Wizards will not reopen for the 2012-13 season. I’ve been wrestling with how to announce my
decision to close Vermont Snow Wizards and how best to explain the
circumstances that made that decision inevitable. I think the most succinct explanation is to
acknowledge that change is often as positive as it is inevitable, and it has
become clear to me that the time for significant change has come.
I began Vermont Snow Wizards in 1996 as an
alternative to shiny, expensive “what, me service?” shops. I wanted to create an atmosphere of
competency and authenticity, like the mom & pop ski shops I knew growing up,
a place where no ski was beyond repair and no boot beyond customizing. My goal was to demystify skiing and riding
and never treat them as elite sports. I
wanted our services, our lifestyle and our mountain heritage to be accessible
to everyone, regardless of social status.
I wanted my business to reflect my passion for snow sports and my
dedication to providing the best tunes, the most appropriate equipment and the
best prices possible. I’ve always felt
that Magic Mountain, which I first rode on a jack jump in the early ‘80’s, and
Vermont Snow Wizards were made for each other.
This mountain is where my ski shop dreams began. Magic’s ownership, management and revolving
marketing strategies were irrelevant when considering my connection to this
steep hunk of Vermont granite. There are
many things that Magic is not. It’s not
slick and commercialized, bristling with infrastructure. It was never trendy and sophisticated. It will never again be the alpine themed
“Switzerland in Vermont” destination resort it was in its youth. But, what it was in the beginning, and remains
today, is the soul of skiing. How could
I not tie my fortunes to such a place?
It’s been a remarkable ride. We expanded from our mountain home to Route
11 and a super store in Manchester. We
entered the Stratton market with a new twist to an old tale, exemplary service
and inexpensive rentals. I executed the
brilliant idea to open a specialty ski shop in a city mall, a desperate
reaction to losses sustained during tropical storm Irene. I was the one who should have been
executed. The mall store was a self made
disaster, reminding me of a truth I’d apparently forgotten: home is where the heart is, and the heart
beats safe and secure in the southern Greens.
Vermont Snow Wizards has allowed me the privilege to meet countless
people who share my enthusiasm for snow sports.
Even if I couldn’t remember names as well as I would have liked, I loved
seeing familiar faces, welcoming families back after long off seasons and
watching their kids grow up on the mountain.
My Snow Wizards family has meant the world to me, sharing struggle and
success. It has been my enormous good
fortune to share time and tune bench with some of the most incredible people
and most amazing industry professionals I’ve ever met. Their energy, talent and enthusiasm have allowed
Vermont Snow Wizards to evolve in ways I couldn’t have imagined 16 years ago.
No business can be all things to all people. A friend told me last year as we soldiered on
following Irene that you couldn’t kill Snow Wizards with a stake to the
heart. Maybe so, but in recent years our
customer numbers began to drop and I sensed we might not be servicing the needs
of our base as well as we had in the past.
Without the resources to renovate Route 11 and with major change in
store for our Magic operations, the time is clearly right to look forward and move
on.
My sincere thanks to everyone who has been a
member of my extended ski shop family, customer and employee, alike. It was challenging, rewarding and more fun
than anyone should be allowed to have.
If I could, I’d do it all again, in a heartbeat, with one exception. A Vermont Snow Wizards mall store? Not a chance.
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