This season’s retail rollout started on Nov. 16 with a new Smartwool store in the heart of Beaver Creek village. The 800 sq. ft. store is dedicated to designing and delivering “comfortable and capable outdoor clothing and accessories.” The Steamboat Springs-based company has become famous for its use of merino wool as the cornerstone product in their collection of inner and outerwear.
Last week, two more specialty stores and a Tune Shop opened in the newly renovated Westin on the Snowmass Mall outside of Aspen, Colo. Patagonia and North Face both opened branded stores in the Westin. These two new stores will provide brand specific items for shoppers looking for the iconic products offered by both companies. The Tune Shop offers precision ski and snowboard tunes with same day service for skiers and riders that demand high performance from their equipment when they are on the slopes. These three new stores join another local’s favorite in the Snowmass Mall—Aspen Sports which completed an extensive renovation last season. Also new this season, SSV will also be handling all the valet services for both the Westin and Wildwood hotels.
The SSV openings continue into December when the New Zealand-based Icebreaker store debuts with 1,000 sq. ft. at the Solaris Residences in Vail on Dec. 14. Also renowned for their fine merino wool products, these natural and sustainably produced clothing items are designed specifically to elevate comfort and maintain body temperature for outdoor activities. At the end of the holiday period, an Oakley store will open in one of Vail’s newest residence clubs in One Willow Bridge. Widely recognized and highly regarded for its fashion-forward eyewear that emphasizes both protection and style, the new store will also feature selected pieces of outerwear.
Finally, the Lake Tahoe area also gets into the opening action with the arrival last Saturday of a Breeze Rentals shop in Tahoe City, California. Known for providing affordable ski and snowboard rentals as well as a wide selection of high-end demo gear, the arrival of a Breeze outlet for the Tahoe-area resorts adds a convenient new rental location for skiers and riders along with an extensive retail shop with top brands like Obermyer, Oakley, Spyder, Burton, North Face, and Descente.
“We are pretty convinced that these six new stores are going to be immediate hits almost as soon as they open,” claims Kat Jobanputra, COO of SSV. “We do some pretty careful analysis of each market to see what kind of products and stores people in that region find most appealing and then we work with some of the top companies in outdoor clothing to bring the two together. That way, we are able to match the right stores to the right resorts and when we are successful in making that connection, we can keep our customers happy and coming back,” he adds.
With the addition of the six new stores, the number of SSV stores increases to 176 with more than 755,000 sq. ft. of retail space located in dozens of resorts in four states—Colorado, California, Utah, and Nevada.
About Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan; and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company's subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.