Indie ski shop holds its own against the big guys
Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we will offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more.
When a family-owned business prospers for four decades despite competition from chains owned by large investment groups and corporate entities, it must be doing a lot of things right. For example, the owners and employees may be offering a level of personal service the chains don’t always provide.
Those are reasons my favorite ski shop is Larson’s Ski & Sport. Owned by the same family for 37 years, it has thrived in Wheat Ridge near the Kipling-interstate 70 interchange since 1992.
How it got to that location offers insight into its owner, John Marriott. In 1984, Marriott and his family bought the business from Duane Larson, who had owned a small ski shop a few blocks south of the current location where Marriott worked when he was a teenager. Marriott was 21 when he bought the place, and seven years later bought the current building. Marriott would run the existing shop during the day, then worked nights and weekends to renovate the new location — it had been a bar and dance club — until it was ready for them to relocate. They moved into the current building almost 30 years ago.
“I didn’t necessarily intend to spend my whole career doing this,” Marriott said, “but I am so glad that I did.”
Larson’s isn’t just a shop for Wheat Ridge and Arvada locals. Its proximity to the Interstate 70 exit makes it an attractive pit-stop for out-of-state skiers and snowboarders en route to the mountains. It has an inventory of more than 6,500 pairs of rental skis and snowboards, according to store manager Paul Morrison, and last year it did about 5,000 season rentals.
I love the atmosphere of the place. It feels like an old-school ski lodge, starting with a weathered wooden exterior. Wooden handles on the front doors bear the scratches from countless rental skis being returned. Inside it’s crammed with new gear, a rental service area and a retail section. There are vintage skis and boots on display all over the place.
“If we could put in a fireplace,” Morrison said, “we probably would.”
I also love the way Larson’s treats its customers. In many ski shops (and cycling shops, for that matter), some service techs and sales people talk down to customers and can get impatient with their questions, if not downright
demeaning. The folks at Larson’s make you feel welcome and appreciated.
“We try to share our love for the sport with our customers,” Morrison said. “While we carry more gear than virtually anybody, we’re not that kind of shop that makes people feel inadequate if they can’t speak our language. We’ve always thought of ourselves as a family ski shop. We have people who we started out skiing back in the ’90s and now they’re bringing their kids in. Our focus has always been keeping our rental costs low so people gain entry to the sport.”
At some point, Larson’s will have to move because CDOT has a project on the books to redo the Kipling-interstate 70 interchange. Whenever that happens, the current building will be razed, but Marriott has already bought a nearby property as a placeholder so he can rebuild there whenever CDOT moves forward with the project.
That probably won’t happen anytime soon, but when it does, longtime Larson’s customers are bound to follow.
“When the culture is right, it’s a place you want to be at,” Marriott said. “I can see it when my employees stay here after closing. I can see it when our customers are our friends. When you walk in our door, you’re one of our friends, you’re not dollars in a wallet.”