Shop Talk: Gear West on Year-Round Relevance, Community, & Specialty Service

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For this edition of Shop Talk, Kara Williard talks with Jeff Perry and Isabel Berg from Gear West, our Blister Recommended Shop in Long Lake, Minnesota, to learn about how they build a year-round community around Gear West’s “campus”; what it means to provide service for everything from ski racing to park skiing; some gear trends they’re noticing; how new uphill access at their local mountain, Buck Hill, has influenced the community and their gear purchases; what it looks like to train and staff a large year-round specialty shop, and much more.

TOPICS & TIMES

Gear West Campus (4:53)
Gear West Community (7:20)
Growing the Sport (10:12)
30-Year Anniversary (12:00)
Staying Relevant Year-Round (14:50)
Service & Ski Racing (17:27)
Park Skiing (21:36)
Gear Trend Follow-up (22:37)
Buck Hill Uphill (25:56)
Staffing & Training (29:25)
Masterfit University (31:51)
What We’re Celebrating (37:24)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody and welcome back to Gear 30 on the Blister podcast network. You're here today with
0:11.0	Kara at Williard and you can check out all the other stuff we are doing and reviewing over at
0:16.4	blisterreview.com. Well, for today's edition of Shop Talk, we are back with Gear West, which is our
0:23.3	Blister recommended shop in Long Lake, Minnesota. Gear West is a pretty unique and impressive
0:28.9	shop with a campus layout that is powered by solar panels, a really impressive Alpine Ski
0:34.3	Department full of MasterFit certified boot boot fitters and they run a pretty
0:38.2	robust operation year round from nordic skiing to park skiing and in the summer offering bikes
0:44.1	trail running and more this week i got to chat with jeff perry who is the hard goods manager
0:50.1	and isabel berg who is the floor manager and soft good buyer for Gear West.
0:55.4	We dive in into how their season has been going, how Gear West builds year-round community
1:00.5	and encourages the next generation in the sport, and we also talk about park skiing, ski
1:05.9	racing, and the recent advent of uphill access at their local mountain, Buck Hill.
1:12.2	Plus, we follow up on some gear trends and more. Jeff has been on Gear 30 a couple of times before, so if you want to hear more
1:17.3	about Gear West or Jeff's take on Gear Trends, check out episode 136 and episode 190 of Gear 30.
1:24.8	But before we get started, I want to encourage everyone to check out our Blister Plus
1:29.0	Spot membership. First of all, you're going to get all the benefits that you get just by becoming
1:33.9	a Blister member, which includes tons of discounts on awesome ski and bike gear, access to our
1:39.0	exclusive flash reviews and deep dives, our personalized gear recommendations, which means you can ask us anything
1:45.5	gear related anytime, and you'll get access to our bi-monthly member-only happy hour
1:51.1	live stream sessions, which are super fun. But then, there's also the spot insurance coverage.
1:57.4	I know I have had more than one close call this season, and we have heard from all of you about
2:01.9	countless other stories of crashes and close calls. Blister Plus Spot ensures that you're
	...

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