Subvert Boardstore, Manchester/Castleford, UK
Store: Subvert Boardstore
Location: Manchester (Chillfactore) & Castleford (Xscape)
(Age of Shop (years trading): 12 years
Website: http://www.subvertboardstore.com/
Brands Stocked: Analog, Adidas, Apo, Burton, Bonfire, Chocolate, Cliché, Capita, CLWR, Celtek, Dragon, Etnies, Electric, Eivy, Enjoi, Forum, Flip, Grenade, Girl, Krooked, Krew, K2, Nike SB, Nikita, Neff, Quiet Life, Ride, Stepchild, Sandbox, Smokin, Salomon, Thirty Two, Union, Volcom, Vans, and many more!
What percentage of your sales are from online business compared to your in-store sales?
At the moment it is minimal; about 5%websales, 3% mail orders and the rest in-store. We have a new website soon to launch, but quite happy our sales are not reliant on the website.
What are the benefits of having a physical shop over simply having an online store?
The most important is the customer service aspect, the one to one interaction that a customer gets with the staff in-store, we can ensure customers are getting the best possible advice from staff who care about the product they sell. Also, we can offer after sales care e.g. maintenance of hardware, board servicing & warranty issues.
What makes your store different and in what ways does your store excel beyond your competition?
We have a skate park attached to our store in Xscape, as well as both stores being within indoor snowdomes. All staff share a huge passion for the sport whether it be snow or skate and are genuinely enthusiastic about what they sell. Customer service is such an important element to any independent store and we place huge emphasis on choosing the right product for people even when it isn’t the most profitable! We like our customers to feel as much at home as possible within our stores and we have amazing regular customers.
What trends do you see upcoming in the industry?
A lot of heritage style outerwear is coming through as well as brand specific colabs and rider signature products.
What kind of advice can you give other independent retailers who are trying to compete against the big box megastores?
A good team of staff as they keep the customers coming back. We stick to our guns, we won’t stock a brand just for the £’s we try and keep it fresh and know that if we can’t beat them on product we can beat them with knowledge.
Which up and coming brand do you hope to stock in the future?
At the moment, we feel we stock all the best brands out there. New brands for us next season are Adidas snow and HOWL, which is quite exciting and you can’t beat your own shop branded merchandise!
What are you doing to pull people into your store?
As with any retailer, sales and special offers are great, as are in-store only events/promotions, which help us compete with online only stores. Our location helps being in snowdomes as it gives customers a great opportunity to demo a selection of our boards/bindings before purchasing. We have been lucky this year and hosted the 32 Team, the Capita Team, had the Burton13 and Nikita Eurotic movie premieres and hosted a 686-day. Scott Stevens has visited us twice, so we are now going for the hatrick, Scott if you are reading this, you know where we are!!
How confident are you for the coming season?
I would like to say confident looking at the product we have, but unfortunately there are to many stores in the UK going on sale prematurely, this has a knock on effect on everybody.
How’s the local market currently?
Scary! With the introduction of lots of Internet shops and stores going on sale halfway through the season, it’s no wonder why!
What items are you most stoked on in upcoming lines and why?
Both stores are pretty excited about the first drop of Krew that is due shortly and Adidas snow for winter. The most exciting news is that we were invited to be part of the Burton Backyard Project (there will only be 100 retailers globally and 3 in the UK). We will be getting 2 new board shapes and we got to vote on the graphics! Would love to see more brands supporting independents by offering them something that is not available everywhere or a different colourway maybe, which is only available to selected “store only” retailers
If riders are in the area, what are a few things they should check out locally?
Our shop! The indoor slopes as well as the skatepark in Xscape. In Manchester we are fairly close to Ski Rossendale which is steeped in heritage.
What have been the best three selling categories for you in the last 12 months?
We have had a very good boot year this year, trainers as always and smaller items like wristguards, skate bearings and stomp pads.
We also had a very Ltd edition board (the only 1 in the UK) that sold out within minutes of it arriving in-store! We were extremely privileged to be given the opportunity to sell the Burton Stonehut, a handmade board straight from Craig’s facility in Vermont, with a Jimmy Hendrix graphic, this was Jake’s first ever pro model board!
Please tell us of any upcoming initiatives your shop has planned? (events, signings, re-vamps etc…)
We will (hopefully) be launching our new web site soon. We will be showcasing shop team edits on our FB & Twitter pages. We will be having 6 Summer Subvert Sessions at Chill (freestyle demo nights). We run an annual charity event called Subjam, where we organize a freestyle night, have on slope demos from all the brands we stock and a monster raffle prize to finish off the night. All money raised goes to Cancer Charities local to the area. We also do an annual shop trip to Morzine, called the Subvert Slushy Social, which has grown in size this year. We invite 45+ customers to join us in, we hook up with More Mountain Chalets, this year the reps joined us with heaps of next seasons boards to test. We get feedback, ride and have a few (lots of) drinks with them. A great end to the season for our customers and us!!
