Shop Profile: Zero G, Chamonix, France, Snow

Age of Shop (years trading): In Chamonix since 1987
Brands Stocked: Top five snowboard in order of winter volume:
Burton
DC
Lib Tech
Jones
Analog

*Tell us a little about Zero G? Well, we’re a big independent board shop with eight sales guys and two mechanics. The shop is pretty big – over 200m2, with streetwear upstairs and snowboard hardgoods, technical outerwear and accessories downstairs. There’s a workshop and rental department out back.

*What makes your store different and in what ways does your store excel beyond your competition?
Easy. Our workshop. Having such capable guys out back lets our front-of-house sell with complete confidence that if anything goes wrong, we’ll be able to fix it. Crampons, snowshoes, split-board stuff, drilling extra inserts for demanding clients, absurd fixes and edge resetting; our workshop guys are the best. I’ve got to mention the choice of stuff in this place too. If it slides on snow and someone wants it, we’ve got it. Hard-boots, custom CNC-machined hard-boot bindings, everything you could possibly imagine for a split-boarder, handmade Japanese swallowtails, reverse sidecut boards, 1980s Winter sticks and an excellent selection of today’s top brands.

*What percentage of your sales are from online business compared to your in-store sales?
Our site is about 10%-15% of turnover – after one year online, we feel that’s pretty good.

*What are the benefits of having a physical shop over simply having an online store?
Walk-ins. Since we’re in Chamonix, our walk-ins are almost all capable snowboarders who are bang into big mountain free riding. This is exactly the market we’d be trying to lock down if we were online-only, since we’re all into free riding and it’s the product sector that we know best. It lets us take some risks in the ordering process; get some product in just for the wow-factor which helps to help give people an amazing retail experience.

*What have been the best three selling categories for you in the last 12 months?
The three best sellers in our ‘winter’ offering over the last year:

• Men’s boards
• Men’s bindings
• Men’s jackets

*What trends do you see upcoming in skate/snow?

• The return of camber
• Higher average sales as buyers look for quality
• I reckon we’ll see a big new independent snowboard boot brand come to market with new lasts & technology within five years – boots hasn’t seen genuine innovation in ages, just changes on a theme

*Which up and coming brand do you hope to stock in the future?
The thing with up-and-coming brands is they don’t always work that great. If anything good has come from the global economic crisis it’s that a snowboard buyer’s job is now a bunch easier. In most cases, if I want a brand in here I call up the rep and that’s pretty much it, there are fewer hoops to jump through. Sometimes a brand will get buzzy, or someone will walk in and I’ll think ‘nice jacket’, but then I’ll have a look at the stuff at ISPO and find a reason not to like it. So we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got right now, no point taking unnecessary risks.