Parkas, hats, vests and fleecewear hot
DENVER -- The first big ski weekend of the season left ski retailers here with high hopes for the rest of the year.
Lots of snowfall and cold temperatures had consumers buying everything from parkas to hats to high-end ski gloves. Whether it was fleece vests under $100 or parkas for $550, merchandise moved out of the stores.
All this occurred despite fears that a boycott following the passage of Amendment Two, Colorado's controversial anti-gay rights measure, would play havoc with the season. The amendment is currently lying dormant during legal appeals, so no one will be swooshing down the slopes this year with Barbra Streisand or lounging in a lodge with Sinead O'Connor. But retailers are upbeat despite the glare of negative publicity.
Meanwhile, back at the slopes, bright colors are on the wane.
'Friends don't let friends wear neon,' says Trey Harris, ski and technical manager at Denver Sports, Littleton, Colo., a new, 60,000-square-foot warehouse outlet that sold $33,000 worth of skiwear on its grand opening day three weeks ago.
With early-season snowfall plentiful -- 20 resorts already are open -- projections are that the season will produce numbers exceeding last season's 11.2 million skier-days. (A skier-day is one skier skiing one day.)
At Pomeroy Sports in Aspen, Colo., a big snowstorm before Thanksgiving made for a good ski weekend, according to Ron Morehead, store manager.
'We were saved by a storm on Tuesday night, so people were upbeat,' he said. And Thursday and Friday were really cold, so we were selling a lot of hats and face masks, and warm fleece-pile items to go under fleece jackets.'
Pomeroy did well with fleecewear by Marker, Perigrine and a local designer, Cindy Love. Most fleece vests are $70 to $80 and fleece coats retail for $125 to $150. The store sold parkas at $350 to $550 by Couloir and Spyder.
'Spyder's a local favorite, and its apparel is active-oriented,' Morehead said. 'We're not a high-fashion shop -- we don't sell names like Bogner. Spyder's gotten to be more expensive, but that's because of all the high-tech aspects they've 0 added. People here really like it.' Morehead added that while consumers and local retailers seem to have a confident attitude, it may be because Aspen is not as prone to the ups and downs of the economy as other areas.
'I don't want to sound pretentious, but we get a lot of people here now who have a lot of monay,' he said. 'In January, we have more package-type customers who come in ski clubs. But I think across the board, since people had a good year last year, their enthusiasm in being carried over again.'
At Christy Sports in Colorado Springs, Colo., sales of men's apparel were 'wonderful, much better than last year' according to Sandy Biereichel. 'I think here in Colorado Springs, we have a big influx of people moving in from California and Washington, D.C. When MCI [the telecommunications company] moved here from D.C., they brough a lot of people in. And a lot of those people have never skied before.'
So those who wanted to look like they've been skiing all their lives bought a lot of shell tops and parkas over the weekend.
'In the shells, people bought North Face, which is a big seller here, Descente and Hard Core,' Biereichel said. 'They're not insulated, but they're usually made of a waterproof, breathable fabric like Gore-Tex or Entrant.'
She said shells sell for about $250. Although the price is steep, Biereichel said, they're popular because skiers can layer underneath, remove bottom layers as they get warmer, and then, when the sun goes down behind the mountains, put layers back on. 'Anyway,' she added, 'men never get as cold as women. Never.'
Parkas at Christy Sports also sold quite well, in brands such as Obermeyer, Hard Core, Columbia Sportswear, Descente, Marker and Spyder. Retail prices were from $210. Other parkas by Edelweiss were on sale for $169 and up.
At Gart Brothers, Colorado's largest sporting-goods chain, 'Columbia numbers are unbelievable,' according to John Hagan, divisional merchandise manager for skiwear. For the fifth year in a row, Columbia has led the pack, he said, because it offers a good price-value relationship and the mountaineering look is in fashion right now. The suits, jackets, pants -- no stretch pants -- and hats come in black and a range of jewel-tone colors, he said.
