SB_issue54_digital

Out There,
DOIN’ IT!
“This is my shop!” - a fair comment, if it’s coming
from the person who owns it, however, so often
it’s from a customer. It’s humbling, as you know
you’re on the right track when you inadvertently hear
comments like that as they walk past the door telling
their friends about the store.
“I buy all my gear from here” - so many do, and it’s
appreciated.
We’ve been around a while here at NZSHRED.
From our conception in the mid-80’s out of a need
to fund a Southern Hemisphere snow holiday, to
the modern day where we cater for all sorts of
fashion and sport orientated hardware and apparel
requirements. From our roots in snow and skate,
through to surf and SUP, to the modern era of wake,
foil and bike. Like so many other customers remind
us - “You have a bit of everything in here!”. There is
a lot of product in our little footprint – it really is like
owning your very own toy shop.
The development of a relationship with our
customers is at the core of our NZSHRED
community. It’s as much about understanding the
marketplace, reading the customer requirements
or paying the bills as it is being honest to ourselves
and making sure we are also ‘getting out there and
doing it’!
I’ve always found it funny when sitting with a
customer fitting them into a new pair of snowboard
boots or trying them in a good pair of goggles and
they comment - “Well, you could sell me anything, I
suppose”. And partly, they are right. A salespersons
skill is sometimes misconstrued as their ability to
convince a customer that they need a particular
item. I’d like to think we take a very different
approach and our reply to their suggestion is - “But,
I will see you in the lift line”, and we do! There is
no better feeling than to be waved at randomly by
someone sporting their new kit, proud as punch,
and, just like us, they’re ‘out there doing it!’.
Sitting in the line-up some months ago at our
closest break on the New Zealand South Island’s
very south coast, the swell had dropped out and
I had time between sets to loose myself in the
magic of the morning sun reflecting on the water
and the glassiness that was suggesting to me
perhaps a switch to a SUP would keep me out there
for another hour or so. As I perused those hardy
folks, who no doubt were having similar thoughts
to me, I recognised a recent customer sporting
a 7’6” funboard purchased just days before. He
was ‘out there doing it’, as were the group of local
Queenstown girls, eating their breakfast after their
“There is no
better feeling
than to be waved
at randomly by
someone sporting
their new kit,
proud as punch,
and, just like us,
they’re ‘out there
doing it!’.”