Boardroom may be boarded up

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

By Benjamin R. Bombard

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Looking at his shop from a sidewalk along West Broadway, and on his past with the Boardroom, Marc Loebe has no regrets.

“They were some really good years. I met some fun people and had a good run,” he said. “I’m glad I did it, even though it didn’t end how I pictured it. If I had the choice, I’d do it all again.”

Months before the economy took a swan dive during the fall of 2008, Loebe, the owner of the skate- and snowboard shop, was sitting pretty. Anticipating booming winter sales for the Boardroom in ’08, Loebe said he “stepped it up” and ordered more snowboarding gear to sell in his shop than he had in years past.

When September and all that gear arrived, the economy smacked belly first onto hard reality. It was all but impossible for Loebe to sell enough products at his shop to keep pace with the accounts payable file as it grew fatter and fatter and the recession dragged on. People just weren’t buying snowboard gear.

A few months ago, Loebe realized that the debt hole the Boardroom has dug since 2008 is too deep for him to fill, and after 15 years as proprietor, he has decided to sell the business or shutter the doors for good.

Boardroom evolution
A wiry, wide-eyed, mustachioed guy with a jet of white hair for a goatee, Loebe grew up in Worland, Wyo. He became an avid skier when he moved to Jackson 30 years ago. He was never a strong skateboarder, but he got into snowboarding in the sport’s early days. As an employee at Jackson Hole Ski and Sports and later the owner of the Boardroom, he said he has played his small part in the growth of snowboarding and companies like Burton.

Kevin Guercio and Cisco Oldani opened the Boardshop in the winter of 1991 in the tiny corner building – now Sands Whitewater – at Glenwood and Broadway. Loebe bought the shop from them in 1995 when it was at its Pearl Street location. He moved it and the store’s iconic skateboarding half-pipe back onto Broadway in 2001.

Until Sept. 30, customers can still walk into the Boardroom and see the evolution of snowboarding tacked onto the shop’s wall. The lineup of vintage snowboards includes a wooden, dovetail Burton “Performer” board, a Craig Kelly “Mystery Air” model from 1990, and even a rope-guided Snurfer.

Since that anemic 2008 retail season, Loebe has rung up almost $70,000 in debt. A number of factors have contributed to the Boardroom’s poor financial status under Loebe’s watch. Of course, there’s the recession, which, he said, fundamentally changed Americans’ buying behaviors. He also explained that Internet sales have had a significant negative impact on business.

Matt Grabowski has worked at the Boardroom for five years, and he’s the only employee on the shop’s payroll. He said the Internet was the “slayer that killed the dragon.” A Burton Malolo model board available on sale at the Boardroom for $385 can be bought on eBay for $30 less after shipping and handling. For cash-strapped snowboarders, $30 will buy a few après ski 12 packs.

In the shop’s main retail area, top-of-the-line snowboards, last year’s models, are discounted 30 percent from their suggested retail prices. In another room further back, coats, boots and other gear is discounted as much as 60 percent.
During my interview with Loebe last week, a girl bought a black and white striped snowboarding coat at 40-percent off. Loebe said that after factoring in shipping, unpacking, display and sale of the coat, he actually lost money on that sale. “By then, I’m not even breaking even,” he said.

Grabowksi pointed out one snowboard on the racks he guesses no other store in the nation, probably even eBay, can boast that it carries. A Lib Tech Banana Hammock signed and doodled on by professional snowboarder and local resident Travis Rice. But when money’s tight, a snowboard signed by God himself might need to be heavily discounted to sell.

Debt hole
Loebe entered an order for 2010-2011 gear from his suppliers in the spring, but after taking a serious look at the store’s books, he canceled the order. This summer, he’s been trying to sell all the merchandise he has on hand. Given his dismal financial outlook, Loebe said he has looked into options to remain solvent. “Right now, I’m just trying to not lose my house,” he said. If Loebe declared bankruptcy, his home would undoubtedly be liquidated to satisfy creditors.

Loebe’s debt is spread out among banks, credit card companies and gear manufacturers – “Everything except friends,” – and he said he will try negotiating with them to get better rates and set up payment plans. “It’s almost going to be a second mortgage,” he said.

To cut his losses, Loebe is trying to sell the business as well as anything and everything at the Boardroom: fixtures, racks, computers, display cases, snowboard repair tools, the half-pipe, fun-boxes, rails, even the Hawaiian shaved ice machine he bought to bring in a couple extra bucks on the side. However, the sale of those items will make an almost unperceivable dent in his outstanding debt.

Uncertain future
There are at least two parties seriously considering buying the Boardroom from Loebe. Grabowski said that he, his brother and a friend are seriously interested in owning the shop. “I want to keep it in the family,” he said. Unfortunately, Grabowski and his associates doubt they can round up the funds necessary to purchase the business by the end of September.

Larui Aittola is another prospective buyer, one that Loebe has some confidence in. Aittola said that he’s always liked the “rough around the edges feel of the [Boardroom], the old gas station look.” Aittola said his financial resources aren’t that extensive, but he hopes his “knowledge of the industry” can help him finalize his purchase of the shop.

As for Loebe, he said the only person he can blame for the Boardroom’s demise is himself. “I’m a victim of the times, but why didn’t I adapt?” he said, adding that he doesn’t know what he’ll do after he leaves the Boardroom behind. “It’s pretty scary,” he said. JHW


photo by BENJAMIN R. BOMBARD
Boardroom owner Marc Loebe has fallen deep in debt over the past two years.

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