By Mario Toneguzzi
A world-renowned snowboard brand has opened for business in Toronto with its first flagship Canadian store and it’s poised for future expansion across the country.
Cody Sturge, marketing lead with Burton Snowboards, says the brand’s first Canadian store, in 1,400 square feet of space at 98 Ossington Avenue, opened in early October.
“Primarily, our main thing is snowboards, snowboard boots, snowboard bindings. We also sell winter jackets. We’re starting to get more and more into the outerwear side of things,” says Sturge. “Basically, anything you need to prepare for the great outdoors to keep you warm especially for the winter season. We have it all. Everything to get you on the snowboard riding and then everything to outfit you as well.”
“And in the summer, we’ll start to carry things like tents and outerwear accessories.”
Everything Burton does started in the mountains. From getting the most out of every journey to chasing snow around the globe, “we’ve charged ahead to innovate and change the way people enjoy the outdoors since day one,” says the company on its website.
Jake Burton founded Burton Snowboards out of his Vermont barn in 1977, dedicating his life to snowboarding. He’s been instrumental in growing snowboarding from a backyard hobby to a global world-class sport.
The company has its headquarters in Vermont but offices are also in Australia, Austria, Canada, California, China, and Japan.
Retail shops are located in various cities including major ones such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Helsinki, Innsbruck, Milan, Tokyo, Orlando, and Las Vegas.
“Snowboarding has been a growing winter sport. Burton’s has always made sure to try and keep the sport growing as much as they can,” says Sturge. “It’s a big company. It’s international all across the world but it’s still run kind of in a mom and pop sort of way. Actually, our owner Jake Burton started making snowboards by hand in his garage back in the day and it’s evolved into what it is today.”
“Everything that happens with this company goes through them in Vermont. It’s still very small in a sense but very big.”
(Burton outerwear that will be worn by riders on the Canadian freestyle team at the Olympic Games in PyeongChang this February)
He says stores are starting to pop up everywhere in places like Spain, Australia, France and Germany.
“Anywhere they can see someone snowboarding or wanting to snowboard they look at opening up a flagship location,” says Sturge, adding that all walks of life are interested in the activity.
“You have like your young skater kids but you also have your 70-year-old businessman who has been snowboarding all his life and still wants the best and latest gear. There’s not really a specific demographic.”
The CBRE Toronto Urban Retail Team acted on behalf of the landlord and retailer, under the direction of Jackson Turner, Arlin Markowitz, and Alex Edmison.
Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.
