Pete LaBore, CEO of Christy Sports, spoke with SGB Executive about the ski chain’s recovery efforts post-pandemic, the intricacies of ski retailing and his passion for the outdoors.
LaBore worked at Backcountry from 2010 to 2019, rising to the role of COO. He subsequently took on COO roles at Los Angeles-based sustainable women’s apparel brand Reformation and Southern California-based activewear upstart Vuori and served as an advisor to Stio and Paka in the outdoor space before taking over as CEO of Christy Sports in November 2023.
Founded in 1958 by ski instructors Ed and Gale Crist in Lakewood, Colorado, Christy Sports operates 55 stores across Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Washington.
SGB: How did you end up working in retail?
Pete LaBore: My career started in technology consulting during the dot.com days. As the dot-com boom blew up, I ended up working at JCWhitney, an aftermarket auto parts cataloger that was going online. I then worked for an agency, but I always had a passion for the outdoors. I clicked on a link to a job opportunity at Backcountry and was working there three months later. I was at Backcountry for over a decade, then spent some time in the women’s fashion world, but I missed the good-natured people in outdoor, and that drew me back. I think the outdoor industry just has a lot of ‘we’ people who generally care. It’s not always the most lucrative or certainly not the easiest business. But whether you’re on the brand or retail side, you find a very similar ilk of people. So even though my career has taken a random walk or “right place, right time” nature, it’s the passion in the outdoor space that ultimately keeps drawing me back.
SGB: Where did you find your passion for the outdoors?
Pete LaBore: I grew up in Minnesota, so I skied in my youth. I’ve done some triathlons. But even before the pandemic, I’d always realized that the more time I spent outside, the better I was. Every time I took a mountain trip, I felt relaxed and at home. Every time I left, I didn’t want to leave. So, I’d say I embrace all the various types of “ers” to some degree – from fly fisher to skier to mountain biker, hiker, camper…Not much of a climber. But, just in general, I’m always looking to recharge the batteries by getting outside.
SGB: You joined Christy Sports in late 2023 as the outdoor industry was recovering from disruptions caused by the pandemic. What challenges were Christy Sports facing?
Pete LaBore: After the pandemic, everybody got a little over their skis and assumed that growth was going to keep going up and to the right. Christy’s was no different. So, that’s inventory, but also some process challenges. When things get a little tougher, you have to react and pivot a little quicker, and they just weren’t able to do that. And there was just some uncertainty fog across the industry, and that certainly applied to Christy’s as well, that we had to address.
There was also previously a larger focus on growing the e-commerce component of the business at Christy’s, and the unit economics of e-commerce had only gotten tougher. Despite my deep background in e-commerce, I was a strong believer that physical retail would be a better opportunity for Christy’s. Resources were a bit too focused on the e-commerce side, rather than going back to our roots.
Finally, Christy’s had grown to more than 60 doors but was still operating in some ways like a mom-and-pop, with one or two stores. So, there were some issues with processes and infrastructure. At the end of the day, people are going to find a way to go to the mountains, whether it be winter or summer, and the market was still going to be there. But we had to put a lot of basics in place and create clarity for the team and the business as a whole.
SGB: So, a big part was reemphasizing the stores?
Pete LaBore: It became apparent quickly that with customer acquisition costs online and shipping costs, etc., the internet was not a place where Christy’s could win against the Backcountry’s, the REI’s, and where other folks were focused. We can win with locations, convenience, service, and expertise. Maybe without COVID and the subsequent acceleration of e-commerce, there would have been more runway. But with COVID, everybody had to get good at e-commerce quickly, and our strength was in physical stores, where we could differentiate and win.
SGB: What were some of the bigger changes Christy’s made?
Pete LaBore: It’s probably all under that umbrella of getting back to basics. There was some clarification of Christy’s mission, vision, and values. Within the first 90 days, I visited every one of our stores to explore what was working well, what wasn’t, and the big concerns. And, typical of the outdoor industry’s mom-and-pop nature, there were some concerns about Christy’s becoming more corporate. But very quickly, we determined we had to be mom & pop in front with our service and our people, but we have to find a way to be scaled and efficient in the back. So, a lot of focus on getting clarity around our specialty mission of helping people experience the mountain lifestyle, and also getting crisp on why people come to Christy’s versus somewhere else in terms of features, benefits, and our experience.
Like everybody, we had to clean up our inventory, and unfortunately, we had to rightsize a few costs and reduce our headcount. That’s never easy or fun, but it is necessary for long-term stability. So overall, I would say a lot of getting “back to basics,” including addressing some visual merchandising in stores. As we evaluated this last winter, I think the entire company and team felt we were the best prepared we’ve been in a few seasons. Everything was early and on time, and kind of ready to go, but Mother Nature had other plans.
SGB: A lack of snow, as well as pressure from tariffs and inflation, presented challenges this past season. Have you been able to stabilize the business?
Pete LaBore: I think we’re in solid shape financially. The season didn’t go the way we wanted, but we have a strong financial sponsor, and we’re focused on how we can win and grow. We’re back out there looking for growth opportunities, even some acquisition opportunities that we can kind of grow and build. We’re in a good spot. We need a little bit of Mother Nature’s help, and we’re also still seeing the challenges everybody’s seen in rising rents and wages. It’s not easy for our team to afford the lifestyle in our mountain towns. But generally, we are in good shape. We had our annual summit, where about 120 of our team members across our stores and functional groups got together to do a little bit of retrospective on the last year and lessons learned. I would say we’ve moved onward from the tough season and are planning and building for next year.
SGB: What have you learned about ski retailing? Is it much different from your Backcountry experience?
Pete LaBore: Rental is everything for our business. I like to say that in the winter people have “needs” whereas in the summer they have “wants,” and ski rental is certainly that ‘need.’ So, it’s our traffic driver and drives a healthy portion of our profitability.
Other things that are similar but probably emphasized in ski retail are that the people and the passion are everything. Our service and expertise come from our people. We’ve got boot fitters who have been working with us for 30-plus years who just love and care for what they do. I say we have care dripping from the walls. That was certainly the case at Backcountry, and you see it at REI or EVO as well, but I think it’s even more exacerbated in a local ski shop in a mountain town.
Another thing is that each of our stores has its own nuances. Your assortment obviously in the Pacific Northwest is going to look different than your assortment in Vail and maybe even Aspen, even though the customer profile may be the same. We’d like to think we don’t have 55 unique stores, but obviously, we don’t have one cookie-cutter approach. Finding that balance between specialty and scale is super challenging, but we believe it is worth it.
The last thing is that ski retail is certainly weather-dependent, and there’s no easy way to solve that. We continue to diversify, certainly away from weather dependence, but also make sure we’re reacting and pivoting when it happens.
SGB: Any changes within merchandising?
Pete LaBore: We made some merchandising changes to clarify our customer profiles and align our brands and assortment, again emphasizing that specialty piece a bit more. We were also buying both broad and shallow and had to narrow some of those choices and buy a little bit deeper in our best sellers. There was also a heavy focus on how we can become a four-season outdoor outfitter, with pushes into biking, camping and hiking. That takes time. So, we had to get back to basics on our ski product and then find our focus on where we can play in summer.
SGB: Any fresh ski trends you’re seeing?
Pete LaBore: Last year was just difficult everywhere, so it’s tough to get a read on anything that was good. We saw softness across soft and hard goods, particularly in accessories that people tend to buy when the weather is more variable. One area that continues to stand out for us is ski boots with BOA, offering some innovation. We also see some emerging brands in the soft goods space taking share from incumbents, so we’re betting a bit more deeply on those upstarts.
SGB: Does Christy’s have ambitious expansion plans?
Pete LaBore: We aren’t looking to get to X stores by X time. We have no new openings planned for this year. We have a couple of remodels underway. As I said, we’re actively looking at acquisitions or opportunities where a family may have a store or a couple of stores and doesn’t have a younger generation to hand off to or is looking for a path forward toward retirement after the stress of the last few seasons. So, we’re 55 stores now, and we’d love to hit 70 or 70-plus, but we don’t have a timeline for when that needs to happen.
SGB: How is the ski or broader outdoor space these days?
Pete LaBore: The outdoor industry is challenging. Take a look at REI’s results. If REI is not able to make healthy margins, it’s certainly indicative of what the rest of the industry is feeling as a whole. The rising rents and wages aren’t going down anytime soon. I’ve told others in the industry that retailers and brands need to find a way to drive three to five points of product margin without just raising prices to get there, for the retail side of the industry to be healthy, and that’s not easy. Certainly, I think from COVID and then last winter, there’s certainly been a lot of liquidation and discounted inventory out there. This is my opinion only, but I think the industry may need to shrink a little, so we have a bit less discount on sales and more full-price sales. We can have healthier margins and offset some of those rents and wage challenges. At the end of the day, we all need to find a way to get a few more points of margin, but I don’t think we can just expect the customer to pay more. We’ve got to get full-price sales back to a healthy spot.
SGB: Do you have any vendor pet peeves or wishes for your suppliers’ first quarter 2026 results?
Pete LaBore: We actually had a lot of good partnerships with our vendors this last year. They helped us with some RTVs (return to vendors) and some sales subsidies. I was surprised when I came into the ski industry and found that, in some cases, we have terms on our hard goods: we pay 50 percent this year and 50 percent next year. Those are crazy terms that, in ways, subsidize some of ski retail’s working capital. There are always things we can improve on from the distribution and compliance fronts, but we generally have great partnerships with vendors. We’ve been in good shape now, but we’ve also had some hard times. We take it seriously to ensure our vendors are healthy and paid on time as well.
SGB: Are you upbeat for the upcoming ski season?
Pete LaBore: We’re betting on a rebound next year in terms of weather, and we’re also betting that there’s some pent-up demand from folks who couldn’t ski this year and want to ski next year. We’re seeing that in some signals, including seasonal rental pre-pay, where folks buy into next year’s seasonal rental, being up year-over-year by 30 percent. We think a lot of folks who didn’t get to ski this year are pretty antsy to ski next year.
Images courtesy Christy Sports
