This 13-year-old surf and skate shop, located on Duval Street in Key West’s historic Old Town shopping district, manages to pack plenty of fresh product into just 1,000 square feet of space—all without sacrificing industry cred or personal service.“The idea was to have a real surf shop,” explains co-owner Skip Fleet, who learned to surf during the early 1960s in Miami’s South Beach. “It’s got the look and feel of an old-school shop”—all the hardgoods and repair components like leashes, pads, and ding repair . “Ditto on the skate stuff,” he says. “The only thing missing is the beach across the street.”
And Fleet should know. After opening his first surf shop in 1965 (in Clinton, Connecticut) and years as an apparel industry consultant, Fleet instinctively recognized a void in the retail marketplace.
“You can blindfold a customer, drop him or her into a mall, and they don’t know whether they’re in West Virginia or Montana,” he explains. “But if you’re on vacation, you want something different.”
Shopping-as-adventure has become a shrinking commodity, which no doubt helps explain Shirley Can’t Surf’s success—especially given Key West’s ever-changing customer base, including first-time tourists, repeat visitors, rotating Coast Guard and Navy personnel, as well as local residents who move on after high school.produced twice annually, surf expo draws buyers from across the u.s., the caribbean and around the world. whether you are an industry manufacturer or specialty retailer, surf expo is your marketplace.
No comments:
Post a Comment