Inside the Boardlife store in Lohi. BusinessDen file photo.
Denver longboard company Boardlife is cruising into a new location to start making its own boards.
Last month, the company leased space at South Broadway and Colorado Avenue that’s around 4,500 square feet, nearly three times the size of its LoHi store.
Co-founder Mike Pisarcik said the new spot is big enough to make the boards in the store, and that the neighborhood also gets car and foot traffic from potential customers.
“We just needed more room and this is the right part of town for that,” Pisarcik said.
Highlands customers can buy a board from one of the brands the company stocks or ask an employee to customize a plain board with different materials, colors and other components for $150, a service called “Deck It Out.”
Michael Pisarick (left) and John Klutznick
The new shop — 1775 S. Broadway St — will continue “Deck It Out” and take it one step farther. Pisarcik envisions customers peeking through a window in the retail shop into a workshop where Boardlife employees craft the boards.
Pisarcik wants to let customers at the new spot see boards in progress to teach them how different boards make for different rides. A longer board is faster than a shorter board, for example, and a board with a bump in it can turn more easily than one that’s flat.
“We want the understanding and the ability to customize,” Pisarcik said. “I think shapes are what it’s all about. We make our own molds for our presses and design our own shapes.”
Boardlife started its first shop in the Highlands in 2011. In May 2015, it opened its first out-of-state spot in Austin, Texas. Boardlife hasn’t yet hired contractors to build out the new store, which does not have an opening date.
Boardlife also stocks skis, snowboards and cruiser bikes.
Jeff Vyain, founder of Pantheon Longboards in Pennsylvania, is joining Boardlife in Colorado as its first manufacturing director. The company has 10 retail employees, Pisarcik said, and will hire manufacturing staff as needed.
Pisarcik said longboard makers like him are experimenting with different board shapes and materials with extreme downhill riders in mind.
Later, he might even try to make more than just longboards.
“It would be great one day to bring it all together and to be building boards, building skis and building snowboards,” Pisarcik said. “But it is about building those longboard and skateboard decks for now.”
Inside the Boardlife store in Lohi. BusinessDen file photo.
Denver longboard company Boardlife is cruising into a new location to start making its own boards.
Last month, the company leased space at South Broadway and Colorado Avenue that’s around 4,500 square feet, nearly three times the size of its LoHi store.
Co-founder Mike Pisarcik said the new spot is big enough to make the boards in the store, and that the neighborhood also gets car and foot traffic from potential customers.
“We just needed more room and this is the right part of town for that,” Pisarcik said.
Highlands customers can buy a board from one of the brands the company stocks or ask an employee to customize a plain board with different materials, colors and other components for $150, a service called “Deck It Out.”
Michael Pisarick (left) and John Klutznick
The new shop — 1775 S. Broadway St — will continue “Deck It Out” and take it one step farther. Pisarcik envisions customers peeking through a window in the retail shop into a workshop where Boardlife employees craft the boards.
Pisarcik wants to let customers at the new spot see boards in progress to teach them how different boards make for different rides. A longer board is faster than a shorter board, for example, and a board with a bump in it can turn more easily than one that’s flat.
“We want the understanding and the ability to customize,” Pisarcik said. “I think shapes are what it’s all about. We make our own molds for our presses and design our own shapes.”
Boardlife started its first shop in the Highlands in 2011. In May 2015, it opened its first out-of-state spot in Austin, Texas. Boardlife hasn’t yet hired contractors to build out the new store, which does not have an opening date.
Boardlife also stocks skis, snowboards and cruiser bikes.
Jeff Vyain, founder of Pantheon Longboards in Pennsylvania, is joining Boardlife in Colorado as its first manufacturing director. The company has 10 retail employees, Pisarcik said, and will hire manufacturing staff as needed.
Pisarcik said longboard makers like him are experimenting with different board shapes and materials with extreme downhill riders in mind.
Later, he might even try to make more than just longboards.
“It would be great one day to bring it all together and to be building boards, building skis and building snowboards,” Pisarcik said. “But it is about building those longboard and skateboard decks for now.”
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