{"id":2456917,"date":"2020-04-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323984"},"modified":"2020-04-08T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:00:00","slug":"meet-your-merchant-cameron-wenzel-snowmass-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/meet-your-merchant-cameron-wenzel-snowmass-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Your Merchant: Cameron Wenzel, Snowmass Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/villagevoices-svs-040820-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Cameron Wenzel, manager of Snowmass Sports, helps a customer in his family&#8217;s ski and outdoor sports shop on the Village Mall.<\/strong><br \/><em>Snowmass Sports\/courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">For this month\u2019s Meet Your Merchant, we talked with Cameron Wenzel, manager of Snowmass Sports, his family\u2019s longtime village ski and outdoor sports shop:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Snowmass Sun: How long have you been working with Snowmass Sports?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Cameron Wenzel: So I graduated from college about 15 years ago and I\u2019ve been with Snowmass Sports for most of that time. I also work in the real estate industry so I did a year at a real estate office and then spent some time working in Chicago and other than that I\u2019ve been here that whole time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: And are you from Snowmass?<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: I was born and raised here, yes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: Did you ever think you would come back here, live here and run a ski shop?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: When I graduated from college I had jobs on the east coast, I went to college at Clemson University, and I had jobs in a few different cities in South Carolina and Snowmass Sports is a family-run business, my dad started it, and he said why don\u2019t you come back and work for the winter, because I graduated after a fall semester in December, so it was a pretty easy choice to come back and work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">My plan was really only to work for one season and here we are 15 years later and I\u2019m still doing it. I love it, I\u2019m happy to go to work everyday and to get to share that passion of skiing with my staff and clients. I love skiing and the outdoors and it\u2019s amazing to be able to live here and be able to share that on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: That\u2019s so cool. What was it like growing up with your dad running the ski shop and having this family business? How do you think that influenced you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: You know, we definitely have business acumen in the family. My dad is an entrepreneur, he moved here and just saw opportunities and his timing was good. As far as influenced me, not a lot of the kids that grew up here come back and I think part of the reason is it\u2019s hard to carve out an opportunity unless you\u2019re a working professional, maybe you\u2019re a doctor or a lawyer or an architect. It\u2019s an expensive place to live so for me to have an opportunity to come back here and live has been great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I would also say it\u2019s influenced me to just have great hospitality, that\u2019s really what it\u2019s about at Snowmass Sports: customer service and hospitality, really taking care of people and setting ourselves a part by treating people really well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: How long has your family had this location?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: My dad started it I think it was in 1986. We\u2019ve been a tenant at this hotel since 1986, so over 30 years right here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: Does your dad still work in the shop with you or are you mostly running things now?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: I\u2019m running things now but he still works in the shop tuning skis a few nights a week and as an adviser when we\u2019re making different decisions for the business. He still helps with some of the major decisions we have to make and he oversees some of the tune shop as well. So he\u2019s still involved and my mom does the book keeping, so it\u2019s very much still a family business. I also have a younger sister who is on Snowmass police force in the animal control unit so we\u2019re all here in the village and we all live here and work here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: What has it been like to work alongside your mom and your dad now as a business partner versus being their son and working for them?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: It definitely changes the family dynamic and the relationship between mom and dad because we work together. A lot of times with family businesses it becomes more about business and less about the stuff that you normally chat with your parents about and for the most part for me it\u2019s really good but there\u2019s definitely a shift when you work with mom and dad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">SS: And obviously you have a pretty long running tradition here in Snowmass, moving forward how do you hope to see the shop continue to evolve, grow and serve this community?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">CW: Our location here in Snowmass here is really good across from Starbucks and across from the Ranger Station and then the Westin, we get a lot of traffic from the hotel. Being a locally owned and operated business, our goal is to just take care of people no matter who they are, whether they\u2019re a local or a tourist, we have everything you need to go skiing. You could come in with your street clothes and we could suit you up head to toe whether you\u2019re renting or buying. And then serving the community, you know when you spend your money at Snowmass Sports it\u2019s important to know that money is staying local and is reinvested in this community. So when you choose where you\u2019re going to rent from and where you\u2019re going to buy from, it makes a difference at the end of the day with where\u2019s that money going to go? Because some places in Snowmass it goes to the New York stock exchange or it goes to an already really wealthy family, where we\u2019re just a Snowmass family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\"><a href=\"mailto:mvincent@aspentimes.com\">mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/meet-your-merchant-cameron-wenzel-snowmass-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cameron Wenzel, manager of Snowmass Sports, helps a customer in his family&#8217;s ski and outdoor sports shop on the Village Mall.Snowmass Sports\/courtesy photo For this month\u2019s Meet Your Merchant, we talked with Cameron Wenzel, manager of Snowmass Sports, his family\u2019s longtime village ski and outdoor sports shop: Snowmass Sun: How long have you been working [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 05:25:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}