Every so often, with enough passion and dedication, a person can take an idea and make it into something great. Here in the mountains, there are various outdoor activities, both in summer and winter, to take advantage of, and that is what this business owner did.
Chuck Gorton, the passionate entrepreneur that started Mountain Sports Distribution, took his love for the outdoors and his knowledge of the backcountry and its activities and turned it into a booming business. Here is a look into Chuck’s business journey and how he grew his thriving business from a warehouse in our small town.
Let’s start with an intro about yourself and the business!
My name is Chuck Gorton and I have lived in Golden since 2001. I moved here to ski and in my first years in Golden I worked as a patroller at the hill for both the summer and winter. In my first years here I spent a load of time in the backcountry and was teaching some avalanche education courses as well as patrolling. It was during that time that I initially was introduced to avalanche airbags as an additional backcountry safety device and I really bought into the concept. I founded Avalanche Safety Solutions as a small online store in 2005 while working as a patroller, storing my goods in a closet in the house that I shared with my roommates at the time. In 2008 I learned of a new avalanche airbag coming to market and I reached out to the Swiss company to see if they would be interested in having a Canadian retailer. As it turned out they didn’t have a distributor for Canada and so with no real knowledge of what that was or what it involved I decided to leap into it. At that point I founded Mountain Sports Distribution (MSD) and set about borrowing a bunch of money from a variety of sources, primarily government loan programs to buy avalanche airbags from Switzerland. I then set off in my beat up truck driving around Western Canada pushing sales to any ski or snowmobile retailer that I thought would be a prospect. It was my first time really selling anything and I managed to sell my initial purchase of airbags in 3 months and knew I was onto something.
From that point onwards it was about building relationships with retailers, with new brands, and building a solid team here in Golden. I kept Avalanche Safety Solutions as a highly focussed retailer however the primary focus of the business became Mountain Sports Distribution. MSD was founded with avalanche airbags but I quickly leveraged the relationships that I had with retailers to add more brands into our portfolio of products. Since those first years MSD has expanded significantly and now sells to over 600 retailers across North America and we have a full summer and winter catalogue for a complete line of powersports apparel and accessories. When we started all of our competitors were based in Eastern Canada and the Western mountain market was really being ignored which gave us an opportunity to build our business and customer base. Along the way I also founded Mountain Sledder magazine as well as Mountain Lab Gear, both of which are owned by MSD.
How long have you been in business?
Avalanche Safety Solutions was founded as a small online store in 2005, MSD was founded in 2008 and has been running for 15 years!
What inspired you to start this type of business?
There were really four reasons, the first being that I am not a very good employee, I don’t like having a boss. The second reason being that I recognized an opportunity that no one else was jumping on and so I decided to give it a go. The third reason is that at the time I was quite passionate about avalanche safety and thought that I had a real opportunity to have a significant impact in the field and save some lives, and the final reason is that I enjoyed the risk of it and betting on myself.
What are some of the benefits/setbacks of running a business in a small rural town?
I would say that my business is a bit unique in Golden in that while it is based here the majority of our customers are outside of Golden which means the challenges that we face may be different than the challenge of other businesses in the community.
For MSD there were really two main benefits of setting up my business in Golden. The first is that I managed to attract some incredible people along the way that have really helped MSD and Avalanche Safety succeed. Maybe you could find those people in other places but the group that we have are like minded and fun and many have been with MSD for a long time. They are a talented group of individuals that have a great attitude and have supported the crazy ideas I have had along the way.
The second benefit was really that as an avid backcountry enthusiast myself I had a much better idea of the marketplace and what was going on than my competitors who were based in a city, sometimes a city in Eastern Canada. Being in Golden and being out there I could better see trends and make market decisions.
The setback for MSD really comes as we start to scale and logistics in particular are really challenging out of Golden. There are some work arounds using different logistic and fulfillment partners based in different regions of the country but it continues to be a challenge. Another challenge has been staffing although hiring remote workers has really helped that situation.
What are you looking forward to in the coming years?
I sold a majority stake in MSD about a year ago which has changed the company significantly and resulted in us hiring more people and really building out the team. For me personally that means that I have a bigger support team and less personal risk, which after 15 years of going all in every year feels pretty good. In the coming years I look forward to seeing where the business will go under the new ownership and having more time away from MSD.
Anything else you’d like to add!
I have really enjoyed the crazy ride of running a small business in Golden and I would cautiously encourage others to do the same with a solid plan.
The “Business of the Year” award was presented to Mountain Sports Distribution in November 2023 at the Kicking Horse Country Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Excellence Awards. To learn more about the BCEA’s and what the Chamber does for the local business community, visit their website at www.goldenchamber.bc.ca and follow them on their social media.
If you’re interested in more stories like this, check out our local business stories here.
