Ski shop owner uses passion, Earth-friendly innovations

BY KATIE MERX

Passion and innovation have been the keys to Steve Kopitz’s success in the retail sporting goods business.

And he’s counting on a dedication to those qualities to overcome the effects of global warming and a sluggish economy on his newest venture, the realization of a lifelong dream: running his own ski shop.

A skiing fanatic since age 6 and successful sporting goods retailer for the past 17 years, Kopitz couldn’t resist when the 54-year-old Don Thomas Sporthaus became available three years ago. But Kopitz, who now owns 11 sporting goods stores and seven Web sites through his Summit Sports enterprise, also realized quickly that his goal of building a premier retail ski business didn’t fit with the layout of the Sporthaus’ 40-year-old location in Bloomfield Hills.

“It was on three levels,” Kopitz said. “The lighting was poor, the layout was poor. We needed to move.”

And as long as he was moving, he wanted to do it right.

Downtown Birmingham was the obvious choice for relocation, he said. That’s where the largest number of the store’s 13,000 registered customers live.

The first challenge was finding a location with adequate parking. But he was patient, and eventually, a location with parking opened up on South Old Woodward across from the landmark 555 building.

The next challenge was building a store that didn’t worsen the global warming that threatens not only the environment, but also the sport of skiing.

“Skiing and global warming don’t go together,” Kopitz said. So when the store opened in its new location at 690 S. Old Woodward on Sept. 1, it showcased both a more modern retail layout and several environmentally conscious appointments.

Kopitz focused on using recyclable, renewable, natural, local, durable and energy-efficient materials when building the store.

Among other things, the Don Thomas Sporthaus buys energy from green sources, such as windmills and solar panels. It uses tiles and carpet produced with recycled materials and processes that emit fewer toxins than traditional systems and LED lighting fixtures, which Kopitz said use 80% less electricity than neon lights.

Some of the green features will pay for themselves, some won’t, Kopitz said, but the upscale retail environment combined with his purchase of www.skis.com should help the store attract the business it needs to be a successful member of his Summit Sports enterprise.

Despite the changing retail market for sporting goods, Kopitz said his business “has grown virtually every year for 17 years.”

And the business’s growth has come “entirely from internal profits,” he added.

Kopitz pegged revenue growth of his enterprises at about 40% year over year. He declined to share recent revenue figures, but he told Crain’s Detroit Business in 2001 that he expected to record $9 million in sales that year.

In addition, he said, he has hired people in each of his stores — Summit Sports employs about 150 people — who are passionate about the sports they serve.

Soon, Kopitz plans to integrate some of the elements from skis.com into the Don Thomas Sporthaus, allowing customers to view side-by-side ski comparisons and on-the-slopes video reviews of equipment on in-store computers with wireless Internet.

“If you’re standing here trying to decide between two or three skis, we can roll the computer kiosk over and pull up the comparisons,” Kopitz said.