It’s probably just a coincidence that there has been a morning chill in the air this week, but Colorado’s traditional end-of-summer ski and snowboard sales offering massive discounts on last year’s product are right around the corner.
Christy Sports’ “Powder Daze” will get the jump on the competition with sales beginning Friday. Epic Mountain Gear, the new name for Colorado Ski & Golf, will begin its “Ski Rex” sales on Labor Day weekend.
Powder Daze will take place at one Front Range location, the Christy Sports Events Center next to Southwest Plaza Mall at 8601 West Cross Drive in Littleton. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Sept. 4. Powder Daze sales also are happening in West Vail (Aug. 24-Sept. 3) and Steamboat Springs (open now through Sunday).
Ski Rex will take place at Front Range Epic Mountain Gear stores, which are part of Vail Resorts and were rebranded with the new name this month. Ski Rex starts on Aug. 31 and runs through Sept. 16. Epic Mountain Gear will be selling various pass products for Vail Resorts mountains. You can see some of the pass options in our breakdown from March.
Christy Sports has partnered with the Ikon Pass and pretty much every ski area that isn’t owned by Vail Resorts, so Powder Daze will have some affordably-priced multi-day products on sale. For example, a Winter Park five-pack will be available for $219, a Copper Mountain five-pack will be $209 and a Loveland four-pack will run you $159.
When it comes to skis, snowboards, boots and apparel, the Labor Day sales have always amounted to clearance sales designed to clear shelves of last year’s gear to make room for new lines. Jim Fuller, Epic’s divisional merchandise manager, said the lack of snow early last season has translated into even more product at better prices for Ski Rex this year.
“Iconic, top, medal-winning skis and snowboards — I haven’t seen this quality of product in preseason sales in quite a few years,” Fuller said. “There’s really good product in the marketplace, and the person who is going to win is the Front Range or Colorado skier and snowboarder. There are incredible pass products, incredible snowsports products. It’s going to be an amazing year for people.”
The tradition of Labor Day sales in Denver goes back to the SNIAGRAB sales created by Gart Sports in 1954. Christy likes to get things started a week early.
“We looked at what our competitors are doing with the ski sale traditionally over Labor Day, and us being outdoor people just like the rest of Colorado people, we’re out doing stuff that weekend,” said Dennis Meeker, regional manager for Front Range Christy locations. “We were missing people because they were out having fun doing other stuff. We said, ‘Why don’t we still do it that weekend, but start a little bit earlier and give people the opportunity to do both — shop ski stuff and have their Labor Day weekend as well?’ “
Ski Rex used to open earlier, too, but now they prefer waiting for Labor Day even though it means Powder Daze will get a head start.
“The culture in Denver was skiers and snowboarders going to preseason sales on Labor Day, so we just pushed it back,” Fuller said. “We wanted it to be this extremely animated, highly activated event.”
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