Outdoor Insight

By Cara Griffin For more than 40 years, Rock & Snow has been a specialty retail standout in the community of New Paltz, NY. The college town is home to the Gunks – the Shawangunk Ridge – boasting some of the nation's best climbing. Rock & Snow caters to climbers, hikers and runners in the area, which is home to the State University of New York at New Paltz and is just a two hour drive, but seemingly a world away in scenic terms, from New York City. Rock & Snow has two storefronts in New Paltz, one of which is the Rock & Snow Annex, a consignment shop dedicated to selling used outdoor gear and apparel. Rock & Snow's website lays out its mission pretty clearly: "We think the Gunks are home to some of the finest climbing in the world and we want to help you experience it. In keeping with that mission, we also donate a portion of our sales to local preservation efforts, ensuring health and vitality of the Gunks for generations to come." Here, store owner Richard Gottlieb shares some stories about the shop and offers up his insights on the state of specialty outdoor retail. On his background and the store's long history… "Rock & Snow was founded pretty much by necessity to take care of climbers when climb- ing gear was very hard to come by. The doors opened in 1970. The store's hands-on person was Dick Williams, who is a local climbing pioneer. He wrote a number of guide books to the area and was a major first ascensionist. The store was originally located in an old hardware store. "I started working here in 1981. I was getting a Masters degree at the local college, the State University of New York at New Paltz. It turned into a full-time job at the store. There was a fire and the original store burned down in 1990. In rebuilding, that turned into a partnership between myself and Dick Williams, and in 2000 Dick retired and my wife and I came in and bought him out. Since then we have also built another building, where we have a consignment shop." On the meaning of community… "We are in a beautiful area in the Hudson Valley, less than two hours from the city. People are hard pressed to understand you can be less than two hours from New York City and be in a rural setting. There are a lot of farms around here and we have a nice mix of city culture, country culture and student culture. "We reflect the community and it has changed considerably over the years. In order to remain the same, we have grown. Rock & Snow built a second building and a consignment shop and we have added new lines and dropped some big brands over the years. But it's all in an effort, in a sense, to remain the same." On retail/vendor relationships… "Getting rid of brands is an important part of this business. One of the biggest things we've done over the years is drop lines. Some grew way beyond us, like The North Face. We ended our relationship with them many years ago and we have ended our relationship with a number of brands. It's not to cast aspersion on the brands, I'm just saying that it gets to a point where we can't succeed in the role that much larger stores can — in always carrying more. It is our job to find the up-and-coming brands trying to break into retail and we see what we can do. If a brand really resonates with us, we get behind it." On carrying new or emerging brands… "An important brand for us is Rab. They just make the stuff you need, with- 38 • Outdoor Insight • November 2018 outdoorinsightmag.com A Climbing Icon Rock & Snow, New Paltz, NY Grassroots Perspectives is an editorial series in Outdoor Insight where we share Grassroots Outdoor Alliance retail members' stories, challenges and inspirations. In this issue, we check in with two core climbing retailers. GRASSROOTS P E R S P E C T I V E S Friendy faces at Rock & Snow.

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