Zumiez
Our Story
We are a mall-based specialty retailer of action sports related apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories operating under the Zumiez brand name. We operate stores primarily located in shopping malls, and have a presence in the United States, Canada, and Europe. We were founded in 1978, originally under the name “Above the Belt” by Thomas D. Campion, our Chairman. Our current CEO, Richard M. Brooks joined us as Chief Financial Officer in 1993. Our stores cater to young men and women between the ages of 12 and 25 who seek popular brands representing a lifestyle centered on activities that include skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, BMX and motocross. We support the action sports lifestyle and promote our brand through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand image with our customers' activities and interests. This approach combined with our differentiated merchandising strategy, focus on an omni-channel purchasing process, store design, comprehensive training programs and passionate employees, allows us to provide an experience for our customers that we believe is consistent with their attitudes, fashion tastes and identities and is otherwise unavailable in most malls. Our stores bring the look and feel of an independent specialty shop to the mall by emphasizing the action sports lifestyle through a distinctive store environment and high-energy sales personnel. We seek to staff our stores with store associates who are knowledgeable users of our products, which we believe provides our customers with enhanced customer service and supplements our ability to identify and react quickly to emerging trends and fashions. We design our stores to appeal to teenagers and to serve as a destination for our customers. Most of our stores, which average approximately 2,900 square feet, feature couches and action sports-oriented video game stations that are intended to encourage our customers to shop for longer periods of time and to interact with each other and our store associates. To increase customer traffic, we generally locate our stores near busy areas of the mall such as food courts, movie theaters, music or game stores and other popular teen retailers. We believe that our distinctive store concept and compelling store economics will provide continued opportunities for growth in both new and existing markets.
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