Outside Sports A Queenstown outdoor retail success story

by Sue Fea

What started in the mid-1990s as a means for two outdoor sports lovers to live in Queenstown has become one of the region’s most successful outdoor retail brands.

Professional international triathlete John Knight and teacher wife Judy boldly opened their rst store at the top of Queenstown Mall in 1995.

“We’d been living in Boulder, Colorado, with John competing a lot in Europe,” says Judy. John reached sixth in the World Series Ironman Triathlon in the early 1990s but the use of EPO performance enhancing drugs was becoming rampant and he was competing against top triathletes who were taking them. “ ere’s also a fairly limited timespan to push yourself like that training every day.”

“We really wanted to live in Queenstown and needed a business idea.” ey saw a gap in the market in Queenstown and teamed up with Dunedin Recycled Recreation (later R&R Sports) owner Craig Wanty as a third shareholder. “At that time there was only Bill Lachiny’s Ski Shop, Brown’s, and maybe Alpine Sports. Our point of di erence was a sports store focused on skiing during winter and full-on biking in summer.” e store resonated with the local market and soon expanded taking over the next-door sheepskin store, inheriting its champion saleswoman Liz Wallace.

Wanty brought the industry experience and supplier contacts while John brought the sporting expertise and knowledge with a PhD and Masters in Physical Chemistry.

Outside Sports opened the day a er son Benji, now 28 and a buyer for the brand, was born.

Icebreaker was also established in 1995 and Outside Sports became one of the brand’s largest New Zealand accounts. “Jeremy Moon came around with his little suitcase. John saw the bene ts immediately being a farmer’s son. Icebreaker grew into a huge brand for us.” Marmot was another big brand that sold well with a comprehensive outdoor footwear range. “We became the biggest outdoor tters in NZ.”

In 2001 a second so er, more lifestyle fashion brand store was launched – Outside Adventure further down Queenstown Mall while the main store continued to focus on more technical apparel.

A store in Arrowtown was opened but when the landlord upped the rent for both their Queenstown and Arrowtown stores they relocated to a new purpose-built, three-level store beside Fergburger in Shotover Street. “As a minor shareholder in that building, we were going some way to safeguard against astronomical rents.”

“A few months a er opening Fergburger arrived, which was fantastic for foot tra c,” says Judy. “ at did amazing things for our turnover.” However, eventually that too drove up the rent to an unmanageable level. “We were trying to be absolutely world class. It was a huge building over three levels, but it was just too hard with that rent,” she says.

Fortunately, they’d sold out of their minor shareholding by the time the Global Financial Crisis struck in 2008. ey eventually looked further up Shotover Street and formed a collaboration with Trojan Holdings and John Martin on a new purpose-built store which opened in 2015 and is still the home of Outside Sports.

“It’s an incredible building, stunning architecture, a timeless building. A lot of insights came from John who’d visited similar stores in Europe.”

Less foot tra c made the rst few years extremely challenging, she says. However, with neighbouring stores like Torpedo 7, R & R Sports and Small Planet arriving the area developed a cluster of outdoor enthusiast stores.

In 2003 Te Anau’s John Greaney bought into Outside Sports Queenstown and in 2009 they rolled his Te Anau Sportsworld business into Outside Sports Te Anau. Wānaka followed, teaming up with Peter King of Good Sports there.

Prior to the Covid lockdown they’d been gearing up to launch a Tekapo store. e deal was signed pre-Covid, so they pressed on. at opened at Waitangi weekend 2021.

“ e Covid years were incredibly challenging,” says Judy. “We just battened down the hatches. We knew once the country opened it would pay its way.” eir Queenstown Airport store, initially exclusively Icebreaker then the best of Outside Sports, was equally challenging. However, they retained sta and trimmed operating hours. e team is made up of a mix of local and international players and this season they have welcomed previous Dunedin player and Ice Black, Dylan Devlin and two imports from America, Brendan Walkom and Je Solow. Each team in the league is entitled to have two import players, which are o en American or Europeans due to the di erence in seasons between hemispheres.

It’s the loyal longtime locals that have shaped their business, however, increasingly, locals are avoiding downtown Queenstown so the store is more reliant on international visitors while Queenstown Central in Five Mile caters to a loyal locals market.

New Zealand’s Ice Hockey season is well underway and local team SkyCity Stampede have had a strong start. e adored mascot, e Beast, is back for the rst time since pre-Covid, and several new players are taking to the rink this year. ey’re battling it out with four teams across Aotearoa to take home the Birgel Cup.

Dylan was with Dunedin’s Phoenix under for 10 years and played in over 105 games. e desire for a lifestyle change prompted a move to Queenstown –the good thing about the sport is that most of the guys know each other, especially between Queenstown and Dunedin as a lot of younger players play for Dunedin because they go to university there. Dylan was Dunedin’s top goal scorer so it’s good to see him in a yellow and blue jersey.

Je and Brendan are both American imports. Je (defence) is from Naples, Florida and Brendan (forward) is from Pittsburgh. Both have tted nicely into the team and culture. ey most recently played in the English Elite League – Je was playing for the Glasgow Clan and Brendan for the Bees. He was a top scorer and a crowd favourite. e SkyCity Stampede

The beast is back in town

are really pleased to be able to sign them as - both have made a big impact on the team and results so far.

e team management has changed this season with Nate Hedwig and Lee Summer coming on board.

“Nate was one of the original superfans of Stampede,” says Lee Summer. “He was once the guy you’d see in his canary yellow suit, shouting from the crowd. I’m sure he would say himself it’s been a transition from being that guy on the side lines into a team manager role. He’s also very handy with the equipment side of things as he’s a hockey player himself.”

Lee states that “although I don’t have a hockey background, I got involved due to a friendship with one of the defensemen on the team who is also an Ice Black. Just in conversation one day, it came up that they were looking for a team manager and I mentioned that I’ll put my name forward. So, that’s how it came about – just knowing some people.”

Another exciting development this year is the return of e Beast, SkyCity Stampede’s mascot. e Beast is a young guy, new to Queenstown from ailand who saw an ad on Facebook and fancied doing something di erent. It’s great to have e Beast back, he’s a good crowd favourite.

SkyCity have reintroduced ‘Shoot e Puck’ which is being played in between two of the periods. Two members from the crowd are selected to come out onto the ice to try and shoot a puck through a couple of small holes in the goal from about halfway - $100 cash is up for grabs each game!

We couldn’t put on the best sporting and entertainment event in Queenstown without the support of the many volunteers that generously give their time and of course e Queenstown Ice Arena. All of this is coordinated by the incredible Team Coordinator Nicky ompson. Each game requires around 20 volunteers over several di erent positions. We are fortunate to get tremendous support from other teams throughout the club including Wakatipu Wild and younger aged group teams, but would welcome interest from anyone.

If you’re ready to cheer on the SkyCity Stampede, want to check out the 2023 Hockey schedule, purchase tickets, or nd out more about the team and what’s going on go to skycitystampede.com