Friday, July 11, 2008
Drawing from experience
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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She may be just 9, but Hannah Welch of Roanoke is already an enthusiastic archer.
She's also growing. Fast.
"I had a Jennings bow, but I got too big for it," she said Tuesday. "So we took it to UPS and sold it."
Her dad, Bobby, smiled.
They actually sold it over the Internet, and used UPS to mail it to the new owner.
And then they bought Hannah a new bow, a $300 Mathews Ignition.
"I paid for some of it with my allowance," Hannah said, proudly holding the new bow. "Thirty bucks."
They didn't have to leave town, either, heading over to Evans Archery, a new archery pro shop in Roanoke County. The shop opened this spring in a familiar building that has, over the years, housed Trebark Outfitters and Buck Mountain Outfitters, and is currently the distribution site for Trebark founder Jim Crumley's Outfitter Tuff clothing company.
In addition to bows, crossbows and accessories, the shop will carry Outfitter Tuff camo clothing. It also features a 20-yard indoor range and has a DART 3D electronic shooting range.
But at a time when some say big outdoor superstores such as Sportsman's Warehouse and Gander Mountain, which have opened in Roanoke in the past year, are hurting small local shops, is this really a good time to launch an archery pro shop?
B.J. Evans hopes so.
"I was kind of scared," admitted the store's owner. "But it's been above and beyond what I expected for the first couple of months."
Evans said he believes his shop will be able to hold its own by offering unique products and by specializing in the kind of premier customer service for which small shops are known.
The shop will have its official grand opening Saturday. The event will feature special sales and giveaways.
It's not like Evans is coming into the archery business blind. Having worked for a time in the sporting goods department at Pembroke Stop and Save, he started Evans Archery in Giles County.
"And we've done well in Pearisburg for six or seven years now," he said.
Last summer Evans' Pearisburg shop had a presence at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen's Classic at the Roanoke Civic Center. From talking with archers and bowhunters he felt there was a demand in the city for a full-blown archery pro shop.
Knowing that Sportsman's Warehouse and Gander Mountain were set to open didn't dissuade him.
Those stores carry lots of bows and archery equipment, but they don't carry some gear and brands that are in high demand.
For example, Mathews sells its bows only through archery pro shops.
The brand has a fanatical following.
"As soon as we put the Mathews sign in the window and turned it on we had people coming in," store manager William Rose said.
PSE, another big archery equipment manufacturer, sells many of its bows through chain stores and catalog stores, but sells its high-end lines through pro shops.
Like many local shops, Evans Archery is also willing to take used bows in trade, another advantage over big retailers.
Rose was working as a land surveyor and also running a small archery shop in New Castle when Evans asked him if he would be interested in managing the shop.
"Some of the guys in Craig County kind of fussed at me for leaving," Rose said. "But I was able to carry with me a ton of faithful customers."
The ability to cultivate long-term relationships is an advantage archery pro shops tout.
David Chandler of Roanoke said there is something to that.
He was in the shop Tuesday so Tony Coleman would work on Chandler's Hoyt compound.
Coleman has been a fixture at area archery shops for years. Even though his primary duties at the shop are with the Outfitter Tuff clothing business -- "Tony doesn't even work over here," a laughing Rose said -- he has been helping Rose with bows.
That made Chandler happy.
"I know Tony," he said. "He's worked on my bows before."
Tommy Amos was also in the shop, buying new bows for himself and his wife, Kasie.
"If I'm going to spend my economic stimulus check, I'm going to spend it on something I want to do," said Amos, who lives in Newport.
Returning to archery after a stint in the military, Amos said he had shopped at the store when it was Trebark Outfitters and Buck Mountain Outfitters.
"All these guys know what they're doing," he said as Rose tweaked his bow's sight.
A few minutes later Amos was aiming at a target on the indoor range. At the release the arrow zinged into the target's bull's-eye.
"Man, that's fast," he said, smiling.
Rose was smiling, too.
