We had the good fortune of connecting with Paul Hields founder and owner of Sportube luggage company and Wildsyde Electric bikes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The answer to this question is really two fold for me. Long before it became the well known buzz phrase, ‘Work Life Balance’ i was looking for the freedom to be able to work in an industry I was passionate about and to be able manage my own life, my daily, weekly and monthly schedule. To be be responsible for my own actions that really only affected me, my customers and of course with the ultimate objective of becoming financially stable from a business perspective. Needless to say as a business owner, ones responsibilities grew and demands on my time took over and that work life balance got tipped dramatically one way and it became all work and not much life. That said I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Many years ago the thought of being able to work in the ski industry, an area of business I had been in since I was 15, had an overwhelming appeal and I knew I wanted to continue down that path. Becoming an independent ski rep was always on my radar, but finding good brands to sell was always a challenge. It was in 1990 when I saw a need for a protective ski case for traveling by airplane and it was from here that Sportube was eventually born.

What should our readers know about your business?
While my company was actually established as an import business in 1991, Sportube the brand was conceived and created in 1995. From 1991-1995 I was an importer into the USA of amongst other winter sports related items, a plastic ski travel case. However, after 5 years of pioneering the concept of protective ski cases for travel in North America, through no fault or doing of my own that business model changed dramatically and I was essentially forced out of business overnight. Given I had put so much time, effort and money into this business and this industry I had to react in order to maintain my small but growing position in this market to continue to put food on the table all while working two jobs. After marketing, promoting and selling these imported cases to businesses like LL Bean, REI, Sun & Ski Sports, Christy Sports and many other independent ski retailers, the UK based manufacturer decided he could make more money by cutting me out of the loop and going direct to all the businesses I had been supplying for the past few years. I immediately went into serious damage control to maintain all the relationships I had established with my customers here in the US.

As is the case with many personal and business decisions it is usually a negative force that makes us react and in many cases makes us stronger. I needed a travel case to be able to continue to supply the market in which i had been instrumental in pioneering and developing. I could have thrown in the towel or racked my skis and called it a day, but i had my goals, i had my dream and winter sports was my passion, i decided to push on. Knowing nothing about the plastics manufacturing side of the business, in August 1994, long before the internet, I jumped in the car, drove to Denver and starting leafing through a Yellow Pages. I found a plastics molder and went and knocked on their door. From here I learnt the process of bringing a plastic molded item to market, I unfortunately had started at phase 3 instead of phase 1. I discovered that day I needed a CAD (Computer Aided) design of the item I wanted to produce, something i didn’t have, so i went in search of a design & development company. From here I then learnt I needed a mold maker, who would fabricate a tool from which the molder would create the actual case. While all very rushed, with dozens of drives to Denver and back for design meetings, countless faxes back and forth with tool makers and some very stressful sampling time, we finally had a finished prototype ready for launch at the Ski Show in Las Vegas in March 1995. I had been very upfront with all of my customers as to the supply chain situation and the reasons why i couldn’t supply them in the Winter of 1994; they all respected that. I am proud to say that because of our honesty and integrity, the majority of my customers held out for the year and gave us their support upon the launch of Sportube and sales grew significantly that following year. Within 6 months we were able to design, build and present not just one model of case with wheels for one pair of skis, but also a larger double sized case for two pair of skis. Just a few years following our launch we were able to introduce a third model for snowboards and boots, nicely rounding out our protective travel case line up. All of the Sportube plastic travel cases are still proudly Made in the USA, a very unique advantage and position in this day and age.

Since 1995 there have been many ups and downs both domestically and globally that has had a significant negative impact on our business, 9/11/2001 when the world stopped traveling by plane, 2008 when the wheels fell off the economy and of course most recently Covid 19 when the world shut down. What most people do overlook however but has an even larger impact on sales and success is snow conditions both here in the USA and globally. Just like a declining economy, a poor season with low snow levels does not create a positive environment for people to purchase new equipment, travel luggage and head to the slopes. Of course there have been many years where the snow gods have been kind and blessed us with ample amounts of snow, and that along with lower priced, multi-resort passes has increased demand for sliding down the mountain. In this industry we do look at ourselves as ‘snow farmers’, the weather plays a very large part in our success. As a result we have been able to weather these storms and interruptions in business, we adapt where necessary by changing our marketing or sales across the world, by cross merchandising the same case to different markets, for example selling to the spear fishing industry; the fishing industry or even by supplying none sporting goods businesses. by adding new products to the selection such as Sportube soft travel ski, snowboard and boot bags which were introduced in 2017, and most recently Electric Cruiser bikes selling under the Wildsyde brand name.

Currently Sportube holds the largest market share both in the US and globally for ski, snowboard, fishing and spear fishing travel cases and the Sportube brand has become synonymous with protection and convenience.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hopefully that best friend comes in the middle of a very snowy Vail winter, where we would rip the deep pow in back bowls and Blue Sky Basin, we would hit all my tucked away treeline stashes, (sorry cant share those), carve a few high speed groomers,and ski hard bell to bell. To round out our day we’d likely end up at Alm Resi at the top of Bridge Street for a good German Hefeweizen and pretzel, that’s if we don’t ski the Minturn Mile and wash down a few Margs at the Saloon. Growing up in England and learning to ski in the Alps, Vail is just the ticket for an international feast and some of the restaurants take me back to my early ski days. For eats, over the course of the week depending varietal of food and wine we were tempted by we’d hit many of the fine Vail and down valley restaurants such as Alpenrose for a great wienerschnitzel and Kasespaetzle, or head next door to La Bottega for a real Italian pizza and a nice glass of Chianti. Down Valley, Ti Amo in Eagle Vail IMO gets the best Lasagne award, and Zino’s for Friday evening cocktail hour and more Italian. For our Asian fix, we’d head to Sato’s in Edwards for some sushi and sake. Assuming that friend wasn’t skied into the ground yet we’d go to Cripple Creek backcountry store in Avon to rent some AT gear and head out with the boys for a Wednesday night skin up Vail mountain and finish of with fun conversation over a beer and pizza at Vendetta’s.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am not sure I can put my success down to the support, mentorship, love and encouragement of just one person, i think it would be hard for any person to have just a single person who pushed, nudged or dragged them down the path of success. My Mother and Father always drilled into me that working for myself was important and that in this circumstance I was in charge of my own destiny, that I would be responsible for my own successes and of course my failures. Through 15 years of working as a winter sports representative in the UK and in ski retail in the US before starting my business I saw, watched, listened and learnt from other successful and prominent business owners in the ski industry.  Of course probably one of the most inspiring and patient people to help me along in this adventure is my wife Margo who has for 40 years helped me problem solve and trouble shoot, has listened to me vent over dinner, long car rides and ski lift rides about all the trials, tribulations and headaches of running a small business.

Website: http://www.Sportube.com and http://www.Wildsyde.com

Instagram: sportube_worldwide and wildsyde_ebikes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sportube and https://www.facebook.com/WildsydeEbike

Other: Sportube and Wildsyde Global Headquarters 1060 West Beaver Creek Blvd Unit C Avon, Co 81620 Ph: 18004234439 email: Info@sportube.com Info@wildsyde.com

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