SMC Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The year was 1970. Nixon was president, Simon and Garfunkle topped the music charts, Midnight Cowboy won best picture, Paul McCartney announced the breakup of The Beatles, and eight ski retailers got together to form SMC!

Snowsports Merchandising Corporation (SMC), a buying group in the wintersports industry, is proud to announce that 2020 commemorates 50 years of servicing the specialty retail community.

“Born out of the need to give a voice to the best specialty ski shops in the country and share ideas, the premise of the buying group remains the same today that it was 50 years ago – there’s power in numbers,” stated company president, Tom Gately. “In fact, many of the benefits of belonging to the group are still in place. We continue to produce a trade show where our members meet with our vendor partners. It is at this venue that they also share best business practices. Another example is Inventory Exchange – this is a service that we provide to our members and is part of SMC’s DNA. The technology is much improved but the concept is still the same.”

“I’m extremely proud to be associated with the finest specialty ski shops in the country and looking forward to leading the group into the next decade.”

SMC is a buying group of 60 stockholder member businesses representing 134 storefronts nationwide. The member businesses primarily sell ski, snowboard and other snowsports-related equipment, apparel and accessories in specialty stores located throughout the United States.