After 40 years in business and nearly 35 years since expanding and opening here, Mountain Sports Flagstaff is celebrating these milestones and a local lifestyle in style. Brothers Mark Bruce Lamberson founded the original Mountain Sports – in Casper, Wyo. – in 1973.
“We opened up a ski shop,” said Mark Lamberson, Mountain Sports Flagstaff’s owner, remembering the company’s start. “There really was no such thing as outdoor stores. I was 21 and [Bruce] was 19. We started pretty young. I’m still doing it and he’s still doing it.”
Mark Lamberson researched a few western towns with a population of between 30,000 and 50,000. “We were ready to expand from Casper,” he said, adding that a Wyoming friend first got him interested in Flagstaff.
“We quickly realized that this community, with its university and outdoor lifestyle – this was it. With our young family, Rosie and I and our two young children, Bret and Lisa, we came here in 1980.”
Local Lifestyle Enhanced by One Percent for the Planet
As an integral part of its business ethic, Mountain Sports Flagstaff has contributed generously to local conservation groups over the years by actively engaging customers through the nationwide One Percent for the Planet program. To date, they have contributed $100,000 to environmental and conservation organizations in this community. From May 2 to May 18, Mountain Sports is featuring a local youth gardening non-profit called Terra BIRDS. This happens during Advocate Week and Mountain Sports contributes $20 from each pair of Patagonia shoes sold to the non-profit.
This giving to local conservation and environmental groups “is something we’ve been doing for a long time,” said Lisa Lamberson, Mountain Sports Flagstaff’s general manager. “Now, we’re telling the story. It supports and enhances the local lifestyle.” She explained that Mountain Sports outfits a local style that is not only for outdoor pursuits. “It’s the rest of your life, the majority of your life; it’s every day – every day is good. And, through our membership in One Percent for the Planet, we’re able to honor our personal and our customers’ ethos of a strong and connected community. We’ve created a culture of community in our downtown location and events like the Advocate Week to benefit Terra BIRDS celebrates a local environmental organization and invites our customers to come be a part of the support for that group.”
“We started to realize we were doing all this giving and no one knew about it,” said Brittany Montague, Mountain Sports Flagstaff sales floor manager. She said that by inviting customers to participate in Advocate Week, there is “an opportunity to sell some footwear and through that, give to these organizations.”
But, the outdoor clothing retailer’s passion for Flagstaff and local conservation projects features more than simply donating dollars. As a downtown gathering place and through events like Advocate Week, Mountain Sports is making a measurable difference in environmental education, too. “Over that two-week period, we’ll have 2,000 people walk through our door,” said Mark Lamberson. “That’s the education opportunity.”
Heritage in Flagstaff
The first location for Mountain Sports in town was on West Santa Fe Avenue, now a city parking lot with solar panels. “We bought an existing sporting goods store, Flagstaff Sportsman,” said Mark Lamberson. “We transformed it into an outdoor store. In 1983, we moved to the Greentree Village Shopping Center, where we ran an outdoor store for 20 years.”
Before that, there was really no such thing as an “outdoor store.” Mountain Sports equipped skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers – outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes from there on South Milton. “Flagstaff was a big part of the mountain biking scene,” said Mark Lamberson. “We were the first or second mountain bike shop in town.”
Then in 2001, Mountain Sports Flagstaff moved to the current downtown location, 24 N. San Francisco Street at the corner of Aspen Avenue. That was the old McGaugh’s Newsstand. “We signed the lease a week before Sept. 11,” said Mark Lamberson, noting his original plan was to run both Flagstaff stores. “The world changed. The economy changed. Within six months, the big store [on South Milton] didn’t make sense.” Mountain Sports Flagstaff went from a staff of 30 to a staff of four.
A Four-Decade-Long Partnership with Patagonia
From the start, the Lambersons’ plan for Mountain Sports Flagstaff in downtown was as a Patagonia-exclusive, independent retailer. “We specifically opened this current location to focus on the Patagonia clothing brand,” said Mark Lamberson, adding they have “the biggest selection of Patagonia clothing in the Four Corners.”
The high-quality, built-to-last Patagonia clothing at Mountain Sports fits Flagstaff perfectly while resonating with the ongoing journey of Mountain Sports. “Our little mountain town of Flagstaff has a style all to its own,” explained Lisa Lamberson. “It’s an oftentimes casual style that celebrates an active lifestyle and involvement in outdoor pursuits. We’ve been providing clothing and outdoor apparel to Flagstaff since the 1980s and although the cuts of the apparel have evolved, we are all still wearing the same clothes to hike, bike and walk the dog as we do to meet up with friends downtown.”
Like the gear and clothing, the outdoor industry as a whole has evolved. Mountain Sports, together with partners at Patagonia have led the climbs and hikes, the whitewater adventures, the family outings – all outfitted from towns like Flagstaff and Casper for 40 years. “We’ve been with Patagonia – they are also celebrating their 40th anniversary,” said Mark Lamberson. “They were one of our original vendors up in Wyoming.”
“We’ve stood the test of time,” he said. “We use that as a big part of our decision making for the business needs and for the community needs.” FBN
Visit mountainsportsflagstaff.com and at 24 San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff.